Megan Bostic's Blog, page 31

F³A: Contest Next Week: Win Danny Marks Velveteen Arc!!!

I'm announcing this now so you can get your thinking caps on because it's a writing contest. Don't worry. You don't need to write much. It's a Drabble contest. What's Drabble you say? Well let me tell you. A drabble is a short work of fiction, exactly one hundred words in length (I may be lenient with that), not necessarily including the title.

What will you win? As I said in the title, I've got Danny Marks ARC of Velveteen, signed. I've got a messed up copy of Never Eighteen, and when I say messed up, it means I messed up on the signing (spelled the name wrong) so I ripped that page out. So I will now sign it to you. I also have a signed Never Eighteen poster and Velveteen and Never Eighteen bookmarks and other swag.

Why am I holding this awesome contest you ask? Well in honor of Teen Read Week of course. And what is Teen Read Week?  It's a program put on by the Young Adult Library Services Association. It's a time to celebrate reading for fun and encourage teens to take advantage of reading in all its forms —books and magazines, e-books, audiobooks and more — and become regular library users.

So, how do you enter? Write a piece of Drabble with a Scary/Halloween theme, it can be scary, funny, gross, whatever. Send it to my email meganbosticbooks (at) gmail . com Monday-Thursday of next week. All entries must be in by Thursday 5 pm Pacific time. I will announce the winner on my Friday morning blog.

Spread the word. I'd prefer not to get 2 entries.

Friday Scribbles

Next Pandora Song: The Way We Get By by Spoon


Book of the Week: Velveteen of course

Netflix of the Week: Friday Night Lights Season Three. Will Smash get in to Texas Tech? Don't tell me.

Quote of the Week: "People want to know why I do this, why I write such gross stuff. I like to tell them I have the heart of a small boy... and I keep it in a jar on my desk." ~ Stephen King

Class of 2k13

[image error] Can you believe this year is close to being over? And with that brings a new 2k class. Yep, the class of 2k13, Books Without Boundaries is up and running as of today. 20 new Young Adult and Middle Grade authors coming your way in 2013 in all different genres. Find them all over cyberspace and check them out.

Website
The Authors
Books
Blog
Facebook
Twitter

Oh, and they're giving away some big prizes including a $50 Barnes and Noble gift card, a prize pack of awesome swag, and all the 2k12 books. You better check out their blog to find out how to win.

National Bully Prevention Month: Unity Day

Today is Unity Day. What is Unity Day you ask? It's a call to action to "Make it orange, make it end, and unite against bullying ." Those in support wear orange to unite  and send a message to anyone being bullied to show them that they're not alone. Most of us have been bullied at some point in our lives and we're making a stand against it. I think it's also sending a message to bullies that we're standing up to them, together.

 Ellen Degeneres is a big Unity Day proponent and wears orange in support. To find out more about Unity Day and to find great ideas to promote Unity Day visit the Pacer National Bully Prevention Center website. 

Bully Prevention Month: my bully story

We all have bully stories, right?

Bullying in my elementary came in all forms, physical, mental, and sexual. If you read my post on Uniquely Moi yesterday, you'll see that there was a boy named Mark that tormented me from kindergarten to 3rd grade. He was mean for sure, but he also made sexual remarks that no child that age should have even knew to make.

I don't know if times were just different then, or if it was the school I went to, which I would find hard to believe as I lived in one of the more affluent neighborhoods in the city and went to one of the schools with the highest test scores. But there were numerous boys with this kind of knowledge, and the girls in school were sexually harassed throughout our elementary school years, which wouldn't be tolerated in this day and age.

Anyway, I digress. Today I'm going to tell you about a boy I went to school with named David. The incidents I'm remembering happened around 3rd and 4th grade. One instance took place while I was babysitting in his apartment building. I was on the third floor. He must have seen me go in the building. He stood outside and serenaded me the Beatles, I Want to Hold Your Hand, instead he replaced the word hand with another body part *cough*. He sang it over and over and yelled for me to come down. It felt like he was out there all day. I'm sure it was only about five minutes or so. I might have been embarrassed, but I also remember feeling fear, intimidation.Imight mention that he was about a foot taller than me.

Then one day at school a group of girls including me, were walking down the hall and saw his jacket lying in the hallway, well, we thought it would be funny to just toss it in the bathroom. No big deal right? Well, it ended up in the toilet. The bunch of us were called into the office, of course no one fessed up.

During PE class, when our teacher walked into his office for a few minutes, David came up to me and accused me. I told him I didn't do it. he shoved me. I told him again I didn't do it. Back then we all wore hoodies, well, he grabbed my hood and began pulling me back and forth by it, cussing me out and choking me. I couldn't scream, I couldn't breathe. I was losing consciousness. No one was trying to stop him from what I remember. It was only when the teacher came back out did it stop.

He moved away after 4th grade. Needless to say, I didn't miss him.
What's your bully story?

Bully Prevention Month

Did you know it's Bully Prevention Month? It's a month long effort that encourages everyone to take an active role in the bullying prevention movement. To find out more you can visit Pacer.org.

There are two awesome bloggers that are doing their part, Jodie from Uniquely Moi and Amy from Lady Book Stuff. They've asked a bunch of us to write guest posts about bullying and are giving away daily prizes. Today you'll find my guest post, Portrait of a Bully at Uniquely Moi. Visit their Facebook page to find out who will be up tomorrow.

Wednesday is Unity Day. If you care about students who are bullied and want bullying to end, make your color ORANGE on Unity Day, Wednesday, Oct. 10. That's the day everyone can link together—in schools, communities and online—and send one large, ORANGE message of support to students who have experienced bullying.

Ways to unite on Oct. 10 in your school, home or community:
Wear the color orange. Write the word “UNITY” on your hand, on your notebook, or on a poster to hang in your locker or hallway Set up a “unity” table.  Hand out orange “unity ribbons.” (Create your own ribbons. Purchase a spool of ribbon at craft or dollar store. Cut into 12” strips. With black marker, on the ribbon, write UNITY, “The End of Bullying Begins With Me”, or create your own bullying prevention message) Give the opportunity to donate for the ribbons and send the proceeds to PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center.
Online:On Oct. 10, update your Facebook status to “UNITY DAY, October 10th— Join the movement to make it orange and make it end! If you are being bullied, you are not alone. Unite and be a champion against bullying!Share” the Unity Day event with your friends. Post pictures of anyone wearing orange to this UNITY DAY Event page Sign “The End of Bullying Begins With You” Petition. 
Let's work together to help end this nationwide problem.

Banned Book Week Read Aloud: Twilight

Not one of my favorite banned books, but a fun one to read from I suppose. So here it is, the scene where Bella and Edward talk about the fact that Edward is indeed a vampire.  Ooooh.

Banned Book Week Read Aloud: The Scarlet Letter

So, today I'm reading an excerpt from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The novel was banned because it conflicted with values of the community. Okaaaaayyy. Pretty much the norm around some parts.

I really loved The Scarlet Letter. I read it in High School as required reading, but it was one of my favorite books I HAD to read. So there you have it, and now my reading.

Banned Book Week Read Aloud: The Hanmaid's Tale

Last year I read aloud from some of my favorite banned books. I know it's Wednesday, but better late than never, right? So here you go. An except of The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.

Banned Book Week!!!!

Did you know that this week is Banned Book Week? What is Banned Book Week you ask?

It's an annual celebration of our freedom to read whatever we choose. Libraries and bookstores nationwide get involved, drawing attention to the problem of censorship by mounting displays of banned books and hosting a variety of events. Banned Books Week began in 1982 and more than 11,300 books have been challenged since. For more information on Banned Books Week, Visit the  American Library Association (ALA). According to the ALA, there were 326 challenges reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom in 2011. The 10 most challenged titles of 2011 were:


ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle Reasons: offensive language; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group The Color of Earth (series), by Kim Dong Hwa
Reasons: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins
Reasons: anti-ethnic; anti-family; insensitivity; offensive language; occult/satanic; violenceMy Mom's Having A Baby! A Kid's Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy, by Dori Hillestad Butler
Reasons: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age groupThe Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: offensive language; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicit; unsuited to age groupAlice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Reasons: nudity; offensive language; religious viewpointBrave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Reasons: insensitivity; nudity; racism; religious viewpoint; sexually explicitWhat My Mother Doesn't Know, by Sonya Sones
Reasons: nudity; offensive language; sexually explicitGossip Girl (series), by Cecily Von Ziegesar
Reasons: drugs; offensive language; sexually explicitTo Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Reasons: offensive language; racism I will say this, number 10 is my favorite book ever. Racism? Um, do we need to censor that fact that racism ever took place? It's a historical fact that there were bigots in our country, and hey, guess what, come here, I have a secret, *whispers* there still are.

I'm appalled that books are still banned in this day and age, but you know what, I hope that someday I am in the company of these wonderful books, and that my book also makes the list of challenged books.

Thursday things I don't like

A little stray from the usual

Grasshoppers
Spiders
People who once were like "YOLO" and now are like "don't say YOLO that's so done"
Maroon 5 -  I will say I used to like them until radio (and their new songs) ruined them
Walking uphill
Form letters
Fruit flies
Laundry on the floor, clean or dirty
Losing things you've won at the fair
Spinning rides
Things that scurry

I had more, but I'm going to save them for next week. Maybe this will be a regular installation.