Time for some more great thirteen letter words, this time beginning with B, from WordNavigator.com.  If you’re looking for that thirty-six letter super name, why not try ballistically behavioristic backscratcher! Add your favorite thirteen-letter B word to the comments, and don’t forget to read, register and pass a copy of The Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld.

We have a big Pass the Book announcement! Copies of The Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld have now been registered 200 times as part of Howard County Library’s Pass the Book. There are now 155 active copies of The Secret Hour out in the world, and there have been 200 registrations to date.

In geography news, a book reached Colorado this week, our thirteenth U.S. state. On February 28,book #401 was passed 1700 miles from Ellicott City to Westminster, Colorado, a suburb of Denver.

Pass the Book now has books in California, Colorado, Delaware, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, and Washington, as well as in Canada and the United Kingdom.

• 23 books have now been registered twice.
• 9 books have been registered three times.
• 2 books, Books #54 and #461, have been registered four times.

Here’s the activity report for this week:

Do you have a specially-marked copy of The Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld? Why not pass it on? If you’re stuck with a book and don’t know who to pass it to, bring it back to the library on Pass the Book Amnesty Day, Saturday March 27. We’ll find a new reader for your book, and send you home with a gift to thank you for participating.

Check back next week for more Pass the Book news by the numbers.

Jessica’s first battle with the slithers is coming, and the other Midnighters are racing to save her. Have you been paying attention? Answer ten questions about chapter eight on Quibblo to see!

Don’t forget, we want you to read, register and pass the book! Have fun!

We challenge you to think about our Pass the Book, Scott Westerfeld’s The Secret Hour!   Participate and be entered into a prize drawing.  (Remember to keep it fun and keep it clean.)

This week’s challenge is….

If you were a Midnighter, what would your symbol be?

Send in your photos before midnight on Monday, March 15, 2010, and we’ll put your name in a drawing for a free personal pan pizza.  (Thanks Pizza Hut!)  We contact winners using the e-mail addresses you give us, so don’t forget to check your inbox.

Didn’t find this challenge until after March 15?  Don’t worry!  Send in your answer, anyway, and we’ll put your name in another drawing at the end of Pass the Book (in October 2010.)

Remember to read, register, and pass.  Good luck!

Two more books have been registered this week as we close in on 200 registrations.Books have now been registered 196 times, and there are now 152 active copies of The Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld out in the world.

Remember, we’re looking for photographs of your our specially marked copy of The Secret Hour on location! If you still have your book, include it in your photo. If you’ve already passed your book, take a photo of the place where you read it. E-mail your photos to passthebook@hclibrary.org and we’ll post the pictures online here.

• 22 books have now been registered twice.
• 9 books have been registered three times.
• 2 books, Books #54 and #461, have been registered four times.

If you haven’t picked up a specially marked copy of The Secret Hour yet, come on into the Library and ask us for one. If you have a copy of the book, please register it and then pass it on to another reader. Pass the Book Amnesty Day is on Saturday March 27. If you haven’t passed your book by then, bring it back to any Howard County Library branch. We’ll find a new reader for your copy, and we’ll send you home with a special gift.

Do you have a friend in a State or Country that we haven’t passed a book to yet? We’d love to see your book reach that person!

It is time to recommend another great book as you read beyond reality! Lyra’s Oxford, by Philip Pullman, is an account of a brief but revealing episode in the life of our heroine, Lyra Silvertongue, and her daemon Pantalaimon, a pine-marten. Studying on the roof of Jordan College, Oxford, Lyra and Pan see a large flock of birds mobbing a larger bird, and their adventure begins when they realize that the large bird is actually a flying daemon, curiously and unusually separated from its person. As they decide what to do, Lyra and Pan are drawn into a small conspiracy, and set out to solve a local mystery.

The book is rich with additional material from Lyra’s world, including pages from the Oxford City Directory, a brochure for a cruise on the S.S. Zenobia, a postcard written by Dr Mary Malone to Angela Gorman, and a great map of Oxford as it exists in Lyra’s world.

The author’s introduction applies equally well to Lyra’s Oxford and to Bixby, Oklahoma as inhabited by Melissa, Rex, Dess and Jonathan in Scott Westerfeld’s The Secret Hour. Examining the items included in the book, Pullman concludes that they

might be connected with the story or they might not; they might be connected to stories that haven’t appeared yet. It’s not easy to tell… They might have come from anywhere. They might have come from other worlds. That scribbled-on map, that publisher’s catalog – they might have been put down absentmindedly in another universe, and been blown by a chance wind through an open window, to find themselves after many adventures on a market stall in our world. All these tattered old bits and pieces have a history and a meaning….

As Rex and Lyra both know, you just need to be able to read the lore to find out what that meaning is.

Another week, another state! Our latest inter-state book pass has taken book #136 from Columbia, MD to Smithfield, Rhode Island. Rhode Island is our twelfth U.S. state! Book #136 has traveled 796 miles north-east from Columbia, and is now only 53 miles from Boston, Mass.

Book #352 was also registered this week in Sykesville, MD. There have now been 193 total registrations, and there are 151 active Pass the Book copies of Midnighters 1: The Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld.

• 22 books have now been registered twice.
• 8 books have been registered three times.
• 2 books, Books #54 and #461, have been registered four times.

Don’t forget about Pass the Book Amnesty Day, and our other Pass the Book events, and remember to read, register and pass the book.

This week is a milestone week for Pass the Book. 150 different copies of Midnighters 1: The Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld have now been registered on the Pass the Book website. Thanks and congratulations to all participants! As  you’ll see below, we’re also closing in on 200 registrations, so keep reading, and keep passing the book.

Four copies of The Secret Hour have been registered this week, including book #234 in New York City:

Three of these books were registered for the first time this week.

• Copies of our Pass the Book title have now been registered 191 times.
• 150 different copies of the book have been registered since the books were released.
• 21 books have been registered twice.
• 8 books have been registered three times.
• 2 books, Books #54 and #461, have been registered four times.

Book #157 has continued to travel east, leaving Kent Island and pausing with a reader in Grasonville on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Did you take advantage of the snow to curl up and read a good book? Did you finish reading Midnighters 1: The Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld during the blizzard? Don’t forget to pass the book to another interested reader as soon as you’re able to get out of the house!

We want to let you know about a major Pass the Book event that is coming up. Pass the Book Amnesty Day is on Saturday March 27. Do you have a copy of The Secret Hour that you haven’t passed yet? Is it hiding under your bed or collecting dust on your desk? We’d like to help you to pass the book to another reader! If you haven’t passed that book, bring it back to any Howard County Library branch on Saturday March 27. We’ll find a new reader for your copy, and we’ll send you home with a special gift.

We look forward to seeing you (and your book) at the library on Saturday March 27. In the meantime, continue to read, register and pass the book.

As you know if you’ve started to read Midnighters: The Secret Hour already, Slithers and Darklings can’t deal with the number thirteen. To survive in the secret hour you’ll need to know some thirteen letter words, some Triskaidekalogisms, so that you can breathe a name into clean pieces of new metal and protect yourself from the primitive forces that menace the blue time. We’ll be checking in over the next month or so to point you towards some great and useful words. You’ll be surprised at how many great triskaidekalogisms are out there.

Since we’re librarians, we’re gripped by an overwhelming urge to start at the beginning of the alphabet, and WordbyLetter.com has a great list of thirteen letter words beginning with A. Take a look at the list. Which word is your favorite and why? What name would you choose for your clean steel?

I just named my trashcan lid Asthmatically Assassinating Anthracomancy! That ought to keep the slithers from my door. Add your chosen name to the comments, and don’t forget to read, register and pass the book!

Time for another quiz, as Jessica makes first contact with the slithers and darklings. Have some fun testing your memories of chapter seven with our latest ten-question challenge.

Don’t forget, we’re registering, passing and tracking  specially marked copies of Midnighters 1: The Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld around the United States and farther afield. If you have a copy of the book, please register it and pass it on. If you’d like a copy, pay a visit to your nearest branch of Howard County Library.