June 2009 Reading Challenge: Fractured Fairy Tales

It’s time for our first Here’s To Us reading challenge! All details are below. Enjoy!

Rules / How To Enter:

1. Decide what book you want to read. It must either be based on a fairy tale or folk tale or have characters or events similar to a fairy tale. In this challenge, you must read at least one book matching this criteria.

2. Post a comment below, stating what you’d like to be known as in the challenge, your blog address (if you one), and the name of the book(s) you will be reading. Make sure that the email address you use in the form is yours and is valid! Please sign up by June 20, 2009.

3. [If you do not have a blog you can skip this step] On your blog, write a post announcing that you will be participating in this challenge. Be sure to keep your readers posted about how you are doing through either posts, a homemade “I’m currently reading…” widget such as mine, or a similar widget from a site such as LibraryThing, Shelfari, or GoodReads.

4. Once you are finished with the book, either send an email to herestousblog@gmail.com (that’s me) or post another comment here that states that you have finished the book.

5. [If you do not have a  blog you can skip this step] Write a review for your blog about the book(s) that you read. Be sure to include the title, author, and publisher, a link to the author’s website -or an official website designated to the book or series- and a picture of the book cover.

6. As soon as your review is published (or as soon as you post a comment saying you have finished the book, if you don’t own a blog), I’ll send you a little graphic: This is a certificate of sorts saying that you completed the challenge. If you have a blog, you can display it there, otherwise, keep it on your computer or print it out. Do what you want with it — this award is yours to keep.

Other Points:

• Don’t own a blog, but want one? If you have a Google account, you can create a free blog at http://blogspot.com. If you’re a student or teacher, you can create a free blog at http://edublogs.org. Or, you can create a free blog with only an email address at http://wordpress.com ~ This is my blog hosting system.
• Not sure what to read? My personal favorite fairy tale retelling is The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale. Another all-time favorite is Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine.
• Can’t find an image of the book cover, or not sure how to locate the author’s website? The best way to find a book image is by going to http://www.books.google.comand searching the book’s title. For an author’s website, first check on the back cover or About the Author of the book. If that is fruitless, try Google searching ” [author's name here] website”.  Usually the site will be the first or second search entry.

I’ll be reading The Sisters Grimm Book One: The Fairy Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley. My blog is, of course, http://herestous.wordpress.com , and I’ll want my name listed as Allegra. I’ll look forward to hearing from you!