Link-o-rama.

• Josh Harnett is apparently a fan of Party Girl.
• Cute Overload loves Frank Herbert.  And also llamas.
  
• "Free" book scheme in Shanghai not working out so well.  Possible solution:  Remove the popular books.
  
• Citizens Against Pornography challenges (sort of) John Green's Looking for Alaska (and many others) in St. Louis libraries.  The woman who originally placed the complaint (or contacted CAP, at any rate -- it doesn't sound as if any official challenge has been filed) said "she hadn't seen books aimed at teens with "erotic" passages at the county's Daniel Boone Library before a visit last year".  Somehow I doubt that the library suddenly bought a bunch of books that deal with sex last year -- it's much more likely that the patron only just got introduced to YA books.  Regardless, if they're taking issue with the scene in Looking for Alaska that I think they're taking issue with, it's the least erotic thing I've read in my whole life.  Sex does not always equal sexy.
  
• Has anyone read this Disney/Jon Scieszka Alice in Wonderland book?  (Thanks, Jody!)
  
• One of the bazillion articles about the Sarah Palin/library stuff.
  
• Yoga banned from Brisbane library due to issues revolving around hygiene.  Or something.
  
• Poem pulled from the GCSE syllabus due to references to "knife crime" and goldfish murder:

A spokeswoman for AQA confirmed there had been three complaints, two referring to knife crime and a third about the description of a goldfish being flushed down the toilet.

I love that the article actually includes the poem in question.  Excellent work, Guardian.  Something similar happened when I was in high school -- the poem Richard Corey was included on the MEAs and people flipped out about the suicide reference.  I actually don't remember how it was resolved.

Comments

[Sarah Miller]

I'm hoping the publication of the Disney/Scieszka Alice book means Disney is creating an ongoing series featuring Mary Blair's concept art. A couple years back Cynthia Rylant did a retelling of Cinderella for a similar Disney release with Blair's artwork. NIce that they go to the trouble of getting such great authors instead of corralling some unfortunate joe from the marketing department.

[LibraryChristi]

I actually have an ARC of the Disney/Scieszka Alice book. It's purty (though I haven't read the text yet...should get on it!)

[str4y]

I get chills and clenching fingers of impotent rage when I read articles like the poem banning and removal of books. Knowledge is the most powerful tool there is -- educating the young lets them understand the world rather than facing it in superstitious self-righteous bigotry...like their parents are. It makes me think back on the uproar around the movies 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Natural Born Killers', the claims that serial murder and heroin use were being glamorized and would convince the young to shoot up and, well, shoot up. One had to wonder if said critics had seen the movies in question -- presented in a garish comic-book style, they none-the-less showed the squalor and tragedy of the two lifestyles. That's like saying that 'Trainspotting' glamorizes heroin use. Which they probably do.

Sorry to rant. It just drives me crazy when people think that their children need to be bubble-wrapped before facing the world. They make the Cookie Monster ensure children that cookies are a 'sometimes treat' and parents get irate over original versions of fairy tales. The inevitable result of which, in my mind, is that once this sheltered generation steps out into the real world, the psychiatric community will have to deal with a sudden influx of young adult mental breakdowns as the realization that the world isn't all sunshine, puppy dogs and vague references to hand-holding sinks in. Stupid people.

[Jessica]

Is it weird that Party Girl is what made me want to become a librarian?