Love these redesigned book covers. They were created by 100 artists for DoeDeMee, a project dedicated to raising awareness of illiteracy. (For each poster version sold, a portion of the money is given to UNESCO projects in Africa.)
My favorite:
I might actually need this Northern Lights poster by Hamish Steele.
Check out the whole collection to find your favorite.
A few more links for today:
Happy Banned Books Week, everyone! It’s a great time to honor the librarians, educators, and authors who stand up for books and knowledge and against prejudice and hate. Censorship doesn’t help society. Books do.
Check out Bill Moyers’ video about the importance of Banned Books Week, and then watch other famous authors and literary advocates talk about censorship and how it relates to their own work.
Also loving this fantastic timeline, 30 Years of Liberating Literature, from the ALA. It contains some fantastic information about bans on classic books, such as:
The Giver, by Lois Lowry
In 2003, “The Giver” was challenged as suggested reading for eighth-grade students in Blue Springs, MO, where parents called the book “lewd” and “twisted” and pleaded for it to be tossed out of the district. The book was reviewed by two committees and recommended for retention, but the controversy continued for more than two years. Lowry’s novel for young readers has frequently attracted objections due to its “mature themes” including suicide, sexuality, and euthanasia. “The Giver” received the Newbery Medal in 1994.
I’ve mentioned here before how much I love this book and, as a middle-schooler, I was grateful to read about these mature themes. It was the first book that really got me thinking about the value of life (all of life) and how we should function as a society. It infuriates me to think that some people want to take that away from young readers.
It’s easy to feel complacent about our overall access to books, but Banned Books Week is a great reminder that we need to appreciate the access we have and work toward giving everyone that same access. Celebrate with your favorite banned book today and all week long!
(image: Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression 2011 Banned Books Week celebration, sponsored by the Freedom to Read Foundation’s Judith F. Krug Memorial Fund, via ALA)
What’s better than reading poetry? Hearing celebrities read poetry to you.
Check out Speak, Celebrity’s collection of poems read by actors like Meryl Streep, Tom Hiddleston, and Samuel L. Jackson. If anything, it’s a reminder that poems should be read aloud. The depths these readers bring to very familiar poems is fantastic.
(H/T Book Riot)
Hey there, Friday fans! Welcome to this week’s edition of the Friday Fifteen, in which I review five books in fifteen words or less.
1. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Psychics, ghosts, boarding school–the perfect autumn book. Excellent character development too. Sequel now, please!
2. Kirsten’s Surprise (American Girls: Kirsten #3) by Janet Shaw
A crown of candles and breakfast treats–I want to celebrate St. Lucia Day.
3. Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir by Doris Kearns Goodwin
The closest I’ve come to reading a book about sports.
4. Paradise Lost by John Milton
Dense, but awesomely epic. I feel like this would make for a cool graphic novel.
5. Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
This gives me unreasonable expectations about writing to and forming relationships with famous writers.
Man, Friday could not come soon enough this week. So happy to be posting the Friday Fifteen!
1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
This one sat on my bookshelf for a while; finally started it and was hooked.
2. Claiming Georgia Tate by Gigi Amateau
The sweetness and darkness of family are both very present here. Amateau doesn’t pull punches.
3. Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
A daring redhead who lives with her friends and has a cool scar? So awesome.
4. Othello by William Shakespeare
Not my favorite, but intriguing ideas about men and women. Also, I dig Emilia.
5. Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner
This is what I think of when I see a samoyed.
Hey there, Friday Fifteen fans! Here’s this week’s edition of the fifteen-word reviews:
1. Changes for Molly by Valerie Tripp
This is where I learned how women curled their hair in the olden days.
2. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
In high school I thought “Kill him already, you dick!” Reread later, appreciate it more.
3. Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking by Julia Child and David Nussbaum
More compact version of Julia’s classic style and recipes.
4. Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash by Sarah Weeks and Nadine Bernard Westcott
I only wish doing the laundry was this cute. Lots of silliness and rhyming.
5. Buffy Chronicles : The Unofficial Companion to Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Ngaire E. Genge
I bought pretty much everything Buffy-related when I was in 8th grade. Solid trivia.
“No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.”–Mary Shelley
What better way to celebrate Mary Shelley’s birthday than with this fabulous quote? It’s one of my favorite quotes for writing, because it’s a good reminder that a) all characters are flawed somehow, and b) even the worst villains don’t think of themselves as purely villains.
You’ve been waiting for it all week and now it’s here–the Friday Fifteen! Here are this week’s fifteen-word reviews:
1. The Truth About Sixth Grade by Colleen O’Shaughnessy McKenna
Nice take on shifting friendships in middle school. Apparently it’s part of a series.
2. In My Kitchen: 100 Recipes and Discoveries for Passionate Cooks by Ted Allen
I want to make every single recipe in here. The duck, guys; the duck!
3. Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose
Thoughtful look at how literary analysis makes us stronger writers. In short: read!
4. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Enjoyed in high school, admired in college. Saw Gatz and thought “Damn, that’s good writing.”
5. A Sister for Sam by Evelyn Mason
I don’t care what you think, Sam. Little sisters are awesome! (Guess what I am.)
“Life is a luminous halo, a semitransparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end. Is it not the task of the novelist to convey this varying, this unknown and uncircumscribed spirit, whatever aberration or complexity it may convey?”–Virginia Woolf
(image: Wikimedia Commons)