The minute I sit down to write a quick post, the DHL guy is here with a copy editing package. Read this as I wrote it — full speed ahead, taking only half-breaths at punctuation — Ready… GO!
NPR has done a fabulous profile on Walter Dean Myers. Anyone who has seen this man in person knows that he is engaging and amusing, and dynamic. This is a great piece, and concludes with a excerpt from his novel GAME. Take a peek.
There’s that trademark black hat!
Here’s a Pratchett sighting from the Book Festival in Edinburgh. No, not mine, unfortunately — but a reader and book enthusiast called The Yarn Junkie. Apparently 111 knitters and crocheters (what?! And they didn’t ask ME!?) made this loving Discworld tribute in afghan form. Don’t you just LOVE IT when books inspire this kind of affection and concern? Yay for the “Pratchgan,” indeed Pratchett “aten’t dead.” Interested parties can go to Yarn Junkie’s site and check out the whole project. (Hat tip to SF Signal.)
Okay — seriously scary [EDITED to add: 19th century] Russian language stories for naughty children, via mental_floss. Lots of sharp teeth!
“Just wanted to try it once?” Seriously? Big A, little a talks copying behavior from YA books… Shoplifting, to be specific.
Okay, writers: is your job to reflect moral behavior or real life? Discuss amongst yourselves… Or something else? Discuss amongst yourselves…
great minds think alike…i linked to the NPR piece, too. SO GOOD.
Walter Dean Myers=Awesome.
Russian book linked to=not so much.
There are a few good Russian kids books (not a ton, but still a few), and this one is not one of them. This is 19th century verse. If we looked a much of 19th century Anglo-American verse, it would seem as ridiculous as this. The author of this blog “translates” 2 lines of 14, and then badly. The other 12 lines or so resemble what we see in our very own American books.
So, yes, this Russian book stinks, but it is not exemplary of Russian children’s lit or of Russian lit. (I say this as a person who hates Russia right now very, very much. I’m a person who misses the Russia I knew in the early 1990s and is afraid I will never ever see it again.)
Also, another P.S.: This 13-year-old gave me the YA excuse “seriously.” Sad, but true. I’m still flummoxed.
(And, obviously, Russia today hurts my heart. This is my field of study, my love…and it’s as gone as it was under Alexander II, under Stalin, under Ivan the Terrible.)
Aargh: replace Alexander II with Nicholas II. Typos, galore!
Okay, so this book is 1991, but still…a bad example of Russian kids lit 🙂 Think the plastic surgery book, for example 🙂
Hi Kel, I thought this was an old book — like a Grimm Brothers book. I didn’t at all assume that it was an example of literature for today’s Russian children! I shall amend the text to say “old.”
I imagine the Russian crisis is indeed on your mind. For us here, it’s just bewildering, and all happened so fast…