In the special Halloween issue of READ, I interviewed a very dead Jane Austen. At the end of the interview, there was some confusion as to what happened. Well, the truth of the matter is that Ms. Austen changed. She turned from literary sweetheart to brain-eating zombie in like no time whatsoever. It wasn't cool, my friends.

She attacked me. She ate my brain. I won't go into the gory details but it wasn't pretty.

So yeah, now I'm a zombie. Arrrrgggghhhhh! Hahaha. It's not so bad. I can still type, apparently, which is nice. I don't hold any sort of grudge against Jane Austen. I still believe her to be a fine writer. I hope everyone reading this takes it upon themselves to read some of her work. If not now, then in the future. She can't help the fact that she's a zombie now anymore than I can. Stuff happens, you know? Sometimes it rains, sometimes your favorite sports team doesn't win, and sometimes you join the flesh-eating undead. These things just happen. You gotta roll with the punches, my friends.

That's all I have to say right now. I wish you all well. Feed your brain. READ.

-Zombie Bry

In the WRITE FOR YOUR LIFE issue, we offered an edited version of an interview with Jack Gantos. Today, we present to you, the interview with the author in its entirety. Enjoy!

READ: HOLE IN MY LIFE is an exploration of your troubled adolescence. Since then, you have written children’s books with a much lighter tone. What led you to children’s writing?

Jack Gantos: I’ve always been a rangy reader so it is no mystery that I would also be a rangy writer with publications from picture books, to upper elementary stories and novels, to middle grade novels and young adult novels and the HOLE IN MY LIFE memoir.
     As a beginning reader, I of course started with picture books. As an adult writer I never forgot those early books and the humor within them. So when I went to college for Creative Writing I not only was writing poetry and fiction, but I was also writing children’s books. I was also fortunate me meet Nicole Rubel (the illustrator of the ROTTEN RALPH books) at a party. She was in art school and we teamed up and began our publication career writing. Picture books contain great characters, really loopy plots and great humor so it is a very attractive art form.

READ: How did you find meaning—and writing material—in everyday experiences? How can young readers write about their own experiences?

Gantos: As a boy I kept journals. My sister had one and I was a bit of a copy cat so I got one too. Keep in mind our family moved a lot—I went to ten schools in twelve grades—so I got around and the journal was a way for me to keep track of not only the rapidly changing world outside of me (the physical world), but also the rapidly changing world inside of me (the emotional, intellectual, imaginative world). I would set the journals up in a specific way. First, I would start with drawing maps: I’d work up a detailed drawing of my house and all the rooms and the yard and then I would draw where everything happened: where I threw up on the wall—where my dog was eaten by an alligator in my back yard—where I broke my brother’s arm—where my dad ran my bike over with his car, and on and on. No detail was too small. Then I would use the drawings for jumping off points for writing. I had the confidence to write because with the map in hand I could see that I had really good material to write about. I kept this up all through my life. My maps now are much the same as when I was a kid. I have a house map. A neighborhood map. A city map. And I can draw little pictures where things happen, or where I made certain curious observations and then I can use this raw material for the beginning of a story. If you pay attention to the world around you every day, and to the world within you every day then you will have plenty to write about.

READ: How did your family react to HOLE IN MY LIFE? Was it difficult writing about such personal experiences?

Gantos: My family never really responded to that book. I think they lived the experience in their own painful way and had no interest in reliving their pain, anger and discomfort through the book.
     It was difficult to write for several reasons. The first being that it is a memoir which means it has to be honest. Now, I’m a fiction writer, so I know I could juice up that story and make it better in spots by adding material that did not happen. But, I stuck to the facts so the challenge in the writing was to work with just the truth and shape and construct the truth so it was captivating. This required me to really dig deep into each scene and write it—carve it in language—so that it was honest, engaging, and advanced the book. I had to do this with both the physical aspects of the story, and especially with the emotional, internal portions of the story. On the emotional side of the book it was difficult simply because I had to experience all the pain and fear all over again, then distill it down and add it to the essential core of each and every scene. When you read HOLE IN MY LIFE you see how much of the book is actually inside the character. I felt every one of those words and a good number of them made me shame and guilt and pain, but also pride and confidence because I did pull myself out of a mess and build a solid life despite my worst qualities.

READ: Can you go into a little bit of detail as to how prison life changed you for the better?

Gantos: Once you end up in prison you eventually give up believing that it was everyone else’s fault that got you there. You come clean with yourself and evaluate what you have done wrong, and what you would like to do that is true to you, and fulfilling. You take a look at your personal goals. In my case I wanted to write books and live a life around and with books. So there I was in prison for smuggling drugs which, believe me, was not my dream come true. So I had to shake off some of my bad habits of the past and begin to describe to myself who I wanted to be. And then I had to walk the walk. So in prison I did read every day. And I wrote every day. And I tried my best to stay away from all the drugs in prison (there are plenty), and all the guys who are not there to be kind to you. My goal in prison was not to be a bad guy and hang out with a bunch of other drug smugglers and plan my next crime. My goal was to mind my own business, make friends with good people who I could trust, do my prison job and read and write—and then to get out of there as soon as possible so I could move on with the life I wanted to build. For me, being a prisoner is not a career goal.

READ: What are your favorite types of books? Authors?

Gantos: I am still a rangy reader so I will read anything from picture books to short stories, novels and non fiction. Right now I just read two volumes on the destruction and loss of ancient books. I’m also reading about Eleanor Roosevelt as I’m writing about the town I grew up in as a boy which is named after her: Norvelt, PA. My daughter is in middle school so I read what she reads, too. Keep in mind that I go to the library almost every day. Oh—and I’m reading a great book on how to write obituaries. And I was with Avi and Kevin Henkes last night and so I got up this morning and was reading through their books too.

READ: How did you come up with your fictional characters for your other books? Do you have a funny story about any of them?

Gantos: The “Jack Henry” books are all about me and my life so “Jack” and his family and friends were easy to come up with. “Joey Pigza” is a combination of a lot of kids I knew as a kid—he is kind of the classic kid who has a full time desk in the hall way because he is so disruptive in class. And his family—which is pretty dysfunctional—was based on a number of families I know. “Rotten Ralph” was based on a used cat I got out of the Boston Globe. Nicole Rubel and I were writing and illustrating some pretty awful books and so there was this rule of writing called “write about what you know about.” Well, I knew about cats from growing up with them but at the time did not have one so I opened the newspaper and went to the used pet section and there was a cat that was listed as “sweet, nice and loving.” The cat lived at Harvard University so we went and got the cat. It was instantly a menace. Psychotic, really. There was nothing nice or loving about that animal except for about once a month it would purr for ten minutes. So that cat became the template for “Rotten Ralph” who is rotten most of the time except for when he feels contrite for ten minutes toward the end of each book.

READ: Can you recommend an exercise for young writers?

Gantos: Yes. Get a journal and a decent pen. The draw a map of your room, of your house, of your neighborhood and school and other important locations. Then start drawing down everything important that happened, and where you had very strong emotions, too. Like once I was in the kitchen crying and my sister came in and asked, “What is the matter with you?” And very honestly I replied, “I can’t make friends at this new school.” Tears were flowing down my cheeks and my sister snapped back, “well, look at your. You are pathetic. Who would want to be your friend?” Now, there was no great physical action to that scene. Two people standing in a kitchen. But the real action was the emotional action. So when you are drawing your maps sometimes the physical action is easy to find and you have to look a little deeper for the emotional material—but I assure you it is there and it is essential to writing. Then, set up good writing habits. Ten or fifteen minutes each day. You take out the journal, look at your map and start writing a wild first draft of some story you know. Once you get that first draft you can type it up and begin to give it shape and work through it. You bring structure to the work and make certain the character is changed by the events. You need to consider that about half a story is physical and half is emotional. If you write a little each day you just simply improve your skills and you build confidence and your talent can shine through. Good luck!

www.jackgantos.com

Ok, well that was just silly!

The wonderful thing about Tiggers is that Tiggers are wonderful things!

Hooray! He picked the door with the lady behind it! But what if he didn't? What if he picked the door with the <gulp> tiger behind it??

Check back here tomorrow...

In Issue 1 of READ magazine, we promised we would post Frank R. Stockton's original short story today. So... here you go! Oh, and keep sending us your endings to the adapted story that appears in Issue 1. We're loving them and will post the best ones here on Monday, September 14!

The Lady or the Tiger
By Frank R. Stockton

In the very olden time there lived a semi-barbaric king, whose ideas, though somewhat polished and sharpened by the progressiveness of distant Latin neighbors, were still large, florid, and untrammeled, as became the half of him which was barbaric. He was a man of exuberant fancy, and, withal, of an authority so irresistible that, at his will, he turned his varied fancies into facts. He was greatly given to self-communing, and, when he and himself agreed upon anything, the thing was done. When every member of his domestic and political systems moved smoothly in its appointed course, his nature was bland and genial; but, whenever there was a little hitch, and some of his orbs got out of their orbits, he was blander and more genial still, for nothing pleased him so much as to make the crooked straight and crush down uneven places. 
     Among the borrowed notions by which his barbarism had become semified was that of the public arena, in which, by exhibitions of manly and beastly valor, the minds of his subjects were refined and cultured.
     But even here the exuberant and barbaric fancy asserted itself. The arena of the king was built, not to give the people an opportunity of hearing the rhapsodies of dying gladiators, nor to enable them to view the inevitable conclusion of a conflict between religious opinions and hungry jaws, but for purposes far better adapted to widen and develop the mental energies of the people. This vast amphitheater, with its encircling galleries, its mysterious vaults, and its unseen passages, was an agent of poetic justice, in which crime was punished, or virtue rewarded, by the decrees of an impartial and incorruptible chance.
     When a subject was accused of a crime of sufficient importance to interest the king, public notice was given that on an appointed day the fate of the accused person would be decided in the king's arena, a structure which well deserved its name, for, although its form and plan were borrowed from afar, its purpose emanated solely from the brain of this man, who, every barleycorn a king, knew no tradition to which he owed more allegiance than pleased his fancy, and who ingrafted on every adopted form of human thought and action the rich growth of his barbaric idealism.
     When all the people had assembled in the galleries, and the king, surrounded by his court, sat high up on his throne of royal state on one side of the arena, he gave a signal, a door beneath him opened, and the accused subject stepped out into the amphitheater. Directly opposite him, on the other side of the enclosed space, were two doors, exactly alike and side by side. It was the duty and the privilege of the person on trial to walk directly to these doors and open one of them. He could open either door he pleased; he was subject to no guidance or influence but that of the aforementioned impartial and incorruptible chance. If he opened the one, there came out of it a hungry tiger, the fiercest and most cruel that could be procured, which immediately sprang upon him and tore him to pieces as a punishment for his guilt. The moment that the case of the criminal was thus decided, doleful iron bells were clanged, great wails went up from the hired mourners posted on the outer rim of the arena, and the vast audience, with bowed heads and downcast hearts, wended slowly their homeward way, mourning greatly that one so young and fair, or so old and respected, should have merited so dire a fate.

 

     But, if the accused person opened the other door, there came forth from it a lady, the most suitable to his years and station that his majesty could select among his fair subjects, and to this lady he was immediately married, as a reward of his innocence. It mattered not that he might already possess a wife and family, or that his affections might be engaged upon an object of his own selection; the king allowed no such subordinate arrangements to interfere with his great scheme of retribution and reward. The exercises, as in the other instance, took place immediately, and in the arena. Another door opened beneath the king, and a priest, followed by a band of choristers, and dancing maidens blowing joyous airs on golden horns and treading an epithalamic measure, advanced to where the pair stood, side by side, and the wedding was promptly and cheerily solemnized. Then the gay brass bells rang forth their merry peals, the people shouted glad hurrahs, and the innocent man, preceded by children strewing flowers on his path, led his bride to his home.
     This was the king's semi-barbaric method of administering justice. Its perfect fairness is obvious. The criminal could not know out of which door would come the lady; he opened either he pleased, without having the slightest idea whether, in the next instant, he was to be devoured or married. On some occasions the tiger came out of one door, and on some out of the other. The decisions of this tribunal were not only fair, they were positively determinate: the accused person was instantly punished if he found himself guilty, and, if innocent, he was rewarded on the spot, whether he liked it or not. There was no escape from the judgments of the king's arena.
     The institution was a very popular one. When the people gathered together on one of the great trial days, they never knew whether they were to witness a bloody slaughter or a hilarious wedding. This element of uncertainty lent an interest to the occasion which it could not otherwise have attained. Thus, the masses were entertained and pleased, and the thinking part of the community could bring no charge of unfairness against this plan, for did not the accused person have the whole matter in his own hands?

 

     This semi-barbaric king had a daughter as blooming as his most florid fancies, and with a soul as fervent and imperious as his own. As is usual in such cases, she was the apple of his eye, and was loved by him above all humanity. Among his courtiers was a young man of that fineness of blood and lowness of station common to the conventional heroes of romance who love royal maidens. This royal maiden was well satisfied with her lover, for he was handsome and brave to a degree unsurpassed in all this kingdom, and she loved him with an ardor that had enough of barbarism in it to make it exceedingly warm and strong. This love affair moved on happily for many months, until one day the king happened to discover its existence. He did not hesitate nor waver in regard to his duty in the premises. The youth was immediately cast into prison, and a day was appointed for his trial in the king's arena. This, of course, was an especially important occasion, and his majesty, as well as all the people, was greatly interested in the workings and development of this trial. Never before had such a case occurred; never before had a subject dared to love the daughter of the king. In after years such things became commonplace enough, but then they were in no slight degree novel and startling.
     The tiger-cages of the kingdom were searched for the most savage and relentless beasts, from which the fiercest monster might be selected for the arena; and the ranks of maiden youth and beauty throughout the land were carefully surveyed by competent judges in order that the young man might have a fitting bride in case fate did not determine for him a different destiny. Of course, everybody knew that the deed with which the accused was charged had been done. He had loved the princess, and neither he, she, nor any one else, thought of denying the fact; but the king would not think of allowing any fact of this kind to interfere with the workings of the tribunal, in which he took such great delight and satisfaction. No matter how the affair turned out, the youth would be disposed of, and the king would take an aesthetic pleasure in watching the course of events, which would determine whether or not the young man had done wrong in allowing himself to love the princess.

 

     The appointed day arrived. From far and near the people gathered, and thronged the great galleries of the arena, and crowds, unable to gain admittance, massed themselves against its outside walls. The king and his court were in their places, opposite the twin doors, those fateful portals, so terrible in their similarity. 
     All was ready. The signal was given. A door beneath the royal party opened, and the lover of the princess walked into the arena. Tall, beautiful, fair, his appearance was greeted with a low hum of admiration and anxiety. Half the audience had not known so grand a youth had lived among them. No wonder the princess loved him! What a terrible thing for him to be there!
     As the youth advanced into the arena he turned, as the custom was, to bow to the king, but he did not think at all of that royal personage. His eyes were fixed upon the princess, who sat to the right of her father. Had it not been for the moiety of barbarism in her nature it is probable that lady would not have been there, but her intense and fervid soul would not allow her to be absent on an occasion in which she was so terribly interested. From the moment that the decree had gone forth that her lover should decide his fate in the king's arena, she had thought of nothing, night or day, but this great event and the various subjects connected with it. Possessed of more power, influence, and force of character than any one who had ever before been interested in such a case, she had done what no other person had done - she had possessed herself of the secret of the doors. She knew in which of the two rooms, that lay behind those doors, stood the cage of the tiger, with its open front, and in which waited the lady. Through these thick doors, heavily curtained with skins on the inside, it was impossible that any noise or suggestion should come from within to the person who should approach to raise the latch of one of them. But gold, and the power of a woman's will, had brought the secret to the princess.
     And not only did she know in which room stood the lady ready to emerge, all blushing and radiant, should her door be opened, but she knew who the lady was. It was one of the fairest and loveliest of the damsels of the court who had been selected as the reward of the accused youth, should he be proved innocent of the crime of aspiring to one so far above him; and the princess hated her. Often had she seen, or imagined that she had seen, this fair creature throwing glances of admiration upon the person of her lover, and sometimes she thought these glances were perceived, and even returned. Now and then she had seen them talking together; it was but for a moment or two, but much can be said in a brief space; it may have been on most unimportant topics, but how could she know that? The girl was lovely, but she had dared to raise her eyes to the loved one of the princess; and, with all the intensity of the savage blood transmitted to her through long lines of wholly barbaric ancestors, she hated the woman who blushed and trembled behind that silent door.

 

     When her lover turned and looked at her, and his eye met hers as she sat there, paler and whiter than any one in the vast ocean of anxious faces about her, he saw, by that power of quick perception which is given to those whose souls are one, that she knew behind which door crouched the tiger, and behind which stood the lady. He had expected her to know it. He understood her nature, and his soul was assured that she would never rest until she had made plain to herself this thing, hidden to all other lookers-on, even to the king. The only hope for the youth in which there was any element of certainty was based upon the success of the princess in discovering this mystery; and the moment he looked upon her, he saw she had succeeded, as in his soul he knew she would succeed.
     Then it was that his quick and anxious glance asked the question: "Which?" It was as plain to her as if he shouted it from where he stood. There was not an instant to be lost. The question was asked in a flash; it must be answered in another.
     Her right arm lay on the cushioned parapet before her. She raised her hand, and made a slight, quick movement toward the right. No one but her lover saw her. Every eye but his was fixed on the man in the arena.
     He turned, and with a firm and rapid step he walked across the empty space. Every heart stopped beating, every breath was held, every eye was fixed immovably upon that man. Without the slightest hesitation, he went to the door on the right, and opened it.
     Now, the point of the story is this: Did the tiger come out of that door, or did the lady ?
     The more we reflect upon this question, the harder it is to answer. It involves a study of the human heart which leads us through devious mazes of passion, out of which it is difficult to find our way. Think of it, fair reader, not as if the decision of the question depended upon yourself, but upon that hot-blooded, semi-barbaric princess, her soul at a white heat beneath the combined fires of despair and jealousy. She had lost him, but who should have him?

 

     How often, in her waking hours and in her dreams, had she started in wild horror, and covered her face with her hands as she thought of her lover opening the door on the other side of which waited the cruel fangs of the tiger!
     But how much oftener had she seen him at the other door! How in her grievous reveries had she gnashed her teeth, and torn her hair, when she saw his start of rapturous delight as he opened the door of the lady! How her soul had burned in agony when she had seen him rush to meet that woman, with her flushing cheek and sparkling eye of triumph; when she had seen him lead her forth, his whole frame kindled with the joy of recovered life; when she had heard the glad shouts from the multitude, and the wild ringing of the happy bells; when she had seen the priest, with his joyous followers, advance to the couple, and make them man and wife before her very eyes; and when she had seen them walk away together upon their path of flowers, followed by the tremendous shouts of the hilarious multitude, in which her one despairing shriek was lost and drowned!
     Would it not be better for him to die at once, and go to wait for her in the blessed regions of semi-barbaric futurity?
     And yet, that awful tiger, those shrieks, that blood!
     Her decision had been indicated in an instant, but it had been made after days and nights of anguished deliberation. She had known she would be asked, she had decided what she would answer, and, without the slightest hesitation, she had moved her hand to the right.
     The question of her decision is one not to be lightly considered, and it is not for me to presume to set myself up as the one person able to answer it. And so I leave it with all of you: Which came out of the opened door - the lady, or the tiger?

What an awfully good question!

In issue 1 of READ magazine, we published an adapted story based on Frank Richard Stockton's classic tale. At the end, we asked you to finish the story for us. We have already received several interpretations and are hoping for more!

Email your endings to word@weeklyreader.com. We will post our favorites here on Monday, September 14.

In the meantime, check back here this Friday to read Frank Richard Stockton's original story.

And then, come back all next week to see our Oscar-worthy video interpretation endings.

Word.

The following blog entry was written by READ magazine's summer intern, Craig Nadler. Craig will be leaving us next week. And we will be sad to see him go. Don't go, Craig!!

Awhile ago I went to the movies. I decided to see Angels and Demons, basing this decision on the fact that I L-O-V-E-D the novel by Dan Brown. Two hours and twenty minutes later, as I watched the credits begin to roll over the screen, an old expression came to mind: lost in translation. I'd heard the saying before, but its meaning was never truly clear to me until that moment. I exited the theater and walked down the long hallway, surrounded on all sides by "coming soon" posters. And, it soon became clear that each title was more familiar than the next. Isn't that one based on a fairy tale? Wasn't that a book first? Hmm ... Is Hollywood running out of good ideas? I guess it makes sense to adapt existing plots to the big (and small) screen. Setting. Check. Characters. Check. Conflict. Check. It's all there. And, if a piece of writing already has success in that form, there's a good chance it'll have success with a big budget and cameras, too. Right? Wrong!

Big screen adaptations are not foolproof plans. There has been a fair share of flops as a result of the re-imagination of literature. The 2004 adaptation of the comic book super heroine Catwoman was a box office disaster. In 2007, the film version of Phillip Pullman's The Golden Compass flopped hard. Even retellings of classic literature, like the 1995 film version of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, are not guaranteed box office gold. As I thought more about the curse of adapted literature, I tried to figure out why something so treasured on the page could prove to be so condemned on the screen.

Part of the value of a good piece of literature is its ability to be interpreted by the reader. Words on a page do not force feed an image to the reader. Even with precise details, an author can only present so much. It's the reader's ability to create a mental image of his own that makes reading such an invigorating experience. Although actors are talented, they cannot often express the same emotions that an author can detail on the page. Sometimes, what goes on in the head of a character is more profound than how he or she behaves on the screen. An actor can portray the emotion "anger" on-screen through squinted eyes or a loud voice or a waving fist. However, that's it. Beyond these classic representations of anger, there are a limited number of ways to present this physically (and visually). Through writing, however, an author can express the same anger with much more depth. Through language and literary devices (like similes and metaphors), the description of an angry person can go on for pages!

Come to think of it, the film adaptations of literature most successful and memorable are those that add a creative twist to a classic. Take, for instance, the film 10 Things I Hate About You (which is about to premiere as a television show on July 7 on ABC Family), based on William Shakespeare's play "The Taming of the Shrew." And, there's also the 1999 film Cruel Intentions, based on the 18th century French epistolary novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Laclos. In both movies, the setting is updated to the late 20th century, and the characters are represented as American teenagers. It seems a successful book does not guarantee a successful motion picture. Often, the literature's message can get lost in translation from page to theater. Don't wait around for a novel to be adapted into a film. Go out and buy the book or the play or the comic book in its original form; it's guaranteed to be a smash hit!

 

Today, Kim Paras, Weekly Reader's Manager of Copy Editing, muses on why she loves spotty dogs.

"Not long ago, there lived in London a young married couple of Dalmatian dogs named Pongo and Missis Pongo."

And so begins the novel "The Hundred and One Dalmatians." I was thinking of that book the other day (for the uninitiated, yes, it was a book before it was a Disney movie), and I recalled that when I was in elementary school, I checked out that book every year from the school library. I am sure the school librarian wished I would feed my mind something else other than this tale of missing spotted pups, but checking out "The Hundred and One Dalmatians" from the Bolivar (Tenn.) Elementary School Library became somewhat of a ritual for me. From year to year, I knew where I could find the book--in the shelves against the back wall, about midway up and to the right. And its appearance was etched in my brain: It had a pale pink book jacket decorated with dogs on the front and paw prints padding their way up the spine, protected by a clear plastic cover. Looking back, I think the old hardback copy my school library owned may have been a first edition (1956, Viking Press).

For all the times I read that book as a child, I don't think I ever took notice of the author. The shame! So I decided to find out. The author, as some of you I'm sure could have told me, is Dodie Smith, of Lancashire, England. Smith attended what is now the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and began her career as an actor. Deciding that pursuit wasn't for her, she later worked as a toy buyer in a furniture store, where she would meet her future husband. Returning to the arts, she began writing plays, some of which were performed on Broadway in the 1930s and '40s.

Smith and her husband, Alex Beesley, moved to the United States during World War I (1914–1918). It has been said that Smith was homesick for England when, in 1948, she published her first novel, "I Capture the Castle," which is written from the point of view of a 17-year-old girl who lives in a deteriorating castle with her family. The book is essentially the diary entries of the protagonist Cassandra. It begins with this short, but inviting sentence: "I write this sitting in the kitchen sink."

Sunday, May 3, would have been Dodie Smith's birthday. She was born in 1896. This writer who penned what would one day become a children's classic experienced tragedy in her own childhood. Her father died when she was a baby, and when Smith was a teenager, her mother died of breast cancer.

Smith died at age 94 in 1990. I think that in Smith's honor I will stop by my local library and check out "The Hundred and One Dalmatians," though I doubt it will be the copy with the pink cover that I so fondly remember. As for the Dalmatians whose adventures I will again follow? They were inspired by Smith's many pet Dalmatians, one of whom was named Pongo.

Hey hey hey!

Last week we announced that our Shakespeare web site was available for free for a limited time. We have extended this free trial period and want you to check it out!

But hurry! This offer will definitely expire tomorrow afternoon!

Don't worry though, if you or your teacher subscribe to READ, you will still have full access to our Shakespeare electronic issue, as well as our electronic issues for Poe, Canterbury Tales, Monsters, and Student Writing Showcase I and II.

If you have any questions about how to access these fun, interactive sites, email us at read @ weeklyreader . com (no spaces).

Be cool, baby. Click on Will. Solid.

In honor of his birthday, READ's interactive electronic Shakespeare issue is now open to everyone!

Check it out by clicking the Shakespeare head below.

But visit him soon because on Monday, this site is going back behind the subscriber-only curtain (if you or your teacher already subscribe to READ, you will continue to have access).

The Macbeth rap we posted yesterday is on our site as well as an interview with Shakespeare, an interactive timeline of his life, and much more!

Enjoy! And don't forget to check out all the other cool Shakespeare stuff we posted here yesterday!

Oh look at that! Poe took his friend Will out for his birthday. How nice!

That's right, everyone's favorite Bard turns 445 today! Hooray! Happy birthday, old friend! How should we celebrate?

Well, we can listen to READ's associate editor, Audra Pace, give a dramatic performance of a monologue from A Comedy Of Errors.

Well, we can talk like Shakespeare for a spell.

We can watch this very cool iambic pentameter scene from the movie, Renaissance Man. Bop bada bop bada bop bop bop bop! 

We can go crazy with Hamlet.

Or, we can watch this super awesome Macbeth rap! Enjoy!

 

To learn more about READ's electronic issues, email us at read @ weeklyreader . com (no spaces).

Check this out! 

Leeawesome and her roommate were inspired to create this music video by the School Library Journal's Battle of the Kids' Books competition and High School Musical 3. 

Great job girls!

One of the most impressive aspects of Edgar Allan Poe's storytelling is his ability to enhance the mood and tone with the use of repetitious sound. Examples of his auditory excellence shine through in two of his most famous works: "The Raven" and "The Tell-Tale Heart."

Poe brings to the reader's attention the character of the infamous Raven through the rapping and tapping of the chamber door. Sound not only introduces this antagonist, but is also the vehicle that drives the plot. In the poem, the Raven speaks only one word "nevermore" to the love-sick narrator who tries to gain some comfort about losing his beloved Lenore. The repetition of "nevermore" is so effective in creating tension that by the end of the poem the reader can assume the narrator is driven mad. But by who? Certainly, the sound of "nevermore" as an answer to every single question must have contributed!

Insanity is a welcomed state of mind for characters' of Poe. Much like The Raven's narrator, the sound of a heart beating incessantly is the means that drives an already insane protagonist to confession in, "The Tell-Tale Heart." This narrator describes how two policemen make a mockery of his explanation of late night noises, by ignoring the sound of a thumping heart growing louder and louder by the minute. Finally, the narrator explains that he is driven to admit his crime because he just can't believe the policemen's audacity in letting him continue with his story despite the "obvious" loud thumping below their feet. Once again, Poe creates brilliant tension from beginning to end by using the sound of a heart as a device and an antagonist.

Up for a little challenge? These aren't the only examples of Poe's ingenious employment of sound. Deep in the dark recesses of his library are the echoes of other inanimate insanity-driving antagonists. Can you uncover them?

Our dear friend Edgar Allan Poe was nicknamed the master of macabre, which translates to the master of all things ghoulish, ghastly, grisly, gruesome, horrid, morbid, and deathly. I'm not too sure that's a reputation I would be comfortable with, but for Edgar and many other writers, it's exciting to focus on the dark side of life. Nowadays,  people say not to be so negative. Stay positive and you will bring positive things into your life. Does that mean Poe's obsession with the shadows was a negative force? Certainly not! Death is as much a part of life as birth. 200 years ago, people were much more comfortable with the idea of death. Employing this theme into poetry and prose can be a very positive and healthy activity.

To master the macabre like Poe did, it's essential to take stock of symbols that represent what's come to pass. A few categories to consider are plants and animals, colors, environment, and psychology.

We can begin by looking at Poe's famous raven, the black and unpleasant sounding bird. There's also the crow, which was used in a very dark movie in the 1990's aptly named, "The Crow." Other dark symbolic animals are black cats, rats, spiders, and bats and even amphibians like frogs and toads that thrive in wet and slimy creeks. Anytime these animals are included in a writing piece, a very dim atmosphere is created for the characters. Deep forests, vines and twisty, knotty trees can also enhance this effect.

Black isn't the only "color" that supports deathly themes but sticking to dark shades when describing character's clothing is a good idea. However, red, the color of blood, is also a decent choice. One exception is the innocent, naive character. He or she can be adorned in powdery blues, whites or anything that acts as a stark contrast to the cold and shadowy backdrop. Speaking of setting, some classic environments include thick, wintry wooded areas that encase log cabins as in "The Tell-Tale Heart."

Eerie animals, muted colors and scary, cold unwelcoming environments all set tone for macabre characters that are usually very close to death. Sometimes, they have just lost a loved one, like the precious Lenore or maybe they themselves are fighting a dark force that wishes them gone. But if it's real depth you're looking for, be sure to include a character that may be a little bit insane. Nothing is scarier than losing your mind! So, don't be afraid! Get out there and write some good and healthy death stories!

In the current issue of READ, we have excerpted a few Ellis Island interviews. This week we are posting the full text of these interviews. Enjoy. And God Bless America.

ENGLAND

Sally Winston
Born July 18, 1918
Emigrated 1922, Age 3
Passage on the S.S. Cedric

She is the younger sister of Vera, and picks up the story of what became of them once they arrived in America through the eyes of a child. Sally, like Vera, never had children.

I only have one memory of the boat ride. Only one. I remember water, sitting on somebody's lap, and then the bare, bright lights of a lightbulb dangling near the bunk beds. I remember that bulb.

At Ellis Island, I remember this great big hall and people, and I remember somebody holding me and it just seemed like so many people. And I remember being frightened, like I wanted to get away someplace. That was the feeling I always remembered.

Then we got to the house. My mother's brother's house in South Orange, New Jersey. I don't remember how we got there. I just remember our sister Katherine coming to see us. And eating mashed potatoes. I loved mashed potatoes. Katherine would make a hole and put butter in it for me. I remember the sewing machine because to me it was such a big thing the way it was crated, but I don't know whatever happened to it.

The next thing I remember I was at St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Jersey City. I was first put in at St. Joseph’s with my sisters Mary and Margaret. [Margaret was there only temporarily, before becoming a domestic like her mother.] I remember it being a big dormitory, many beds. And I remember being taken care of by a nun named sister Ambrose. She was nice to me, but she was also wicked. I don’t imagine she was bad. She was just tough. She treated everybody tough, that I remember. To me she was like a force of vengeance. I stayed out of her way. I never got in her way because if you were wrong, that was it. I was also one of the youngest children ever there. I was kept away from the older children because I was young. I was about four years old. I remember this damn parrot that used to call me. It had my name down because I guess I used to play with it a lot. I remember being sick in the infirmary by myself. They used to being the parrot to keep me company.

We were taught to read. We were taught arithmetic. We were taught penmanship so we could have good handwriting. We were taught the regular schoolwork and given religious training. I made my first communion at St. Joseph’s. We didn’t wear a uniform, we wore a dress. Nothing fancy. Our hair was short to prevent lice. But if you had it, they put kerosene on your head to kill the damn things. I must have been seven at the time.

I did not see my sisters very much. We were kept separate. I used to run and try to sneak to Margaret, but I used to get pulled back and not allowed to go. My mother worked at the orphanage initially. She worked in the kitchen. I used to sneak in to see her. My mother would have to turn me around and send me back, because I wasn’t allowed to do that. It was very regimented. We got punished when there was something wrong, but I wasn’t beaten.

I was at St. Joseph’s until I was seven, and then I was taken out of there to live with my older sister, Kathleen. She lived on Thirteenth Street and Ninth Avenue in New York City. She was married and had a little girl, my niece, Frances. She had a house full of boarders, and she was the superintendent, her and her husband, Jim. The boarders were mostly her husband’s brothers from Ireland.

I remember vividly my mother’s sister, my aunt Maggie. I never liked her because she wasn’t nice to me. She tried to rule the roost, everything her way. She was kind of rough, but she would visit me when she had the day off. She’d take me on the Fifth Avenue double-decker bus. We’d go up to Grant’s Tomb and back. Every time she came we took the same ride, so I used to hide down in the cellar. My sister’s husband, Jim, used to follow me down to the cellar. He was kind to me. One time, I hid in the coal bin. He wanted to know why I was there. I says, “I don’t want to go on that bus ride again.”

I didn’t realize that I wasn’t born here until I was about twelve years old. And I got mad at the person that told me I wasn’t. He says, “You were born in Liverpool, England.” I said, “I was not! I’m an American.” He says, “You were born in Liverpool, England, Sally.” I said, “No, it can’t be.” So what do you do with a twelve-year-old kid when you tell her she wasn’t born in this country? I thought he was being mean. I had no memory of Liverpool. To me this was my country. This was my home. So I had no conception at that age. But finally I had to accept it, and realized that I wasn’t born here.

My older sisters had their lives. Vera and Margaret had to go their own way because of circumstances. They were eight to ten years older than me. It was circumstances that brought all this about. My mother wasn’t around that much. But to me, she was always a tall woman. She had white hair. Her hair was white as far back as I can remember. But she wasn’t communicative. She was stern in her own way. In later years she became a little more mellow, but I felt sorry for her. As I grew older I felt she was a very unhappy woman, because somewhere along the line her boat didn’t come in. She was not a happy woman.

 

Your dad dies suddenly and mysteriously, and his brother starts making the moves on your mom. Before you know it, your charming Uncle Claude has moved in, taken over the family business, and is calling you "son." You are more than a little grumpy about this.

Then one dark and stormy night, you see some sort of apparition in the rain. He ... it ... can't be your father, and yet ... you know it is. Before the night is over, you realize that your dad was murdered. And you know exactly how that snake Claude did it.

Who are you? You could be Prince Hamlet from Shakespeare's tragic play. Or perhaps you are Edgar Sawtelle.

In David Wroblewski's new novel, "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle," 14-year-old Edgar lives on a farm where his parents breed, raise, and train dogs. The time and place are the 1970s in rural Wisconsin, but you'd barely know it. This coming-of-age story has a timelessness and otherworldliness that gives it the quality of a fable, or a fairytale--or a Shakespearean play.

This is "Hamlet" with dogs. You don't need to know Hamlet in order to love this book, but if you do, so much the better! Wroblewski doesn’t hide the Hamlet connection; his characters Claude (Claudius) and Trudie (Gertrude) put it right out there.

However, this book is not a mere Hamlet retread. Whereas Shakespeare’s prince never shuts up, Edgar is silent. Born mute, he cannot speak or even make a vocal sound. To express himself, he uses sign language or writes on paper. But he is particularly skilled at communicating with the dogs his family raises. A fictional breed, the Sawtelle dogs have extraordinary intelligence and intuition. The most beautiful passages in this book are told from the point of view of Almondine, Edgar’s own devoted dog.

Like "Hamlet," this book is rather long. But I found it hard to put down. The writing is gorgeous and the author is a master storyteller. Unlike "Hamlet," this novel is not a masterpiece. There are some unresolved story lines and some plot points just feel wrong. A lot of readers hate the ending, and I can see their point. But all in all, I loved "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle," and I say read it. Then let me know what you think about the ending.

During a time in America when no women, including African American women were encouraged to speak their minds, Lorraine Hansberry was chasing her dreams. She chased them, caught them and committed them to paper by writing one of the most poignant, endearing, and inspirational plays in American history. The time was the 1950's, and the name of play, A Raisin in the Sun was taken from a line of the Langston Hughes poem called:

Harlem

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over -
Like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
Like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?

You might say that Lorraine Hansberry's childhood was unique. Her parent's home was often visited by distinguished African Americans such as W.E.B. Dubois, Duke Ellington, Paul Robeson and the very famous poet above, Langston Hughes! Lorraine made it clear how influential Langston Hughes had been in her life by writing an entire play based on the ideas in his poem.

A Raisin in the Sun asks its audience to consider such themes as racial discrimination, assimilation, generation gaps and dreams. Every character in Lorraine's play has a dream. Walter wants to be a successful business owner, Beneatha, wants to be a doctor, Ruth wants a house for her family, and Mama just wants a garden to grow her little plant. By connecting her play to Hughes' poem Harlem, Lorraine asks her audience to consider what happens to a dream deferred? What happens when we put them off for another day? The poem is symbolic of the absolute urgency her characters feel to make their dreams a reality. In reading A Raisin in the Sun, we realize Lorraine is showing us that even though we may not see how, there is more than one way for a dream to come true, but like the characters in her play, the consequences of putting off your dreams could be dire!

I can understand why Lorraine was so impressed by Harlem. The imagery allows us to experience how different people might feel if they put off their dreams. The poem is saying that without our dreams, we may rot, we may fester. We may just shrivel up and die! Not one image suggests hope or encouragement. Dreams are delicate and fruitful until they ignored.

Lorraine faced a great amount of adversity in her life as an educated African America woman, and yet she became the first black female playwright to see her play on Broadway! And this was during the civil rights movement when blacks and women were still fighting for equal rights! It's understandable why dreams were such an important theme in her work and in her life. Lorraine read this poem by her father's famous friend and became forever inspired and forever committed to making her dreams come true. Thanks to her poetic muse, Lorraine's dreams were not deferred!

Make Lorraine Hansberry your muse and your inspiration to make your dreams come true! Or find a poem or book that lights your dreams on fire and write to inspire others! And don't forget to tell us about it!

In the Playwriting issue of READ, we excerpted our interview with Jonathan Dorf, author of Young Playwrights 101. Here is that interview in its entirety.

READ: When you start writing a play, do you have the whole story already figured out in your head? Or do you write and see what happens?
Dorf: I'm somewhere in between. I tend to work from a "concept," which in my case means that I have a sense of the characters, what they want and the conflict or "problem" of the play. Often, I'll have images for moments in the play, and a sense of how--or with what picture or "note" (I find it's helpful to think of plays as pieces of music)--I want the play to end. It's then a question of figuring out how we get there, which still leaves plenty of room for creativity and spontaneity, and it's possible that the play will change based on discoveries I make about the characters and their world as I write.

READ: Do you find that most of your characters are modeled after you and your own experiences?
Dorf: No. While some playwrights tend to put themselves in their plays--for example, Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill is autobiographical--I am definitely not one of them. To me, it's much more fun to invent a character than it is to recycle my own life and put it on stage. This isn't to say that I don't take moments, images or characters that I've witnessed and put them in my work. For example, there was an older, mentally disturbed man who used to rant what I always imagined was Shakespearean language outside Harvard Yard. He found his way into my play Ben as a woman named Lady Shakespeare. Of course, aside from his ravings, I didn't know the real person at all, so I created an entire life for the character that worked in the context of the play.
     Some people will tell you to "write what you know." But there are so many fascinating and wonderful things out there, and if we all could only write about what we have personally experienced, we'd be limited indeed. So I believe in writing what I can learn about. For that same play, Ben, having never been a homeless teenager like the play's main character, I observed life among the street kids in Harvard Square, read books about the subject and even spent a semester volunteering at a youth shelter. No, there's no sign of me in the play, but there is a playwright who did his homework before he started writing.

READ: What do you think is the main purpose of a play?
Dorf: Aristotle talked about the purpose of plays being to teach and, in doing so, to please. More than two thousand years later, I'd say he's still got the right idea. Good plays tell stories that ask questions that make us think about our own lives. Good plays don't give us the answers. I always cringe when I hear people talking about the "moral" or the "lesson" of the play, particularly when talking about plays for youth. To me, those aren't plays--they're lectures--and they don't sufficiently respect the intelligence of young people. For example, my play After Math, which is performed widely at schools, examines the disappearance of a boy from math class and the gradual discovery by those left behind that they had never really noticed him until he was gone. There's no stern lecture or a teacher who walks in and scolds everyone for not paying better attention, no prescription for how to treat your classmates or the other people in your world, just a whisper on the wind at the end of the play that perhaps we could have done better, "And if it's too late to be undone, what can we do for the next one?" It's much easier to start a discussion with a question than it is with an answer.

READ: How much do you leave to the audience's imagination and how much do you explicitly provide?
Dorf: I believe in giving an audience most of the sentence, figuratively speaking, and letting them finish it. If the playwright provides too much information--a big problem for beginning writers--particularly by having characters tell us everything that they're thinking and feeling, the play tends to feel too much like a therapy session, and the audience becomes passive; everything is laid out for you, and the play no longer demands your attention. We don't need to know everything that happened to the characters to get them to this moment, and keeping some secrets and mysteries in a play is a good way to make sure the audience stays engaged and wants to find out the answers. Also, since most theatres don't have enormous budgets, I try to write plays that can be staged minimally, without expensive sets. Whereas film usually tries to make the action seem as if it's really happening, the fact that plays take place on a stage means that audiences are already accepting the convention that things won't be exactly like real life. So why not let their imaginations do some work?

READ: What's your favorite play that you wrote and why? What's your favorite play by another playwright and why?
Dorf: I don't really have one favorite play of my own, as I have many that I enjoy for different reasons. For example, my play about bullying, Thank You for Flushing My Head in the Toilet and other rarely used expressions, has a seemingly frenetic pace and harnesses comedy to approach a serious issue, and yet suddenly the "Bluebird" monologue sneaks in and catches the audience off-guard--and then their experience becomes very different. War of the Buttons, inspired by the novel by Louis Pergaud, is set in a working-class American town where the main industry, an ice cream factory, has failed, and the town is plunged into ruin. But in the struggle of the town kids to fight off the incursion by a nearby prep school, there's a little magic amidst the ruin. My frustration with War of the Buttons is that the cast is mostly male--as was the novel--and so it doesn't get produced as much as it should. Plays like Shining Sea I love for the iconic images--for example, a Winnebago--it creates, whereas Yard Wars I love just because a one-man show about backyard wrestling is an awful lot of fun. Yes, the actor really does wrestle himself.
     It's just as hard to settle on only one play I love by another writer, when there are so many. Angels in America is amazing for its fearless imagination and vastness of scope, and I love how Kushner takes his fictional characters and then crashes them into a world littered with real historical characters and supernatural ones. I love Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee for its musicality, even in the twisted, vicious relationships that Albee creates. A play like Mother Hicks by Susan Zeder creates such a vivid picture of its Depression-era world, but in a way that is magical, with a compelling young protagonist and the equally compelling and mysterious Mother Hicks. I love Zeder's use of the chorus to give us a sense of the social milieu, with the ensemble adding to the already beautiful "music" of the play. And, of course, there are many plays by Shakespeare that I love, but more about that later.

READ: Why is conflict so important in plays?
Dorf: We watch plays to see characters struggle, to have some obstacle they must overcome. If there were no obstacle, there'd be no reason for the play to continue or even to exist in the first place. For example, if I need that bag of money sitting on the table to pay my rent and nobody's going to stop me from getting it, I can simply grab the bag and go pay my rent. But if another man needs that bag just as badly as I do, now we have a play.

READ: How much or how little has Shakespeare influenced you?
Dorf: Shakespeare has probably influenced most writers in one way or another. It may be the tight plotting of his comedies, or the unforgettable characters from his tragedies. References to his plays abound in literature and popular culture. What I appreciate most about the Bard is his amazing use of language, and interestingly enough, among my favorite plays are the histories. For example, Richard II, not nearly as famous as the Richard that came after him, has some of the most dazzling language. Among my favorite moments are Richard's lines when he learns that Henry Bolingbroke has taken up arms against him:

For every man that Bolingbroke hath press'd
To lift shrewd steel against our golden crown,
God for his Richard hath in heavenly pay
A glorious angel: then, if angels fight,
Weak men must fall, for heaven still guards the right.

Another favorite is when Bolingbroke, now Henry IV and speaking to the murderer Sir Pierce of Exton, after the murder of Richard at his bidding:

They love not poison that do poison need,
Nor do I thee: though I did wish him dead,
I hate the murderer, love him murdered.

That's powerful stuff, and it's no surprise that it endures to this day.

READ: What is your favorite thing about playwriting?
Dorf: For me, there's no better feeling than sitting in the back of a darkened theater and watching an audience watch one of my plays. Whether they laugh, cry or simply sit and take it in, that's why I write.

Last year, the literary world lost a great and profound writer. When Kurt Vonnegut passed away in April of 2007, my first thought was that we would never again be let into his weirdly beautiful disjointed worlds that mirror ours with broken images. But then, after some silent mourning, I began to realize... if any writer still exists post-mortem, it is Kurt Vonnegut. He is, in his own words, "unstuck in time".

READ magazine published a time travelling issue last year in which we adapted Vonnegut's classic novel, Slaughterhouse Five, into a Readers' Theater play. That was one of my favorite READ plays to work on. Besides that, I've read a lot of Vonnegut's novels but still have at least half of his library to enjoy. I'm very glad for that.

Happy Birthday to you, Kurt. I miss you now. But I will read you soon.

You are not a bug stuck in amber. :)

Today, we received the unexpected news that author Michael Crichton has died of cancer. In his 66 years, Crichton was a best-selling author, a filmmaker, and the creator of the TV show "ER."

Most of us best know him for the book Jurassic Park and its subsequent movies based on the novel. It is a sad day to get such news. And all we can do here at READ, is to thank Crichton for his fertile mind and wicked imagination that kept so many of us riveted to the page and screen. You did what authors should do--you brought great stories to life. We'll miss you.

Here ye, hear ye! (...not sure if it's "Hear" or "Here" so I'm using both. 99% sure it's "Hear" now that I think about it. Oh well, too late to change it.)

Today is election day. Some guy named McCain and some other guy named Obama both want to be president. Everyone likes one or the other, but here at READ, we like Poe.

WE LIKE POE! WE LIKE POE!

That's right, we like Poe. And in honor of Poe, we are celebrating his 200th birthday on January 19, 2009 with a brand new Weekly Reader web site. Have ya heard that you can be a part of it?

Get your video camera and film a special birthday tribute to the man who wrote such classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, Rambo, the entire last season of LOST, and much much more...

Wait... what?

Don't worry about it. All will be explained on January 19th. In the meantime, click here to visit our TeacherTube page where you can upload your video birthday wishes.

The winners will get their videos published on READ's Poe website as well as winning $100 million!

OK, well we'll give you $100 anyway.

HURRY! DEADLINE IS NOVEMBER 21!

Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe!

P.S. The video lies. It says "Upload your videos here", but really it means

UPLOAD YOUR VIDEOS HERE.

In celebration of all things spooky, READ welcomes you to a reading from the classic The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells. 

Written in 1896, this science fiction novel features a mad scientist who does ghastly experiments on live animals. In this passage from chapter 3, the main character Edward Prendick encounters one of Moreau's half-man half-beast creations. Listen to find out what happens next.

Beware, this monster puts up a fight.  

Today is Ursula K. LeGuin's birthday. Here at READ, we owe so much to authors like her, who continue to inspire us with great writing and give us hours of reading enjoyment.

Throughout her more than 40-year career,  LeGuin has written more children's books, novels, short stories, and poetry. She is well known for her Earthsea series of science fiction books.

We're also happy to point out that LeGuin has been a friend to Weekly Reader for a long time. About two years ago, she helped us out by being the guest judge for a student writing contest. LeGuin continually proves herself as a friend of young writers. Check out some of her tips.

Whatever you're doing today Ursula, we hope it's amazing--just like you are.

Yesterday was Edgar Allan Poe's death anniversary. Was it a coincidence that we posted our birthday video contest details on the same day? Actually, yes it was. It was a total coincidence.

At any rate, we have finally found a place for you to upload your electronic birthday wishes. CLICK HERE TO GO TO OUR YOUTUBE PAGE. There are contest details in the upper right corner of the page. Click on "more info" in our READ Magazine box.

Basically, if you're 18 or younger, and you have a video camera and some Poe sensibilities, create your heart out and dedicate your video to the master of macabre. He's turning 200 in January! And READ is creating an electronic experience in his honor. You could be a part of it!

Here is the video we created. You can also see it on our Youtube page (where we are accepting your video birthday tributes). 

Now it's your turn!

Create an electronic birthday card for Poe. You can make a video of one of his short stories or poems. You can get your whole class to throw a birthday party for him and send us the highlights. Or write an original script that features Poe as the main character. Send us the footage. Use your imagination! The opportunities are endless!

Upload your videos on our youtube page by clicking on "post a video response".

Any questions can be directed to word@weeklyreader.com. Just make sure to put "Poe Contest Question" in the subject. Or you can leave a comment below.

OK! Have fun! Can't wait to see what you come up with!

This week author Neil Gaiman released The Graveyard Book. Fans who flocked to see Gaiman at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. were treated to a sneak peek of this new book. With days before it hit stores, Gaiman read from The Graveyard Book and talked about how he found the idea for this book--and all his books.

"There's something in the swirl of existence when you stop and say 'That's a story.'" he said.

For The Graveyard Book, this moment of inspiration came for Gaiman about 23 years ago. He and his family had lived in a tall skinny house in England that had no yard for his young son to play in. So every day, Gaiman would carry his little son and a tricycle down long flights of stairs to the graveyard next door. His son would ride among the graves as Gaiman would let his imagination run wild. And this where he landed upon the idea to set a story in a graveyard where an orphan would learn secrets from the dead.

What seemed like an instant success, actually developed over years as Gaiman stopped and started the project many times.

"Every five or six years, I'd write a page of The Graveyard Book, look at it and think 'That's rubbish.'" Gaiman recalled.

Lucky for fans, Gaiman picked up his idea again six years ago and was determined to finish it.

"I decided I wasn't getting any better and decided it was time," he said.  

So now that The Graveyard Book is done and on bookstore shelves, Gaiman is touring across the country to promote it. Instead of the usual readings and signings, Gaiman has decided to take a different tact. Starting with chapter 1, on each stop of the tour Gaiman will be reading a complete chapter, city by city, until he has read the complete book aloud to fans. 

Maybe you can catch Neil Gaiman in your neighborhood. If not, you can settle with The Graveyard Book and read one very ghoulish story.  

In Issue 1, we advertised that we would post the complete interview with Esther Friesner on September 9... well, that was yesterday and we apologize that we got caught up with Tolstoy and just plumb forgot. In any event, here it is. Yay!

READ: In Nobody's Princess and its sequel, Nobody's Prize, you have taken the character Helen of Troy and written her both as a young girl and a maturing young woman. Out of all the characters in Greek mythology, why did you choose to explore Helen's back-story? What was your inspiration?
Esther Friesner: I've always been interested in the "untold stories" of fictional characters, especially those whose roles in their stories are one-dimensional. Just as some families label their children "The Cute One, The Good One, The Smart One, The Athletic One, some stories treat major characters in the same way.  That's a waste of a good character!
     In the myths, Helen was always The Beautiful One. She was seldom given the chance to act as a person. Things were done to her more than by her. When she’s barely out of childhood, Theseus abducts her because she’s that beautiful and her brothers rescue her. When it’s time for her to marry, her father decides how the arrangements will be made. When the goddess Aphrodite competes with Hera and Athena to win the golden apple inscribed "For the Fairest," Helen is the bribe she uses to sway the judge's choice. Helen is not treated like a human being with a personality or a will of her own, she's a Major Award.
     Helen deserved better than that. (Don't we all?) Isn't there more to the straight-A student than her grades? Does the rock star's life begin and end with music and fame? Is the successful businessperson nothing more than a fat bank account and a pile of expensive possessions? Why should being known for the ability to do one thing extremely well mean that there's nothing more to your life? It's not fair. It's also not healthy. What happens to the person who consents to being nothing more than The Athlete if the day comes when they can no longer play the game?
     I thought it was about time something was written in which Helen could do things for herself and to show that she was more than just The Beautiful One.  I believe it makes her much more interesting than her old role of Major Award, and I am very happy I had the opportunity to do it.

READ: What kind of research did you do in preparation for writing these novels?
Friesner: I've known the myths about Helen from childhood, but I double-checked the stories I remembered with books and online sources about Greek mythology. Did you know there were three different versions of the Quest for the Golden Fleece, including who was on the Argo? I also read lots of sources about Minoan-Mykenaean civilization. Helen of Troy is a myth, but even so, she belongs to this particular historical era. I wanted to put her in the proper setting. Well-illustrated books were a great help. It's always easier to describe something if you've seen it. For some things-like how she'd learn to ride a horse in a time when there were no stirrups-I asked friends with the first-hand experience and expertise I needed. I learned a lot!

READ: In your novels, Helen is always claiming to be someone else (oftentimes a boy) in order to train and go on adventures. Was it frustrating to have to keep writing her as a pretender?
Friesner: I'd sooner call Helen a problem-solver than a pretender. She aspired to do something more with her life than the narrow role her society allowed. The rules and barriers keeping her from her goals had no greater justification than "This is the way it is because this is the way it's always been." She didn't have the power to change the rules of that society, so she used her intelligence, resources and spirit to find a way to work around the barriers set in her way.
     I didn't find it frustrating at all to write about Helen's chosen path. It was as much of a challenge for me as for her, and I love challenges.      

READ: Oftentimes in your novels, you reveal ancient myths as mere exaggerations. For example, in Nobody's Prize, the character Herakles says that the Hydra was not a nine-headed monster serpent but rather just a "cluster of swamp snakes". What was your intention in questioning these classic myths?
Friesner: When you ask the right questions, you've got an excellent chance to make some wonderful discoveries. Many thought that the whole story of the Trojan War was nothing but myth, but 19th century amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann questioned the evidence and discovered that the walled city of Troy actually existed. People interested in the story of Atlantis have discovered that there well may be a true story behind that myth in the almost complete destruction of the ancient island civilization of Thera in the Mediterranean.

On the other side of the coin, if you realize that magnificent tales can be created from simple beginnings, perhaps some day you can create your own stories of great wonders. I'll be eager to read them. 
 
READ: How much of Helen's personality is your personality? What specific traits do you think she has that are yours?
Friesner: Like Helen, I don't like being told that I can't do something "just because."  If there's a good reason, let me hear it. Give me credit for having the intelligence to understand that reason, to question it if necessary, and to accept it if it does seem sensible and justified. This is especially true of situations where I'm told I can't accomplish something just because I'm female, or because "we've always done it this way." History is full of too many instances where those words have been used to justify great abuses of human rights.
     I'm also a bit like Helen in that we're both ready to speak up when something's bothering us instead of suffering in silence. (Suffering in silence? Now that's frustrating!)
     Finally, like Helen, I really don't like having to do needlework. Cooking, yes; needlework, no.

READ: Nobody's Prize seems to be a little darker than Nobody's Princess was. There are battles and casualties and even a random tragic accident that completely takes the reader by surprise. Did you feel the shifting difference of the two books as you were writing the second? Did it surprise you?
Friesner: Some of the darker events were inevitable, given the myths that were my source material, so I could not be completely surprised by them. On the other hand, part of the successful writing process is having your characters become independent personalities, so some of the events in any book will evolve from what such people would do naturally. If the writer tries to force characters into certain actions rather than guide them, the result will seem artificial and the reader will feel cheated.  I don't think it really matters whether or not I felt the shifting difference you mention, but only whether that difference made Nobody's Prize a satisfying experience for the reader.

READ: The Nobody's Princess excerpt we have in READ is the scene where Helen first confronts Glaucus and her brothers and demands to be allowed to train. Would you care to comment on this scene?
Friesner: As a reader and a viewer I've encountered my share of stories where the heroine (or hero) wants to achieve a goal and it simply happens. There are no obstacles to overcome, no one there to stand between her and the goal, just a flick of the switch and presto!  She's a warrior / wizard / athlete / superstar.  It's easy for the writer, but unless you still get a big kick out of watching a magician pull a rabbit out of a hat, it's not going to be very interesting for the reader.
     How the pampered princess acquires the skills to become something more, how she faces and counters whatever stands in her way-now that's interesting! It would have been much easier for me to have Helen declare, "I want to learn how to fight!" have her brothers say, "Great! Sure! Why not?" and have her beat both of them and Glaucus the first time she picks up a sword, but honestly, where's the fun in that?
     The writing process was one of posing a series of problems for the character and then finding a way for her to solve them in realistic and believable fashion. It's like planning a journey: You know where you're starting from and you know where you hope to go, but you've got to think about how you're going to get there and what complications might arise along the way. Then you've got to think about how you might deal with each one and, in case your first solution doesn't work, you've also got to come up with a Plan B. You might not get where you're heading easily, but you'll definitely have some great stories to tell your friends about the trip once you come home again.

READ: Your Helen is the young Helen. Then there is the other Helen of Troy-the face that launched a thousand ships and began the Trojan War. After the War was over and she was returned to King Menelaus, her story ends. Or does it? Is there more to her story there? Do you think you might write it someday?
Friesner: There is definitely more to Helen's story after the Trojan War. In addition to her appearance in The Odyssey, and there are plenty of mentions of her in the myths. One fascinating version of Helen's myth claims that she never went to Troy with Paris. When they left Sparta, they had to land in Egypt for supplies. The Pharaoh discovered that Paris was running away with another king's wife, so he kept Helen in Egypt and sent the Trojan prince away. Helen's husband didn't find out that his wife was in Egypt until after the Trojan War was over.
     For me to write about Helen's post-Trojan War life as a Young Adult novel would require a more age-appropriate point of view character than Helen, since by that time she would be a grown woman rather than a young girl. I'd be sorry to give up Helen's voice, but I'd enjoy the challenge of continuing her story.

READ: Who are some of your favorite writers? What do you like about them?
Friesner: This is going to be tough one to answer.  I have lots of favorites spread across the field, including everything from novels to poetry to graphic novels and manga! But I'll do my best to come up with a few.
     I love humor, so I have to count Terry Pratchett as one of my favorite writers.  His work doesn't just make you laugh, it makes you think. Then it makes you laugh again.   
     I'm still a big fan of the children's fantasy novels of Edward Eager, such as Half Magic, Magic By The Lake and especially Knight's Castle.  He knew how to write about children who were real people leading ordinary lives, which made it all the more wonderful when extraordinary, magical things happened to them.
     I love the way F. Scott Fitzgerald was able to capture the spirit of the Roaring Twenties, making me feel as if I'm not just reading a story but experiencing a different place and time.
     Rumiko Takahashi is one of my favorite manga writers and artists. Her storytelling range is fantastic, covering everything from romantic comedy to bone-chilling horror. And even though this will take us out of the realm of books, I have to mention Hayao Miyazaki for his marvelous storytelling vision in anime like Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro.  I truly admire the way he's not afraid to make a story sweet and heart-warming because he has the talent to do so without making it syrupy.   

READ: How long have you been a writer? Do you have any words of wisdom you would like to share with our young readers and writers?
Friesner: When I was three years old, my mother wrote down the first stories I wanted to tell.  I don't know if that counts as the starting point for my becoming a writer or not. I do know that as soon as I learned how to write, I used that ability for writing stories. Sometimes I even tried to illustrate them!  
     I thought about trying to have my stories and books published from the time I was in seventh grade, but it was long time before I met with success. One of my biggest mistakes was how I reacted to receiving rejection letters. I always took it personally, and as a result I would stop writing for at least a month after every rejection. Now I know better. A rejection letter doesn't mean the editor hates me. It might not even mean the editor hates my story. It just means that my story is not what that particular editor is looking to buy at that time. (But let's be honest: Sometimes it does mean that the editor hates my story. That's when I tell myself how lucky I am to live in a world with lots of other editors.) 
     My first professional sale as a writer of fiction was in 1983, to Asimov's science fiction magazine, and my first fantasy novel was published in 1985. I've been busy ever since, and I have always enjoyed writing. Which brings me to the word of wisdom you request for young readers and writers:

Love writing for itself. 
Write about the things that interest you and that mean something to you.

If you want to become a professional, published writer, understand that writing is both an art and a craft. It's not enough to write a good story. You also have to learn the basics of spelling, grammar, and manuscript preparation. Editors have to read a lot of submissions and they've only got one set of eyes apiece. Make it easy on them. 
     And why do editors have to read so many submissions? Because there are so many aspiring writers out there. Do not fear the competition. Someone's going to get published. It won't be you if you don't try.   
     Know that you're not going to get it right the first time, but that part of the pleasure of writing is learning how to get it right at last. Read a lot so that when you find a story that works for you--something that stirs your emotions, opens your mind, or transports you deep into the world of the story--you can observe how the writer achieved that effect and maybe learn how to do it in your own writing.
     Remember what I said about rejection letters? I'm going to say it again: They are not about you; they're about the story. The same goes for any other negative comments you might get about your writing. Listen to them and think about them. Decide for yourself if they're right (they might be!) and if you can learn things from them that will improve your stories. But again, do not take them personally.
     Finally, there's one piece of advice that we've all heard so many times from so many different sources that it's tempting to ignore it as worn-out, silly, naïve, and unrealistic. That's too bad, because it's old and overused, but it's still true:

Don't give up.

Hey, it works for me!

Happy Birthday Leo Tolstoy!

Who?

Well, Leo Tolstoy was this Russian dude who wrote this mammoth book called War and Peace. He wrote a lot of other stuff too but War and Peace was really his claim to fame. It's not really the kind of book that your English teacher would give you for homework. Let's just say that. However... if you are one of those super excelling, uber-achiever students that can't get enough literature, I think you will really meet your match with this one. Good luck!

In fact, Alicia, Audra, and I tried reading it last January. Some of us were more successful than others but none of us got past page 100. Which is to say, I suppose, that we all failed. :(

Well, we're not about to pick it up again right now, but if you can get through to page 101, you will have beaten us royally! And you know what? That's TOTALLY worth a prize of some sort!

A PRIZE?!?

Well, literature, in and of itself is its own reward. But in this case, I think we can make an exception. Here's the official rules of this nutty contest:

If you are a boy or girl between the ages of 10 and 16 and you can successfully get to page 101 of War and Peace AND ... here's the kicker ... email us any thoughts you have about the story up until this point in the novel, you will win a READ T-Shirt. Woo hoo! The T-shirts are pretty cool actually, I have one myself and wear it to work every day. Oh wait, these rules are supposed to be official. Right. Email your War & Peace thoughts and revelations to word@weeklyreader.com. Put "Tolstoy Challenge" in the subject line. If we get yours first and it makes some kind of coherent sense, the T-shirt is yours to flaunt in the faces of all your literary nemesis*... like this guy...

*Actually, the plural of nemesis is nemesises... but I hate that so I'm changing it. Don't tell Webster.

The following blog entry was written by Sarah Solomon, an intern here at READ.

When most people hear the word sonnet, they automatically think of William Shakespeare, and for good reason. However, the sonnet was around way before Shakespeare was born, and continued to be modernized after his death.

What makes sonnets different from other types of poetry is their distinct structure. Sonnets have a set number of lines and an organized rhyme scheme. However, there are different types of sonnets, such as the English sonnet, the Italian sonnet, and other variations.

Shakespeare usually wrote English sonnets, which have 14 lines and a rhyme scheme of:
[ABAB CDCD EFEF GG]
Each letter corresponds to the last word of each line. So the first and third lines will rhyme, the second and fourth lines will rhyme, etc.

But you have probably already seen many Shakespeare sonnets. Here are some other ones you might not have seen. Sir Thomas Wyatt was born in 1503, and wrote sonnets way before Shakespeare. Here is one, entitled "Farewell love and all thy laws forever"

Farewell, love, and all thy laws forever,
Thy baited hooks shall tangle me no more.
Senec and Plato call me from thy lore
To perfect wealth, my wit for to endeavor.
In blind error when I did persever,
Thy sharp repulse that pricketh aye so sore
Taught me in trifles that I set no store,
But scape forth, since liberty is lever.
Therefore, farewell, go trouble younger hearts,
And in me claim no more authority;
With idle youth go use thy property,
And thereon spend thy many brittle darts.
For hitherto though I have lost my time,
Me list no longer rotten boughs to climb.

— Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542)

This is an Italian sonnet. Though the rhyme scheme of an Italian sonnet is somewhat flexible, the first eight lines are
[ABBA ABBA]

More modern sonnets are a lot freer with their rhyme schemes, and the poems are not as structured overall as the more classical ones. Edna St. Vincent Millay lived from 1892 to 1950--not so long ago. Here is a sonnet she wrote, entitled "Only until this cigarette is ended"

Only until this cigarette is ended,
A little moment at the end of all,
While on the floor the quiet ashes fall,
And in the firelight to a lance extended,
Bizarrely with the jazzing music blended,
The broken shadow dances on the wall,
I will permit my memory to recall
The vision of you, by all my dreams attended.
And then adieu, -- farewell! -- the dream is done.
Yours is a face of which I can forget
The colour and the features, every one,
The words not ever, and the smiles not yet;
But in your day this moment is the sun
Upon a hill, after the sun has set.

—Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950)

There are other structural elements to sonnets, such as the literal structure of ideas (like an essay) and the rhythm of the words (enunciation). But that would be a whole other story.

Try writing your own sonnet!
It's harder than it looks!

The following blog entry was written by Sarah Solomon, an intern here at READ. 

Cast a cold eye

On life, on death.

Horseman, pass by!

 

This is the famous epitaph of William Butler Yeats, whose birthday would have been yesterday, June 13.

Poet and dramatist William Butler Yeats was an Anglo-Irishman born in Ireland in 1865. This means that he was in the Protestant ruling class in Ireland, as opposed to the Catholic lower class. In his early years he was very interested in mysticism and occultism, but later on his poetry became more realistic.

 

Most of his life, Yeats was in love with Maud Gonne, an Irish nationalist who did not return Yeats' feelings. Yeats was so desperate to be with her, he ended up proposing to her five times!

 

Yeats won the Nobel Prize in December of 1923. He is known as a symbolist poet, because most of his poetry uses symbols in order to create meaning.

 

He Wishes For the Cloths of Heaven

 - William Butler Yeats

 

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and the half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

 

 

The following blog entry was written by Sarah Solomon, an intern here at READ.

Today is Maurice Sendak's 80th birthday, so let's take some time to admire the illustrious illustrations he has done.

Maurice Sendak was born in Brooklyn on June 10th, 1928. As soon as he saw Fantasia by Walt Disney when he was 12 years old, he knew he wanted to become an illustrator.

He started illustrating other authors' children's books, and learned how to adjust his style of drawing to the other authors' writings. After a while he started writing and illustrating his own books. His two most famous works are Where the Wild Things Are (1963) and In the Night Kitchen (1970), both children's books.

Both of these books have a common theme. The protagonist, a young boy, is bored or fed up with his waking life so he travels to an imaginary place.

In Where the Wild Things Are, Max gets in trouble with his mom and is punished by being sent to his room with no supper. There his bedroom turns into a forest, and he travels to where the wild things are:

That very night in Max's room a forest grew
and grew-
and grew until his ceiling hung with vines
and the walls became the world all around
and on ocean tumbled by with a private boat for Max
and he sailed off through night and day
and in and out of weeks
and almost over a year
to where the wild things are.

In In The Night Kitchen, Mickey dreams that he is baked into a cake by three bakers and then flies a plane made out of bread dough to the top of a giant bottle of milk. Mickey is completely naked for most of the book, and because of that, In the Night Kitchen became the 25th most challenged book between 1990 and 2000 according to the American Library Association's "list of challenged and banned books".

Both of these books have distinct illustrations with ferocious colors and beautiful drawings. Check 'em out!

Where The Wild Things Are

 

In The Night Kitchen

The following blog entry was written by Sarah Solomon, an intern here at READ.

Poetry can be read for pleasure, but have you ever heard of poetry being used as punishment?

25 partygoers in Middlebury, Vermont hadn't heard of that either until they were signed up for a mandatory poetry session as punishment for breaking into Robert Frost's house at the Homer Noble Farm. Breaking into a famous poets’ house is usually not a good idea.

A 17-year-old employee of Middlebury College thought it would be fun to hang out at Robert Frost's house, so he decided to throw a party. Over 50 people showed up, and by the end of the party there was broken china, broken windows, and a chair tossed in the fireplace. The total damage to the house was estimated at $10,600. That's a lot of money!

As punishment for those who wished to wipe their criminal records clean, two sessions of "Frost Instruction" were administered, each lead by Jay Parini, a professor at Middlebury College.

Parini used Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" to teach the students a lesson. Parini said that in this poem, the speaker is deciding between making one of two choices. Parini believes that this applies directly to the students' behavior – each must make a choice as to how they want to live his or her life.

The Road Not Taken
  - Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Actually, this poem is often misread. Most people believe this poem to be about making the right choices in life. However, Frost's underlying meaning is significantly different.

In fact, the speaker in the poem is relating to the listener that the choice he made just so happened to lead him to where he is now, and if he had taken the other path he probably wouldn't have ended up so differently. In the last stanza the speaker is implying that one day in the future when he is telling his story, he will try to teach a lesson and say that the certain path he took made all the difference, even though he might not believe it.

Click here to read the CNN article on the Homer Noble Farm break in.

In a recent Animals issue of READ, we asked you what you thought about the play, Babylon's Ark. Here are a few 9th graders' responses from Bourgade Catholic High School in Phoenix, Ariz.

The Babylon's Ark story was harsh. What they did to the animals was mean and not healthy. The people trying to help them were very kind and respectful but the owner of the zoo didn't care.
     Animals should just be treated as humans. Be kind to them because they have a life too. They live on earth not just to be treated as a pet that you can kick around. They are here to bring life to us and joy, and they are friends.
     -- Jennifer Guzman

The animals are sick, hungry, and dehydrated. The Iraqis took over the zoo and they are making it a base. This was all caused by war. Now with the Iraqis out of the zoo there are people from the U.S. that are trying to help out the animals. They are having a tough time because most of the animals are really sick.
     I think that it is a great thing that people are helping out the animals at the zoo. Now with the troops helping them out there will be no more Iraqis able to enter the zoo and kill the remaining animals. I still think it is dangerous for the people at the zoo. They hear a lot of guns and one of those bullets can hit you and you can die.
     If it was my zoo I would have bulletproof walls and it would be blocked off so no Iraqis can come in and use it for a base. I would also put bombs where there are no animals because that is were the Iraqis would hide and it will blow them up.
     -- Blake Comella

If it was my zoo I would never abandon my animals. I would always care to them and make sure they are getting the same requirements as other zoos or better. So if someone tried to take over my zoo and turn it into a base. I would do everything in my power to stop them and make sure all the animals are safe.
     -- Vince Fielder

I would set a zoo up by, first hiring people that love animals and are not scared of them. Second, they have to be cheap And third, they have to know what there doing... if not, get out of here. I would set up some crazy electric fence so no animals can get out and no one can get in and steal any either. 
     -- Kristopher Verdugo

If I had a zoo I would separate the animals into groups and give the animals a theme I would pick the theme depending on the animal. I would keep the birds in one big cage so they can fly around. I would also have timers for the food so every three hours the food will fall on the floor.
     I would put the fish in a clear tank and make it look like the ocean, and I would also clean the tank every three days.
     I would clean the zoo every Sunday and clean the cages every day. I am going to give the animals a good meal and feed them lunch and dinner.
     I would hire trainers to train the animals so they can not attack the people. I would throw toys in the cages for the animals so they can play with them. I would give the animals a bath and dry them. I would also hire veterinarians to check the animals health, and make sure they have all there shots.
     -- A.J. Magdaleno

I started reading The Horse and the Boy this weekend. It is one of the seven books in The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. In the anthology I am reading, the order of the books is as follows: 1) The Magician's Nephew, 2) The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, 3) The Horse and His Boy, 4) Prince Caspian, 5) The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, 6) The Silver Chair, 7) The Last Battle. A little amazon.com research just told me that the publishers of this anthology put them in this order because it is chronological.

One Canadian reviewer named "Godly Gadfly" says on amazon.com: "The chronological order makes the books more strictly allegorical than they really were intended to be..."

Another reviewer, C.N. White from Raleigh, N.C. says: "...reading these books in chronological order spoils all of the surprise and magic out of the first visit to Narnia (in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe), because we already know what's going on. ... Things don't always need to be put in chronological order. If you're going to read them, please read them in the correct order: 1) The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, 2) Prince Caspian, 3) The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, 4) The Silver Chair, 5) The Horse and His Boy, 6) The Magician's Nephew, and 7) The Last Battle"

I was wondering why Hollywood skipped The Magican's Nephew and started with The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe! Now it makes sense! They were being smart! What a concept!

I wish I had known about this before I started reading these books. It's too late for me. If you have any intention of picking up the Narnia Anthology (and you should, it's great!), please heed the advice of these intelligent readers.

It's really a shame that the publisher chose to put the bookss in the wrong order in the anthology. Chronology isn't always the best way to do things.

Sidenote: I told my 2 year old nephew that I was reading a book where there are talking horses. He refused to believe me. "No!" he said. I assured him that it was true and he just shook his head and walked away.

Coming to WORD tomorrow: One class' reaction to Babylon's Ark, a Center Stage play in READ. Stay tuned...

It was announced last week that the final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be produced as not one but TWO blockbuster movies! That means that, including Book 6 we get three more Harry films! Yay!

Personally, I think this is a very smart idea. Deathly Hallows was one of the best books I have ever read and Hollywood's decision to make it a two-parter should give us a very clear, very detailed on-screen image to compliment our entire literary experience. I can't wait!

Film 6: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is set for theatrical release on November 21, 2008

Film 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part One is set for theatrical release (hopefully) the following November (2009)

And, assuming all goes well and "You-Know-Who" doeesn't wreck everything...

Film 8: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, Part Two will come out in May, 2010.

Friends, I do believe this deserves a "Boo" and a "Yah".

BOO YAH!

Here is a phony bologna movie trailer someone put together on Youtube. It shows a bunch of old Harry Potter movie clips but is still a good way to get you amped.

This is a very important question that I often ask people around me. Sure it's nice to get to know someone a little better, as shown by their choice of books. But really, I ask because I'm selfish. BECAUSE I always need something to read. And I like to go to people whose taste I trust. Just a few months ago, Audra gave me a good recommendation: Disgrace by JM Coetzee. Bryon and Deb once made me read The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon. All good recommendations!

And to tell you the truth, I really like to push my own agenda, too. I mean, I like to get people to read my favorite books. I made Bryon read The Poisonwood Bible and he got sucked into it. (Audra, Deb, Amy, what about you? I thought we all were going to bond over this book.)

Well, I just found a new way to get book suggestions and push, I mean recommend my own. It's goodreads.com, where all types of readers list, review, and recommend books. I feel that my reading possibilities have broadened more than I could ever think. And I get to count all the books I've read.

So far, I'm up to 140 that I remember. Here's to many more!

Happy Leap Year Everybody!

Well actually, it's leap year all year. I guess today is Leap Year Day? Can I get a ruling on this?

Anywho, by now you should have READ's special Time Travel issue in your classroom. It's weird because we worked on that in the past.... and now, here you are, in the present, reading it. Whoa. Cosmic man.

Well, how do you like it? Feel free to give your two cents by clicking COMMENTS below or emailing us at word@weeklyreader.com.

We have already received one observation from a very intelligent class at Holy Cross Lutheran School in Wichita, Kansas. Their teacher, Ms. Vanwey, writes

"My 7^th  graders were in a tiz concerning Time Will Tell! How did the author add together 24 and 25 to come up with 60 as the age Jon was when he came back to 2008."

Well, that's a very good question. Our math is all screwed up! When Jon Pacone returns to 2008, he should be 49, not 60! Our only sorry excuse is that we stink at math. But someone on our end definitely should have caught this oversight. All apologies to time travelers everywhere.

Also, the question was stated of whether or not Jon would have been living two different lives at once. The first being the first time he lived through those years, and the second being his return to the past self living those years. Hmm... well... you see... um... time travel is a very tricky thing involving lots of compound theories and... um... holy cow! Look! Quick! Behind you! There's a flying cow!

Moo.

Well, at least Billy Pilgrim can time travel with class.
So it goes.

The following interviews were conducted by Weekly Reader Senior Edition editor, Laura McClure.

 

This year’s Caldecott and Newbery medal winning books transport readers into the past. Newbery-winning book, Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village, by Laura Amy Schlitz, explores life in the Middle Ages. Caldecott-winning book The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick takes place in the early 1900s in France. Weekly Reader talked with both authors about their success stories. Here’s what they had to say:

 

Q&A with Brian Selznick
Weekly Reader: Which came first--the words or the illustrations?

Brian Selznick: It started just as a written story. … I thought maybe [there would be] one drawing a chapter or some spot illustrations. While I was working on the book, I started watching all these old movies and I thought it would be interesting to try to tell the story [with images] like an old movie.

 

WR: How long did it take to finish the book?

BS: I worked on the whole book for about 2 1/2 years, [including] a year to do sketches. … On a good day I could finish two complete drawings. I made them all one-quarter the size that you see in the book. … When you blow up a drawing, … it makes everything softer and lighter, like old movie stills.

 

WR: Do you see yourself in Hugo, the main character?

BS: I definitely do. … When I was a kid, I really loved to draw and to make things. Hugo is actually much better with his hands then I was as a kid. I remember being frustrated with what my hands couldn’t do.

 

WR: What advice do you have for aspiring authors or illustrators?

BS: The most important thing is to just write about or draw the things that really interest you. … A reader or someone looking at pictures very often can tell whether or not the person making the thing loved it and was really interested in it.

 

Q&A with Laura Amy Schlitz

Weekly Reader: What inspired you to write this book of monologues and dialogues?

Laura Amy Schlitz: The children [at the school where I am a librarian] study the middle ages. … They give their imaginations to it and I wanted them to have a dramatic piece [to perform] so I wrote those short plays, those monologues for them and they’ve been performing them for many years now.

 

This book shows the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Middle Ages. Why did you decide to show all aspects?

I think when you know about the Middle Ages, you can’t help realizing what a dangerous and difficult time that was. … Suppose it’s winter and you get your feet wet. You don’t have another pair of shoes. If you get frostbite, you’ll go lame. … Those are facts [of life in the Middle Ages], but it doesn’t follow that the people were all miserable. They also had hope and good days and aspirations.

 

What do you hope readers take away from this book?

I would like to think that readers can imagine that time, but I think what I want most is for readers to be able to have the excitement of pretending to be somebody else. The thrill of performing the pieces in front  of the audience—I want the readers to get the applause.

 

What are you working on now?

I’m working on a chapter book now, I’m on chapter 29 but I don’t yet know the end, I don’t know how far am I from the end and I’m just trusting that the end exists somewhere and that I will find it.

Why, hello there, fellow WORDians. How's everyone doing? Did you catch American Idol last night? I was mostly in and out of the room when it was on, but I did manage to catch that guy with the dreadlocks. He's totally my favorite right now, and it's not just because I think he's adorable. Which is he. But anyway...

With all this Idol watching, I'll admit, I haven't been able to make it to the library in awhile. Actually, I can't just blame my predilection for cheesy reality shows taking up all my time. (Although American Idol is the number one show in the country, so while you're scoffing at me for admitting I watch the show, percentage-wise, I think it's safe to assume that at least some of you watch it as well.) I also haven't been to the library in awhile because I usually end up at a bookstore and buy my books. However, this is an expensive habit, especially since I usually read the books I buy once, and then put them on a shelf and never look at them again. (Except for when I read them over and over.)

I should go to the library more. But apparently libraries are a little different than they used to be. That's right. They're not just for borrowing books anymore. Or even for borrowing cds and dvds. They're for playing video games.

That's not a typo.

Video games!

A library in Michigan has started hosting video game parties! Can you believe it? I used to get shushed for whispering a little too loudly while working on a research paper with a buddy. And now kids are playing video games there!

I guess anything that can draw people into the library is a good thing--but what about the serious readers? I don't think I'd be able to do research or sit in a corner with a good book if people were playing Guitar Hero or Dance Dance Revolution next to me.

What do you think? Do you go to the library for the books, or for the social experience?

Yesterday was February 1st. Oh hey! I guess that means today is Groundhog Day! Cool! Does anyone know if he saw his shadow?

But that's not what I came here to talk about today. Please bear with me. I'm easily distracted. Oh look, a puppy!

Um.

I finished reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy yesterday. I have nothing good to say about it except that it won the Pulitzer... so I guess someone somewhere must have liked it. Wherever you are, I'd really like to have a conversation with you. I just don't understand what you were thinking. Maybe it's just me?

Moving right along...

Last night I started the mammoth experience that is Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. I'm not going to lie. I was scared. I've been looking forward to this since I got the new translation for Christmas... but I've also been dreading it. I don't want to be the guy in the Challenge that says, "Um, yeah, I quit." And besides that, I also don't want to be the guy who misses out on this classic literature because of some weak notion that "it's too hard. Wah." Oh stop it.

I cracked open the book around 9:00 last night. Gingerly, I turned the first few pages. I stared at the title page for a good minute or so, thinking to myself: "After you turn this page, Bry, there's no turning back." Hmm... well maybe it wasn't as dramatic as all that after all. But the title page was very pretty and yes, even inviting.

The next few pages flew by pretty easily as well. The copyright information, and Table of Contents were a breeze. No sweat! Bring it Tolstoy!

Then came the introduction...

"If the world could write by itself, it would write like Tolstoy."
    -- Isaac Babel

Nice! What a flattering quote! What else?

I kept reading. (Incidentally, the introduction was written by the translator, Richard Pevear.)

"War and Peace is the most famous and at the same time the most daunting of Russian novels..."  oh boy ... "as vast as Russia itself and as long to cross from one end to the other. Yet if one makes the journey, the sights seen and the people met on the way mark one's life forever."

Ahh. My fellow WORD enthusiasts, can I just tell you what a breath of fresh air this was? No, not that. What am I trying to say? ... These first words, found here in the introduction, gave me not only a sense of hope and excitement for the next 1200+ pages, it also brought me directly out of my nervous funk and into the world of this sweeping Russian literature.

The rest of the introduction talked about Tolstoy as a man. Who he was and how he wrote. I'll save this for future bloggy posts as I can see this one is getting a little long and I want to tell you about the beginning of Volume One, Part One.

That's right. You heard me. VOLUME ONE. This book is so massive, it has actual Volumes. Ha! You gotta love it!

I read the first 25 pages of Volume One, Part One last night. I was surprised at how much fun it was! Seriously surprised! At first, I had a little trouble with the character names and the French... oh yes, the characters in this part anyway, speak some French and the translations are in footnotes at the bottom of the page. Sheesh! You get used to that too though.

Rather than go on and tell you the story so far, I'll just say that I am now over my fears and look forward to this great read. It's probably one of the toughest books I have ever tackled. But every once and again you have to challenge yourself. In literature and in life. OK, that was cheesy. I'm just inspired and excited, that's all. And I'm going to go read some more now.

How you doin, Alicia and Audra??

Word.

I was just thinking. (Yes, I tend to do that occasionally. But don't worry, it doesn't happen too frequently.) Have you ever read a book more than once? And not just twice, or even three times, but so many times that the binding is all cracked and the pages are in danger of falling out and you could probably recite it line for line?

I'm asking because right now I'm re-reading Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding for about the zillionth time. (I've also read Bridget Jones's Diary a zillion times as well. The first one is better, but Edge of Reason has its charm.) It's partially because I haven't had a chance to go to the book store in awhile, and partially because if I don't have something to read on the train I'll fall asleep and miss my stop and not be able to come in and blog for all of you, and I don't want all of you crying. I just can't handle that pressure! But anyway, I'm mostly re-reading it for the zillionth time because, well, I love it. I do. I know every joke, and I cry at the same parts every time. But I still love it. And I never get bored reading it.

It's a really weird phenomenon.

Seriously, right? I mean, I'm sure you all have read a book multiple times, and it didn't bring you any less pleasure. Maybe, if you were older when you read it again, you were able to appreciate it on a different level. Maybe it brings you comfort. Of maybe it's just an awesome book. But it's weird, because I don't think there's any other type of medium where this can be replicated.

Movies can be watched multiple times and still be enjoyable, but I feel like you need more time in between each viewing. If not, it gets a little tedious.

TV shows definitely can't be watched multiple times. For example, I love the show Lost (which starts again today, by the way, and I'm so excited!), and yesterday, last year's season finale was on. Now, I tried to watch it to get pumped for today. But, after just a few minutes, I had to turn it off. Not even Josh Holloway could keep my attention. I would much rather have been reading my book!

Now, if a hottie like Josh Holloway cannot keep my attention on a second viewing, well, then that gets my attention. It just goes to show you how much pleasure you can get from a favorite book.

So, what's your favorite book that you've read ten bajillion times? What do you like about it? Are you excited for Lost? We can compare our theories tomorrow.

I finished reading An Arsonist's Guide To Writers Homes In New England. It was good. I wasn't thrilled with the ending though. You know how no matter how much you dislike a protagonist, you still have to root for him/her? Well this is one of those books that really pushes your likability limit. I kept wanting to grab the main character and shake him, screaming, "What's wrong with you? Why don't you just tell your wife the truth?"

Well ok then, so now what? The great War & Peace challenge doesn't start til February 1. Seeing that I can't wait that long to read another book, I started reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy last night. So far it's about a post-apocalyptic world. A boy and his father are walking down a road. Woo Hoo. It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2007. After reading the first 50 pages, I can't for the life of me see why. I'm hoping it gets better. I think I heard somewhere that there are cannibals in it.

Shrug. I'll have to get back to you.

Word.

Well, we've been talking about doing this for a couple weeks now. I guess you've gone and made it official and there's no backing out, eh? Well alrighty then. I'm in. Looking forward to it. I don't really know what we're getting ourselves into here... but it should be interesting.

I too got the new translation of War and Peace for Christmas. This is probably the best way to do it: a friendly race amongst bloggers. Let's help each other through it. And NO CLIFF NOTES! Hee hee.

February 1st it is...

Word.

Oh Alicia, what have you done?

This is one of the books on my list of "Oh Em Gee, I better not die in a tragic accident before I get a chance to read this book." It is also on my list of "Hm, I can't take that on the subway," and "Wow, this heavy book doesn't fit in my clutch." But, despite the fashion dilemma it poses, I am up for the challenge. I have a mad love affair with the Russians and it's about time I took this book head-on. Richard Pevear is a brilliant translator and did a wonderful job with another of my favorite Russian books, The Master and Margarita.

BTW: Here's a one line summary of War and Peace, for those of you who don't mind a plot spoiler.

 

Within the 1,296 pages of War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy wrote these words, "The strongest of all warriors are these two, "Time and Patience." I don't know where this quote exists within the 1,296 pages, but I'm going to find out. And I'm feeling like Mr. Tolstoy was thinking of his future readers when he wrote this quote.

He's right. I'm going to need Time and Patience--and lots of it--to get through this book. Tolstoy forgot one other thing: superior arm strength. I have the massive tome in my hands as we speak. It's heavy. It's bulky. It's bigger than my cat.

So why do I want to do this? Well I wanted to test my literary muscles. It's been so long since I've read anything even nearly this long. And with the buzz about the new translation of War and Peace by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, I found my challenge. Plus, my sister got me the book for Christmas.

All I need now is a little Time and ... (you know). It's going to be hard now that I have a full plate of work, school, etc. etc. etc. I really question whether I can do it. (Thoughtful pause)

Wait, (thoughtful pause over) I have an idea. This is great. I have just the incentive I need. A race to finish War and Peace!

OK, calling my fellow bloggers, Bryon, Audra, Deb, and Jess! Who's in? Come on I dare you!

Check back soon to see whom the contestants and terms of the race will be. For now, I'm going to rest my arm.

Say it isn't so.

In the saddest news since Barbie left Ken, today it was announced that one of comic books' most beloved couples, Peter Parker and Mary Jane are breaking up.

No!

I wonder what went wrong in the relationship. Did Spidey leave his webs all over the house? Was MJ just not as exciting as she used to be?

It's so sad when fictional characters break up. (And no, that's not sarcasm.) Even though they aren't real, people are invested in these relationships, and it's kind of sort of, well, heartbreaking. When people are little, they imagine what their significant other will be like, and often hope the story will be like one of their favorite literary romances. Or maybe that's just me? Well anyway ...

There are so many great couples in literature and comics. Superman and Lois Lane. There's everyone's classic choice, Romeo and Juliet. (Although I do hope you take the romance figuratively, in the sense that they do everything in their power to be together and that love is the only thing that matters. The whole "both people end up dead and everything ends in tragedy" thing is a little much for a real-life romance.) There's Scarlett and Rhett from Gone With the Wind. Oh, and Jennifer Cavalleri and Oliver Barrett IV from Love Story. (Although that romance ends in tragedy as well.) The list goes on and on.

My favorite literary couple is Bridget Jones and Mark Darcy from Bridget Jones's Diary. (Actually, they're just a modern version of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, which is also a super-romantic couple.) And no, I don't just love them because Colin Firth plays Mark in the movie and he's completely gorgeous. (Although that doesn't hurt.) It's just that Mark comes to her rescue and is always there for her and you just know that he really loves her ... swoon.

Anyway, what are some of your favorite literary couples, and why do you like them? What do you think of the breakup of Peter Parker and Mary Jane? And are you just as upset as I am that a fictional couple just broke up? I really thought those crazy kids could make it work. Well, if you'll excuse me, I think I need to eat a pint of ice cream and blast some Alanis Morissette ...

We all know plagiarism is bad. And since this is a reading and writing blog, plagiarism probably ranks up there with murder in terms of evilness. OK, maybe not murder. But it is bad. And according to some, Jessica Seinfeld, wife of Jerry, allegedly plagiarized her cookbook Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food. And she's being compared to assassins.

Allegedly (We must be sure not to assign blame until it is proven one way or the other. After all, I certainly cannot afford to get sued. Especially by someone with pockets as deep as Seinfeld.), the book was eerily similar to The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids' Favorite Meals by Missy Chase Lapine.

Did she do it? I don't know. Both cookbooks involve finding ways to get kids to eat healthy. Both came out around the same time. Both have really, really, really long names. (I mean seriously, the cookbook names sound like the titles of emo songs or something. Come on Fall Out Boy, "Get Busy Living Or Get Busy Dying (Do Your Part To Save The Scene And Stop Going To Shows)" is too long for the name of a song! But I digress.) But is it plagiarism?

Maybe it's just a coincidence. The world is fraught with similar products. Look at Coke and Pepsi. Or ... other things that are similar, which I can't seem to think of right now. But there are plenty.

If Mrs. Seinfeld did in fact plagiarize the idea, she should be punished, and not just because she's rich and I'm jealous. (Although I am.) Plagiarism is bad. We've established this already. I don't know if I would say it's as bad as being an assassin. Well a literal assassin anyway. Wait a minute. If you're a plagiarist, aren't you technically a literal assassin, because you're killing something literary? OK, that's a stretch, I know, but I totally just blew my mind with that.

Well anyway, has anyone actually seen these two cookbooks? Are they that similar? Would you eat your vegetables if they were hidden in something delicious? I would probably end up picking them out and hiding them in the couch cushions or something, but that's just me. Anyway, don't plagiarize, kids!

That's weird that you mentioned that story yesterday, Jessica. Well, not too weird because it's news. But let me tell you why it's at least a little strange...

I just started reading this book called An Arsonists's Guide To Writers' Homes in New England. Now before anyone gets worried about my mental health, let me say that it is a work of fiction by Brock Clarke (author of Ordinary White Boy). So far, it's quite good. It's about this dude who burned down the Emily Dickinson house in Amherst, killed two people (accidentally? I don't know yet), went to jail for ten years, got out, married, and had a couple kids before the "real trouble started". That's where I am now. Chapter Two. It only seems like a lot of stuff was packed into Chapter One because it was. That's all. But it worked. I like Clarke's voice. He seems to have biting shades of Chuck Palahniuk (arthor of Fight Club, Haunted, and more).

So the weirdness was that you wrote about true-to-life deviant vandals at Frost's house while I was reading about an imaginary dude burning down Dickinson's.

Fire and ice. Heh. Word.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
-from "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost

Well, apparently Mr. Frost wasn't the only one who took a road less traveled.

According to a story on CNN, teens broke into the poet's house. (Don't worry, he wasn't harmed. He wasn't even there, because, well, he's been dead since 1963.) The vandals had a crazy house party, and they destroyed everything in the historic landmark.

How could they do that? Don't they have any respect for the four-time Pulitzer Prize winner? I know I do. I don't care much for poetry. (With the exception of Shel Silverstein, because he's awesome. I mean, seriously. I dare you to read The Giving Tree without shedding a tear. Go on, I can wait.) But even I quote from "The Road Not Taken." It's such a meaningful, thought-provoking, insightful ... excuse me, I'm getting a little ver clempt. (That means "choked up," bubbala.)

I'm sure if you haven't heard of "The Road Not Taken," you've read--and quoted, maybe without even realizing--other poems by Frost. How about "Nothing Gold Can Stay"? You totally have. And if not, tell your teachers you should be reading some Frost. At best you'll get some brownie points for wanting to learn more about poetry and a great American poet, and you'll enrich your brain. At worst ... well, no. There's no "at worst."

But back to the matter at hand, how could those vandals do such a thing? Maybe we should give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they didn't know it was Frost's house. But still ... I say it's unforgivable!

And when the vandals get caught--which they will--it will be, ahem, poetic justice.

The following blog entry was written by Meredith Matthews, the editor of Current Health magazine.

Spend Your Holidays in Persepolis
Not Persepolis the place--an ancient city from the Persian Empire. I'm talking about Persepolis the movie, based on the graphic novels of the same name (it opens on December 25). The book's author, Marjane Satrapi, co-directed the film adaptation.

 

I was lucky enough to see an advance screening, along with a WORD alumnus, Sandhya. I hope I can put into words how terrific an experience it was!

You should know that I am a huge Persepolis fan. I've given the books to friends for birthdays and giddily got Satrapi’s autograph when she spoke at a local university last year. (Her French accent is so lovely!) I even own a copy of her picture book, Monsters Are Afraid of the Moon. (It's not as visceral or funny as the Persepolis books, but Satrapi's illustrations are just as pleasing.)

So I was worried about the big-screen version being a disappointment. I should have known better, though. As the co-director, Satrapi kept careful control; after all, Persepolis is her memoir, so naturally she'd want to make sure the film reflected her true self. In press notes handed out at the screening, she says that she received all kinds of pitches from Hollywood about adapting the book--including "a Beverly Hills, 90210–type TV show and a movie featuring Jennifer Lopez as my mother and Brad Pitt as my father." Yikes!

 

There was nothing I didn't like in the film that actually got made--well, OK, Sandhya and I agreed it ran a little long, but that's to be expected. After all, Persepolis follows Satrapi from age 9 to age 24, during which she lived through a political revolution, an eight-year-long war, and journeyed from Iran to Austria and back before finally emigrating to France. Also, like the book, the first portion spends a good deal of time explaining Iran's recent political history and how it affected Satrapi's family. (I thought the movie did a good job of making this information understandable; when I first picked up the book, it took me a few re-reads to get everything clear.)

 

From the opening title sequence, with its gently cascading flowers and stars, the film was a truly wonderful visual experience. It is animated but not cartoony because the animation was done the old-fashioned way, not using computer-generated images like, say, the upcoming Alvin and the Chipmunks. Everything is in black-and-white, just like the books, except the present-day scenes. The graphics, which in the book are powerful for their simplicity, become even more dynamic when motion is added to them! (The war sequences and "Eye of the Tiger" scene in particular bring the story to life.)

One thing I didn't expect when I stepped into the screening room was just how much the addition of sound would bring to the narrative. When bombs crashed or punk bands blared, I felt the story in a way that I wasn't able to when I just held a two-dimensional image in my hands. And it was interesting to actually hear the characters speak. Granted, they spoke French, which I don't (thank goodness for subtitles). But since French is the language Satrapi's been fluent in ever since she studied at the Lycée Français in Tehran as a girl, it felt authentic to her experience. (An English-language version is apparently in the works, but I actually enjoyed seeing it in French.)

I was pleased that the movie didn't stray very far from the books. A few threads were condensed just for timing, I assume; for example, when a young Satrapi sees the aftermath of a bombing, she is horrified (and the audience along with her). But the film leaves out some backstory, so viewers don't realize that one of Satrapi's friends is among the victims. The cuts--like details about her ever-changing living arrangements in Vienna, or about her art-school project--didn't affect the story much at all, and I didn't really miss them.

Sandhya and I stayed through the closing credits and left the theater elated and inspired. I actually am hoping to see the movie again, it was so much fun, and well worth the price of a ticket. If you've never read the Persepolis books, you’ll want to after seeing this eye-opening and entertaining film. And if, like me, you're a Satrapi devotee, I think you will be very happy with the way her story comes across on the silver screen.

If you go to see Persepolis, check back in with WORD and let us know what you think. And have you read any of the other books that are being turned into movies? (The Golden Compass? I Am Legend? The Mist? The Water Horse?) How well do you think these stories survived the translation to film?

Editor's Note: Look for an excerpt of Persepolis in READ magazine this March!

I went to see Beowulf in IMAX a couple weeks ago. It was ... well, it was big, that's for sure. This Hollywood blockbuster is very true to the original story all the way up to the part where it completely veers. It's like, pretend you're driving down a highway behind a tractor trailer and you're thinking to yourself, "That tractor trailer is doing exactly everything it should. The driver of that big rig is very good at what he does." And then all of a sudden, the tractor trailer plunges headfirst into a volcano. "That's odd," you think, "I don't remember there being a volcano here."

Yeah well, that's Hollywood for ya.

Beowulf is the classic tale of a hero, the likes of which the world has never seen. This guy is sheer muscle and brawn. When the gods look down on him, they think, "Why can't I be more like Beowulf?" That's not in the story, I'm just saying. Beowulf is pretty much the toughest dude you'll ever meet.

One day, this monster named Grendel goes and kills and eats a whole bunch of Danish King Hrothgar's men in the great hall of Heorot. These scenes are violent and bloody and, let's face it, pretty cool. Grendel is a terror that, it seems, no man or army of men can defeat. Heh. Not so fast...

Enter Beowulf, a hero from Geatland. He brings a small army with him over the seas to come and fight the beast. Beowulf is pretty much pride incarnate. If anyone was every a glory hound, Beowulf is it. He wants all the glory of all the world. And, it's no lie to say, he's also very full of himself. That's ok though, he has the resume to prove it. All his life, Beowulf has been killing monsters. Grendel, he assumes, will just be one more notch on his belt.

When he fights Grendel, Beowulf chooses to do so without weapons or armor. In fact, um, he, ehhh, kind of fights the monster wearing nothing but his birthday suit. Yikes.

Anywho, Grendel is just the beginning. After Bewoulf and Grendel have their massive fight, Beowulf has to go and meet, um, Angelina Jolie.

Yeah. Angelina Jolie plays Grendel's mother. And this is where the movie takes a turn for the bizarre. If you're looking for literary accuracy, walk out of the theater now because the film is about to drive itself right into a volcano.

It's cool though. It's entertaining. It's animation. It's Beowulf... kinda.

All told, I enjoyed the movie a lot. It was packed with plenty of action and gore and heaven knows I love me a good literary adaptation. Even if it is a little off the mark at times.

I highly recommend you see this movie in IMAX. Don't wait for the DVD to come out. The IMAX experience is killer. And you'll be missing out on some beautiful scenes if you do wait. IMAX has a way of taking you over. There's one scene in particular, where a hawk snatches up a rodent and flies off away from Heorot. The flight goes on for a few minutes and you start to feel as if you are the rodent trapped in it's claws. Neat-o.

If you have yet to read the original Beowulf, we have a three part Reader's Theater adaption of it here. Knock yourself out. It's really quite good. One of our freelance writers, Wim Coleman, did a fantastic job adapting it.

Oh, and just for a taste of what to expect at the movie, here is a preview. Enjoy.

Fantasy aficionados, rejoice! Because those of you who have felt a void in your hearts after all the Lord of the Rings movies and Harry Potter books were done with, your prayers have been answered. Peter Jackson, the director of all three Lord of the Rings, has just signed on to produce The Hobbit.

In case you don't know (and maybe you shouldn't call yourself a fantasy fan if you don't), The Hobbit is a book by J. R. R. Tolkien, who wrote The Lord of the Rings.

So, are you excited about a return to Middle Earth? Do you think this movie is going to be awesome? And if you read The Hobbit or the Lord of the Rings books, can you fill me in on what happens? Sadly, I've never read any of them. I did sit through the first Lord of the Rings movie, but I must admit, it was under much duress. I'm not a huge fanasy fan (although I did enjoy the Orlando Bloom aspect of the movie). OK, well then, let's get some comments that we all [read: I] can understand. Who would you cast in this movie?

Well, we asked you before what you would pay to get your hands on J.K. Rowling's new book The Tales of Beedle the Bard. And no, you wouldn't be able to wait for this book to go into the bookstore bargain bins [side note--yay for alliteration!] and you wouldn't be able to get it for free at the library. There were only seven copies of this book that were published. What would you pay? $19.95? A hundred? A million?

How about $4 million?

Yup, that's right. That's how much the book was auctioned off for. Wow, too steep for my blood. (Unless my boss wants to give me a raise. Crickets. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? No? Didn't think so.)

The money raised at the auction goes to The Children's Voice, which is a charity set up by Rowling. I guess that softens the blow, well a bit anyway. It still would have been cool to read The Tales of Beedle the Bard--and to have a spare $4 million lying around. Ah well.

So now that you don't have to worry about saving up for the book, what are you going to spend your hard-earned cash on? (OK, don't tell me you're going to buy Guitar Hero 3, even though that game does sound awesome. What books are you going to spend your hard-earned cash on?)

As I suspect none of you are as into the chick lit genre as I am, how about Artemis Fowl? A bunch of you who have posted comments on WORD reccomended it, and I trust you guys. I've never read the series myself, but a quick Wikipedia search says that it's a fantasy series with a style similar to Rowling's. So there you go.

So, what's on your book wish list? Should I check out Artemis Fowl? And are you still bitter about not being able to read The Tales of Beedle the Bard? I know I am. The only thing that would make me feel better is a brand new book. Or Guitar Hero 3. No, no. A new book is better. Definitely the book.

The following blog entry was written by Sarah Chassé, a copy editor of READ, Writing, and a whole bunch of other Weekly Reader magazines.

Quick--think of the last five movies you've seen. Were any of them based on a book? It seems like every hit novel gets made into a film these days. Need I mention the Harry Potter movies? The Chronicles of Narnia series? Bridge to Terabithia? Charlotte's Web? Even epic poems like Beowulf are getting the Hollywood treatment. Are the people who make movies running out of ideas or what?

But don't get me wrong; I love seeing my favorite books come to life on the big screen. So this past weekend I saw The Golden Compass, starring Nicole Kidman and talented young newcomer Dakota Blue Richards. The fantasy flick is based on the first book of a trilogy by British writer Philip Pullman.

If you've read the Harry Potter books, you'll recognize a few familiar themes in the pages of The Golden Compass. The main character, a young girl named Lyra, is an orphan destined for great things. Like, oh, helping to save the universe. And like Harry, she lives in a world full of adventure, danger, and magic.

In Lyra's reality, every person's soul lives outside his or her body in the form of an animal-shaped daemon (pronounced like demon). I know. You're thinking, "Huh!?" But I swear, it starts to seem normal after you've been reading for a while. Lyra and her shape-shifting daemon, Pan, battle the sinister Mrs. Coulter, who is part of a government plot to kidnap children to the Arctic and conduct terrible experiments on them. Along the way, Lyra is helped by wise witches, warrior polar bears, and a mysterious golden compass given to her by her uncle.

And that little summary is just the half of it. Or maybe just the quarter of it? I can't possibly fit all of the action and intrigue from the book into this blog entry. And you know what? It didn't quite fit into a two-hour movie, either. Important plot points felt rushed and confusing in the film. But then again, two ferocious, talking polar bears fighting to the death was more exciting with swelling music and deafening snarls than it was on the page. The movie was worth my $10, but the first thing I said when the lights came up was something you've probably heard before: "The book was better!"

Why do you think books are often better than movies? What books would you love to see made into a film? What books would you hate to see made into a film? Have you ever liked a movie better than the book it was based on? Am I asking too many questions? OK, just one more: What literary smash do you think will be the next Hollywood blockbuster?

I'll admit it: I'm not a huge comic book fan. I just never got into going to a comic store and digging through the racks. I wouldn't even know where to begin! It's a shame, because comic books and graphic novels and the like are a great medium. They're probably one of the more influential types of stories today. However, most of my knowledge of comic book characters come from the movies. And, while I was Batgirl for Halloween this year, it was more because they had the costume in my size than because of any love for the character. In fact, I didn't even know her secret identity! (A collegue just informed me that Batgirl's idenity is Barbara Gordon, Commissionor Gordon's daughter. You learn something new every day!)

But now Marvel Comics are putting their issues online. For a fee, you can read all about the adventures of the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four, and all of the other loveable mutants and heroes. This is pretty cool, at least in my opinion. I mean, I would never be able to track down issue number 4 where Spidey's suit is the wrong color (totally made that up, by the way, I have no idea what color Spiderman's suit is in issue 4), but if it's online, maybe I would look it up. I like when things are easy and accessible. And then I can read up on all the crazy backstories that are probably awesome. Plus, it would give me something else to do at work ... clearly, for research purposes only, of course.

So, how do you like your comic books? Would you read them online, or is part of the joy getting the ink stains all over your skin/putting Silly Putty on the frames to pull up the image? (Do people even still do that anymore? Wow, suddenly I feel old.) What comic books have you read lately? Who's your favorite superhero and why? And who do you think is superior, Batman or Superman? My vote is for Superman. Without his utility belt, Batman would be nothing.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Boys and girls!

Children of all ages!

READ Magazine is proud to present...

THE ONE...

THE ONLY...

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE!!!

(See this is where you applaud madly and scream with glee.)

Click here for Willie's goodness.

Ladies and Gentlemen...

Please, remain calm.

Mr. Shakespeare has been delayed.

He will be here on Monday. Well not HERE... but here.

Please do not panic.

The time is near.

He is coming...

Recently, we got a hold of Joyce Carol Oates and asked her one question. We could have asked her more but, for some reason, we only asked her one. Hmm... that was probably pretty stupid of us. OK, well, we'll have to find her again sometime soon. But for now, we only have the one thing.

Ms. Oates, as you may know, is the author of such books as Freaky Green Eyes, Big Mouth and Ugly Girl, and most recently, The Gravedigger's Daughter. We asked her what her favorite Shakespeare play is. Shakespeare, as you may know, was a playwright who wrote such works as Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Die Hard 4: Die Hard With Avengeance. Well, the first two anyway.

Ms. Oates responded thusly: 

My favorite of Shakespeare's tragedies is King Lear, which I have read and re-read numerous times. It is a great, demanding, profoundly moving work, with fairy-tale origins; its vision of evil, and of the power of "good" to transform evil, is searing.

Searing? Yes. Powerful? Yes. Hungry? No thanks, I had a nice lunch before.

Why are we talking about William Shakespeare? I dunno. I think the better question is: Why aren't you talking about William Shakespeare?

Think about it!

Then come back and check with us here on Friday. We've got something for you.

Ooh! Presents! Yayyyyyy!!!!!!!

Tis the season...
WORD

In the current issue of READ (November 16, 2007), we feature a story by Cynthia Leitich Smith as well as an abridged interview with the author. Here is that interview in it's entirety, without commercial interruption.

READ: What was your inspiration for your story "A Real-Live Blond Cherokee and his Equally Annoyed Soul-Mate" (featured in the current issue of READ)?

Cynthia Leitich Smith: There's sort of a running joke in Indian Country about non-Indians who want to be Indians (or at least their idea of what it means to be an Indian) saying they have Cherokee grandmothers. However, the Cherokees are quite numerous. Many of them really do have Cherokee grandmothers. Biracial kids are common, and this is nothing new.
     Mixed bloods also look like...well, however we look. Whatever the DNA cocktail produces. I have predictably olive-toned skin and dark brown hair and eyes. But I have cousins who're sandy blonds. (We're tribally enrolled Creek, not Cherokee, but the principle holds).
     All of this is to say, there are real-live blond Cherokees, who no doubt may be at times unfairly greeted with some skepticism about their heritage. A friend of mine from college fell into this category, and put mildly, she found it annoying.

READ: Jason, the Blond Cherokee, seems very angry through most of your story. Did you face a lot of the same ignorance amongst your schoolmates growing up as he did?

Smith: Not really. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, kids--especially mixed race kids--tended to be quiet about our heritage when among the larger population. This was before the idea of celebrating culture really took off. My best friends knew that I was Native, but probably most people at my high school just thought I had a great tan.
     There were moments, though. I remember racist remarks flying on a team bus when it passed Haskell Indian College in Lawrence. I had a boyfriend tell me his father would never forgive him for going out with an Indian girl. An occasional friend would make a remark in passing, not realizing how deeply it struck.
     That said, adolescence is hard for everyone. Kids who were gay or overweight or had serious skin problems were probably treated a lot worse at my high school.

READ: "Blond Cherokee" deals with a teenager struggling to find his identity as a Cherokee Indian living in modern American society. Lots of this story deals with appearances and assumptions. It seems apparent that his blondness complicates his ability to connect to his heritage, or complicates people's perception of his heritage. To what degree do you think that looking the part helps you gain acceptance by other Indians? How important is to "look" Indian to be accepted as one by the outside world?

Smith: Jason strikes me as secure with who he is. Among other Indian people, there's an understanding of the huge diversity. We're talking about thousands of Native Nations in the Americas--different cultures, religions, languages, histories, socio-economics, levels of education, urban, rural, reservation, tribal town, and so on. Generally speaking, people are accepting. For the most part, you aren't presenting yourself "cold" either; you're a tribally enrolled member or from a family-community with a certain history and relationships.
     That said, some folks in the the wider society have the most stubborn stereotypes about us. I'm not sure why. I suspect Hollywood is partly to blame. Maybe some vague sense of ancestral guilt.
     But what happens in the story isn't directed racism. The frat guys aren't "playing Indian" to attack Jason per se. They don't realize that's an aspect of his identity. But the fact that they feel so casual and comfortable with their behavior, that they'd act that way in public, and that it doesn't occur to them that there would be a Native person in the room says a lot about their awareness and where they're coming from.

READ: What makes someone a part of the tribe? Blood relations? Being culturally integrated into tribal society? Both? Neither? Do you think it is difficult for American Indians who aren't surrounded with other people from their tribe to stay attached to their tribal culture?

Smith: The legal answer to that question is that it varies from tribe to tribe. As sovereign nations, they set their own criteria, but yes, ethnic heritage is a universal component.
     As for the "heart" aspects of the question, I've never lived anywhere that there wasn't an intertribal population. I've connected with Native communities in college towns, cities, etc. The Internet also has been a godsend. I'm on an email listserv for members of my tribe. This isn't to suggest people don't go home whenever they can, but we're a people of the 21st century and we've been one of the greatest survival stories by virtue of our ability to adapt.

READ: Jason refers to Nika at first as "Little Miss Gentrification." Is it safe to say that he's making a good deal of assumptions about her when he says so?

Smith: Yes, definitely, Jason makes many assumptions. I wanted to do a story about stereotypes and expectations, especially those associated with Native people, but Jason is nobody's victim. If anything, he's more guilty in this particular scenario than anyone else and has to come to terms with it quickly.

READ: You write both fantasy and Native American stories. Which do you like better, why? Do the two genres ever meet in your writing?

Smith: I love aspects of each, but it's more the difference between writing realistic fiction versus fantasy than writing stories set in a particular kind of community. With fantasy, I can be much more extreme in the stakes, for example, because of the mitigating power of the metaphor. What they both have in common, though, is that for the majority of readers, they're coming to my world as outsiders. I have to provide enough of a foundation for the story and its context to make sense to them.

READ: At the 2007 National Book Festival, you said that "Reading time counts as writing time." Can you elaborate on that for our readers?

Smith: As you read, you become aware of the norms of a genre, the structure of story, the success (or lack thereof) of various devices. What's so wonderful about it is that you can go to the masters, the classics, and the best of those writing today. On the Gothic fantasy front, I can read Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) and M. T. Anderson's Thirsty (1997) and wonder and study and learn. Within the world of Native literature, N. Scott Momaday and Joseph Bruchac have provided texts of inspiration.

READ: I loved the story that you told at the Book Festival about how you talk to your characters (in writing) in preparation for a story. What kind of conversations do you have with your characters when you are trying to figure out who they are?

Smith: Thank you. The key questions I ask my characters are: What do you think you want, and what do you really want? Once you know that about a protagonist, much of the story falls into place. I also ask characters about their fears, their weaknesses, what makes them laugh. I dive into the minutia--how they wear their hair, the smell that reminds them of their grandfather's funeral, why they sometimes want to dance in the rain.

To dance in the rain with Cynthia Leitich Smith, visit her web site. To order READ, the only middle school/high school literary magazine in the world that features "A Real-Live Blond Cherokee and his Equally Annoyed Soul Mate" in its November 16, 2007 issue, visit our web store.

Last year, READ adapted L.M. Montgomery's classic novel Anne of Green Gables into a Reader's Theater play (if you would like a copy, email us at read@weeklyreader.com).

For some reason, the story has been on my mind lately. So I decided to rent the movie. I just got finished watching it. Hey, I never said I was cool. Anyway, enjoy this fun video some other way un-cool person made on youtube. Then go to the library and get yourself a copy of the book.

P.S. The Cure rulz too.

Look. We get it. You're an amazing writer. You've inspired billions of children to become interested in reading. You've given us a literary icon for the ages. But come on, J. K. Rowling, isn't it enough already?

Apparently not.

The Harry Potter author is back and writing. This time, it's a collection of fairy stories called "The Tales of Beetle the Bard." But here's the kicker: only seven copies will be published.

That's right. Seven. Do you know how many copies of the different Harry Potter books were sold? I don't know either, but it was was more than seven. Like seven plus multiple millions. So it's likely that you won't get to read it.

One copy of the work is going to be auctioned off, and the others are going to be given as gifts.

Now that's just greedy.

J. K. Rowling, if you insist on writing instead of relaxing (I envision her diving into her millions of dollars ala Scrooge McDuck), at least have the decency to share your work with the rest of us. Now you're just showing off! Not that I'm bitter or anything.

Is anyone out there interested in reading the new work from Rowling? And what would you pay to get your hands on "The Tales of Beetle the Bard"?

I'd like to report a crime.

Not a murder or anything. No, no. Nothing like that. But a crime against decency.

Have you read Gone With the Wind? If you haven't, you should. It is only the greatest book ever! No lie. The. Greatest. Book. Ever. It's about a million pages long, but it's got romance and drama and passion. The story of a ... OK, I don't even want to spoil it for you if you haven't read it. You just have to read it. It's that good. Even if you haven't read it, or seen the amazing movie, I'm sure you can quote from it. Ever said, "As God as my witness, I'll never be hungry again"? You have, don't deny it. 

In the 90's someone felt it was necessary to write a sequel, called Scarlett. This was not the greatest book ever. It probably wasn't even the greatest book of the week. Scarlett told what happened to Scarlett O'Hara after everything that happened in the first book.

Meh.

I mean, yeah, I read it because I loved GWTW. But it was completely unnecessary. It wasn't even by the same author, because, well, Margaret Mitchell, GWTW's author, was dead. For almost 50 years. But I digress.

So, after we thought we could all put this Scarlett mess behind us and just enjoy GWTW, they have to go and do it again. According to an article on CNN, Daniel McCaig, a former advertising copywriter turned Virginian sheep herder and supposed Civil War "expert" wrote another sequel (really prequel, actually, really none of those things, I don't know). This time it's from Rhett's point of view, and it's called, obviously, Rhett. Rhett Butler is Scarlett O'Hara's love ... never mind. Read GWTW if you don't know who Rhett Butler is.

I am not happy.

I'm sure it'll be decent. And I'm sure I'll read it. But why? Why? Why take away even more from GWTW?

Well, fiddle-dee-dee!

Are you excited for this book? Do you like reading stories from other characters' points of view?

Or are you like me, and when you heard of this you just thought, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a ..."

Christopher Paolini's publishing company, Knopf Children's announced today that the third book in his Inheritance series will be released on September 23, 2008. So that gives you a little under 11 months to read Eragon and Eldest if you haven't already done so.

"I plotted out the Inheritance series as a trilogy nine years ago, when I was fifteen." Paolini told the press. "At that time, I never imagined I'd write all three books, much less that they would be published. When I finally delved into Book Three, it soon became obvious that the remainder of the story was far too big to fit in one volume. Having spent so long thinking about the series as a trilogy, it was difficult for me to realize that, in order to be true to my characters and to address all of the plot points and unanswered questions Eragon and Eldest raised, I needed to split the end of the series into two books."

I guess that means we can look forward to four complete novels in this famous Dragon series. What's that called? A quadology?

The following book review was written by Miss Erin, Grade 11.

How many young adult fantasies have you read with a fairy as the protagonist? Stop and think a moment. Having some trouble, aren't you?

That's what makes Faeries of Dreamdark different from any other fairy story. The main character is a fairy. She's a young (in human years, that is), spirited lassie named Magpie Windwitch. The ensnaring and destruction of devils is her trade ... devils that clumsy humans are (unknowingly) setting free from captivity. When a dark, mysterious creature - that might not even be a devil - enters Dreamdark, Magpie and her crow friends really have cause for worry. And fear.

For some reason, this book strongly reminded me of the Redwall series. It had the same feel to it as those stories. It took me a little while to get into the book, but once I did I became totally immersed. From the halfway point to the end in particular, I had a hard time setting the book down ... it was so exciting and good! Faeries of Dreamdark is humorous and thoughtful, and it has a unique kind of magical style to it. From its funny parts to its sad parts, it's obvious that Laini Taylor is quite the powerful storyteller. Despite the slowish beginning, I would highly recommend this book. I had loads of fun with it. Bring on the sequel!

Being October, there's really only one thing worth talking about, and that is postseason baseball. However, being that the Yankees choked for like the third year in a row, I really don't have much to say. Grr.

The Red Sox are currently tied in the bottom of the 9th against the Indians in Game 2 of the American League Championship series. I say, Grr again, sir. The only reason for me to watch is with a hope that they do not make it to the World Series. But I digress...

The point of this bloggy (or at least the point we try to make) has not a whole lot to do with sports and everything to do with reading; which is why, at this late hour I am reminded of last night's game, and of Mr. Stephen King.

King was at the game last night. He's a die hard Boston Red Sox fan. But for some odd reason, he wasn't paying much attention to the action on the field. During the 4th inning, his team had the bases loaded. Everyone at Fenway was on their feet cheering, thumping, eager for a hit. Everyone, that is, save for King. You see, King was reading. That, my friends, is devotion to the written word.

The odd moment was captured by the video cameras and a broadcaster subsequently, went into the stands and interviewed King. It turns out that he was reading a book called The Ghost, by Robert Harris. The book isn't even out yet. However, King was devouring it while the Red Sox continued to plow their way toward a win (Boston took Game 1 by a score of 10-3, Grr).

What does all this mean? Is it any wonder King likes to read? Come on. Be serious. Anyone who has woven 5 sentences together to tell a story knows that the more you read, the better your writing becomes. And the Master of Horror probably knows it better than anyone.

There has been some talk already about King's devotion to the Red Sox (or lack thereof). I don't put much stock in it. The man is obviously a huge fan. But he's also a bibliophile. He's addicted to words as much as he is to baseball. Personally, I think it's cool that he can marry his two passions. Granted, the whole scene could have just been a setup to promote Harris's book. So what? When's the last time you saw a television advertisement for a book anyway? Think about it...

Anyway, it's 1:00 a.m. and the Sox and Indians are still tied in Game 2 (11th inning). I think I'll sign off now before the inevitable game-winning, clutch homer by Papi. Sigh. Does that guy ever not save the day? Harrumph. Maybe I'll just go read something.

Word.

Dim the lights and cue the dramatic music.

Tonight ... on The Great Book Publishing Challenge ... we'll decide which novel will be published. Will it be the romance? The mystery? The western? Your votes decide. So, who will be ... the next great American novelist?

Does this sound like a reality show you'd watch? It might sound silly, but some publishers are running American Idol-style competitions to publish books. An article on NPR talked about how a social networking site ran this competition, and it actually found very talented people to get published.

I think it's great that people are getting excited about writing. And this is definitely a way to get your foot in the door of the publishing world.

But I wonder what the "audition" round would be. Instead of wannabe singers screeching "Unchained Melody," would it be wannabe writers sitting in front of a computer, staring at a blank screen? Would it be a video clip of a person stuffing his manuscript into an envelope and getting a paper cut? (Ouch!)

Would you enter a contest like this? You know what, I think I would. Of all the reality shows out there, this seems like it would be the one with the least amount of humiliation. No eating pigs' brains, no vying for the love of a washed-up 80's singer, no singing. And the chance to become a published author. Sounds pretty good to me.

If you entered this contest, what would you submit? A poem? A short story? Your biography? Hey ... wait a minute. No need to even enter a contest. [Shameless plug alert] You can be published on this very blog! Yay! Go on and e-mail your masterpiece to word@weeklyreader.com.

Jessica, out!

Spotlight fades to black as credits scroll over the screen.

OK so yes, I've been slacking. If you're an avid reader of the bloggy, then I apologize. Sorry Deb. Ha!

Anywho, to quickly recap, the National Book Festival was held last Saturday, September 29 on the National Mall in our nation's capitol. And it was cool.

Terry Pratchett is a very funny speaker. He's an author of science fiction and fantasy novels and is probably most famous for his Discworld series. Admittedly, I have never read him. Sad, I know. But after hearing him speak and guffawing (that's right, guffawing... look it up) over almost everything he shared with us, I would be out of my mind not to pick him up soon. Here, allow me to share a few of Mr. Pratchett's anecdotes from the day...

"People come up to me all the time and say, 'You know Mr. Pratchett, your books mean so much to me. They get me through bad times.' Well, they get me through bad times, too!" - Pratchett on surviving trials of life through the power of writing.

"Adult books give you money. Children's books give you prestige." - Pratchett on balancing a writer's soul against balancing his checkbook.

"This Book Festival has all sorts of writers that come up here with their note cards and share with you their ideas... They're all very smart writers! Whereas I just sit there in front of a keyboard until my eyes bleed." - Pratchett on his own personal writing pains.

"The way to describe a character in your writing is through mannerisms... not dialogue and not by writing pages and pages of description. Character back stories tend to occur on their own accord. For me, I think about my characters long and hard for a very long time and eventually, they just come out." - Pratchett on intimate relationships with one's characters.

When the Q&A portion came around, one fan asked him if he had any sort of writing process. Pratchett answered, "Yes. I absolutely must have oxygen." The audience laughed, of course, and then he got serious. "No, but you write when you can," he said. "You write against a wall or in a phone booth if you have to. Wherever and whenever you can. ... Although I do have one daily ritual I should tell you about. When I first sit down to write, I feel overwhelming panic. But it eventually goes away."

The National Book Festival was full of such words of wisdom and laughter. Readers got their fill of their favorite authors, live and in-person (isn't that the same thing?). To learn more about the many great writers and artists that were in attendance, check out the web site. Or better yet... see you there next year.

As I mentioned previously, I attended the National Book Festival in Washington D.C. this past Saturday. Authors were everywhere and it was all I could do to keep a professional air about me.

First up was Patricia MacLachlan. Ms. MacLachlan is the author of the 1986 Newbery Medal winning novel, Sarah Plain and Tall. Have you read it? Because I am very sorry to say that I have not. Could you please tell me how great it is without ruining the plot for me? Email your thoughts on the book to word@weeklyreader.com. Or just leave a comment below.

Anywho, Ms. MacLachlan stepped up to the microphone and started to tell us about the time she received a letter from an 8 year old boy. It read:

Dear Ms. MacLachlan,
   Thank you for writing Sarah, Plain and Tall. It is the second best book ever!"

"Sadly, I never found out what the first best book ever was." She told her laughing audience.

"As a child," she went on, "I would invent imaginary friends and characters for myself. ... I see there are a lot of children here today and I just want to tell you that you are living the lives right now that you will write about later on in life."

Ms. MacLachlan seemed very relaxed throughout her talk. She told us about how she sometimes finds it really really hard to write. In fact, sometimes she hates writing! "I don't always know how to write plot," she said. "What is plot? Seriously. What is it? Plot is hard!"

Admitting you don't know where a story comes from is the first step to recovery, I suppose. The second step, in this author's mind, is keeping her ears open.

"One evening, I was eating dinner with my family and my daughter wouldn't touch her food. I asked her why and she said, 'Because the broccoli is moving on my plate.'" Awww. How cute is that? Good enough to write a short story about. Yeehaw! Inspiration, thy name is child.

"Life is mysterious. You never know what's going to happen." Ms. MacLachlan wrote her latest book, Edward's Eyes, for her mother, who has Alzheimer's disease. In it, she included a great many characters from her mother's life (friends, loved ones, etc.) in order to help her remember. What a story, huh? I want to read it just for that truth.

When the Q&A portion came around, Ms. MacLachlan was asked by one of her youngest fans, "How do you stay focused as a writer?" She replied, "Well, it takes me a long time just thinking about a book. Sometimes I think about a book for a year or more before I even begin writing it. Oh, and I play a lot of computer solitaire."

Still more to come from the 2007 National Book Festival.

Stay tuned...

Before you get started reading this entry, you should click here to read a general overview of the YPulse Tween Mashup.

Both Deavon and Seth commented on Tuesday's blog entry. Neither of them quite understood what the word "tween" means. Sorry guys, my fault for not being clear. A tween is basically a young person that falls between the age of 10 and 13. It can be quite a confusing time in life. Tweens aren't kids anymore but they aren't quite teenagers either. They want to be soooo bad though. And in an effort to grow up too fast, tweens sometimes start acting older than their age even though they might not really know the mistakes they are making as they make them. It's OK to make mistakes. Everyone does. That's how you learn. Just don't run the race so fast! You'll miss all the good stuff.

GOOD STUFF GOOD STUFF GOOD STUFF!

Heh. Nice transition. As if.

I learned about quite a few things at the YPulse Tween Mashup last Friday. First and foremost was that I never really knew the extent to how drastically times have changed. When I was a tween... well first of all, the word "tween" didn't exist when I was a tween but whatever. As I was saying, when I was a tween, my friends and I certainly had our distractions, our games, our fun. But we never could have fathomed all the myspaces and youtubes and AIMs of the future. When I was a tween, I had this clunky Garfield phone in my room. Looking at the picture now makes me both nostalgic and, admittedly, a little angry actually. You see, the handset there in Garfield's back? Well, when you pick it up and put it to your ear, there's this big button that sits there next to your mouth. All you have to do is breathe on it just a little too forcefully and Garfield hangs up on you. End of conversation. Sorry friend. Call back later when the Internet comes to town.

Well we all know that the internet (or internerd as I like to call it) is here to stay now. Everyone is so wired these days! It's almost impossible to remember a time when "www" simply meant... well it didn't mean anything. I'm losing track here. Why don't I just chill out and tell you about Kiki.

Nope, not even trying for transitions anymore.

I learned about Kiki magazine at (where else?) the YPulse Tween Mashup. Kiki is the magazine "for girls with style and substance". If you're a tween or early teen girl, you want this magazine. It's full of wise fashion sensibility, tips for better health, book reviews, and even nifty projects you can take on yourself!

You know, there's a lot of magazines and websites and clothing stores and music and media and T.V. and celebrities and all sorts of nonsense telling you who you should be. The masses and the advertisers shout, "Britney is cool! Be like Britney!" And lots of people do exactly what they are told. But Kiki is one of the few entities that doesn't tell you who you should be. Kiki asks you who you want to be. And then they try to tailor their pages to suit your needs. I had a chance to meet Jaime, Kiki's founder and editor at the Mashup. She's a very nice woman with two tween daughters herself. She started the magazine with their, and your, best interests in mind. To learn more about Kiki, or ask Jaime a question, click here.

And while we're on the subject of being a girl, something I'm sure I know nothing about, you can also check out Beinggirl.com. It's a website "for girls, by girls" that answers all your questions about, well, anything girl related, and that includes slumber parties! Click the image to the left to read more. (How do they get it to blink? Wild.)

In Beinggirl's own words, "Girls have fun. Girls have opinions. Girls have a lot of questions about stuff like PMS, dating, their bodies and even serious subjects like addiction and abuse – just about anything you can think of that has to do with being a girl."

Don't look at me. I'm just here to give you literary news. But definitely check out Beinggirl.com if you seek answers.

Let's see, what else is in the news?

Just stop it. Your transition ship has sailed long ago...

Well that's just fine and dandy cuz I think it's getting a little too tired in here to write anymore now anyway. But we'll be back soon, from the front lines of the YPulse Tween Mashup... or not... At any rate, I have a funny feeling that WORD's gonna be in DC again tomorrow though.

Stay tuned...

I think that Sarah Moffet said it best in a comment here:

This weekend I visited the Twilight Zone. It was supposed to be the National Book Festival, but I must have made a wrong turn off Constitution Avenue. Instead of stumbling onto a somber, sparsely attended book fair, I found the Mall overtaken by the masses, who were beaten back from overrunning authors by platoons of Junior League members. Even more terrifying were the forty-people-deep lines for the vegetarian vendors (and believe me, half the people in those lines were not vegetarians), rivaled only by the wait to purchase books in the sales tents. People, everywhere, were carrying armfuls, bags, and strollers of books.

America reads. Who knew?

Yes folks, Sarah is talking about the National Book Festival. It's that one, special time of year when writers travel from all corners of the world and all walks of life to converge under large, outdoor tents with the sole purpose of speaking to their captivated audiences about the power of the written word. Well, and to promote their latest works, too. Let's be honest. :)

The 7th annual National Book Festival took place in Washington, DC this past Saturday. It was brought to you by first lady of these United States, Laura Bush, the Library of Congress, and Dr. Billington, the Librarian of Congress. Don't tell me you've never heard of the Library of Congress? Well, they're only just the BIGGEST library in the country! Here to preserve information and help promote literacy throughout our great nation, the Library of Congress is akin to... well... the mother ship of all Dewey's Decimals. But don't just take my word for it, here's what they have to say about themselves on their website:

"The Library's mission is to make its resources available and useful to the Congress and the American people and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations."

Boo yah! Word. And so forth... At any rate, they're a really big deal.

This was WORD's second year in attendance and let me tell you, we were thrilled. To be able to sit on the outskirts of a book and listen to the person responsible for it is something no silly blog entry can relate to you. Who's your favorite author? Have you ever seen him/her in person? No? Oh, you simply must! Keep your eyes open for when they're coming to your town. Most authors have websites these days. You can track them down like the hungry bibliophile that you are. Just... be careful of psychotic tendencies. Please.

At any rate, WORD was there. It was a gorgeous late September day and the authors were in bloom. Mystery writers, biographers, fantasy word smiths, illustrators, poets, historians, young adult novelists, and plot maestros of all genres got up on stage, one by one, and spread their good words out to us--to all of us eager readers, who would love for nothing more than a good book to curl up with (and maybe a wasted cliche to spot every once in awhile just to say, "Hey! I got my eye on you... writer!").

You see, writers in general are an unpredictable brood. You never know when a writer is going to say something profound... or flake out. Public speaking is not always a writer's forte. But in this case, you're not going to show up to the National Book Festival and give a half-hearted shpeel like, "Well, duh, I dunno why I write books. I guess it's because I like... you know... like to uhhh, write... or something."

Oh no no no. These heavy hitters are the real deal. And later this week, you will see for yourself what I mean.

Stay tuned...

In the meantime though, you can check out last year's coverage of the 2006 National Book Festival by clicking here and/or here.

OR!!! ...

You can check out the National Book Festival Young Readers' Online Toolkit! Yah! Totally! Do that! Do that right now by clicking here!  

This past Friday I was in New York. The city. Ask me if the brights are light. Go on? ... Well they are.

The YPulse Tween Mashup was held at the Jacob Javits Center. If you've never been there, it's this big, long building that houses, among many other things, the Book Expo America.

YPulse is this whole other web site out there in www land. It's also a finger on a pulse (the name is not accidental). It is dedicated to understanding what makes tweens tick. Cuz as it turns out... you're quite an interesting bunch. :)

Hosted by Anastasia Goodstein (YPulse's puppet-master and author of Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online), the event was a mix of old school practices and the wave of the future. There's a whole lot of both out there. You probably don't remember this, but there was a time long ago when there were no computers. There were no cell phones or emails. No iPods or earmuffs. Nah, I'm just kidding. The world has always had earmuffs.

Here's a question for you: Which do you prefer?
a) texting your friends
b) emailing your friends
c) talking on your cell
d) writing a letter in longhand scripture using a quill and ink before having to walk all around the house searching everywhere for an envelope and a stamp and then having to, after all that work, walk to the mail box or the post office and mail the thing

No! It's a serious question! Leave a comment below. Tell us a, b, c, or d... and tell us why.

But that's what the Mashup was all about. It was a bunch of old folks sitting around in a room, scratching their heads and saying, "Um. Does anyone understand tweens? ... Hello? ... lil' help?"

So have you ever heard the word "tween" before? Maybe sometime 'tween lunch and dinner? Well, it's nothing to be afraid of. It's not a label or a brand name. It's just a way of classifying. Like Gen X or horseshoe burns on a bull's... no, I kid. Here's what the Urban Dictionary has to say about it:

Tween: A word that is used by marketers to describe youths between the ages of 10-13. Although some believe that tweens are actually between the ages of 10-15. Despite the fact that tweens have always existed, marketers continue to lay claim to discovering them. ... No one discovered the tweens.

Ha! Right on. Embrace your 'tween-dom while you have it, friends.

So as a tween, what are your favorite web sites? Keep in mind, this is not a ploy. If you say, "WORD", you will not get a free tee shirt (although we will be flattered). Just curious is all. Tell you what though, if you write up just a few paragraphs about your favorite web site, we just might post your writing here. Put "favorite web site" in the subject line of an email and send it to word@weeklyreader.com. Make sure and tell us why you love it!

YPulse: It's a neat thing. In this day and age, we're all wired. The old and the young alike. We might as well have some dialogue about this cyberspace place... right?

What's up?

Later this week: More from the YPulse Tween Mashup...

Coming this week to a bloggy near you...

Coverage of the YPulse Tween Mashup in New York City

AND

Coverage of the National Book Festival in Washington, DC

Stay tuned...

Authors are people. They have lives outside their novels. (Just like teachers have lives outside their classrooms. I didn't believe this when I was in elementary school, but now that some of my friends are teachers, I guess I have to accept this fact.) Sometimes, authors' lives are actually more interesting than what they write about. Take, for example, calculus text book writers. Joking.

According to an article on CNN, some famous authors had really bizarre lives, and deaths. For example, Sherwood Anderson, a famous short story writer, died from swallowing a toothpick that was hidden in an hors d'oeuvre.

O. Henry, the master of irony who wrote "The Gift of the Magi" and other short stories, was actually a criminal named William Sydney Porter. He was accused of embezzlement, and put in jail. Being in jail might have been the best thing that ever happened to him. This is where he came up with his pen name and started writing. (And no, I'm not going to say that this was ironic. That's lame, even for me! Ha, totally just went there anyway.)

It just goes to show--you can't judge a book by it's cover! (I know, I know, even I was groaning as I was typing that.)  What are some of your weird things that might get published about you after you're a famous author? Come on, we all have them. After all, you might all know me by my blogs, but you know nothing of what I do in real life. I could be a criminal, or collect used chewing gum, or insist on wearing the same shirt every day for luck, or have to tap the light switch three times before I can turn it on ...

Just kidding. I'm a perfectly normal blogger.

And anyway, who would wear the same shirt every day? That's just gross. Pants, on the other hand ...

Dear Sir/Madame:

Thank you for your interest in our publishing company. While your manuscript was interesting, we are not currently in the market for that type of novel.

Best of luck on your literary journey.

Sincerely,
Publisher X

Harsh!

Have you ever wanted to submit an article idea/the great American novel to a publisher, but visions of a letter such as the one above haunt you in your dreams? Well, first of all, if you ever have a nightmare about sitting naked in English class, well, dreams of rejection letters wouldn't seem as scary. Anyway, while it might be discouraging to receive such a letter when you've poured your heart and soul into your masterpiece, know that even famous authors have been rejected at some point in their careers.

That's right. Kerouac, Orwell, and many other prominent authors were actually rejected. Why? I don't know. Maybe the authors needed to do some editing. Maybe the editor was having a bad day and rejected everything that came across his or her path. Maybe some poor intern spilled coffee on the manuscript, leaving it illegible. (I sure hope that intern got a stern talking-to!) Who knows.

Every aspiring writer should know this. Everyone gets rejected. So keep writing, and keep trying to get published. Live the dream. And maybe, someday, someone will be kicking himself for letting your masterpiece slip through his fingers.

I think I read A Wrinkle in Time in sixth grade. Maybe seventh. Although I have forgotten many of the details of that book, I have never forgotten the powerful effect it had on me. So when I heard that its author, Madeleine L'Engle, 88, had died on Thursday, September 6, I had a moment of grateful reflection.

 

Wrinkle is the story of 12-year-old Meg Murry, a girl who thinks she's stupid--but who, of course, is anything but. She, her strange little brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin embark on a dangerous journey across the universe to try to find Meg's missing father. The children travel across time and space, through folds in the space-time continuum called tesseracts. Along the way, they are shadowed by an evil force called the Dark Thing.

 

L'Engle introduced me to concepts of physics that stretched my young mind in new ways. If I'd thought I understood the nature of reality at that point in my life, I suddenly realized that the universe is a far more mysterious and complex thing than I could possibly imagine or understand. The battles of good and evil that permeate and define the novel also made me think in ways that went beyond the black-and-white catechism view of the world that I had held up until then. And yet, at the same time, the book reinforced that view, with the compelling truth that love alone can conquer evil--that love is the ultimate salvation.

 

In short, A Wrinkle In Time was the first book that really made me think. And what a wonderfully shivery feeling it gave me to ponder such thoughts! It was like jumping into dark but inviting waters of infinite depth. The sense of weightlessness it gave my mind was a new form of freedom, never before experienced. And I wanted more.

 

Though L'Engle wrote many books, poems, and plays, A Wrinkle in Time was her masterpiece. It was rejected by 26 publishers before Farrar, Straus & Giroux accepted it in 1962. The novel went on to win the prestigious John Newbery Medal as the best children’s book of 1963, and still holds its own today.

 

Part science-fiction adventure, part coming-of-age story, part religious allegory, A Wrinkle in Time expressed L'Engle’s "faith that the universe has meaning, that our little human lives are not irrelevant, that what we choose or say or do matters, matters cosmically."

 

Madeleine L'Engle, you changed my life. Thanks.

 

PS: Because A Wrinkle in Time was and is a frequently banned book, Madeleine L'Engle's official web site, madeleinelengle.com, suggests we honor the author's memory by reading a banned book.

 

It's Monday. How did you spend your weekend? Enjoying the few remaining days of summer at the beach? Going to a baseball game? (Go Yankees!) Well, how about by reading? If you're a guy, according to an article on NPR, the answer is probably no.

The article claims that girls read way more than guys. While guys are more likely to read books such as Harry Potter, girls read more in general.

I'm all for girl power. I even have some old Spice Girls songs in my itunes. (Hey, I'm sure you have some songs you're embarrassed about as well!) But in this case, I'm all for equality. Everyone should be reading! Seriously now. There are so many things that you can read about. Like fantasy? Read some Tolkien. Want to be scared? Check out Stephen King (you can even read an interview with him here.)

There's a book written on just about anything you can think of. You have no excuse. It doesn't even have to be something "educational." For example, I love celebrities. Can't get enough of them. I also love writing (hence my job). So I found a book that has all of those aspects. I just finished reading But Enough About Me by Jancee Dunn. This is a memoir about the career of a former Rolling Stone reporter. (It's an awesome book, by the way. Definitely check it out, if you're into that sort of thing.) Rock and roll, celebrities--none of it was educational. But it got me reading. See, it's easy.

Come on, guys. You know you love reading. Don't you? And girls, just because you're ahead, doesn't mean you can slack off. Keep on reading! 

The following interview with Scott Francis was conducted by READ magazine's Associate Editor, Audra Pace. Scott's book, Monster Spotter's Guide To North America is in stores now.

Click here for READ's special Monster issue.

READ: When did you start monster spotting?

Scott Francis: A couple of years ago. I invented the term "monster spotting" when I came up with the book idea. But, as a kid I always loved monsters and ghost stories--I used to check out books of scary local legends from the library. The idea of "monster spotting" sort of sprang from that.

READ: Can you tell us a memory of one of your favorite monster spotting expeditions?

Francis: My wife and I were searching for evidence of the Loveland Frogman along the banks of the Little Miami River. We brought our dog with us, which seemed like a Scooby Doo kind of thing to do at the time. He ended up sliding down a mudbank into the water and got completely filthy.

READ: Have you ever found yourself face to face with a monster?

Francis: Not exactly. I had a bat get into my house once, though. I caught it with a laundry basket.

READ: Please tell us your top three favorite monsters, and what makes them great.

Francis: I like the obscure legends that really smack of authentic folklore. For example the Black Dog of the West Peak is an incredibly creepy ghostly dog in Connecticut that is supposedly an omen of death. The legend literally gave me chills when I read about it. And there's a giant turtle that is reported to live in a lake in Indiana named the Beast of Busco. He is supposed to have a farmer's initials carved in his shell, which I think is a very quaint detail. But probably my favorite is the Appalachian legend of the Wampus Cat because I grew up in the mountains of North Carolina and heard tales of it as a kid. That, and it has a funny name.

READ: You cover all of North America, and cross national borders in this comprehensive guide. Do you think there is any specific region in the country, the continent, or maybe in the world that is particularly monster-prone?

Francis: I haven't researched other continents in depth enough to compare, but in North America I'd say that it's a toss up between the Midwest and Canada, just based on variety of kinds of monsters. Almost anywhere has it's own Bigfoot legend.

READ: How do your friends and family feel about your hobbies? You mention your wife both in your book and on your blog as "patient and understanding." How does she feel about monster spotting?

Francis: Everyone wants to be involved actually. My sister sends me monster spotting reports from her vacations. My friends forward me links to monster sightings they read about online. I tease my wife about putting up with me, but the truth is she loves this stuff just as much as I do. At least I think she does...

READ: Finally, the unavoidable topic: skepticism. How do you feel about it?

Francis: Skepticism is healthy. If you don't question things then you're simply not thinking for yourself. But at the same time, if you don't consider fringe possiblities then you're limiting yourself as well. My own stance is that some of the monster legends could be true, many of them probably are just good stories... but, who doesn't love a good story?

READ: Any last words of advice for a novice monster spotter?

Francis: Don't take yourself too seriously. It's not all that important what you are looking for, as much as it is that you are enjoying the search.

Don't forget to check out READ's special electronic issue:

MONSTERS

The following entry was written by READ and Writing Magazine's new Associate Editor, Audra Pace.

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a common place thing, but burn burn burn, like fabulous yellow Roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars."

This is my favorite quote from On The Road, so I wanted to jump right to it. If you don't know, 50 years ago today, a book called On The Road was published. It was written by Jack Kerouac, a Beat Generation forerunner. If you don't know about the Beat Generation, quietly read this article, and then pretend you already knew. Play it cool, because that's what most of the Beats spent their time doing ... being cool. Like, real cool daddy-o.

 

Yeah, they talked like that.

 

The Beat Generation MVPs include Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady, Ken Kesey, and William Burroughs, among others. One of the reasons Kerouac's On The Road is famous is because it chronicled the impossibly cool goings-on of many members of the beat tribe.

 

But what were they all about? The Beats were a band of artists and writers who rebelled against strict, traditional American society that immediately followed World War II. They went west, they hitchhiked. They partied hard but they also held all night poetry readings. Much of their writing aligns with transcendentalist ideas about nature and freedom. They were hippies before hippies were hippies.

 

On The Road mostly tells the story of Neal Cassady's life, and his hitchhiking travels with Kerouac across Route 6. Cassady's character is named Dean Moriarty, and Kerouac's character is named Sal Paradise. Other Beats show up in the novel, too. Allen Ginsberg is played by a character named Carlo Marx.

 

Kerouac bought one long, continuous roll of type paper, and typed out the novel without changing pages, indenting paragraphs, or breaking up lines or chapters. What can we say? Beats certainly weren't big on following rules, even grammatical ones. Fortunately for the reader, it was cleaned up by the time it was published in 1957, but the "stream of consciousness" feeling still prevails.In reading On The Road, you actually get inside the main character's head. The story of how On The Road was crafted is fascinating.

 

So, on the 50^th birthday of the release of this novel, I say, check it out. Get in on it, and pretend you've been in on it all along, man.

The following entry was written by Audra Pace. Audra is our new Associate Editor here at READ and Writing magazines. Hopefully soon we will have a silly caricature and bio for her. For now, just her words will have to do...

Happy birthday, Mary Shelley!

 

Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, turns 210 today.  Even though she's not around to celebrate, we can at least celebrate her groundbreaking body of work.

Most everyone knows the story of Dr. Frankenstein, the mad scientist who attempts to create life but instead realizes he has royally messed with nature. The novel has often been viewed as a comment on the scientists of the Industrial Revolution, who perhaps bit off more than they could chew technologically.

 

Mary was a writer during the Romantic era, and eventually married a Romantic poet, Percy Shelley. (How Romantic!) She grew up with Romanticism--her academic father was close friends with Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth. It is rumored that she once hid under a couch in her parlor to hear Coleridge read his famous "Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Can you blame her? Who hasn't stayed up past their bedtime to get their fill of Romantic poetry?

 

Frankenstein was originally published anonymously to protect the story (and Mary) from the nasty criticism that her gender would inevitably earn her. Mary was the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, the 18th century proto-feminist who authored "The Vindication of the Rights of Woman." So, I guess we can see where Ms. Shelley got her gumption. It has taken all the way until half way through the 20th century for Mary to be credited as influential a member of the Romantic era as her colleagues (Wordsworth, Byron, her own husband, et al). So thanks for hanging in there Mary; we at READ know who wears the literary pants in your clan. And, once again, Happy Birthday!

Last week I was on vacation in Maine (it's this whole other state up north). The water was frigid but the weather was warm. The beach was sandy and the books were... gritty. For some reason, I decided to read two very upsetting novels. Don't get me wrong, they were both entertaining and engaging, but they were also not exactly what you would call "beach books".

A Thousand Splendid Suns
-Khaled Hosseini

I saw Mr. Hosseini speak last year at The National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. Back then, he was talking about his first novel, The Kite Runner. What a book that was! Now, in A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini explores the female perspective of growing up in war-torn Afghanistan.

The day to day suffering of two women, Mariam and Laila, is written with just the right amount of sympathy that the reader feels pity, anger, and sorrow all at once. At the hands of uncaring fathers and violent husbands, Mariam and Laila have this in common: they have suffered greatly in their lives.

Together these two women from different generations bond together to find some solace in a world where women must hide their faces in the presence of men, where rockets fall from the sky and obliterate life, and where few people question the iron fists of dictators and terrorists that rule by spreading death and fear.

So no, it is not what I would call a "happy-time, fun, summer book". But it certainly is an extraordinary read.

Watch a video of Hosseini talking about A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Read an excerpt of A Thousand Splendid Suns.

In Cold Blood
-Truman Capote

Phillip Seymour Hoffman won an Oscar for his portrayal of Truman Capote in the 2005 film, Capote. Before I ever saw that movie, I knew about In Cold Blood. The book has been sitting in my bookshelf for years. I knew what it was about: a murder case from 1959 where a family of four was brutally attacked and killed in their home in the middle of the night. That's about all I knew. But it was enough to turn me away. Why would I want to read something like that? Why would anyone?

Because it is true.

The title alone is enough to chill your bones. If you can get past that to page 1, there's no turning back. Capote brings you immediately into the peaceful town of Holcomb, Kansas and introduces the Clutter family. The father, Herbert is well-respected and owns a prosperous farm. His wife, Bonnie, though prone to bouts of depression was a loving mother to her four children, Eveanna, Beverly, Kenyon, and Nancy. Eveanna and Beverly had moved out in 1959. Kenyon and Nancy were not so lucky.

The book explores every detail of the horrible crime. Capote went to Holcomb after the murders and spoke to just about everyone in town, from the chief of police to the regular Joe at the coffee shop. It was the author's intent to paint a picture of the All-American family in the All-American town and show how they were viciously wiped from existence by two, unfeeling killers running from their own unfortunate pasts.

If you're looking for a book with resolution, this is not it. In Cold Blood is a case study, certainly not a "happily ever after". When you're done with it, you'll definitely want to double check the locks on your doors before going to bed, and you'll feel compelled to hold your loved ones even tighter.

So no, it is not what I would call a "happy-time, fun, summer book". But it certainly is an extraordinary read.

It's Friday! Woo! And one of the best parts about Fridays (besides knowing that you have two days to relax) is that new movies come out. I, for one, have been seeing tons of movies this summer. There were pirates (read a review here and an interview with Geoffrey Rush here), wizards (read a review here and an interview with director David Yates here), and our favorite yellow family (read a review here and an interview with director David Silverman here). And don't forget a web-slinging superhero, a grouchy ogre, and a car that was more than meets the eye.

Wow, that's a lot of movies in one summer! So that's where all my paychecks disappeared to. Anyway, today a movie opens that I've been waiting for. It's The Nanny Diaries, based on the novel of the same name by Emma Mclaughlin and Nicola Kraus. As I've mentioned before, I love chick lit. And I found this novel particularly fun, witty, and funny. The hilarious story of the mistreated nanny who must put up with all her employer's demands (such as dressing up as a Teletubby for Halloween) is chick lit at its finest. Which is why I'm a little nervous about the movie.

Last summer, The Devil Wears Prada, the movie based on the book by Lauren Weisberger, came out. It got great reviews, and Meryl Streep even earned an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of the super-mean boss. And I liked the movie, I did. It's just that I liked the book better. There were entire scenes left out of the movie. Characters were completely changed. It just wasn't the same.

I'm afraid the same thing is going to happen with The Nanny Diaries. I don't want the picture in my mind to be tarnished. I don't want my appreciation of the story tainted.

Well, I'll probably go see it though. Because the book is always better than the movie anyway, right? Sure it is. So I might as well just enjoy the movie for what it is. I actually can't think of any movie that I liked better than the book--and I love movies! Can you think of any movies that you liked better than the book versions? I bet you can't!

Anyway, enjoy your weekend. Go see a movie or something. Or read the book.

Hey there, Wildcats. Unless you've been living under a rock, I'm sure that you've heard that High School Musical 2, the sequel to last year's enormously popular High School Musical came out last weekend. Did you catch up with Troy, Gabriella, Sharpay, and the rest of the gang?

Do I have a point, or am I just trying to make conversation? Well, you don't have to be so mean. But yes, I do have a point. Apparently Disney is pulling out all the stops to make sure you get all HSM2 all the time. They've even made it into a book!

Would you want to read this story? Or do you think this is a cheap marketing ploy? Usually, I enjoy anything that gets people reading. And I do love movies, and singing. And that Zac Efron is just so adorable! But still, when you combine all these elements, does it work?

What do you think? Do you want to read HSM2? When you see that "As seen in the movies" section at Barnes and Noble, do you continue walking? Or do books and movies combine to form the most awesome hybrid ever?

Apparently, there's no rest for the weary. 

That's right, kids. J. K. Rowling, who just finished the Harry Potter series, and who, in my opinion, should be relaxing on a tropical island (her own private one) and sipping fruity drinks with little umbrellas, is writing again.

All of you Potter-philes take note: I know you're hoping upon hope that Ms. Rowling is writing an eighth Potter book. Well, I'm sorry to break it to you, but she's not. Harry is finished. (I'm talking about the book series. I don't know if Harry survived or not in The Deathly Hallows; I haven't had a chance to read it yet. But if I knew, I wouldn't tell you, so don't come back yelling to me about how I spoiled the ending.)

Rowling's new book is going to be a detective novel. And the really cool thing is that she's writing it in the same Scottish café she wrote the Potter books when she was a struggling writer. So now Rowling is officially the richest aspiring novelist out there. It's just like when Jerry Seinfeld goes to comedy clubs and does his stand-up routine. He certainly doesn't need the money, but he does it anyway. Well, good for them.

So, will you read J. K. Rowling's new book when it comes out, or has Rowling fever died? (Possibly like a certain wizard? Did Harry die? Wait ... no, don't tell me. I'm going to read it eventually.) If you were a billionaire, would you continue working? Will you please get me a fruity drink with an umbrella in it?

Editor's Note: It was just brought to our attention that the J. K. Rowling sighting was made up by an over-eager fan. I guess we'll just have to be happy with Harry. For now ...

Legend had it that every year, a figure, cloaked in black with a wide-brimmed hat, sneaked into the graveyard and placed three roses and a bottle of cognac on Edgar Allan Poe's grave. And every year, crowds have gathered at the grave, hoping to catch a glimpse of the mystery man or woman who was honoring the master of the macabre.

But the truth has been revealed. What is that, you ask? It's--the beating of his hideous heart! Ha. No, no. the truth is that it was all a hoax. Turns out, Sam Porpora, a former ad executive, wanted to drum up some publicity for the cemetery. (Wait, you mean tourists aren't usually clamoring to spend their vacations in a dreary cemetery? Shocker!) So old Sam and his tour guides came up with the Poe toaster.

What a disappointment!

It was such a romantic notion. So chilling. So Gothic. So totally Poe.

Well, to express my outrage at the Poe toaster being a complete lie, I thought I'd write a stanza ala Poe's "The Raven."

Once there was a story that was not really gory,
About a man who paid tribute to a famous guy.
Turns out he was faking, leaving us really aching.
He claimed someone came in the dead of night.
But it was just to get the cemetery in the spotlight.
This whole thing was just a lie.

 OK. So I'm no Poe. Here's a better re-imagining of "The Raven," courtesy of The Simpsons. Enjoy!

Stephen King, author of over 58,000 novels about things that go bump in the night, recently went to a bookstore in Australia and vandalized copies of his own books!

What happened was, he went over to the "King section" (a room in the back that is twice the size of the moon) and started etching his signature in blood across the inside front covers.

When employees of the bookstore realized what was happening, they approached King hesitantly (it is common knowledge, you see, that Stephen King is a Werewolf-Vampire-Chupacabra that feeds on the flesh and souls of the innocent.)

"Excuse me," said the first scared-to-near-death employee, "may I ask you what you are doing defacing our property, Mr. King?" Instead of answering her with words, the popular novelist's eyes turned to fire and his hair transformed into a nest of venomous snakes. The employee ran for her life. Unfortunately, King was too quick for her. He sprouted wings and overtook the poor woman in the How-To section of the bookstore. Witnesses at the scene stood in shock as he temporarily satisfied his demon appetite.

As for the books that Mr. King defaced with his bloody John Hancock, they are now listed on eBay.

Caveat Emptor: The books are cursed. Well duh!

At least that's how I heard it anyway. Some other guy tells a different story of what happened here.

Read Stephen King's review of Harry Potter here.

Read an exclusive interview with Stephen King here.

What do you like about emo? The emotional lyrics? The catchy riffs? The eyeliner? (Definitely the eyeliner!) Well, what about the comic books?

That's right, comic books. In September, Gerard Way, lead singer of My Chemical Romance, will be publishing his own comic books called The Umbrella Academy. The basic storyline, from what I can gather, is about a superhero troupe called the Umbrella Academy, who had a sort of falling out. But now their adoptive father has died, and they must band together to save the world.

Even the characters have cool rock star-ish qualities. There's The Horror, who can possess monsters. There's The Rumor, who can make lies come true (so could my younger brother, now that I think about it). And don't forget Spaceboy, the leader, who, for some reason, has the body of a Martian gorilla. (Also like my younger brother! Joking.) Hey, I just report the news. I don't make this stuff up!

I don't know about the concept, but still, I'm intrigued. Comic books are huge now, and they are a great way to get reluctant readers to take the plunge and start enjoying reading. And anything that gets people to read is good in my book. (Get it? Read? Book? OK, even I'm groaning at that one.) Plus My Chemical Romance is huge now as well. So add the hugeness of comic books with the hugeness of the band and you get ... something very, very big.

So, are you excited about the adventures of Spaceboy and friends? Do you think rock stars can write comic books (after all, they do write lyrics)? I guess we're going to have to wait until September to find out!

Ah, and you thought we were done with our Harry Potter entries. Well, my friend, you were wrong. The final book might have already come out (we have a great review here), but the boy wizard is still making headlines.

A 16-year-old in France posted his own translation of The Deathly Hallows on Monday. Problem is, the French version of the book won't be out until October 26. So the boy was arrested.

I'm all for taking action against those who transgress against laws. And we all know that plagiarism is bad. And immoral. And not cool. But was this boy really doing something so bad? OK, he did take J. K. Rowling's words without her permission. If he was trying to make money off of this, than that's even worse. Was he trying to make money? I don't know. Probably.

But if you take it at face value, he is just a fan of Harry Potter who wanted his French peers to be able to enjoy the book right now. That's not so bad. It's kind of noble actually, if you ignore the breaking the law part. (Please note, Weekly Reader does not endorse breaking the law, even if it is in the name of literature.)

Well the boy's translation was removed. But it's clear that even after so many books, people still have a fever for Harry. And what's the cure for that fever? More cowbell! Just kidding. Keep on reading Harry Potter!

The following book review was written by Miss Erin, Grade 11.

The Wednesday Wars

 - by Gary D. Schmidt

 

Taking place during the 1960's, The Wednesday Wars tells the story of Holling Hoodhood, an average teenage boy dealing with school, family, friends, and Shakespeare. Mrs. Baker, his teacher, has assigned him a play to read. And the surprising thing is, Holling finds himself enjoying the work of the bard!

Mix Shakespeare and wonderful writing and absolutely great characters, and the result is something to fall in love with. I had fun catching certain Shakespeare allusions and reading Holling's interpretations and reactions to different plays. The author brings the schoolboy's day-to-day life alive in a brilliant style. All-in-all, an extremely delightful read. Very highly recommended.

Visit Miss Erin at her literary blog.

J.K. Rowling once had an idea about a boy who grew up not knowing who he really was. Strange things would happen around Harry from time to time and he wouldn't understand them. One time, while visiting the zoo with his wicked aunt, uncle, and cousin, he even talked to a snake... and the snake talked back.

Fast forward 7 years...

Death Eaters run Hogwarts. Severus Snape (murderer of Albus Dumbledore) is the school's headmaster. The evil Lord Voldemort seems to be in control of everything and everyone. There is no escape.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron are in hiding. There is nothing they can do about the malicious and torturous punishments students are receiving at their beloved school. In this, their 7th year, they have dropped out of Hogwarts so that they can follow Dumbledore's orders and destroy the remaining Horcruxes that contain the shattered pieces of Voldemort's soul.

Sounds difficult, right? Oh man... you don't know the half of it.

Deathly Hallows is a novel that does not ignore its title. This is not your carefree Sorcerer's Stone. In fact, it doesn't even come close. The body count in Deathly Hallows is extraordinary. Just when you think you're through mourning one character, something, from seemingly out of nowhere, destroys another and you are again left with the awful realization that absolutely no one is safe.

Meanwhile, Ron and Hermione are losing faith. Harry doesn't have a plan and they seem to be wandering clueless into danger wherever they go. There are Death Eaters around every corner. Voldemort's bone chilling reach is everywhere. Is it any wonder that the strain and the incredible weight of their unknowable mission is causing the trio's once unbreakable friendship to weaken? Each turn of every page seems to be heavier and heavier as you fall head-first and weepy into this non-stop, unrelenting fantasy of heroes, villains, and death.

But wait... look at Harry. He is a man now. In fact, he is more than a man. He is an accomplished wizard who has defeated Voldemort more times than he will even admit to himself. Harry sees people for who they are and he respects the good in everyone. Harry stands up for friends, he fights for love, and he is constantly learning and striving to be better.

It took me a long time to accept the Harry Potter craze. I've commented on this before. However now, having read the entire series, I can honestly say that before coming on board, I was, as Ron would say, a "git." These books are magic. They embody all the facets of what makes a story a classic: good, evil, love, hate, quests, journeys, soul-searching, you name it--it's all there.

And the writing ... Rowling has outdone herself in this final book. The writing in Deathly Hallows is so good that I actually had to re-read sentences, paragraphs, and yes, even entire chapters just so I could re-live the joy and suffering of her words as they brushed one another gracefully, carefully, and ever-so-passionately. Harry Potter's final adventure is a sheer masterpiece. It will make any reluctant reader an enthused one and it will remind every enthused reader why they first fell in love with literature in the first place.

True dat.

Oh, and one final note, today is J.K. Rowling's birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY J.K.!!

She has said time and time again that she will never return to the Harry Potter series. I believe her. The way it is now, these seven books that form one, complete epic saga could not and should not be tampered with. It's perfect the way it is. However, I do eagerly anticipate J.K.'s next book. Whatever it will be, it will inevitably be unfairly judged against Harry Potter. I only hope I will be able to separate the two.

Now that we no longer have Harry to look forward to, whatever will we do? Read on, my dear Muggle friends.

Read on.

We all love reading here. (Well, I'm going to assume we all do. After all, what would you be doing reading a reading and writing blog if you didn't? However, you know what they say about assuming ...) That love of reading often goes hand in hand with buying a lot of books, which consequently get left all over the house. I, for example, recently added to my chick lit collection with two more books, Something Borrowed and Something Blue, both by Emily Giffin. Don't judge me!

Anyway, sometimes buying books gets out of hand. Suddenly, you have more books than you know what to do with. (OK, so you know what to do with them. You read them. I meant you don't know where to store them. Sheesh!) This happened to John Puchniak from Pennsylvania. Puchniak is a bookstore owner who took his love of books to the extreme, and amassed 3,000 of them. And then his house was condemned.

Apparently, having 3,000 books sitting around your house is a fire hazard. Who would've thunk it?

Well, Puchniak is now living in a hotel and is trying to get the city to let him move back into his home.

Now, I love books as much as the next person, but there is a limit. I'm sure Puchniak hasn't even looked at some of his books in years, so how about donating some of them?

I mean really, who has that many books anyway? ...

Besides a library, of course.

A disgruntled writer and Jane Austen-aficionado recently conducted an experiment to see if the classic writer could get published here in 2007. According to the UK's Guardian Newspaper, David Lassman, the director of the Jane Austen Festival in Bath, sent slightly modified versions of the first two chapters of Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, and Northanger Abbey to major book publishers. Lassman changed the titles of the books and names of main characters, but left the plot details the same. Then the rejections piled up and seemingly, only one publisher out of 18 spotted the ruse.

Lassman told the Guardian, "I was staggered. Here is one of the greatest writers that has lived, with her oeuvre securely fixed in the English canon and yet only one recipient recognised them as Austen's work."

After reading this article, I started thinking about the nature of publishing. Interestingly, the people reading manuscripts for these publishers did not recognize Austen's nor did they think they could publish it. I've always leaned toward reading modern fiction rather than classics (with notable exceptions). Language and art evolves with time and people. So I do understand why dear Jane may have slipped under the radar. Those people were busy looking for the next bestseller, which most likely will be a lot different than Austen. And yet, I think to a well-worn copy of Northanger Abbey that I purchased in a Cambridge bookstore, which currently gathers dust on a shelf at home. Austen did pave the way for the new masters I so enjoy. Ah, it's probably time to give dear Jane another try.

What do you think?

I don't know how you people did it. I honestly don't. I just finished The Half-Blood Prince about half an hour ago and already I'm on pins and needles here in sweaty-toothed anticipation of tomorrow. How on earth have you slept these past couple of years? How will I sleep tonight? Wow.

The Half-Blood Prince was by far the best book in the series (with The Goblet of Fire coming in a very close second). What a story! I'm not going to review it here because, well, first of all, I'm two years too late for that. But more importantly, if you're one of the few Muggles out there who have yet to read it, there's really nothing I can tell you expcept: READ IT! Well... read the other five books first, of course. Every single thing you've heard about their greatness is true. The hype is real.

"I am not worried, Harry. I am with you."

Do you remember those words? Dumbledore spoke them gently to his favorite pupil as they came out of the cave together. They resonate with me.

So tonight, I will sleep. And tomorrow, I will wake, and go pick up The Deathly Hallows. Then I will drive to New Hampshire and spend the next week on the lake, reading the final installment in J.K. Rowling's brilliant, heart-wrenching, beautiful, magical series. For the first time, I'll be sharing this experience with readers everywhere. Up until this moment, I have been behind in the game. But no more. I'm here now. And I'm not going anywhere, except with you and Harry, to once and for all defeat the evil Lord Voldemort.

It's really a great feeling to know that you'll be reading the same words as countless other people around the world tomorrow isn't it? How often does this happen? Not as often as it should. We're all going to be connected through Harry. We're all going to share his experiences one last time, together. I'm going to be thinking about you all when I crack the book open for the first time tomorrow. And then... well, then...

I will not be afraid. I will not worry. Because I will be with Harry. As will you, dear friends.

Happy reading.

That's right, baby! Only 3 days to go!

There's Today
There's Thursday
There's Friday

And then there's Harry Potter day! Yah!

Can you handle it? If I can offer up a little advice, you should probably just take it one breath at a time. And then... after only about 60,000* breaths or so Deathly Hallows will be in your eager hands.

Me? I've got about 200 pages left now in Half-Blood Prince. Can I tell you that I have a love/hate relationship with the way Ms. Rowling writes ALL her books? On the one hand, I love the mystery of it all. I love how we never know what's going on behind the scenes until Harry, Ron, and Hermione know. It's like, we aren't readers, we're wizards-in-training, right there with them every step of the way. When Harry gets under his invisibility cloak, our hearts beat just as fast. When Hermione and Ron start slinging hurtful insults at each other because they can't deal with how they really feel, we want to step in and show them how dumb they are being. We ride the broomsticks, too. Don't we?

And yet... I absolutely cannot stand the fact that I have no idea what the heck is going on! What's Snape really up to? What's Malfoy been doing this whole time? Why is Dumbledore's hand burned? When is the next Voldemort encounter going to jump out at me and scare me to death? I can't take it! I need to know! Turn the page! Turn the page! Turn the page!!!

I gotta go. I'm taking this thing way too seriously. (Or not seriously enough??)

 *Totally a made up number. What do I look like, a Doctor?

Oh my!

With only 4 cruel July days to go, Muggles everywhere are freaking out! Everywhere I turn, it's Harry Potter this and Harry Potter that. Things are quite different than they were just a couple of weeks ago when I posted this. Now, there are all sorts of magical stories in the news.

For starters, the new film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix cleaned up at the box office over the weekend. Anyone who has read this book knows it is darker and more intense than its predecessors. Actually, things really stopped being "fluffy" at the end of The Goblet of Fire. Let me tell you something, that scene in Goblet where Harry confronts Voldemort and about a dozen death-eaters is probably one of the scariest things I've ever read. But I digress...

In China, there are "Harry Potter knock-offs" floating around. What are they exactly? They are poorly written books that use the characters of J.K. Rowling's epic series and place them in unbelievable scenes. They are counterfeit novellas full of phony plots that in no way at all are affiliated with the real Harry Potter. From what I've heard though, a lot of people over there in China really dig 'em. So I guess they aren't bothered by the whole copyright infringement thing. Me? I'm a purist. I need my books authentic. There's just no substitute.

I'm about halfway through The Half-Blood Prince right now. These kids have really grown up, haven't they? Ron's making out with Lavender Brown but really, he wants to "snogg" with Hermione. It's sooo obvious, Ron! Even Harry sees it! Of course, Hermione seems like she's got the hots for Ron as well. Meanwhile, Harry's wandering eye has landed on Ginny, Ron's younger sister! Uh oh Harry. Don't you know it's "pals before gals?!" I hope this doesn't get out of hand. But ahh ... young love. The heart wants what the heart wants, does it not, my friends?

On an unrelated note, our dear old blogger friend, Sandhya told me about this new fad called "wizard rock". Rather than trying to explain it to you, you can read the NPR article on it by clicking here. It seems pretty wacky and I like it.

That's it for now on the HP front. Wish me luck in my quest to finish book 6 by Saturday.

Peace.

Yah!

So I finished reading The Order of The Phoenix this past weekend and I'm now into The Half-Blood Prince. And holy cow! Chapter Two - Snape! He's... well, I don't know what. It's weird. Is he really who he says he is now? Ack! Don't tell me! Keep it to yourself! I'll know soon enough, I imagine.

I am so happy I finally got into this craze. It's never too late, right? With 11 days to go before the final installment is released, I'm truly amped about Harry! Boo yah!

More to come, Muggles...

I'm sure I don't need to tell you that the final Harry Potter book comes out in only 18 days. You know this. The whole world knows this. What I want to know is: where is all the fanfare? Surely this is the biggest thing to happen to young adult literature since... well since the last Harry Potter book came out. Shouldn't we be seeing little witches in the streets by now? Shouldn't there be reports of stores unable to keep brooms in stock? And for crying out loud, where are all the lightning scars?!?

Ouch. The whole lack of Potter madness is giving me a headache. There are only 18 days left, people! Where are you?!?

I suppose I should count my blessings that it hasn't gotten crazy yet. I'm still only halfway through Book 5. I'm a man on a mission. Between what I have left of The Order of the Phoenix and The Half Blood Prince, I'd guesstimate that I have about... oh... 800 pages or so to go. That comes out to just under 50 pages a day. No sweat, right? Right. No sweat, mon!

Anyway, Order of the Phoenix is getting realllllly good. Things are heating up between Harry and Cho. Harry is secretly teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts to a bunch of students and they call themselves Dumbledore's Army! The forces of good and evil are preparing themselves for battle against each other. And the calm before the storm is full of such raw intensity that I almost don't want to turn the next page for fear that the very book might explode in my face! Omigosh. It's so good.

I understand I'm probably the only person on the planet that hasn't read all 6 books yet. But come July 21, if all goes well between now and then, I should be all set to crack open The Deathly Hallows with the rest of you when it arrives in my mailbox.

So 18 days... let's see some magic.

When you picture the FBI, what do you think of? Guys in bad suits and Ray-Bans, flashing their I.Ds and their loaded pistols in their holsters, screaming "FBI, get down!" to the bad guys. Drama, suspense, intrigue. Do-gooders who put all the pieces together in the puzzle and bring order back. Yes, certainly this is the case. And no more so than their recent brilliant sleuthing efforts--recovering the lost manuscript of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth. 

          

Apparently, one of Buck's ex-secretaries stole the manuscript, and the thief's daughter tried to sell it at an auction house. Not too smooth, thief's daughter! Did you really think you could get away with putting something up for auction that is both famous and stolen? What, there were no original copies of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet that you could steal from his heirs and sell on eBay?

           

Well luckily the manuscript, which has Buck's handwritten notes, is back in the hands of its proper owner.

           

What a relief! (And no, that wasn't sarcasm--it's an awesome book.) The story about a poor Chinese farmer who must sell everything--except his land--to survive has been a classic since is was published in 1932. It was even selected as a choice for Oprah's Book Club in 2004. Now that's staying power!

           

Come on, you know you read the book in school. And you know you liked it, which isn't always the case of required reading books. (Sorry, Mrs. Gazzola, but I didn't like everything you made me read in tenth grade.) And if you haven't read it yet, what are you waiting for? (Just, please, don't steal it! Unless you want the FBI coming after you.)

So what are you reading?

We all ask this question and get asked this question. But when it comes to becoming a better writer this question can mean more than your everyday small talk.

 

I took the opportunity to attend a lecture at Manhattanville College's Summer Writer's Week, where Francine Prose read from her book on this topic, Reading Like a Writer (2006). Prose looks at "the greats"--Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, Kafka, Austen, Dickens, Woolf, Chekhov, to name a few--and examines why their works have endured through the years.

 

Prose, who also teaches at Bard College, wants aspiring writers to savor the language of the masters and decipher why they choose particular words to convey certain feelings.

 

I think Prose's book has some valuable advice to a reader like me, who also wants to write. When I read, I usually speed my way through a story, anxious to know what comes next. It takes a special kind of writer to make me slow down and get lost in the language of the book. Sometimes, I get both.

 

By poring over the finer details of a story, Prose proffers that the reader, for instance, can learn about creating character and advancing the plot through dialogue.

 

But then there is Anton Chekov. During the lecture, Prose read from her "Learning from Chekhov" chapter, which examines how Chekov broke all kinds of "rules" for writing fiction. He practiced "writing without judgment" and be the "unbiased observer" of his characters. 

 

In the spirit of Chekhov, Prose also advises, "Forget about what you read. Go out and look at the world."

 

With this, I came away with two pieces of advice that somehow don't conflict: learn and then unlearn. This way, the writer has a store of knowledge and tools at hand. Yet, the writer still makes room for the muse.

 

So what is Francine Prose reading? Well, she said she had just finished rereading David Copperfield. How 'bout you?

"It was curious to think that the sky was the same for everybody, in Eurasia or Eastasia as well as here. And the people under the sky were also very much the same—everywhere, all over the world, hundreds or thousands of millions of people just like this, people ignorant of one another's existence, held apart by walls of hatred and lies, and yet almost exactly the same—people who had never learned to think but were storing up in their hearts and bellies and muscles the power that would one day overturn the world."
     - George Orwell, 1984

When most students think of George Orwell ... or ... well ... do most students think of George Orwell? Hmm. Have you ever heard of a little book called Animal Farm? It is a delightful story about a bunch of barnyard animals who overthrow their evil captors and then run their own society. On a base level, it is a colorful children's story where "two legs equals bad" and "four legs equals good" ... or is it the other way around? On a much deeper level (one we needn't worry about til at least college), it is an allegorical commentary about Soviet totalitarianism. "Huh?" Don't worry about it. For now, just have fun reading the book and focus on how the animals take on human qualities and what we (as faulty humans) can learn from their story.

And then, once you've mulled that intensity over, try 1984 on for size. This heart wrenching novel used to be my ultimate favorite. I got over that a few years ago though when I was reading it for no less than the 15th time. The brutality of those words were just too much to live through again. I would, however, honestly give anything to have those first 14 reads back. Listen:

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

How can anyone handle that?!? Plus, when the Ministry of Truth, the Thought Police, and Big Brother are all out to get you, it's all you can do to keep yourself safe from what lies in the dreaded Room 101.

Be afraid.

Oh, and happy birthday, Georgie Porgie.

The following post was written by Alicia Zadrozny, Associate Editor of READ and Writing Magazines.

 

At 15 years old, sisters Jessica and Danielle Dunn achieved what many people of all ages yearn for--they published a book.

 

The first edition of A Teen's Guide to Getting Published came out 10 years ago. What makes this book so interesting is that the authors want to help other teens get published, too. The second edition was published just last year in 2006. This edition features updated information. Basically, all references to typewriters are out. Blogs and online publishing are in.

 

A Teen's Guide to Getting Published offers teens a common sense approach to becoming a writer. Each chapter is filled with the nuts and bolts of all phases of the writing process. There are sections about finding inspiration, editing, and selecting the right market for your work. The second half of the book contains valuable directories of writer's markets, contests, and creative writing programs around the nation.

 

Jessica and Danielle included some of their own early publishing experiences as a resource for other teens. Their advice is encouraging and realistic at the same time. For one, they advise teens to "start small and work your way up." They tell teens not to expect to be paid in the beginning and to expect some rejection along the way. And still, the book's tone remains optimistic.

 

"Writerly" teens would be lucky to have Jessica and Danielle's combination of motivation and enthusiasm that infuses their book.

 

READ and Writing Magazines recently featured A Teen's Guide to Getting Published in our electronic issue, Student Writing Showcase. To read the excerpt, click here.

The following post was written by Alicia Zadrozny, Associate Editor of READ and Writing Magazines.

It was Friday night and I was in the mood for a party. I had spent the day perusing Book Expo America, picking up book galleys and meeting authors. (I'm hoping heaven is a lot like BEA, lots and lots of free books, but sans the bathroom lines.) Anyway, I headed downtown to Webster Hall not knowing exactly what to expect from the Rock Bottom Remainders, an improbable band formed with mostly famous and best-selling writers. Some of the better known members include Stephen King, humor columnist Dave Barry, Scott Turow, Amy Tan, Mitch Albom and Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons. Frank McCourt made a special guest appearance. Roger McGuinn, formerly with the 1960s rock band The Byrds, was billed as the concert's "real musician." The $25 admission price benefited children's literacy programs.

By all appearances, this was going to be a concert like any other. Lines of people waited outside the venue to get in, after the show had already started. There was a surly bouncer and even a snotty reporter who huffed and puffed when told she had to wait in line.

By the time I got inside, the band was in full swing playing their favorite rock music through the ages, such as Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and the Monkees. So now you're probably wondering if these writers sing and play instruments as well as they write. Well, I'll spell it out for you. Stephen King: Terrible. Scott Turow: Truly, truly terrible. Dave Barry: Tape his hands down and take away that guitar. Mitch Albom: If only you had spent your Tuesdays practicing that keyboard. Amy Tan: Gets my vote for the worst singer-ever.  I'd go through all the performers, but that gives you a pretty good idea.

Most likely, it's a certain sort of person who's going to love this kind of concert. It's the person who gets the joke behind the joke. It's not their corny cracks at each other. It's the fact that Stephen King gets people to pay money to hear him howl his way through Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London." The "king of horror" is also a master of irony. His real song was, "I'm so bad; I'm good."

Roger McGuinn saved the musical day to an extent with "Turn! Turn! Turn!" along with some other old hits by The Byrds. So what if his accompanists couldn't stay on key with him? I didn't really mind. It was just plain funny to see these writers have so much fun together. They looked like a bunch of goofballs, sure. But they are also very smart goofballs.

Editor's Note: We here at Weekly Reader love and admire the above artists for their day jobs. Any negative criticisms toward their musical ability is overshadowed by the brilliance that comes through in their true work: Teaching the blind to bowl. God bless you fine people.

On Friday, I attended Book Expo America (BEA) at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City. It was a day filled with literature great and small, classic and contemporary. Readers from all corners of the country flooded the floor where publishers flaunted their achievements in the printed word.

The Jacob Javits Center is a mile if it's a yard. The place is big. It covers no less than five New York City blocks and is multi-leveled. No wonder the show is three days long! Lucky for me, I still have a bit of a bounce in my step and I was able to get the full BEA experience in just under 8 hours.

I met a Monster Spotter named Scott Francis, and a wizard author named Zendric. Zendric's passion for keeping Monsters at bay will be shared with the world this August when her very important survival guide, A Practical Guide to Monsters, hits bookstores everywhere. In it, she shows us characteristics of Chimera and vampires, griffons and Thri-kreen (giant, intelligent insects that hunt in packs) and then offers advice on how to defeat them all in battle. Monster Spotter's Guide to North America is a result of an deep obsession that's 1,000 times more dangerous than bird watching. By looking through a monster spotter's eyes, readers learn stories of Phantom Felines, The South Carolina Lizard Man, The Gloucester Sea Serpent, The Black Fox of Salmon River, The Lake Utopia Monster, Colossal Claude and many many more (including, of course, Bigfoot). Scott's book also comes out in August. Don't be surprised if you see Zendric and Scott side by side in an issue of READ next year. Stranger things have been known to happen.

At Seven Locks Press, I read a recipe inspired by Shakespeare in Spice Chronicles: Exotic Tales of A Hungry Traveler, watched Santa Claus promote his new book, and met an extraordinary young man who has created The Adventures of Captain Candy. Young author Ryan Lederer's fully illustrated, action packed book comes out in July.

At the LongPen booth, a machine signed my name to perfection, exactly as I had done!

I learned a bit about Old English from Patrick Conner at West Virginia University Press.

Grammar Girl wowed me us with a live presentation about apostrophes! ... or should that be apostrophe's? ... Either way, I think I need to get out more.

The Book Expo was a genuine sharing of ideas, of stories. Authors of all walks of life were in attendance and many of them, like Joe Hill, were more interested in checking out the lit than talking about themselves. (I'll let you figure out who Joe Hill is on your own. Not everything in the blogosphere should be linkable.)

Stay tuned for in-depth coverage of the Rock Bottom Remainders concert. Coming next week...

The following blog entry was written by Sarah Chassé, a copy editor of READ, Writing, and a whole bunch of other Weekly Reader magazines.

 

Watching TV rots your brain, right? Not necessarily. I spent last night learning some great new vocabulary words from my television--and no, there isn't a new reality show called Playing Scrabble With the Stars. We're talking the finals of the 2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee, which aired live on ABC.  The competition, held in Washington, D.C., featured 286 spellers from the United States and Canada. In the 13^th round, eighth grader Evan M. O’Dorney of Danville, Calif., spelled the word serrefine (seh-ruh-FEEN) to become the Super Bowl of spelling’s newest champ.

 

OK,  so maybe serrefine (an adjustable spring clamp used in cardiovascular surgery) isn't the most useful word—you can't exactly drop it into casual conversation. But it's still a cool word to know. Here are some other unusual words from the Scripps finals you can dazzle your friends and family with:

 

rascacio: (rah-SKAH-see-oh) a scorpion fish found in the western Atlantic Ocean from Cape Cod to Brazil

 

bouleuterion: (boo-leh-TEE-ree-on) a council chamber in ancient Greece

 

schuhplattler: (SHOO-plat-luhr) a traditional folk dance from Bavaria and Austria in which dancers rhythmically strike their thighs, their knees, and the soles of their feet

 

grognard: (groh-NAHR) an old soldier

 

aniseikonia: (ah-nigh-sigh-KOH-nee-uh) a defect of binocular vision in which the two retinal images of an object differ in size

 

My favorite word from the bee was definitely schuhplattler (just don't ask me to demonstrate it). Have a favorite word of your own that you'd like to share? Drop us a comment! (And make sure you spell your word correctly!)

Gosh I love the last day of May. Forget about the fact that the weather is gorgeous and the flowers are, um, whatever. Today has a much more special meaning to me than sunshine and pollen. For today, my friends, is Walt Whitman's Birthday.

WWWWD?
- A poem by Bry

I imagine myself walking, climbing, treading the mountains
I am one man hiking his way to the top, to the peak of all peaks!
What lies in the distance is an unknown, an always known,
A question we all must ask.

What would Walt Whitman do
At the top of the mountain?
Would he stand there and laugh at the sky?
Would he fly off like a bird to the future of earth?
Would he sit for a spell, and just cry?

What would Walt Whitman do
Dear friends all around me?
Would he become one with the grass and the moon?
Would Walt breathe the air of ancestors, long gone, never forgotten
Or hideout in the universe's shed.

Walt Whitman, my friend, oh what would you do
If the mountain itself crumbled under you?
If the world turned to dust and left all of us,
Tell me what would you do, dear Walt Whitman?

"We're connected," he said, "You and me, on this thread,
This thread between space, between blurs.
If you tug on my beard, ancient rhymes will be cleared
From my mouth, to the page, to your WORD."

Walt Whitman, Walt Whitman, oh what would you do?
"Come with me. I will show you..."

--------------------------------

On The Beach At Night Alone
 - A poem by Walt Whitman

On the beach at night alone,
As the old mother sways her to and fro, singing her husky song,
As I watch the bright stars shining--I think a thought of the clef of the universes, and of the future.
A vast similitude interlocks all,
All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns, moons, planets, comets, asteroids,
All the substances of the same, and all that is spiritual upon the same,
All distances of place, however wide,
All distances of time--all inanimate forms,
All Souls--all living bodies, though they be ever so different, or in different worlds,
All gaseous, watery, vegetable, mineral processes--the fishes, the brutes,
All men and women--me also;
All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages;
All identities that have existed, or may exist, on this globe, or any globe;
All lives and deaths--all of the past, present, future;
This vast similitude spans them, and always has spann'd, and shall forever span them, and compactly hold them, and enclose them.

--------------------------------

Happy birthday, brother.

To read last year's birthday wishes, click here.

The following book review was written by Miss Erin, Grade 10. WORD is proud to welcome Miss Erin and we hope she will bring us many insightful book reviews in the future.

Wildwood Dancing
Juliet Marillier

Jena and her four sisters have plenty of everyday worries, with their mother gone and their father ill. They do have something they can look forward to during each Full Moon: they have a portal into the Other Kingdom, the world of fairies and dwarfs. But dangers lurk there, too. When the Night People pay a visit to the fairy court and one of Jena's sisters begins to fall in love with one, Jena begins to have doubts about their monthly visits.

At first the language of the story seemed flowery and heavy, which is not necessarily a bad thing, just something you have to be in the right mood for. Once I got a little way into the book, I was completely entranced. The author has weaved an amazingly visual and absorbing tale. Jena is a very sympathetic heroine, you can feel her fear, her joy, her anger, her contentedness. In fact, she reminded me just a little of Pride and Prejudice's Lizzie Bennett. Wildwood Dancing is a thrilling and beautiful book that I couldn't stop reading.

Visit Miss Erin at her literary blog.

The following entry was written by Jessica Livingston, Associate Editor of Know Your World - Extra Magazine.

While perusing the Internet today (for research, I swear!) I came across a most disturbing article. Apparently, Tom Wayne, a man who owns a used book store, has so many books that he doesn't have the space for all of them. Libraries and thrift stores won't take the extra books--they don't have the room either. So, Tom is burning them.

Yes, this is probably a publicity stunt. To "raise awareness" about how people aren't reading. But isn't there a better way?

 

Clearly, with the proliferation of the Internet, people aren't reading books as much as they used to. (And yes, I'm aware of the irony of posting this blog on the Internet while complaining about it at the same time.) There are some really cool things online. I mean, where else can you get the biographical information about your favorite author and a site where you can watch cheese age? Good stuff! But is it really worth it if it causes the destruction of books?

 

The books that are being destroyed aren't even banned books. Not that I agree with the idea of banned books, but at least then there's a reason for the obliteration of knowledge and culture. An ignorant reason, but a reason nonetheless. Burning books for attention is just senseless.

 

So, I implore of you: Go out and buy some books! Whether it be the book you've read a thousand times or one you've always wanted to read--build up your own library. That way, there is room in book stores and libraries and thrift stores for new treasures. And innocent pages won't be led to the slaughterhouse.

 

A colleague of mine just sent me a link to a very cool site! It's called Book Mooch and it is a way to give away your old books, earn points, and get free books from other random people out there in cyberspace.

Unfortunately for me, this doesn't work very well. I hoard my books. I never let them go. Sure I'll let close friends borrow books of mine from time to time, but I have a serious problem parting with them for good. So yeah, not the site for me.

But for the average, non-lunatic reader who likes to share, this place is for you.

Check it.

Bridge to Terabithia comes out on DVD in a couple of weeks (June 19). Plenty of time to read it if you haven't already.

Watch this movie trailer for a taste of what you've been missing.

As you probably guessed by the subject line, today is Michael Chabon's birthday! Yay! Chabon is the author of Wonder Boys, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Summerland, and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (which, incidentally, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000). His new book just came out last week and it is entitled The Yiddish Policemen's Union. Look for a review of the novel here at WORD soon.

"Literature, like magic, has always been about the handling of secrets, about the pain, the destruction and the marvelous liberation that can result when they are revealed."
     - Michael Chabon

Totally unrelated: Check back here on WORD, Tonight for an exclusive interview with Geoffrey Rush, one of the stars of Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End.

WORD would like to welcome our new Associate Editor, Alicia Zadrozny to the team! We actually stole Alicia from Children's Publishing here at Reader's Digest and we're very happy to have her. Today is her first day and she's already in a blogging mood! Yah! The following entry is Alicia's take on Khaled Hosseini's latest novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns.

I am in 72nd place and I'm proud of it. It's not really a race that I'm in. Rather, I am eagerly waiting to get my hands on a reserved library copy of A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Many other people will have the chance before I do. This much-anticipated second novel by Khaled Hosseini comes out today. In 2003, Hosseini wowed the world with The Kite Runner. I was more than "wowed" by this story about two Afghan boys and their troubled friendship. I was moved. I was awed. I was blown away. I remember hearing from so many different kinds of people who felt the same way. I was amazed how this book even touched "non-readers." They too would sing its praises.

Of course, many people have high hopes for A Thousand Splendid Suns. Today, I read an excerpt of the novel and my excitement remains strong. This time we get a woman's perspective. The novel tells the tale of two women who live through three decades of Taliban tyranny and civil war in Afghanistan. From the morsel I sampled, A Thousand Splendid Suns promises a rich read, complete with delicious descriptions and endearing characters.

Well, I have just got so worked up that I may have to head to a bookstore tonight instead of waiting. Then again, this book is going to fly off the shelves. And I might end up being number 72 in line, anyway.

Well, here we are.

In case you haven't heard, our entire staff here at Weekly Reader has moved to Pleasantville, NY. We are now part of Reader's Digest. Yah! Click here to see a picture of the building. I'm sure there are better images out there. If you know of one, please let me know.

Today, well, today we are the new kids on the block. This place is pretty big and we are getting our bearings slowly but surely. A bunch of us ate lunch in the cafeteria and it was quite good. Although, I opened a ketchup packet the wrong way and it shot out all over me. Grr. But it's all good!

So yeah, check out the Reader's Digest web site (the link is above) when you get a chance. I'm still unpacking but I just wanted to give you a heads up on our new mailing address.

READ Magazine or Writing Magazine
Weekly Reader Publishing
1 Reader's Digest Road
Pleasantville, NY 10570

And, of course, you can always email us at word@weeklyreader.com.

-Slightly Off-Centered

Yesterday was the final day of the International Reading Association (IRA) conference. I don't have anything really exciting to report because I spent pretty much the entire day in the Weekly Reader booth. I didn't meet any authors or go to any lectures because I was chillin' at the home base, mixing it up with teachers from all walks of life. And that, in itself, was something special.

I'm about ready to leave now. The four of us that headed out here together in an oversized minivan just five days ago are ready to pile back in and groove on back to the states. Canada was truly a blast, eh? I thank you for your good will and best wishes.

Before we leave this fine country, we're stopping by a small, mostly unknown place called Niagara Falls. I hear they've got, like, a bunch of water or something? I dunno. That's just what they tell me. ;)

So yeah, overall, the trip was just jam packed with inspiration and ideas. Gotta give a great big shout out to IRA for making it all possible. How does one give a shout out? Um.

YO IRA..... WORD!

Yup, that oughtta do it.

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.
Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."
     - Grouch Marx

Coming soon to WORD: More student writing than you can shake a stick at! How's that for barking up the right tree???

Wow.

You know what? The International Reading Association (IRA) conference is superb! I cannot begin to tell you how much fun we are having here! ... oh wait, yes I can. And it starts now.

So today was Tuesday, the penultimate day of the show. And, true to form, the day started out miserable and quickly moved to fantastic... and here's how. (Editor's note: The following paragraph is boring. Please skip ahead to the **starred** paragraph to read the good stuff.)

I was scheduled to work the Weekly Reader Booth at 8:00 a.m. I arrived at the convention hall in plenty of time, but of course, just as I was about to gear up to talk to my first teacher of the day, I realized that I had left my business cards back at the hotel. It seems like a minor thing, but really, they are essential for making contacts. So I ran back to our rental van and attempted to drive back to the hotel. I say "attempted" because the traffic back to the hotel was horrendous! I was on the verge of a meltdown in rush hour traffic because I knew that there was a very important lecture I wanted to attend at 9:00. I somehow managed to maintain my rage and turn the van around and head back to the convention hall. Grrr! Oh I was so mad! I can't even tell you.

--------------------------

**I arrived back at the convention center JUST in time to power walk to my lecture with not a second to spare. I sat down just in time for the beginning of a speech by Mo Willems and Brian Selznick.

Willems is an author/illustrator who has penned and drawn gorgeous children's books such as Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus!, Edwina, The Dinosaur That Didn't Know She Was Extinct, and Today I Will Fly!

Selznick is the author/illustrator of many young adult novels including The Houdini Box, The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins, and most recently, the highly acclaimed tour de force, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. (We recently featured "Hugo Cabret" in Writing's April/May issue. Maybe you saw it on page 4 in Write Stuff?)

Together, Willems and Selznick spoke about their love of writing and drawing and how they go through their creative processes to come up with fascinating new ways to tell a story! And they spoke with such humor and such love of their work that it really put their captive audience on the edge of their seats. Willems is an author who's sense of humor and love of life is impossible to ignore. "When I was a child," Willems said, "I was, what is now called, a 'reluctant reader'. back then, it was called 'a boy'." He then went on to assure us he was kidding. Boys love to read just as much as girls do. For sure.

Willems' sheer enthusiasm and good will erupted out of him and we, the audience, were mesmerized. He even conducted a draw-along session where he taught us all how to draw a pigeon. (Mine was a little off, but then again, most of what I do is a little off.)

When it was Selznick's turn to speak, he came out shining. His award-winning new book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a young adult novel the likes of which the world has never seen. It's "part book, part graphic novel, part movie, part historical fiction, part everything." Reading "Hugo Cabret" is akin to living it. I would love to tell you about the plot but there's just too much else to talk about. You can learn all about this extraordinary book by clicking here.

--------------------------

After that INCREDIBLE experience, I went back and worked the booth some more. I met with many fascinating teachers (maybe one of them was yours?) and I got a lot of great ideas for READ magazine! Look for great things next year! And, as always, you can ALWAYS contact us and let us know what you think of our magazine (and Writing, too) by emailing us at word@weeklyreader.com. And while I'm on the subject of plugging our stuff... have you checked out our Student Writing Showcase yet? I mentioned it the other day... anyway, check it out if you get a chance. It's only just the beginning of what we want to do with YOUR stories and poems!

--------------------------

I MET NAOMI SHIHAB NYE!! She's the author of The Flag of Childhood: Poems From the Middle East, This Same Sky: A Collection of Poems from Around the World, and What Have You Lost?, among many others.

Ms. Nye is sooooooo excited to be.... oh wait... maybe I shouldn't announce this just yet? Hmm... ok, well I really see no harm in it. So check it out! This past year, Writing's student writing contest called "Take Me Away" was judged by the fabulous Ursula K. Le Guin. For next year's writing contest, I am pleased to announce that we have signed on the glorious Naomi Shihab Nye to be our guest judge! How cool is that?! Ms. Nye was all smiles when we talked about it today! And she can't wait to read your work! The theme of the contest won't be announced until September, but I can tell you this with confidence: you're gonna like it. :)

--------------------------

So after THAT happy experience of meeting Ms. Nye, I went to hear S.E. Hinton speak in front of a HUGE audience! Ms. Hinton is the author of the classic novel, The Outsiders. It is a timeless tale of a young boy named Ponyboy who is stuck in a gang of "Greasers." But are the Greasers really that bad? Or are they just misunderstood? What makes a bad boy bad? Who decides? I don't know, you tell me.

Ms. Hinton started writing The Outsiders when she was only 15 years old!! The story was based on her personal experiences in school. There were two sets of gangs, The Greasers and The Socs (or "Socials"). And she was fed up with both of them. She wrote her anger and disappointment and it turned into art... and it has stood the test of time.

During her speech, Ms. Hinton did speak at lengths about writing and how hard it can be. She said that the year she was writing The Outsiders, she "got a D in Creative Writing." It just goes to show that anyone can write! Even near-failing writers! You just have to find something you love to write about and get it down!

"After writing The Outsiders, I took a break," Ms. Hinton said, "When I finally came back and decided to write again, I realized... that I didn't know how to write! I couldn't write on a typewriter... I couldn't even write letters to my friends!" She sighed under the weight of the memory. "Many writers will tell you that there's no such thing as 'Writer's Block'. Well I'm here to tell you that yes Ma'am, there is."

So to make a long story short... there is always hope. All you have to do is do it. So do it. Get to it. And send it to us. Click on submit your writing in the right hand column or send your writing directly to word@weeklyreader.com. What have you got to lose?

Nothing. Exactly.

Goodnight Toronto!!!!

-WORD

Day Two, Sunday
We set up our Weekly Reader booth here at the International Reading Association (IRA) conference. It took pretty much all day and was more or less uneventful until, near the end of the day, one of our walls came crashing down. To make a short story shorter, we got a new wall. Yah!

Day Three, Today
The day started out slowly. The hotel coffee was wretched, and the ride to the convention center was filled with trying to cope with the fact that the coffee was wretched. But as soon as we got to our booth, happy faces were genuinely turned on as we greeted teachers who came from all across North America.

Many of them were very familiar with READ and Writing magazines and they were ecstatic to learn about our brand new electronic issue! Wait, this deserves a whole new section here....

CHECK IT OUT!!
The first annual Student Writing Showcase is here! Get on the phone! Tell all your friends! Sing it loud and clear! What is it? We will have a future blog dedicated to that. But for now, see for yourself! Click the link above or go to www.weeklyreader.com/showcase. And start thinking about what you want to submit for next year's Showcase. Because, oh yes, we'll be doin' it again! Count on it.

Day Three, Today (cont.)
When I wasn't "working the booth" and showing off our magazines, I also got a chance to see Lisa Klein, author of Ophelia, speak about writing, reading, and teaching Shakespeare. Ophelia was the love interest of Hamlet. In Shakespeare's play, Ophelia goes mad (crazy) and drowns herself in a river. In Klein's book, she takes the character and rewrites her part. Ophelia does not actually die in this daring, innovative new novel, but rather, she actually fakes her own death and escapes from the kingdom of Elsinore to live a new life. This is fantastic stuff! It's so cool when new authors can take old works and re-write them in ways that readers of the past had only contemplated, don't you think?

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," Klein said in her speech. "I often ask myself, 'What would Shakespeare do?'" Ha! Who hasn't? :)

If you haven't read this book, you have to check it out. But if it slips your mind or you just have too many things going on now (what with prom, summer vaca being almost here, cracking down for finals, etc.), fear not! READ magazine is going to attempt to do something very cool with this book in the coming year. Details to come...

I also met Jane Yolen today. She is the author of many books including Pay The Piper:A Rock 'n' Roll Fairy Tale. We have collaborated with her on a number of projects over the years and most recently, she read a fairy tale written by a student writer on none other than (you guessed it!) Student Writing Showcase!

And if that weren't enough to fill a whole week (let alone one day!), I also met with the hip cats over at Flocabulary! And yes, I understand that saying "hip cats" makes me sound like a complete poser, all apologies. But these guys are great! You absolutely have to check out their web site! Shakespeare as Hip-Hop?!? Shut up! Awesome!

And speaking of fantastic web sites, I also met a guy from Teaching Matters. I have so much to say about this organization that I will have to wait until a later date to get into an in-depth discussion here, but for now, giver their site a well-deserved gander!

There's just so much cool stuff goin' on at IRA this year but unfortunately, I have to get some sleep now so I can be fresh again in the morning.

Until then,
WORD!

I'm sailing away today, to a new job and opportunity. Change isn't easy, but every time I balk at the notion of it, I'm reminded of a poem from Edgar Lee Masters's Spoon River Anthology.

If you haven't bumped into it yet, Spoon River Anthology is a must-read collection of poems by the inhabitants of a fictional town, Spoon River, in Illinois. Each poem is an epitaph by the people of that town, and together they reveal many, many secrets, and tell one big story. It is said that many of the characters in this poetry collection were inspired by various people Masters came to know throughout his life.

So, anyway, the poem is a short and simple one:

64. George Gray

I HAVE studied many times
The marble which was chiseled for me—
A boat with a furled sail at rest in a harbor.
In truth it pictures not my destination
But my life.	5
For love was offered me and I shrank from its disillusionment;
Sorrow knocked at my door, but I was afraid;
Ambition called to me, but I dreaded the chances.
Yet all the while I hungered for meaning in my life.
And now I know that we must lift the sail	10
And catch the winds of destiny
Wherever they drive the boat.
To put meaning in one’s life may end in madness,
But life without meaning is the torture
Of restlessness and vague desire—	15
It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.

When I graduated from high school, my friend Gift inscribed and painted this poem for me, and gave it to me in a simple wooden frame. This frame is one of those things that I have carried around with me wherever life has taken me.

Those lines: "I know that we must lift the sail / And catch the winds of destiny/ Wherever they drive the boat" ... well, they remind me everyday that I must not be afraid of change, of taking chances, and of going out on a limb ... and that's a good thing to be reminded of, isn't it? I think George Gray would agree.

I hate the word goodbye. Don't you? It has so much finality attached to it. So, I'll turn to other words in other languages or from other times to take leave of my WORD comrades:

A bien tot - French, literally translated as "in good time" .... i.e. see you around
Au revoir - French, literally translated as "to be seen again" .... i.e. see you soon
Farewell - from Middle English "fare thee well," may all go well with you
Phir Milenge - Hindi/Urdu, literally translated as "we'll meet again"

The world is a small place so ... yes, we will meet again -- maybe when we cross each other on our respective sail boats on the ocean of life ... or on the page, if nowhere else.

The next time you're in Cumbria... wait... where's Cumbria? It's all the way over in jolly ol' England, on the northwest tip of the country. They call it the Lake District and it's one of the most beautiful places to be inspired.

William Wordsworth was one of many poets who wrote about lovely Cumberland (as Cumbria was called in his time). He captured the glory of his home in a poem called, I wandered lonely as a cloud. And now, 200 years after Wordsworth's time, there's a new generation in town.

Read William Wordsworth's poem and then, check out the video below it. It's an updated version, to say the very least.

"I wandered lonely as a cloud"
   - William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

That was the old school version. Pretty wasn't it?

Here's the new. Check it:

Heh. Word.

Which do you prefer? William Wordsworth's poem or the video rap? Why? Post your comment below. 

AND... to learn more about silly squirrels that may or may not rap, click here, here, here, or here.

The following blog entry was written by Meredith Matthews, the editor of Current Health magazine.

April is National Poetry Month! It's time to reread your favorite poems, share them with others, and maybe write some while you're at it. One person who has taken that sentiment to heart is Stephanie Hemphill.

 

She recently published a book called Your Own, Sylvia. It is a biography of the highly acclaimed poet Sylvia Plath. But interestingly, it's told in poetry, adopting the voices of people who knew Plath, and pondering what might have been going on in the poet's head at various points in her life. Hemphill offers a series of poems that take the reader from Plath's birth in 1932, through her life and writing, and all the way to her suicide in 1963.

 

The poems are sometimes amusing, sometimes striking, but they all attempt to communicate what Plath was like at various points in her life. The reading of each poem, as well as the biographical note that explains it, gives the reader immediate and poignant insight. It makes Plath's life story more vivid and accessible than a full-length biography could.

 

If you're a fan of Plath, try this book on for size and see if you want to add it to your collection. (You'll also want to pick up The Bell Jar, her semi-autobiographical novel.) If you've never read any of Plath's poetry before, National Poetry Month is a great time to start!

 

Much of her work is edgy, marked by anger and violence, but she also wrote poems of immense and simple beauty, that anyone can appreciate. A good example is the poem “Morning Song,” essentially a love note to a child. Even if you don't usually like poetry, you'll probably be smitten by these lovely lyrics.

Slowly, the mystery is beginning to unravel. The media and police are beginning to piece together the puzzle of who, what, when, where, how, and most importantly WHY. In the meantime, students at VT are having to pull themselves together -- they are in the eye of the storm, the center of attention, and the victims of a tragedy that is simultaneously personal and public. It's not an easy place to be, and I am repeatedly struck by their dignity and courage.

Last night, when I got home from work, I watched several hours of the news, my heart in my mouth and my mind unable to wrap itself around the surreal outcome and occurrence that took place on a picturesque, esteemed college campus. While watching the news, I caught a clip from the campus service and convocation that took place yesterday - it was a snippet of a speech by poet Nikki Giovanni  who is also a professor at Virginia Tech. Many of you are familiar with Giovanni - she is a prolific poet, author of many children and young adult books. Most recently her picture book Rosa,about Rosa Parks, won a Caldecott Honor ...

Here is a transcript of Giovanni's speech:

"We are Virginia Tech.

We are sad today and we will be sad for quite awhile. WE are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.

We are Virginia Tech.

We are strong enough to know when to cry and sad enough to know we must laugh again.

We are Virginia Tech.

We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did not deserve it but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, but neither do the invisible children walking the night to avoid being captured by a rogue army. Neither does the baby elephant watching his community be devastated for ivory; neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.

We are Virginia Tech.

The Hokier Nation embraces our own with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong and brave and innocent and unafraid. We are better than we think, not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imagination and the possibility we will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears, through all this sadness.

We are the Hokies.

We will prevail, we will prevail.

We are Virginia Tech."      [source: TPM ]

This is a poetic call for unity, healing, and dealing ... and probably the most powerful reflection I've come across over the past few days.

After reading this speech, I went looking for more of Giovanni's poetry. I came across "Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day"  which you might already know. I think it really sheds light on this moment in history.

You know, it helps not to be alone during days as dark as these -- and literature and poetry, as always, has the power to pull us together. So, I invite you to read Nikki Giovanni's speech and her poem "Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day"  and to share your thoughts and feelings about these writings and the VT tragedy with us and other students in the WORD community. Click on the {comment} button below and talk to us.

 I really hope to hear from you.

On Wednesday, the world lost a great writer. Kurt Vonnegut is best known for his anti-war novel, Slaughterhouse-Five. It is a fictional book based on the fire-bombing of Dresden, a series of air-strikes that Vonnegut himself witnessed as an American soldier in Germany during World War II. The novel's main character, Billy Pilgrim, lives through the horrors of those few days over and over again, as he remains unstuck in time.

On hearing of the recent author's passing, Joel Bleifuss, editor of In These Times said that Vonnegut was "a man who combined a wicked sense of humor and sort of steady moral compass, who was always sort of looking at the big picture of the things that were most important."

I have read about half of Vonnegut's extensive and impressive collection of science fiction novels. It's nice to know that, even though the writer may be gone, we can always visit with his alter-ego, Kilgore Trout.

A few quotes from the late Kurt Vonnegut:

Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter can be said to remedy anything. - KV

A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved. - KV

I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, "The Beatles did." - KV

All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is. Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all, as I've said before, bugs in amber. - Slaughterhouse-Five

I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over.  Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center... Big, undreamed-of things -- the people on the edge see them first. - Player Piano

New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become. - Breakfast of Champions

...and so it goes.