Issue Nº 18: El Deafo, Susan Sontag, The Best Children's Books of 2017, and Kid Columnists


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Asides, Ideas, Miscellany

Greta Gerwig's Radical Confidence is all about "making a certain kind of art out of life — an art steeped in female reciprocity and resilience."

This month in the archives: sifting through Joan Rivers' type-written jokes on index cards.

This month in libraries: the New York Public unveils $317 million master plan including a Center for Research and Learning "where high school and college students can be introduced to working with primary-source collections."

Suburban city-planners take note: when community trust eclipses liability concerns, magic can happenHow children change the way we see.

Family movie night was (mostly) a win with The Triplets of Belleville.


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For the Discerning & Literary Child

7 children's books about dyslexia via my dear friend Becky.

This list is brimming with lots of good holiday gift ideas for the littles: The best illustrated children's books of 2017

Gosh, I love this: The New York Times gets a kid columnist.

On the cult of niceness in kid-lit and how it masks the dominance of white woman: When Women Speak by Zetta Elliott.

We are completely hooked on graphic novels; last month, it was Ghosts by Reina Telgemeier and now we're obsessed with El Deafo by CeCe Bell. (But we're also having an interest vs. content problem as some of the issues discussed aren't really appropriate for a five and a half year-old.) Speaking of age-appropriateness, is it too early to start on the Harry Potter series with a kindergartener? Asking for a friend.



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

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r.p.