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If you’re an adult with caregiving responsibilities, then unscheduled days mean figuring out how to keep little monsters fed and occupied, without your living or work space slipping into an intolerable level of chaos. Of course, this is where books can help. If you’re specifically looking for recommendations for very young readers, try these titles for preschoolers. However, if your readers are a bit older, then I have ideas for elementary school readers from about 5 to 10 years of age....

Anyway, I recently re-watched this beautiful film and now I love it even more. And while John Keating does throw around literary references like so many footballs, without ever diving in and, you know, doing some close reading or situating writers in their historical/political contexts, the references do make many of us smile. After all, you’ve got your Whitman, your Thoreau, your Tennyson, and your Shakespeare (among others). What more could you want in a film?...

Yay, it’s time for my annual gift giving guide for middle grade books published in 2018! (“Middle grade” is a loose term for readers 8–12.) As I have done in the past, I have grouped my favorites based on themes from classic children’s books. Check out this list of over sixty middle grade books, sure to entire your young readers! *Please note that all book descriptions are from Goodreads. *If you’re looking for more recommendations, check out my 2017 post here....

Why Talk at a School or Library Board Meeting Every public school and library board meeting provides time for citizens to speak what’s on their mind, whether or not it is an agenda item. Depending on the municipality, this might be two minutes or up to five minutes. Right now, right-wing groups are utilizing this public address time to challenge books they don’t like, sometimes doing little more than reading passages from the books in question to fill the time....

I don’t want to say I’ve had another excellent reading month because I don’t want the book gods to curse me, but I did have another great reading month—hides in book fort! My current reading obsession regarding spies continues (a double agent!) and I also discovered an upcoming book about an Aboriginal teen ghost that I want everyone to read. Plus, I have great picks for fans of historical mysteries, small-town secrets, remote settings, and book-within-a-book....

It’s a darn good story, in no small part because it features the hero losing. To a woman! In 1891! Unfortunately, a lot of adaptations—and Irene Adler, despite only showing up this one time, is very popular with adaptations—don’t seem to like that. Not only do they change her story so that she loses to Holmes in the end (usually by making her a criminal instead of a harassed woman who just wants to marry in peace), they often chuck her beloved husband, Godfrey Norton, out the door and have her and Holmes fall in love....

As a public service, I present to you this definitive ranking of all 60 canonical Sherlock Holmes stories and novels from worst to best. Please note that this list is a matter of opinion, and also that my opinion is always correct, all the time, about everything. 60. The Adventure of the Three Gables Deeply racist. Pass. 59. The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge This story is way too long for its flimsy mystery, and profoundly racist besides....

The first event was an interview with Buffy Sainte-Marie and her biographer Andrea Warner. This is where I learned that Buffy had originally trained as an Elementary school teacher and that she views her work as a songwriter and performer as a way to continue teaching. She talked about how it was easier for people to hear the lessons she had to share when they were shared through music. My favourite part though was when the interviewer mentioned that Buffy often gives homework at the end of her performances and asked her to do the same for the audience I was a part of....

After coming across a few theater kid books, I realized some of my favorite YA reads about the theater are told from a non-star’s perspective. It could be that I relate more to supporting players or crew members, since that was my middle and high school theater experience. Stories that follow sideline players also give a better picture of the wide array of people that put together a production. Hamlet isn’t Hamlet without a costume, lighting, marks, cues, and a line-running partner....

As it happens, there’s some great stuff one city over, right on our proverbial doorstep. No, not in Philly. Philly is a horrible place and we don’t talk about it. I once saw a T-shirt that described Pennsylvania as “two cities that hate each other divided by the Amish” and that is 100% accurate. Why would we want to be friends with the people who beat up Hitch-Bot? People, I’m talking about Cleveland, a vastly underrated spot with a great music scene, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, crazy weather patterns, and some most excellent ghosts....

Each issue contains an A–Z feature on a topic and no matter what the focus is, I find myself revisiting this particular piece again and again. It’s a highly designed double spread, and always leads me to leaning new things about arts and crafts I never knew before. I wanted to take that idea and see it applied to the book world, running a periodic A–Z feature, and it made perfect sense to begin with the beginning: an A–Z guide to the parts of a book....

Though much of the writing published in Toni Morrison’s most recent collection of nonfiction, The Source of Self-Regard, was first published (or given as a speech) elsewhere, over the last 40 years, her collection of essays, literary criticism, and speeches speak to our present moment with precision and force. In 2019, a year of crisis within the United States, when artists and writers of all sorts have been questioning the place of art in times of darkness, Morrison so clearly articulates its value....

Her novels were well-reviewed by critics and popular with readers during her time. But soon after her death she became dismissed as the least talented of the three sisters and forgotten by history. Who was Anne Brontë? And how did she become the forgotten Brontë sister? Anne’s Early Life Brontë family tragedies consumed Anne’s early childhood. (Brontë family tragedies consumed her later life, too…but we’ll get to that in a few minutes....

Aries (March 21-April 19) Taurus (April 20-May 20) Gemini (May 21-June 20) Cancer (June 21-July 22) Leo (July 23-August 22) Virgo (August 23-September 22) Libra (September 23-October 22) Scorpio (October 23-November 21) Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) Capricorn (December 22-January 19) Aquarius (January 20-February 18) Pisces (February 19-March 20) Looking for more? Check out your January, February, and March horoscopes and book recommendations!

But first, let’s talk about my favorite thing: the moon! April starts and ends with a new moon this year, with this first stage in a new lunar phase taking place on the 1st and the 30th. The new moon is a perfect time for rest, intention setting, and replenishing of the spirit. Start the month with some quiet time to think about what you’d like to achieve in the month ahead and some self-care activities....

But that does make me wonder where ‘real Russia’ finishes and ‘fantasy non-Russia’ begins. The Problem Leigh Bardugo (author of the bestselling Grisha books) has had to grapple with this for years. From the very beginning, Russian fans haven’t been happy about some of her choices. One key complaint is her misuse of naming conventions. The names Alina Starkov and Alexander Morozova don’t conform to Russia’s gendered language, a cultural aspect which – as many readers have pointed out – is among Google’s top search results....

If that explanation for why we have books like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies makes sense to you, or you think that the Twilight phenomenon is “ideologically and aesthetically repugnant,” then Poole’s new book, Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting, is one you’ll want to pick up. Poole, an associate professor of history at the College of Charleston, proposes that one way to consider American history is through our horror stories – stories that come from folk beliefs, religious doctrine, and pop culture....

— Judy Blume (@judyblume) August 2, 2018 Now news has finally come out and it’s Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret that is going to receive a long-awaited movie adaptation. The book was first published in 1970 and tells the story of Margaret, a 12-year-old girl who moves from New York to New Jersey. Raised by a Jewish father and Christian mother who did not impose any religion upon her, Margaret starts questioning her own unorthodox relationship with God and decides to study people’s religious views for a school project in an attempt to seek which religion best fits her, but this endeavour creates some conflict within her family....

According to Travis Langley’s Batman and Psychology, 2nd ed. — which puts the Caped Crusader, his allies, and his enemies onto the proverbial psychiatrist’s couch — it’s a lot more complicated than that. For starters, Langley asserts that Batman, despite popular opinion, does not have a mental illness. The Dark Knight exhibits some symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, but not enough to warrant a formal diagnosis. These symptoms (e.g. difficulty expressing emotion) may cause him trouble from time to time, but by and large they do not interfere with his ability to set and accomplish goals and to excel at his job....

Best 80s Pop Culture References Ready Player One by Ernest Cline The characters in this futuristic novel have a fascination with the past. Eighties references fill the pages, and readers are reminded of all their own memories of the eighties, even if they were too young to take part. It’s like Cline took all of his favorite things from back then and made sure to mention them at least once in the book....