Category Archives: kid lit

Fairy tales as literature

Posted on January 12, 2012 by

Why do the National Book Awards bar fairy tales? Humanity’s favorite stories are punished for their vaguely disreputable origins By Laura Miller, salon.com, November 16, 2010 Juries for the National Book Awards are famous for coming up with nominees that … Continue reading →

Posted in fairy tales, jane austen, kid lit | 1 Comment

A Proclamation on the Picture Book

Posted on November 21, 2011 by

From Horn Book Magazine, November 2011.

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Much Ado About Roald Dahl’s Writing Shed

Posted on September 14, 2011 by

Inside Dahl’s dream factory: His last Marlboro in the ashtray, author’s macabre garden shed needs saving By Robert Hardman, The Daily Mail, September 14, 2011   The wolves appear to have disappeared. But everything else is here – from the … Continue reading →

Posted in anglophilia, kid lit, writerly lives | 1 Comment

Down the rabbit hole in 1903

Posted on March 21, 2011 by

The first-ever film version of Lewis Carroll’s tale has recently been restored by the BFI National Archive from severely damaged materials. Made just 37 years after Lewis Carroll wrote his novel and eight years after the birth of cinema, the … Continue reading →

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A Lemony pep talk

Posted on January 21, 2011 by

Dear Cohort, Struggling with your novel? Paralyzed by the fear that it’s nowhere near good enough? Feeling caught in a trap of your own devising? You should probably give up. For one thing, writing is a dying form. One reads … Continue reading →

Posted in inspiring, kid lit, writerly lives | 1 Comment

Wizard Rock’s Greatest Hits

Posted on December 1, 2010 by

Harry Potter: Wizard Rock’s Greatest Hits By John Seaborn Gray, Houston Press, November 19, 2010 For the past few years, a genre centered around J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter universe has been growing on the Internet and elsewhere. We don’t think … Continue reading →

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Orphan Stories

Posted on December 1, 2010 by

Why We Love Movies About Orphans We root for Harry Potter for the same reasons we root for Oliver Twist and Shirley Temple: because they’ve lost their parents. by Steve Daly, Newsweek, November 18, 2010 In the avalanche of moody, … Continue reading →

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The Golden Age of Children’s Records

Posted on November 28, 2010 by

Kiddie Records Weekly: Classics From the Golden Age Kiddie Records Weekly began in 2005 as a one year project devoted to the golden age of children’s records.  This period spanned from the mid forties through the early fifties and produced … Continue reading →

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The Counter-Princess-Propaganda Booklist

Posted on November 2, 2010 by

From gearheadmom.com I am hard-pressed to find a three or four-year-old girl who hasn’t succumbed to Disney Princess madness and whose parents can’t be overheard mumbling “That’s it!  I am calling a moratorium on princess paraphernalia…” as his/her daughter opens … Continue reading →

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Sweet Valley edits! 1983 vs. 2008

Posted on October 31, 2010 by

Double Love 1983 vs Double Love 2008 Differences between the original and the reissued version… The very first sentences: 1983: “Oh, Lizzie, do you believe how absolutely horrendous I look today!” Jessica Wakefield groaned as she stepped in front of … Continue reading →

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