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Enter: Friday Fund Days. Book Riot readers have helped fund hundreds of classrooms over the last few years, and we’ll help bring funds to hundreds more. Each Friday, we’ll highlight two classrooms or other literacy-focused, important projects in hopes you’ll help them reach their goals to bring literature, advocacy, and education to others. Even if you can’t spare money, any social sharing you can offer to the projects each week absolutely helps: you never know who’ll find it and have the means by which to make the project’s fundraising goals reached....

Finding readalikes to The Baby-Sitters Club is a tougher task now than in the 1980s and 1990s when there were plenty of paperback pretenders to the BSC throne: Sleepover Friends, Sunset Island, Saddle Club. However, none of them have had the same impact or the longevity, though I will happily grant Saddle Club its own Horse Girl vibe. Moreover, maybe you’re looking for something with Big BSC Energy but set in contemporary times....

But what this can sometimes mean is that, because we learned to fall in love with books this way, there’s a whole other group of books out there that sometimes doesn’t get that same kind of instinctual love: the non-fiction genres. I teach early middle school students and I can tell you that I have to maintain my highest levels of excitement to get them to put down their Harry Potters and Ever After Highs for a little bit just so I can convince them how awesome non-fiction can be, particularly favoritest of favorite non-fiction genres: narrative non-fiction....

My family immigrated to the United States when I was thirteen years old. My first year in my new country was not easy. I was lucky in many ways, as I was in a very international area of the country, and one with a good public school system. I had amazing, dedicated teachers, who made school and learning a genuinely enjoyable experience. Reading, something that had originally been my biggest struggle, became my refuge....

A few things before we get to the actual list. There are tons of horror books by Latine authors out there. There are definitely many more than I can share today. So this list is by no means comprehensive or definitive. I also chose to add a fair amount of horror books by Latine authors in translation. It’s become quite a popular genre in Latin America. So the amount of books in this genre have thankfully increased these past few years....

Hey YA Readers! Already looking ahead to your 2021 TBR? You’ll want to make sure you have these nonfiction titles ready for it. There’s a nice mix of young reader editions—adult books that have been adapted for younger readers, which have gotten so good over the last half decade or so—and original titles. I’ve stuck to books publishing before May, so if anything catches your eye, you can (and should!...

Spoilers ahead. One of the dead-end jobs that Bogdanksa takes on is waiting tables at an Indian restaurant called Curry Hut. The employees work up to 15 hours a day for little pay, without contracts, under poor conditions including a lack of ventilation. They stay out of desperation and dependency; many are migrants from Bangladesh who depend on the restaurant’s owner for housing, visas, or debt repayment. Some are also physically threatened....

There can be many reasons for this. Maybe I’m still riding the high of reading my favorite author’s latest book and nothing else seems to compare. Maybe I’m bouncing off the books I pick up for a completely different reason. Maybe I can’t focus. Maybe I’m tired of these tropes. All these things can happen to even the most well-prepared reader. Or maybe you’re a casual reader. Maybe you want to try something different from what you normally read....

Growing Up With Christie But with time, I began to tire of Christie’s mysteries. I had figured out the key to her mysteries. For the last ten books I read as a child, I guessed the murderer every time, which was disappointing. I wanted to be surprised, but in a fair way. I would go on to discover the wonders of other classic murder mystery writers like Dorothy L. Sayers, Raymond Chandler, and Rex Stout....

That’s just what the co-founders of The Big Texas Read (TBTR) had in mind when they created a statewide virtual book club that supports a network of local bookshops, authors, non-profit writing workshops, and, of course, avid readers. And now, they’re encouraging local literary communities everywhere to start their own virtual book clubs—to, in the words of TBTR co-founder and Texas-based author David Samuel Levinson, “create a community in a time when community is impossible to create....

The Middle Ages marked a period of particular uncertainty over the question of how many books to read at once. In Medieval England, the debate even became entwined in the country’s violent past. Between jousts, knights would argue over whether it’s better to give yourself options (short story collection or novel depending on your mood!) or whether it’s best to be completely focused and engrossed in one book at a time....

My belief in the faerie world did eventually get squashed by 6th grade boys with bad attitudes, and although it devastated my mom to see me aging out of my childhood passion, I got over the loss pretty quickly. I dove into more realistic stories instead, reading about love and coming of age and beautiful, idealized people. Truthfully, I owe it to my parents for being big readers and for feeding into my book addiction....

Meanwhile, there are reality shows about cooking, surviving, singing, finding love, being rich, being mentally ill, and every type of family situation possible. There is no end to the combination of situations that are presented on reality shows, and no end to the audiences that consume them. Obviously, not all are created equally. Some showcase genuine competition, some glorify excess, and some are just there so we can watch people scream at each other....

I’ve tried so many things over the years to make it easier. Giving myself a strict bedtime. No looking at screens after a certain time. No phone in the bedroom. I’ve tried watching comforting movies. I’ve tried having a specific bedtime book that is soothing and/or just boring enough to put me into sleep-mode. Once I tried turning off all the overhead lights after 8pm, using only lamplight and candlelight in the hours before bedtime....

Having a teen dungeon master in your school library is awesome and can create some really great experiences for your students. I recommend starting small, doing some prep, and being the teen’s assistant when you start this kind of program.

How To Host A Reading Party Set the Scene Think of a reading party like a sleepover without sleep. Cozy is the name of the game. Blankets, floor pillows, sleeping bags, all things soft and comfortable. Maybe even some sheets, in case anyone wants to bring back the blanket fort. If you have them, use air mattress to create little reading nooks. Rearrange furniture to create a party room that invites conversation, but gives space for guests to read by themselves....

they are all “clean” by ratings standards Perhaps you’ve noticed that many of these movies seem to be an amalgamation of disparate story elements seemingly plucked out of thin air. Perhaps you’ve thought “I could do better.” Well, I am here for you! Please enjoy this helpful guide to choosing the story elements for your Hallmark-style romance novel. Each category has 20 possible choices. Don’t overthink it! Instead, roll a D20 or hit random....

It was July 2018, and I had just finished the first residency in my MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults (WCYA) at Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA). My life was about to change forever, thanks to being reintroduced to children’s literature. I was ready to do the work for my program but not prepared for how deeply the experience of reading and writing kid lit would help heal my hurtful childhood....

My science classes in college averaged 150 students. If memory serves me well, my largest class was Genetics with over 200 students. The professor never knew my name and read off of poorly edited PowerPoint presentations during lecture. My Cellular Biology professor was old-fashioned and conducted his whole lecture via chalkboard. Not a whiteboard. Chalkboard. You try divining information about the powerhouse of the cell via the dusted entrails of chalk and tell me that you love Cellular Biology....

“I like gathering recommendations and opinions from multiple sources and eventually converging onto a book with (1) a premise that intrigues me, (2) which has been recommended as representing some part of the national or regional culture well and (3) that will keep my momentum going for the rest of the list!,” she said. In the r/booksuggestions subreddit, Giulia asked what she admitted to being a tough question: If you only read one book from my country, make it…, leaving space for users to drop their suggestions into the thread....