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| via Sarah Andersen — see link below! |
Even though it’s a shorter roundup than most, the last couple of weeks have been filled with many interesting book and reading (and life!) related posts, so I’m diving right into it.
- I’m always impressed with teachers who come up with really neat, innovative ways to get their bigger messages out there, and Sarah Andersen’s literacy lockers initiative is brilliant. She got her kids to show off their reading habits on their lockers — you have to read this post and enjoy just how into it she got her students. This is so smart and so fun to see.
- Lizzie Skurnik is going to be publishing older YA titles that have sort of fallen out of memory. I love this idea, and I know I’m excited to read some of these books that I’ve never seen. What I think is interesting, too, is that they know the exact market for these books: adults who came of age in the 1970s and 1980s. Even though that’s not me, I am interested in it from the historical/YA reader perspective more broadly.
- This is one of the most fascinating pieces I’ve read in a long time, all about the point of a paperback book. Here’s why they redesign things, as well as what some of those redesigns aim for. I love the bit from Jenna Blum — I only picked up her book in paperback because that cover appealed to me. If I had seen the hardcover, it never would have made me pick it up.
- Even though we’re no longer officially doing AudioSynced, I still plan on sharing interesting audiobook links that come my way. This piece written by a neighboring librarian and the person who I learned almost all I know about audiobooks from thanks to a workshop in 2009 (!!) is all about excellent summer audiobooks to listen to as a family. Check it out.
- Check out the lineup of judges for this year’s National Book Award (especially in Young Peoples Literature). The change in their rules for who is eligible for judging has me thinking there is a new item on my lifetime goals list.
- This isn’t really book or reading related, except that it is completely related to both for me: taming the feed. Do you ever feel like sometimes the social networks get overwhelming and you’re getting in and letting in too much noise? Here are some ideas for trimming back.
- Jennifer Rummel wrote a really thorough and thought-provoking post over at YALSA’s The Hub about women’s history — and she did it through YA books. Go see this.
- Last month for our “get genrefied” series, Kim wrote a post all about high fantasy. Over at YALSA’s The Hub, there’s a nice post about different types of fantasy worth reading, too.
- Rather than talk about the Amazon purchase of Goodreads (I am not going to change anything until I have real reason to), I thought I’d instead dedicate this space to a post by author Stephanie Burgis who talks about what it’s like to be caught in the middle of the stalemate between Barnes and Noble and Simon & Schuster as an author. The long and short of it is: you won’t see many midlist/debut/non-significant titles at Barnes and Noble stores from S&S authors because of this dispute. But it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be asking them for these titles. It’s important to support those authors any way you can — ask in store for them, buy them online. Know that what you see on the shelves in a physical B&N is only a tiny fraction of what’s out there.
- This is a nice piece by David Almond about the value of children’s literature.
- If you have ever tried something and failed at it, know there is value in that failure. Leah White has a really thoughtful post on the topic of failure worth reading.
- I think it’s appropriate to end with an essay written by Roger Ebert a few years ago, simply called Books Furnish a Life.
It's exciting to see my post linked here š Thanks, Kelly!
Thanks for including the Women's History post š