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I’ve written for Panels before about how Yu-Gi-Oh! is directly responsible for my comics obsession, so I couldn’t allow a milestone anniversary to pass without drawing up my own guide to the sequential art of the franchise. Yu-Gi-Oh! Wimpy, lonely Yugi has no talent for anything other than playing games: dice games, tabletop RPGs, and the hot new property at his grandfather’s game shop, a deckbuilder called Magic & Wizards (changed to Duel Monsters in the English translation to avoid raised eyebrows from Magic: the Gathering publisher Wizards of the Coast)....

Two of the three books were returned to the collection. A third, though, has now been formally challenged. A parent of a Cedar Heights Middle School student filed a reconsideration form for Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts) by LC Rosen. The complainant, a former employee of Kent School District, highlights many of the same passages seen across the country for the book, calling the book inappropriate for a middle school....

Founder of Jacaranda Books Arts Music, Valerie Branded, said that the cost of all formats of books were likely to rise 10-20%. This rise in price is likely to hit independent publishers harder, as they tend to have smaller print runs and aren’t able to benefit from discounts that come from ordering bigger print runs like larger publishing companies. The potential rise in book prices comes at a time when disposable income has lessened....

Appointed annually by the Librarian of Congress, the Poet Laureate usually engages in a community-oriented project with national reach. The current Poet Laureate, Joy Harjo — the first Native American to hold the position — has worked to shed light on Native American poetry and how it adds to the overall tapestry of American poetry. She has worked on the first historically comprehensive anthology of Native American poetry in When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through....

I love translated literature. But even the best translations leave something behind. So much of language is steeped in the culture and history of a place. Some things can’t be translated — not exactly, not truly. This isn’t good or bad. It’s just the way language works. When I come across words in a language I don’t speak in a book I’m reading, it’s a little reminder of that expansiveness....

It was only later that I realized that the main difference between me and the rest of the people at the table was about 20 years and our expendable incomes. Not to be extremely Millennial, but a nice, quiet night in that doesn’t cost much sounds much more relaxing than planning a quick weekend trip somewhere expensive. Puzzles are remarkably inexpensive if you consider the cost per hour spent engaged....

After some early career bumps in the road, Schwab’s 2015–17 breakthrough fantasy series Shades of Magic turned the tables. Alongside the series’ growth, her first adult novel Vicious (2013) emerged as a sleeper hit, as well. Along the way, she has become beloved by fans for her elaborate worlds, accessible language, and leap-off-the-page characters who are anything but typical. Which is a long-winded way to say that 2018 is the year of V....

Ultimately, all happy endings are welcome, and a romance doesn’t have to solve the world’s problems to be worthy. Sometimes you want to witness the power of love; sometimes you want to smash the dolls together and make them kiss. That said, what makes the very best romances so special? Playing Catch-Up Before getting too far afield, I want to note of the state of romance. The Ripped Bodice’s annual diversity report is telling, and also just one facet of the problem....

We live in a world with constant literary licensing. It’s impossible to say if children’s books are always acquired with licensing in mind, but it’s clear that some of the most successful children’s book characters have been licensed out to plush toys, toothbrushes, card games, and more will stay recognizable to children. Ubiquity is a major way to generate staying power. Before licensing, a literary character needs a copyright. While not every literary character can get a copyright, there are quite a few classics that have managed to get the legal structures in place for licensing....

I’ve been reading and writing about YA for nearly two decades (I think I got at least three new gray hairs writing that sentence) and the conclusion I’ve come to is that everyone has a slightly different definition of what quiet YA means to them! Which, admittedly, is not always the most helpful when trying to understand the preoccupation and excitement readers have for these books. The first definition I recall seeing of quiet YA probably emerged around 2012–2014, and it was pretty straightforward: Quiet YA was YA books that don’t have a high-concept plot....

According to the Medical Library Association (MLA — not to be confused with the citation style): And yet, despite all of these crucial responsibilities, the efforts of medical librarians still constantly go overlooked. “Those who become medical librarians are highly interested in helping people,” says Academic Invest. “The information they help find can help medical students become successful physicians, help doctors make informed decisions as to how to treat health conditions, and help families determine how to deal with health concerns they may be facing....

Biographies about the lives of important historical figures, celebrities, or artistic luminaries are a massive undertaking. The writer must address the issue of how to make this person accessible to readers without reducing their work to a simple story. The best biographies strike this balance perfectly. Whose Stories Are Worth Telling? Biographies shape the way we view history and who counts as important. It is necessary to assess what kinds of books are published and what they choose to focus on....

I love the ’90s, too: Empire Records, Cruel Intentions, the Delia’s catalog, shopping at Merry-Go-Round and Contempo Casuals, slap bracelets…I could go on forever. Lilith Fair, Dazed and Confused, Nirvana, and grunge all have special places in my heart. I am a child of the ’80s and ’90s, and often scroll the nostalgia Instagram pages, remembering things I forgot about and bringing back lots of other memories. Don’t get me wrong: I know that as a young kid in a fairly secluded environment, I wasn’t aware of a lot....

The Thing is a pretty popular character with a very long history. He’s been around for almost 60 years — when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created their first Marvel comic, the famous Fantastic Four no. 1. He had a long run with his new family, plus some solo volumes and the Marvel 2-in-One, where he teamed up with other beloved superheroes. But who, exactly, is The Thing? Who Is The Thing?...

Suspenseful and sweetly romantic, Out of the Embers is the first in a new series that invites you to the Texas Hill Country in the 1850s, when the West was wild, the men were noble, and the women were strong. It’s 2020, and librarians are still lacking proper, consistent representation in pop culture. Think about it—how many librarian characters can you name? Not a librarian who pops into a scene to shush and run, but someone interesting and funny, perhaps with nuance and more to do than just reminding someone about fines or telling them to be quiet....

To be honest, I resisted audiobooks for a long time. I just love how physical books feel in my hand and the whole ritual of curling up on my couch with some tea and immersing myself in a new world. Some of my favorite memories growing up are doing just this and then gushing about the stories to my friends the next day in school. Alas, that’s not what my reader brain wants anymore....

Throughout the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were only two places I yearned to go the most: the barbershop, because when everything feels out of control (which for me is usually always), obsessing over my appearance makes me feel in control of at least something. The other place was, of course, the library, because typically when life starts to feel even a little hard, it’s the only place that can bring me back down to earth....

Content Warnings: Abuse, Self-harm, Suicide, and Explicit Depictions of Mental Illness Let’s Get Medieval I would like to turn your attention to the bloody, sexy, and comedic poems of Marie De France, specifically, Guigemar. Like all good stories, it begins with an old rich husband trapping his young wife in a tower. In lais, when an old lord is married to a young lady, it is fair to assume a young knight will become the lady’s lover....

When I first started this journey, I devoured everything that had to do with it. From Edith Hamilton’s Mythology to watching/recording almost every single episode of Xena and Hercules…I was all about it. And also similar to others in my generation, I gravitated towards the Hades and Persephone myth. One contributing factor to this could be thanks to a personality test I took in one of the teen magazines that said that I embodied Persephone the most and it has stuck with me since....

Of course, teens and music go hand-in-hand. For many, the teen years are when music becomes a refuge, either through listening or singing, or through playing in the school band or rocking out on the dance floor. Music connects people both to each other and to themselves. Here’s a round-up of some of the best YA books for music lovers. The collection below includes fiction and nonfiction, about real musicians as well as those experiencing and loving music in a fictionalized setting....