bookshelves of doom

Links shared on Twitter: May 14-21.

Classroom use of Siobhan Dowd's Bog Child challenged in Northern Ireland.

From the Irish Times:

The Ulster Unionist Party leader Mike Nesbitt complained at Stormont that the teaching guide for Bog Child was evidence of bias and the worst kind of “politicisation of the classroom” under Sinn Féin’s direction.

Mr Nesbitt called for the book by the late London-Irish author Siobhan Dowd and the teaching notes supplied by the North’s Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) to be removed.

In response, the CCEA did not directly criticise Mr Nesbitt but said the book was not on the curriculum. It said it was one of a list of suggested books that teachers could use in the classroom for 14-year-old students.

...

“Let me be clear, this is not an attack on the book,” said Mr Nesbitt. “I have not read Bog Child, so have no opinion on its value as a piece of literature. But I have read the teaching notes, as endorsed by the Department of Education and I am stunned by what I read,” he added.

The 2012 Nebula winners...

...have been announced.

The Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy Book went to: 

Fair Coin, by E.C. Myers!

See this post for the rest of the shortlist and this post for the rest of the winners.

The 48 Hour Book Challenge is nigh.

However! It'll be a bit different this year:

MotherReader has decided to take a well-deserved break from hosting duties, so Ms. Yingling and Abby the Librarian have waded into the fray and TAKEN CHARGE.

Regardless! Start organizing your TBR pile, because June 7th will be here BEFORE YOU KNOW IT.

I'd better remind Joshua that he'll need to find something to do that weekend that DOESN'T involve standing in front of me and chanting, "PAY ATTENTION TO ME, PAY ATTENTION TO ME, PAY ATTENTION TO MEEEEEEEEEE!"

Huh. In retrospect, I realize that I should have hidden The 5th Wave from him until that weekend: then he could have participated, too! (He's LOVING it, by the way. Judging purely by his reaction to it—he's been going to bed EARLY every night so he can start reading SOONER—I'm really looking forward to my turn with it.)

SQUEEFEST.

I just found out that there's a third book in Maggie Stiefvater's Books of Faerie series due out later this year.

Pardon me WHILE I HYPERVENTILATE!

SO. EXCITED!

Challenged: Monster and The Little Black Book for Girlz.

Walter Dean Myers' Monster has been retained for use in seventh grade classrooms in an Illinois school district (and, yes, they provide an alternate book for students/parents who object to the book):

Daniels, meanwhile, said she's very unhappy with the district's decision. She adds that the book, according to many reviews she's read, is actually intended for children no younger than 13.

She said some of her friends have opted for the alternative book, but their kids still have to sit in class while the book is discussed. Daniels added that she'll opt for the alternative if Monster is still is use when her child enters the seventh grade.

The fate of The Little Black Book for Girlz, meanwhile, is still up in the air at Taft High 7-12 in Lincoln City, Oregon:

“A classmate of my daughter checked the book out of the Taft High library and gave it to her,’ said O’Donnell. “All her friends had been talking about the book and when she brought it home she was kind of hiding it.”

O’Donnell described the book as “very graphic.”

“It is simply too graphic for a seventh grader and for my daughter,” said O’Donnell.

I have some amount of sympathy for the parent in this case, but it's rather unfair to expect a library that serves seventh graders through seniors would only stock items that she deems appropriate for seventh graders.

2013 Children’s Choice Book Award winners...

...have been announced, and I'm sure it comes as no surprise to ANYONE that the Teen Book of the Year prize went to The Fault in our Stars, by John Green.

See the rest of the finalists here and the rest of the winners here.

Links shared on Twitter: May 8-13.

Let it be true!

Sadly, I have to head into work, so I can't look into this further.

More later, I hope.

Harry Potter Lexicon: still kicking.

From USA Today:

NEW YORK (AP) — A group of crusading intellectual property lawyers at Stanford Law School say they will help defend a small publishing house being sued by author J.K. Rowling over its plan to print an unauthorized companion guide to her Harry Potter series.

Haven't there been, like, a bazillion other unauthorized companion guides to HP and his world?  Did WB and JKR try to block any of those?  Wasn't the website created by a whole ton of people?  Will they all get a cut of the proceeds, or at least a free copy? 

Intellectual property and moolah questions aside, does the world really need another HP guide?  Will anyone buy it?  (I am totally suffering from HP burnout, man.  And it's a good thing The Golden Compass comes out tomorrow, because I'm headed in a similar direction there.)

Blogger sued for bad review.

Heh.

Oh, and in related news, erasing my identity to go on the run (due to my opinion of Eclipse) is beginning to look like a good idea.  (See Comment #27, which I suspect may be the first of many.)

(via Fuse)

CWA Daggers 2007.

Duncan Lawrie Dagger (Best Crime Novel of the Year):

Peter Temple, The Broken Shore

Duncan Lawrie International Dagger (Best Crime Novel Translated into English):

Fred Vargas, Wash this Blood Clean from my Hand, translated by Siân Reynolds

Ian Fleming Steel Dagger (Best James Bond-y Adventure/Thriller):

Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

New Blood Dagger (Best Book by a Previously Unpublished Author):

Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects

Something about the Vargas cover art gives me the wicked creeps.  I've been meaning to read the Flynn for quite a while now -- I'll have to bump it up a few spots. 

More here.

"The devil has it!" she said.

The lost manuscript of The Good Earth has been found:

"The manuscript has been missing since at least 1966 and is considered priceless," the FBI said in a news release yesterday. Buck, who died in 1973 in Vermont, lamented to an author about the disappearance of the original masterwork from her Bucks County home. "The devil has it!" she said.

I remember reading it way back in high school, but I never did read any of the sequels.  Anyone?  Worth it?

Bong Hits 4 Jesus.

The ruling has been made.

Whoa.

From the Northwest Herald:

CARY – A Cary-Grove High School senior was arrested Tuesday on a disorderly conduct charge after his English teacher notified police that an essay he wrote contained nonspecific references to violence.

Allen W. Lee, 18, of Cary was charged Tuesday morning after police determined that essay references to shootings were alarming. He posted $75 bond and is set to appear in court June 18.

While I'm not surprised that people are being cautious after Virginia Tech, this is...  Wow.  This kid got arrested.  For writing.  An essay.  I could even understand it if they'd pulled the kid in for counseling -- again, people are scared -- but arresting him?

From the Chicago Tribune:

Cary Police Chief Ron Delelio said the charge was appropriate even though the essay was not published or posted for public viewing.

Disorderly conduct, which carries a penalty of 30 days in jail and a $1,500 fine, is filed for pranks such as pulling a fire alarm or dialing 911. But it can also apply when someone's writings can disturb an individual, Delelio said.

"It can also apply when someone's writings can disturb an individual".  That could apply to practically anything.  I find this whole article disturbing.