The Savvy Reader

The Second Annual Earth Day Scavenger Hunt

Last year around this time we did the The Great Earth Day Scavenger Hunt. So, today we present The Second Annual Great Earth Day Scavenger Hunt. I've got five copies of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle available to five lucky winners who can manage to find the answers to these Earth Day questions:

1. Who has written the foreward to Tamsin Blanchard's Green is the New Black and what is her occupation?

2. Taras Grescoe writes that high water temperatures cause coral reefs to die in what way?

3. Name one of the 7 Ways to a Greener Home.

4. Who wrote Eco Barons? And which US politician "once told Americans (falsely) that trees cause more pollution than cars"?

5. Find another book by The Weather Makers author Tim Flannery. And then quote a line from the book by using Browse Inside.

Email your answers to me (deanna.mcfadden@harpercollins.com) by 5 PM this Friday, April 24th for your chance to win!

And the Winner Is...

After several weeks of head to head matchups, blowouts, nailbiters and upsets that made our heads spin, HCC March Madness has come to an end. What a brilliant tournament it's been. 64 of HarperCollins' best fiction titles had a shot at joining Dennis Lehane's Mystic River in the Hall of Fame but in the end, as the saying goes, there can be only one.

Congratulations James Rollins, your bestselling novel The Judas Strain is now a champion. And congratulations also to Kim Harrison. The vote was so tight througout the final round that it was 50/50 on the last day, it wasn't until early hours today (overtime you might say) that Rollins pulled narrowly ahead. And one of you is taking home a prize pack of ALL 64 books!

Take a victory lap with Rollins and Harrison by Browsing Inside The Judas Strain and For a Few Demons More.

Thanks for all who made this such a successful year. March 2010 can't come soon enough.

- Cory

Happy Birthday Barbie!

Barbie, the world's most famous doll, turns 50 today. In Barbie and Ruth, author Robin Gerber tells the entwined stories of two exceptional women: the doll that became an astronaut, competed at the Olympics and sometimes settled down with Ken; and the woman who was a driving force in the toy industry before being kicked out of the company she created.

Browse Inside the book for more. Then holler back in the comments about your favourite Barbie memory, your favourite accoutrement, or your favourite relationship (invented, of course) between she and her ever-present Ken? What is it about Barbie that has made her such an enduring part of our pop culture all of these years?

March Madness: The Elite Eight

With early favorite The Book of Negroes eliminated in the first round and Wally Lamb’s beloved I Know This Much Is True defeated in the third, this year’s HCC March Madness has been chock full of surprises right from the start. Now down to the Elite Eight, only one of the books below can join Mystic River in the hall of fame and be named the book of the year. All of them are ridiculously good reads -- but is one better than the others? Vote now and you may just win yourself a copy of all 64 books.

Thundering Word

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Sara Gruen’s award-winning, best-selling tale of the most un-spectacular show on earth is every bit as compelling as it is heartbreaking. Depressed and penniless after the death of his parents, 21-year old Jacob Jankowski runs away with the circus. But life is far from carefree at this third-rate spectacle, as Jakob finds animals that are abused and under-fed and a girl who is everything he’s ever wanted—except for her charming but cruel husband. Caught between a dangerous love and his need to belong, Jakob is freed only by a secret that brings the top tumbling down. Vote for Water for Elephants.

Vs.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

With over twenty million copies sold worldwide and the world-record for most translated novel by a living author, Paulo Coelho’s timeless classic is as powerful today as it was twenty years ago. Revisit the heartwarming tale of an Andalusian shepherd who leaves everything to pursue his Personal Legend, hidden amongst the ancient pyramids of Giza. With its simple language and universal themes of hope and love, The Alchemist is the book that changed a generation—and continues to change many more. Vote for The Alchemist.

International Day of the Polar Bear: A Reading List

Of all of the amazing uses of Twitter, the random bits of fascinating information that come from all over the internet tend to grab my attention. Yesterday (and I wish I had grabbed the @ address where I read this and clicked through but it's now lost forever), I came across the fact that February 27 is International Day of the Polar Bear. So, here are 5 books that Liza Morrison, our Children's Sales Director, found for me so we could compile a short reading list.

Seekers #2 - Great Bear Lake
Young black bear Lusa has left the comfort of the zoo, determined against all odds to make her way in the wild. It is there that she encounters grizzly cub Toklo and a mysterious changeling named Ujurak. Once united, the cubs find themselves on a journey toward a mystical place -- if only they knew where. Meanwhile, separated from her family, polar bear cub Kallik trusts her intuition to lead her on a path traveled by many bears before her. At last the four cubs meet at the sacred Great Bear Lake, a place of peace and healing where bears gather to cele­brate the longest day. But all is not harmonious. Danger lurks beneath the calm surface of the lake, and only if they put aside their differences and truly come together will the young bears have any chance of surviving the harsh realities of the wild.

Darkness at the Stroke of Noon: A Radio Drama

The difficult task of promoting the new thriller, Darkness at the Stroke of Noon, is made even more complex by the fact that its author, Dennis Richard Murphy, has passed away. From speaking with a friend of his, I know that the publication of the novel was an important event in his life, which makes it even more tragic that he died before seeing a finished copy.

To celebrate the book and to create a unique piece for its launch party, we've created a short radio drama based on Darkness at the Stroke of Noon. Its eleven minutes long, so settle back and enjoy a taste of RCMP Sergeant Booker Kennison's world. And then Browse Inside to read more from the book.

HCC March Madness - Round 3

Have you been voting? Are your favourites long gone? Cory sums up the happenings on HCC March Madness for the week:

Whew! Round 2 is behind us and the matchups could not have been closer! Will Round 3 be the same?

In a battle of beloved international authors Barbara Kingsolver and Gabriel Garcia Marquez fell gracefully to Paulo Coelho and Lewis DeSoto. But how will DeSoto and Coelho fare against the juggernauts that are Wally Lamb and Sara Gruen?

The Demon Deacons bracket looks set for a legendary finish, even as an all-time great, J.R.R. Tolkien bowed out to up and comer Joe Hill. Can he stop Michael Chabon? Can Neil Gaiman end Kim Harrison’s dominating run?

Questions abound and those are only the first two brackets! It’s the Sweet Sixteen baby and every vote for your favourite counts!

Vote now.

HCC March Madness - Round 2

Here's a note from Cory about the results from the first round of HCC March Madness voting last week. If you can believe it, one of my favourite books of all time, Tom King's Green Grass, Running Water, has already been eliminated. I am now throwing all my support behind Michael Chabon. We'll see how far that gets me. Have you voted for your favourite? You'd better hurry up or else it'll be gone just like The Book of Negroes...(now that's a tournament upset if ever I've seen one).

Thank you everyone who voted in the first round of this year’s HCC March Madness tournament. It’s a tournament of the world’s best fiction for a reason, and the first round proved that no book would have an easy path to the Finals. Last year’s champion, Dennis Lehane, is gone already. As is the award-winning blockbuster by Lawrence Hill, The Book of Negroes.

What can possibly happen in Round 2?!

Go, vote now! Voting ends this Sunday for this round. Mobilize your friends in support of your favourite author. And don’t forget, you could win all 64 books entered in the tournament!

Who do you think will end up the 2009 champion? Holler back in the comments.

News and Noteworthy: The Graveyard Book on Tour

Neil Gaiman's reading a chapter of The Graveyard Tour aloud on each stop of his tour. The readings are taped and so if you watch every day by the end you will have (natch) heard the whole book. (links via Boing Boing via Twitter).

New and Newsworthy: Kerry Cohen on Yahoo! Canada Answers

Loose Girl author Kerry Cohen asks: What can parent do to help their daughters enter the dating world safely and with confidence? on Yahoo! Canada Answers today.