Have I got some links for you. Mainly you can thank my mom, who inundated my mailbox this week with lit-related linkage.
Firstly, here’s a standby for anyone who’s done web research in children’s and YA lit: Vandergrift’s Children’s Literature Page. I found this when researching an essay for my Craft of the Young Adult Novel class during grad school, and it contains a veritable plethora of information, bibliographies, web links and scholarly resources. Topics are discussed in a very socially and educationally relevant manner–a great resource.
Pining away with Potter-mania? If you can’t find enough little secrets and fun tidbits to keep you busy on J.K. Rowling’s personal webpage–I was fascinated by her biography–you’ll just about get lost in the Harry Potter Lexicon. It’s like Cliff Notes for Harry Potter. There’s enough stuff here to fill, like, six volumes. Oh, wait…
The YA Librarians’ Homepage is meant to help librarians put together resources for young adults at their libraries, but it contains a lot of great links of general interest, on everything from publishers to journals to graphic novels.
Something I never knew: The song “Cover of the Rolling Stone” was written by Shel Silverstein, much-beloved children’s poet. Recently, reports NPR, a new CD was released with some of his most popular songs and poems, plus a new book of previously unpublished poems. If you’ve never had the privilege of hearing a recording of him reading his poetry, you’re missing out–go to the NPR page and click the links under “Hear Silverstein’s Works.” (A parenthetical story–in fifth grade we had to memorize a poem every few weeks or so and recite it in front of the class, and I managed to slip a whole bunch of Shel Silverstein poems in there. I’m not sure anyone appreciated it but me…)
Lastly, there’s a brief review of the recent SCBWI Los Angeles conference posted on the main SCBWI site. Members can view some session notes by logging in, clicking on “Events,” then “Annual Summer Conference,” then “Members: Click here for Conference Notes.” I will also be posting some more thoughts on the conference in coming weeks. (Yeah, I know, I promised that a while ago…what can I say, I’m really behind!)
Dude, ever since I heard that Led Zepplin had this whole song in which they referenced The Lord of the Rings, I’ve been just kind of blinking over the cross-overs between what I consider to be sort of old-person art, and stuff that’s more immediate. I’m always astounded, though I shouldn’t be. One day this could be you! Hah.