Issue Nº 16: Little Women revisited, zines for girls, and The Writer's Market

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For the Discerning & Literary Child

From Kazoo to IllustoriaRookie to AnorakBright Light is another rad alt-magazine for kids in what appears to be a crowding (gasp — print!) market.

The Snowy Day is captured in a USPS stamp series.

Re-visiting This Delicious Day, a book of poems selected by Paul B. Janeckzo from my own kid-lit library, inscribed in 1988: "Becky from Dad Xmas 1988" and labeled with a dot-matrix, rainbow-colored courier-new font of my name and childhood address. 

Love this round-up of picture books, inspired by the new John Lennon picture book and International Day of Peace (from the Bank Street Bookstore).

When archives and kid-lit converge: explore 6000 historical children's books online

We're all Wonders, via my neighbor Lauren, eyed in her stash of back-to-school books. (This is a beautiful, important book that models empathy for young readers.) 

Whoosh, the story of the engineer, Lonnie Johnson, creator of the super soaker.

And finally, the sing-songy, gorgeously illustrated delight, The Wonderful Habits of Rabbits.


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Asides, Ideas, Miscellany

A historical context for the current discussion on athletes, protests, and patriotism from Teaching Tolerance.

I'm re-reading Little Women. (My five year old is not down with this text, by the way.) So far, I am astounded at the sisters' preoccupation with money — economic anxiety is a major plot arc that I surely didn't pick up on as a kid, but there it is. 

The classes 25 famous writers teach.

I finally picked up a copy of Reading Picture Books with Children by Megan Lambert Dowd after spotting it at the Eric Carle Picture Book Museum over the summer.

Lillian Ross passed away this month, RIP. I reread her Hemingway profile and laughed out loud, again: Who the hell is Adeline?

Jessa Crispin's new podcast, the Public Intellectual. Her discussion with the biographer of the forthcoming book on the life and work of photographer Vivian Maier addresses important questions about the custodians of archives. What should happen to the bodies of artistic work when a person passes, especially when the artist was herself was obsessed with the process of capturing photos and disinterested in the final product, the photograph itself? 


Spoke to little kids at local book fair yesterday. I said Butt in chair! Bird by Bird. Write bad 1st drafts but finish them! I looked VERY stern!  - Anne Lamott, via Twitter


Thoughts? Ideas? Recommendations? I love connecting with fellow readers, writers, parents, and humans. Please drop me a line!

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r.p.