An Eric Stevens giveaway!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Since last week's giveaway was such a smash success -- or anyway a fizzling step forward, a little? -- Eric Stevens has decided he'd like to host a contest of his own. So, without further ado, here is Eric Stevens*:

This was going to be a Jake Maddox giveaway. I was going to ask for a favorite school or club sports memory, and I'm sure I would have gotten some great answers. But some other samples have arrived, so now the contest will be for this smashing list of titles:

FIVE Jake Maddox titles, including Field Hockey Firsts, Stock Car Sabotage, Record Run, Half-Pipe Prize, and Disc Golf Drive;

HOPE!: A Story of Change in Obama's America;

and Bandslam: Will's Guide to Music.

Since two titles have been added to the giveaway that are strictly NOT sports related, I've changed the entry question a bit. So here it is:

In the comments below (if you're reading this on Steve's Facebook page, please click over to the original post to submit a comment), briefly recount a favorite or least favorite memory from a school or club sports team, band, or government body/council. Hopefully that will give everyone something they can reflect upon.

I'll announce a winner, selected at random from the comments, around this time next week. Be sure to check back!

The Jake Maddox titles are RL 2.0-3.0, Guided Reading Level M. HOPE! is RL 3.4, Guided Reading Level N.

*Sketch of Eric Stevens by Sean Tiffany, the official and awesome artist for a shocking number of Jake Maddox titles!

Comments

8 Responses to “An Eric Stevens giveaway!”
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Beth said...

I'm your wife, but I'm going to enter anyway (what? there aren't rules!), and if I win, I'll donate the books to my elementary school library.

So here's a thrilling memory from my elementary school choir, circa around 1987 or so. We were learning how to breathe properly, from the diaphragm instead of the chest. And our choir director goes, "Now, I know you girls like sticking out your chests, but you have to breathe with your stomach." We were seven! Strangely, I think about that moment quite often. (This is the same guy who once punctuated a story about his adopted (African-American) daughter, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day if I remember correctly, by saying she was happier when she stayed with some also-African-American friends because they ate food black people liked. Oh! That kind of food. Oy.)

August 13, 2009 at 3:27 PM
Beth said...

I should probably add that he was a white man.

August 13, 2009 at 3:29 PM
senor trout said...

Least favorite memory from the high school choir trip - Susan's male friend, receiving a "snuggy" from the seniors; worried I would be next, feeling like the world was full of aggressive mean people, feeling bad for him.
Tom Bracken

August 15, 2009 at 3:46 PM
Susan said...

Worst memory from the high school choir trip (same choir trip as above): getting pressured into joining the "how many people can be stuffed into the Greyhound bus bathroom" game. I was number 18 and I totally freaked out from claustrophobia, screaming so loudly that the chaperones came running. Everyone got in trouble. Not cool. (If I win I'll donate the books to our new community library.)

August 15, 2009 at 8:18 PM
Cari said...

When I was 5, I played soccer. Can you imagine little munchkins swarming around a ball no matter where it went on the field? No concept of passing? Ah, there we are. Well, eventually the ball was kicked out of the swarm and it hit me squarely in the face and bounced off in another direction. The swarm turned to follow the ball and I stood there crying. No one came to the rescue or called time out and I couldn't understand why. I was clearly hurt! It hit my FACE!

And that's how I learned you can use your head in soccer.

Cari neohippy10 at hotmail dot com

August 17, 2009 at 9:10 AM
John West said...

During a high school band trip, my two best friends (Mike & Chuck) and I developed what we thought was a James-Bond-quality system for messing with our bandmates.

We would drop in to their hotel room "just to hang out." Under cover of a series of undoubtedly obvious and awkward distraction techniques, we would each execute a time-tested hotel-room prank:

I would turn the peephole in the door around (easier than you might think).

Mike would take the microphone component out of the telephone receiver (the victim could hear the caller, but could not be heard).

Chuck would empty the bathroom of any and all toilet paper and kleenex (why he came to the room with an empty backpack and left with a full one was never questioned).

Our missions accomplished, we vanished into the night like... well, like three high-school saxophone players all coked up on Mountain Dew.

August 19, 2009 at 9:09 AM
MoonDog said...

I was on the speech team and each weekend we would go to another school and compete. Of course the other schools were not familiar and we were always lost trying to find the right classroom to be in for our category. I read a piece from a John Saul novel.I think it was "suffer the children" Look! I can walk the backstop!

August 19, 2009 at 10:11 AM
Isle Librarian said...

I am Sue's neighbor and a librarian, so if I win the books, I'll donate them to my library.

My favorite memory from high school was being in marching band for homecoming 1970. I was a sophomore and played the flute--third chair--third seat (2nd from the end). On beautiful fall mornings we got out of school to march outside. We also got to march on the football field where we practiced the formations--a moving wheel and the letter H for Huron High School (South Dakota). The best part were the uniforms--black worsted lined pants and a matching double-breasted jacket with epulets. The outfit was complete with black shoes, spats and a wooly cap that was at least 18" high!! Do they even make uniforms like that anymore?

August 20, 2009 at 7:23 PM