bookshelves of doom

Clearing out my tabs.

• The first manuscript page of Howl's Moving Castle.
• A stage production of Gatsby that's eight hours long. And yet, the review makes me want to see it.
• Sign-ups for the 48HBC are open!
• 2012 Crystal Kite Winners.
• Adding monsters to thrift store paintings.
• Jane Eyre vs Wuthering Heights.
• Visualizing Word Origins. (via Io9)
• 50 Shades of Gray: Digested.

"While in art school, Maurice Sendak was a window dresser for F.A.O. Schwarz in New York."

See 18 more fun facts* about children's books at mental_floss.

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*Although it should be noted that a few of them are being debated in the comments.

The Library.

 

Sarah Ockler on race in YA.

From her blog:

Diversity in fiction isn’t about tokenism, filling up imaginary “affirmative fiction” quotas, or embarking on a PC quest to be “inclusive.” It’s about respecting our readers.

It’s about loving and supporting all teens, letting them know they’re important by giving them voices and honoring their unique perspectives, experiences, and dreams in our stories. It’s not random. It’s not an afterthought. It’s an intentional, thoughtful, and respectful choice to stop perpetuating homogeneity.

Who is your Queen of Teen?

Click on through to see if she's on the 2012 shortlist, and if she is, you know what to do!

Marcus Sedgwick on writing for teens vs. writing teen fiction.

From Writing Teen Novels:

What I’m going to say next might sound arrogant, but I promise it isn’t: I don’t write for anyone else, I write for me. Why isn’t that arrogant? Because I believe that precisely the reverse is true – the arrogant thing would be for me, a 44 year old to assume that I know what a modern British 14 year old boy wants to read, or how an Australian 12 year girl thinks, or a German teen or a Brazilian or… You get the point. How could I possibly know those things? And this is really part of a much broader point – whenever anyone writes anything at all, teen, adult, horror, romance, sci-fi, they should be writing it for themselves, because to assume that any of us know what is desired in another’s head is an act of extreme arrogance.

[ETA: I'm a big Sedgwick fan, but... my "arrogant" alarm went off towards the end, when he says "whenever anyone writes anything at all ... they should". I rather think it would be hard for any statement that begins like that to not come off as arrogant. Unless I'm misunderstanding it, of course. Then again, I have a hard time with the sweeping generalizations thing. Except, of course, for the one I just made.]

And another Sarah Dessen fan comes into the fold.

Adam at Hitting on Girls in Bookstores just discovered Sarah Dessen.

I think it might be love:

Here's the opening line of my last rewrite of this post. I couldn't find a way to fit it in so I'll just tack it on here at the end. "Sarah Dessen's Lock and Key broke part of my heart, patched it up, and held my hand while it healed." That's blurb worthy crap right there.

New to Ye Olde Etsy Shoppe.

Among the new items (there are quite a few others *mops brow*):

The Lord of the Rings stamps have arrived:

As has the Twentieth Century Poets set:

And, to round it out, Prince Valiant:

Also, Paddington Bear, Superman, Gonzo, and one last dalek...

Read React Review on the recent plagiarism debacle.

From her blog (via @drmabuse):

Perhaps the most distressing facet of this whole thing is the tendency to characterize legitimate ethical questions and well-grounded moral judgment as jealousy, hatred, pettiness, or some other selfish and nonrational phenomenon.

Some really thoughtful posts have come out of this ugliness—this one is very much worth a read.

Previously.

Today @KirkusReviews...

...I wrote about Patrice Kindl's upcoming Keeping the Castle, and in so doing, broke down and used my three most least-favorite words.

Disney just bought the rights to adapt...

...The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman.

From ScienceFiction.com:

Ever since the book’s release, studios have been itching to make it into a feature film. It was first optioned by UK Effects House Framehouse and although Neil Jordan (‘Interview with a Vampire’, ‘The Borgias’) had been attached to write and direct, the project never seemed to move forward even though Ben Browning of Wayfare who controlled the rights kept renewing the option. The project was then brought in to Disney who made a six figure bid for the property.

Kindle Daily Deal: Children's book today.

Because of Winn-Dixie, by Kate DiCamillo, is 99¢ today.

If you haven't read it, you really ought to—and I say that as an avowed non-reader of dog books.

I'd already seen some of these...

...but others were new to me.

Either way, they're all pretty cool: 10 Gorgeous Buildings Made of Books.

What makes a good dystopian novel, anyway?

The Horn Book has some ideas.

Genre recommendations for teenage girls...

...at SF Signal's most recent Mind Meld.