1) Matthew and Laurie Amster-Burton alerted us to this hilarious and also sad (or angry-making?) post by Dan Gutman, author of a whole slew of beginning reader chapter books, on his personal experiences with angry letters. Don't miss the "Hit List" at the bottom, which shows the most frequently challenged books last year and why they were challenged.
2) Checking in on Debbie Reese's blog, I found her post with links to first Ellen Wittlinger's piece in the Horn Book and then Arthur A. Levine's post about her article. Wittlinger writes about the Lambda Literary Foundation's decision to change the parameters of their literary award so that it can only be won by GLBT-identified authors, as opposed to anyone who writes books that the committee feels reflect the GLBT experience (Wittlinger, a straight author who writes lots of books with gay characters, isn't happy). I have to say, reading the comments section of Arthur Levine's post is a fascinating way to spend 15 minutes.
3) And has everyone heard by now (thanks for that link in the last post, Kitri) about the class-action lawsuit against Apple's iPad? Because, to quote the lawsuit:
Indeed, according to the www.apple.com website, "[r]eading on iPad is just like reading a book." However, contrary to this promise, using the iPad is not "just like reading a book" at all since books do not close when the reader is enjoying them in the sunlight or in other normal environmental environments. This promise, like other portions of APPLE's marketing material for the iPad, is false.Hmmmmm...
Please leave your article/post of the week in comments. We won't read them when we're supposed to be shelving, we promise.
-Anna, Kids Books
Posts
thank you for providing links, as usually i just skeeve off what you were reading when you leave the desk. it's more legit this way. not that either of us ever read blogs at work.
ReplyDeletealso, link #1 is amazing. censorship really gets my goat, so to speak, and this is a great example.
ReplyDeleteI'm a geek! I read Neil Gaiman's blog all the time and I thought this: http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2010/07/normal-service-will-be-resumed-as-soon.html was really exciting news (The very excellent Anansi Boys is being adapted into a movie!) It's been slow lately, since he's been doing actual writing, but when Gaiman is blogging regularly, his journal is a great resource for all book/comic/sci-fi/Amanda Palmer related news.
ReplyDeleteSorry, here is a working link.
ReplyDeleteThe Arthur Levine blog has one of the most thoughtful conversations I've ever read on the internet. It is a must read for anyone into Y.A. Literature. Or for anyone who wants to read a well written and respectful conversation that covers all sides of an issue.
ReplyDelete