Author: Jamie Canaves

Not A Good Look For Disney

We cheered when Disney+ announced they were adapting Becky Albertalli’s novel into a series, Love, Simon. But now we’re booing as the streaming company no longer wants to air the show: “Disney felt many issues explored on the show, including alcohol use and sexual exploration, would not fit in with the family-friendly content on Disney Plus.” Hulu, owned by Disney and Comcast in a joint venture, will air the 10-episode season in June.

Library of Congress Acquires 100,000 New Pictures

For the first time, a Washington, D.C. institution has acquired a comprehensive archive of work by an African American photographer: Shawn Walker. His photographs, negatives, and transparencies show life in Harlem from 1963 to the present. “I am so satisfied that this work has found a home in such a prestigious institution and can finally be shared with the world.”

Project Luminous Revealed

More Star Wars books! Spanning across genres and age categories, Project Luminous will release a series of books, in phases, set in the High Republic Era, 200 years before The Skywalker Saga. The first five books have been announced individually written by Justina Ireland, Daniel José Older, Charles Soule, Cavan Scott, Claudia Gray.

Who Should Decide Which Books Are Allowed In Prison?

It’s not just schools where books are being banned, prisons in the U.S. routinely ban books to the detriment of inmates. Books that teach languages like Arabic and American Sign Language are banned along with books about justice and showing POC/marginalized voices humanity. Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf however is not banned in Kansas state prisons. The policies behind the bans are not transparent and totally inconsistent.

Jane Goodall’s New Book

Jane Goodall, the primatologist known for her research work with chimpanzees in Africa, has teamed up with The Book Of Joy author Doug Abrams for an upcoming book: The Book Of Hope. “Through both Jane’s observation and the latest scientific research, readers will experience the resilience of nature to recover from the harm we have inflicted and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of loss and devastation.”

R.L. Stine + Garbage Pail Kids!

No, I didn’t just randomly throw darts at a board filled with pop culture things and come away with those two. The Goosebumps author R.L. Stine will be writing a middle grade series based on Garbage Pail Kids! The first book, Welcome to Smellville, will be out this fall. Yes, there are stickers and the cover looks exactly as you’d imagine!

Typewriters Make Comeback With Kids

Time to feel old! A shop in Philadelphia teaches a typewriting class and kids are showing up and enjoying learning to type like they did in the olden days. “As one girl in the video explains, she likes how typewriting forces you to focus on what you’re writing because you won’t be able to easily fix your mistakes.” The grass is always greener… I guess.

Fiction Matters

The HBO series adaptation of the Watchmen comic taught a moment in history that many were unaware of: the Tulsa Race Massacre in 1921, when a white mob descended on a predominantly Black neighborhood killing hundreds of Black people and leaving thousands homeless. Now it seems the show’s opening scenes may have spotlighted one of the country’s worst moments, moving schools to finally officially teach it. “Oklahoma’s education department will provide the framework of a curriculum in April that’s designed to provide ‘extra support and resources’ when teaching students about the massacre. It will be officially incorporated into lesson plans beginning in the fall.”

Manners For Kids

A medieval conduct book for kids, The Lytille Childrenes Lytil Boke, meant to teach children table manners (Don’t burp or pick your nose!) has now been digitized as part of the British Library’s new children’s literature website, Discovering Children’s Books. The site also has “original manuscripts, interviews and drafts by authors from Lewis Carroll to Jacqueline Wilson.” What a time to be alive.

Dan Brown’s First Picture Book

You may know Dan Brown for The Da Vinci Code and his thriller series starring Robert Langdon–Tom Hanks in the films–but he’s now venturing into children’s book author territory with his first picture book Wild Symphony, illustrated by Susan Batori. And there’s more: the book will be accompanied by a classical music album also by Dan Brown who is a musician.

Rage Baking

Simon & Schuster just published Rage Baking: The Transformative Power of Flour, Fury, and Women’s Voices as a collection of essays and recipes by many women giving voice to the political act of “rage baking.” Problem is that Tangerine Jones’s voice isn’t in the book, or even acknowledged, even though her social media handles and website are all “ragebaking.” Jones started using the phrase, hashtag included, in 2015 when she began using baking as self care because “Being black in America means you’re solid in the knowledge that folks don’t give a true flying fuck about you or anyone who looks like you.”

2019 Bram Stoker Awards

Looking for your next horror or dark fiction read? Perfect timing, the 2019 Bram Stoker Awards finalists have just been announced! Go forth and read with your dark little hearts. Ps: Five Midnights is getting a sequel!!

Book That Should Have Been Titled Vagina Reissued 17 Years Later

In 2003, Catherine Blackledge published The Story of V, having lost the battle to have her informative history of the vagina book titled Vagina. Times have changed enough that the reissue couldn’t be titled Vagina, because it would have gotten lost amongst similarly titled books, so instead Blackledge settled on Raising the Skirt: The Unsung Power of the Vagina–that new cover, I screamed! The Guardian has a great piece on why the book was originally written, a look at the author, changes since, and the reissue.

Digital Libraries Continue To Be Amazing

Want to scroll through pretty science and nature images? Looking for a nice flower print? A tattoo design? The Biodiversity Heritage Library has an amazing digitized collection online ranging in category from A History of Cats: 1858-1922 to Women in Natural History.

New Musical! New Musical!

Co-writing team Kristen and Bobby Lopez, known for writing the film scores for Frozen and Coco, have set their sites on their next project: The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang. They’re working on the music for the musical adaptation along with playwright Amy Herzog. So exciting!

Apple Calls For Recall & Destruction Of Tell-All Book

Former German App Store manager Tom Sadowski has a tell-all book released in Germany, App Store Confidential, that Apple claims violates employee confidentiality agreements. They’ve hired lawyers who have ordered “to cease deliveries of book orders, to recall all copies of the book that are already in circulation, and to destroy all manuscripts of the book.”

LeBron James Adds Children’s Book Author To Resume

I Promise by LeBron James and illustrated by Nina Mata is a picture book releasing this year named after the elementary school James founded in 2018. “’Books have the ability to teach, inspire, and bring people together,’ said James in a statement.” We’re also looking forward to him publishing a middle-grade novel next year!

Penguin’s Going Green

Bertelsmann, Penguin Random House’s parent company, announced that it would be carbon neutral by 2030. Now Markus Dohle, PRH global CEO, has sent a letter outlining PRH’s role in helping to achieve Bertelsmann’s goal. From reducing its carbon emissions, aiming to be fully green energy in two years, and saying “’we are fully on track’ to reach the publisher’s goal of sourcing 100% of its paper from certified mills.”

Israeli Librarians Win Wikipedia Contest

The Wikipedia Library and the International Federation of Library Associations hold a biannual competition, One Librarian, One Reference aka #1Lib1Ref, which asks librarians around the world to create new Wikipedia pages and add references to update existing ones. Israeli librarians took first place for making 4,700 edits in three weeks. The awards aren’t based on the location of the librarians but rather the language.

True Grit Author Passed Away

Whether you know about the teen girl who set out to avenge her father’s murder from the novel or either film adaptation (there’s 2!), the story of True Grit is thanks to author Charles Portis, who passed away in Little Rock, Arkansas at the age of 86. The elusive author left us some exceptional work that we’re forever grateful for.

Amateur Porn Filming Not Welcome In Library–Obviously

An unidentified woman apparently filmed a ten minute pornographic film in and around a Santa Monica, California public library during business hours–including boasting about not getting caught. “Children don’t need to be exposed to this. If you want to do porn, stick to the hotels.”

Gulliver’s Travels Fanfiction Was A Thing In 1700s

I don’t know what life event would require you to know the trivia that Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels inspired readers to create fan art and fanfiction but now you know and you’re welcome. Fans delighted–or cringed-at the idea of Lemuel Gulliver receiving a Lilliputian enema and Gulliver’s wife complaining in poems about her husband’s absence.

Bookstore Donates To Mermaids When Customers Buy JK Rowling’s Books

The Second Shelf, a Soho, London feminist bookstore, said when a customer buys one of JK Rowling’s books it makes a donation to Mermaids, the British charity and advocacy organization that supports gender variant and transgender youth. The article explains it’s in response to Rowling’s transphobic tweets.

Celebrity Death Prompts Book Donations

Caroline Flack’s death has led to a flooding of book donations being offered to anyone who feels like they may need Matt Haig’s memoir Reasons to Stay Alive. “I’m getting thousands of DMs from people who need the book, and who are telling me why,” bookseller Simon Key said on Monday. “This book has made a difference – lots of people have said it saved their lives. And this is not just about people getting the book, it’s about how they’re getting it. They’ve been brave enough to ask for it, and that’s a step forward.”