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A note to the unfamiliar reader: while I don’t discuss these plotpoints below, all of these books contain difficult content, including violence against women and children; I recommend seeking out content warnings before you pick them up! Bitterblue is about a young woman who has inherited a kingdom from her abusive, violent, gaslighting father, and is surrounded by traumatized advisers who bury her in paperwork and are working very hard to prevent her from examining anything that happened during her father’s reign....

Gadea Lara pinpoints the Youth Climate Movement, led by Greta Thunberg, as a turning point for public interest in the environment, specifically climate. Although there was a rich history of climate activism before it, this seemed to make a deep impression in the audience. Furthermore, the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic soon after, with its subsequent lockdowns and social distancing, meant that more people now had the time to devote to topics of interest....

We are Montessori homeschoolers, and my son is in what would be first grade in public school; in Montessori, it’s “lower elementary.” The lower el curriculum is, for lack of a better word, pretty magical. The base of Montessori elementary education is cosmic education, which basically means everything is connected: topics in science are connected to topics in math, which are connected to history, and so forth. We see how topics overlap and nothing is really studied in isolation — we’ve seen how the formation of the universe also led to the beginnings of life, and then also how the layers of earth formed....

Did you know that Abraham Lincoln wrote poems throughout his life, including one to commemorate the victory at Gettysburg? Or that Jimmy Carter published Always a Reckoning, and Other Poems with illustrations by his granddaughter, Sarah Elizabeth Chuldenko? Or that John Tyler wrote poetry when he resigned from the Senate? What delightful discoveries! The History of Presidential Poetry I had the chance to talk with Lina Mann, White House Historian at the White House Historical Association, about the history of presidential poets....

What mystery stories made BookTok love reading again? What mystery novels could TikTok readers not put down? What plot twists shocked the BookTok community? What books had readers going “what the heck is going on!?” in their wrap up videos? The following mystery books topped BookTok’s favorites list for a number of reasons, whether it was a shocking plot twist, compelling mysteries, dynamic characters, or even just really cool aesthetics....

Obviously, get thee to a bookstore and read her newest novel The Rest of the Story. It is AMAZING. My favorite of hers in years and I love everything she writes. The new novel involves newly discovered family, recovered memories, classism, grief, and tons of fun beach scenes. Of course, a swoony romance is almost requisite. I mean, what is summer without a Sarah Dessen beach read? But this one goes a little deeper into addiction and class issues and is honestly reminiscent of some of her earliest novels....

-Why does this movie have a 40% on Rotten Tomatoes? I LIKED it. It’s two and a half hours but it doesn’t feel like two and a half hours, the kids act the shit out of their roles, the jokes are funny, the thrills are thrilling, and the sexy-time is SO SEXY-TIME. I would’ve guessed a 93% for this sucker, maybe 87% if you account for the mean old dudes who are always going to find a way to lash out against anything young and female....

Over the next few months, Vertigo is launching a number of new titles. October sees four such titles debut, and we’ve rounded them up to share our thoughts on the individual titles — as well as Vertigo’s overall direction. Survivor’s Club #1 by Lauren Beukes, Dale Halvorsen, Ryan Kelly, and Eva De La Cruz Dave Says: I really enjoy the conceit here. A group of people each experienced some kind of horror in the 80s — in shades of the 80s horror films we might recall — and now they’ve come together to discover that they may be part of a larger tapestry of horror....

In the meantime, here are recommendations for books about military service and a history of the Library War Service. title: “We Re Closed For Memorial Day” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-15” author: “Eric Henry”

You may, like 99.9999% of the world, be wondering who the heck Peacemaker is. Don’t worry, friends—I’m here for you. The original Peacemaker first appeared in Fightin’ 5 #40 (November 1966), published by Charlton Comics, before being spun off into his own very brief solo series the next year (there were five issues published and a sixth drawn but not published). He was Christopher Smith, a diplomat who was so committed to the idea of peace that he…became a violent vigilante…to enforce his pacifist philosophy....

My parents both read to me frequently growing up, particularly at bedtime. Dad incorporated his own sound effects—in which I could choose to participate—into the Disney Little Golden Book edition of The Three Little Pigs. Mom favored 365 Bedtime Stories by Nan Gilbert, a copy of which I believe still sits in my parents house, flaking and falling apart, but still beloved. Now, my parents read to their grandchildren regularly, and I’ve developed a love of books over the years and become a children’s librarian, where I read at regular story times every week....

In early August 2021, I put together an episode of Hey YA Extra Credit on the topic of the first “true” “YA” book. All of those quotes for reasons that will become apparent. Because this was a scripted podcast, meaning I wrote out and crafted a narrative for it, I thought it would be worth revisiting here. You can listen to the episode in full here, read below, OR take it old school and listen as you read along — I assume other people loved those books on tape that came with the book as kids so you could do both at the same time....

Want to find free audiobooks for kids? Check out this post for some options! Where to Find Free Audiobooks Loyal Books Available in the Apple App Store and Google Play, this app has over 7,000 free audiobooks. Most of there are books in the public domain, so it’s the perfect app if you’re looking to catch up on your classics reading. OverDrive If you have a library card with your local library, or through your school, there’s a good chance you can get access to OverDrive....

Poets.org The Academy of American Poets was founded in 1934 with a mission to support and advocate for poets financially and artistically. Poets.org is a database of thousands of poems and poets that includes multi-media resources for everyday poetry lovers as well as educators. It also houses a calendar to find poetry events and offers a Poem-A-Day that can be delivered straight to your email inbox every morning. PoetryFoundation.org The Poetry Foundation strives to heighten poetry awareness and prestige in society....

Early Life Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez — also known as Gabo, or Gabito to his near and dear ones — was born on March 26, 1927, in the town of Aracataca, situated in northern Colombia. García Márquez’s hometown would later be a source of inspiration for the fictional setting of Macondo described in his most famous work, One Hundred Years of Solitude. García Márquez’s background resembles something out of a novel....

Joe Hill—the mastermind behind N0S4A2 and Locke & Key—has arrived at DC, curating his own cutting-edge horror comics pop-up! Hill House Comics will terrify readers with a smart, subversive and scary lineup of five original limited series. Hill House Comics debuted with Basketful of Heads, written by Hill and illustrated by Leomacs. The chills continued in the following months with The Low, Low Woods; The Dollhouse Family; Daphne Byrne and Plunge, from some of the biggest names in horror storytelling....

Given these two facts, it makes sense that I’ve spent my entire reading life avoiding horror, right? Wrong. Horror is a tricky, slippery genre. Until recently, I treated horror (the genre) as a synonym for scary (the adjective). I assumed all horror books were scary, or gory, or both. I’ve been challenging myself to read outside my comfort zone over the past five years, and so I’ve tried mysteries and the (occasional) thriller, all sorts of nonfiction I never thought I’d love, and lots of weird speculative fiction....

Need Indestructible Books for Babies? Check out this list! And here’s a good essay on how to let go of your child destroying books. I’m still working on it. They started with a few classics — Alice in Wonderland, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, and Romeo and Juliet — and Publishers Weekly reported that in their 10th anniversary year in 2021, they have 95 titles and have sold over 2 million copies in North America....

Florida has been an epicenter of book bans over the last 18 months, particularly since Moms For Liberty, a right wing extremist group, was founded in Brevard County. Beyond that, Florida has since introduced an array of new state legislation, including House Bill 1557 (aka the “Don’t Say Gay” law), which have created an environment ripe for censorship. School districts have implemented various measures in the hopes of being compliant....

From the New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Pieces comes a breathtaking story about a town, its tragedies, and the quiet beauty of everyday life. Emory’s junior year is starting, and Mill Haven is reeling from the accident that killed Candy MontClaire: the same accident that revealed just how bad her brother’s drug habit was. Everyone’s telling Emmy who she is, but so much has changed—how can she be the same person?...