Author: Rebecca Joines Schinsky

The Kids Are All Right

What began as a first-grade class project has become a best-selling book! Last year, Nia Mya Reese of Birmingham, Alabama wrote a book about how to deal with an troublesome sibling. She and her parents turned it into a summer project and recently published the finished product, How to Deal With and Care For Your Annoying Little Brother, and it has flown up the charts. At this writing, Nia Mya holds the #1 and #3 spots in the “siblings” and “school-age children” categories respectively. We’re not sure how many copies have sold, but we do know this: Nia Mya, you’re our hero of the week.

Black Eyed Peas to Publish Original Graphic Novel

Entertainment Weekly reported this week that the Black Eyed Peas (yes, Fergie and the gang) have partnered with Marvel to write an original graphic novel. Masters of the Sun – The Zombie Chronicles follows hip-hop fan Zulu-X and his crew as they take on an alien God who attacks Los Angeles and turns the residents into zombies. Aside from the fact that this whole shebang sounds like it was spit out of the Comics Industry Mad Libs Engine (and Marvel Editor in Chief Axel Alonso’s dubious claim that “Few artists have done more to embed hip-hop in popular culture than will.i.am and the Black Eyed Peas”), this one is weird and interesting enough that my curiosity might overwhelm my extreme side-eye. The cover is pretty rad, too.

Pride and Prejudice and Neo-Nazis

Speaking of unexpected combinations and extreme side-eye! Members of the alt-right movement have begun quoting Jane Austen and referring to her novels as “blueprints for a white nationalist “ethno-state.” (Whatever the hell that means.) Anyone who has actually read Austen knows that she wasn’t really about that white male patriarchal system, so I guess the real headline here is (shocker) neo-Nazis don’t read.

Thanks to Things I Should Have Known by Claire LaZebnik for sponsoring This Week in Books.

From the author of Epic Fail comes the story of Chloe Mitchell: a girl on a quest to find love for her autistic sister, Ivy. Ethan, Ivy’s classmate, seems like the perfect match. It’s unfortunate that his older brother, David, is one of Chloe’s least favorite people but Chloe can deal, especially when she realizes that David is as devoted to Ethan as she is to Ivy. Winsome and witty, this is a novel about sisterhood, autism, and first love. Things I Should Have Known will steal readers’ hearts and remind us all of a different kind of normal.

A Chapter a Day Keeps the Reaper at Bay 

A new longitudinal study out of the Yale University School of Public Health indicates that people who read books live longer (in this case, 23 months longer on average) than those who do not. Researchers have been following the same group of more 3,563 adults aged 50+ for over a decade and speculate that the cognitive processes involved specifically in reading books provide a “survival advantage.” If you’re wondering about confounding factors, rest assured that the result holds even when controlling for income and education level. This study defined readers as those who read books for more than 3.5 hours per week, but it indicates that even 30 minutes a day can make a difference. Books: they’re what the doctor ordered!

American Library Association Updates Fact-Checking for the Trump Era

Not sure if what you’re reading is fake news or alternative facts? The CRAAP test, long used by librarians and educators to help students and patrons evaluate the reliability of sources, is here for you. (The oh-so-appropriate acronym stands for Currency, Relevance, Authority, Appropriate, Purpose.) In light of the President’s repeated dismissal of legitimate news sources and his complicated relationship with facts, the ALA is updating the test’s criteria to encourage added scrutiny of the authority component, determining if the creator/writer of the news source is actually an expert.

“Book” Your Next Airbnb Adventure

Peeping other people’s bookshelves is one of the unsung pleasures of staying in homes instead of hotels when you travel. This week, BuzzFeed rounded up 18 bookalicious Airbnbs around the world, guaranteed to satisfy all your readerly voyeuristic urges. Exhibit A: this bonkers gorgeous bedroom in a Garden District mansion in New Orleans.

Thanks to The Book That Made Me, edited by Judith Ridge, for sponsoring This Week in Books.

What if you could look inside your favorite authors’ heads and see the book that led them to become who they are today? What was the book that made them fall in love, or made them understand something for the first time? What was the book that made them feel challenged in ways they never knew they could be, emotionally, intellectually, or politically? What book made them readers, or made them writers, or made them laugh, think, or cry? Join thirty-one top children’s and young adult authors as they explore the books, stories, and experiences that changed them as readers — for good.