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Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Rupert Grint (Ron) and Emma Watson (Hermione) are among the celebrities this year who have filmed a special appeal as part of the annual BBC Children in Need charity drive to help disadvantaged children in the UK. Broadcast earlier tonight on BBC1, thanks to our Order Partner RupertGrint.net, you can now see the video of their appeal at this link.


Thanks Rg.net!

It's not often that we get to see the creator of the wonderful world of Harry Potter  enjoying a bit of magical fun, so we are delighted to report a fun tidbit today. The video of the sneak peek of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter from the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince DVD is now online, and in this piece which you can see here, t<>here is this glimpse of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowl... Read the rest of this post

We have another treat for you today, this in the form of the scans from the booklets found in the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Ultimate Collector's Edition DVDs

Thanks to our own Erna, we can now show you in larger and very good quality scans of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows concept art including Malfoy Manor  and now Shell Cottage.... Read the rest of this post

'New Moon' at midnight (doesn't disappoint fans. Shocker. Also see YAB member Chelsea's review for more. Plus Sweden rethinks its original restricted rating. And the livestream of the 'New Moon' premiere on MySpace draws more than 2 million unique... Read the rest of this post

Today's Youth Advisory Board post is from Chelsea Swiggett, one of our newest members (look for the official announcement on Ypulse next week!) and a Twilight fan who was among the masses that took over theaters at midnight last night. As always,... Read the rest of this post

Today we bring you our weekly sampler of the cool youth media and marketing gigs you can expect to find on our Ypulse Jobs Board. If your company has an open position in the youth media or marketing space, we encourage you to post there. Post a... Read the rest of this post

Speaking of Kazu Kibuishi, he has a nice post up examining what the contributors to the anthology FLIGHT #1 have done in the five years since it came out. At the time, the fresh new cartoonists within were hailed as a new force in the industry — and they have mostly gone on to very productive careers in animation and comics. Kazu didn’t include last names, so they’ve been added:

7 out of 19 have worked on completed films, either as production designers or story artists:
- Enrico Casarosa (Ratatouille, Up)
- Jake Parker (Horton Hears a Who!)
- Vera Brosgol (Coraline)
- Khang Le (Monster House)
- Chris Appelhans (Monster House, City of Ember, Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox)
- Phil Craven (Kung Fu Panda, the forthcoming Kung Fu Panda 2)
- Clio Chiang (the forthcoming Princess and the Frog)

11 out of 19 have published one or more graphic novels (or will have a graphic novel published in 2010):

- Enrico Casarosa (The Venice Chronicles)
- Kazu Kibuishi (Daisy Kutter, Amulet, the forthcoming Copper collection)
- Jake Parker (Missile Mouse, forthcoming Scholastic GNs)
- Vera Brosgol (forthcoming First Second GN)
- Jen Wang (forthcoming First Second GN)
- Neil Babra (Hamlet)
- Bengal (Meka, Naja)
- Dylan Meconis (Wire Mothers: Harry Harlow and the Science of Love, Bite Me!)
- Derek Kirk Kim (Good as Lily, The Eternal Smile)
- Rad Sechrist (Tom Sawyer)
- Kean Soo (Jellaby)

§ Tucker Stone is at it again.

§ Is someone making a book of Stan Lee’s tweets? They should.

The reason I always say “good night” is I don’t want you staying up for hours denying yourself sleep, desperately waiting for my next tweet

§ Jog examines the ORIGINAL Astro Boy.

§ Cartoonist Berkeley Breathed is also doing the happy dance that there will be no 20000 Leagues remake.

§ For some mysterious reason unknown to me, we have yet to link to this totally excellent NY Times profile of Joe Kubert. HIs art auction is ongoing.

§ Speaking of the New York Times, they also had a Holiday Gift Guide featuring Graphic Novels.

More cute baby pictures of Juni Kibuishi

Way back in October the OUPblog announced that in honor of the National Book Awards we were hosting a friendly contest, to see who could predict the most winners.

Well, now that the National Book Awards winners have been announced, and congratulations to all the winners, it’s time to share which lucky OUPblog readers will be getting free books in the mail!

In first place with five points was Shawn Miklaucic who gets the big prize, the Historical Thesaurus of the OED.

In second place with two points was Jilly Dybka who will receive a Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus.

In third place with one point was Christopher Elias who will get a copy of Garner’s Modern American Usage (3rd edition).

A great big thank you to everyone who participated and to all the fabulous authors who wrote books we enjoyed this year.  2009 was chock-full of great literature and we can’t wait to read what you publish next year!

Just released in paperback are two literary gems from P.F. Kluge: Gone Tomorrow and Biggest Elvis. A longtime writer-in-residence at Kenyon College in Ohio, Kluge has written seven acclaimed and beloved novels. He also works as a journalist, writing for magazines such as National Geographic Traveler, Rolling Stone, Smithsonian, Islands, Playboy, and Reader's Digest. And we're thrilled that Overlook will be publishing a new novel by P.F. Kluge, A Call From New Jersey, in September 2010.

Here's what Kluge says about Biggest Elvis, originally published in 1995, and now back in a print with the one of our coolest covers ever!

"What began as one Philippines-based novel, then another, became a trilogy with Biggest Elvis. In this case, journalism led to fiction. I visited the mammoth U.S. Naval base at Subic Bay twice, once on assignment for Rolling Stone magazine, once for Playboy. The place was unforgettable: a neon wilderness, a sexual vanity fair, a high water mark of American military and cultural power. There was more there than a pair of magazine articles could accommodate. Then my friend Lazarus Salii (see The Edge of Paradise) told me of a trio of singers who had come to Palau and been stranded there, broke. The three men were an Elvis Presley show, each incarnating a stage of the king’s life. The idea of three Elvis’s knocking around the world was appealing to me. A novel—which ought to be a movie—was born. It had music, sex, romance, politics, exotic locations. It was an American Year of Living Dangerously. Of all my books, this was the most fun to write. Every day, the question from manuscript to author was: what kind of fun are we going to have today? I think it shows.”

Kicking off this year's Bookreporter.com Holiday Blog is Beverly Barton, whose latest novel, SILENT KILLER, was recently spotlighted in our Romantic Suspense feature. Below, she discusses one of her most favorite childhood stories and shares how she came to own two equally beloved copies of the timeless fairy tale.


I’m one of those lucky (or depending on your point of view, unlucky) people born at Christmastime, so over the years, many birthday and Christmas presents have been combined into one gift. The year that I turned six, my paternal grandfather gave me an illustrated copy of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, and I honestly don’t remember if the book was one of my birthday presents or one of my Christmas presents. But I do know that this fairy tale about the power of love to transform a beast into a prince became my all-time favorite story, and it opened the world of romance to my young heart and impressionable mind.

Born into a family of storytellers who had the ability to enhance the most mundane aspects of life and turn them into high drama, I quiet easily adopted the theme of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST as my romantic mantra. Unconditional love for another person having the ability to perform a miracle seemed like the perfect romantic formula. From childhood, I have believed that there is no power greater than the power of love --- all types of love, from parental love to wedded bliss, from loving friendships to love of God and country. And when I began writing romance novels, this fairy tale from my childhood formed the basis for many of my bad boy/good girl stories that ended with that essential happily ever after.

Although slightly tattered from much use and the pages yellow with age, that treasured copy of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST given to me so many years ago is still in my possession. It resides in a place of honor on a corner bookcase in my home office, alongside another copy of the book, printed and released the same year as the copy my grandfather gave me. And the interesting tale of how I came to own a second copy is a story of a son’s and daughter’s love for their mother and a son’s determined search for “the perfect gift.” Everyone close to me knows about my favorite fairy tale, knows how much I treasure that book, and knows about the very special relationship I shared with my grandfather. My children have delighted me, surprised me, and brought me to happy tears with numerous thoughtful gifts over the years, but none as absolutely perfect as the second copy of my beloved fairy tale. Two identical Christmas gifts, given decades apart, the first given to a granddaughter, the second given to a mother.

Both copies of this book are important to me, each a gift of love. One from a grandfather I adored and the other from the son and daughter I love unconditionally. The love my grandfather gave me --- which included a book about the power of love --- I gave to my children and they returned that love to me and passed it to their own children, continuing the never-ending circle of love within our family.

-- Beverly Barton


Check back tomorrow as Joshua Gaylord reminisces about how an adolescent crush taught him the importance of having blind trust in unreadable masterpieces.

Kicking off this year's Bookreporter.com Holiday Blog is Beverly Barton, whose latest novel, SILENT KILLER, was recently spotlighted in our Romantic Suspense feature. Below, she discusses one of her most favorite childhood stories and shares how she came to own two equally beloved copies of the timeless fairy tale.


I’m one of those lucky (or depending on your point of view, unlucky) people born at Christmastime, so over the years, many birthday and Christmas presents have been combined into one gift. The year that I turned six, my paternal grandfather gave me an illustrated copy of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, and I honestly don’t remember if the book was one of my birthday presents or one of my Christmas presents. But I do know that this fairy tale about the power of love to transform a beast into a prince became my all-time favorite story, and it opened the world of romance to my young heart and impressionable mind.

Born into a family of storytellers who had the ability to enhance the most mundane aspects of life and turn them into high drama, I quiet easily adopted the theme of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST as my romantic mantra. Unconditional love for another person having the ability to perform a miracle seemed like the perfect romantic formula. From childhood, I have believed that there is no power greater than the power of love --- all types of love, from parental love to wedded bliss, from loving friendships to love of God and country. And when I began writing romance novels, this fairy tale from my childhood formed the basis for many of my bad boy/good girl stories that ended with that essential happily ever after.

Although slightly tattered from much use and the pages yellow with age, that treasured copy of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST given to me so many years ago is still in my possession. It resides in a place of honor on a corner bookcase in my home office, alongside another copy of the book, printed and released the same year as the copy my grandfather gave me. And the interesting tale of how I came to own a second copy is a story of a son’s and daughter’s love for their mother and a son’s determined search for “the perfect gift.” Everyone close to me knows about my favorite fairy tale, knows how much I treasure that book, and knows about the very special relationship I shared with my grandfather. My children have delighted me, surprised me, and brought me to happy tears with numerous thoughtful gifts over the years, but none as absolutely perfect as the second copy of my beloved fairy tale. Two identical Christmas gifts, given decades apart, the first given to a granddaughter, the second given to a mother.

Both copies of this book are important to me, each a gift of love. One from a grandfather I adored and the other from the son and daughter I love unconditionally. The love my grandfather gave me --- which included a book about the power of love --- I gave to my children and they returned that love to me and passed it to their own children, continuing the never-ending circle of love within our family.

-- Beverly Barton


Check back tomorrow as Joshua Gaylord reminisces about how an adolescent crush taught him the importance of having blind trust in unreadable masterpieces.

Do not miss Howard Zinn's TV documentary coming in December. With Matt Damon and others as the voices!! Harper and Seven Stories Press have the tie-in books.

Happy Friday to all.  It has been a crazy week, what with our Word of the Year announcement and all.  So sit back, relax, and procrastinate your Friday away.  You can tell your boss I said it was okay.

On growing up with Joan Didion.

Some books to look for in the upcoming months.

Undercover with a Michelin inspector.

Nine foods named after people.

Business versus academia, a cartoon.

A fast food flow chart (say that five times fast!)

Out to sea.

Water on the moon!

Illuminating the Lilliputian.

Junot Diaz on writing.

What Jason Epstein ate.

Do books need trailers?

• Option watch: Mandalay Pictures has picked up UNTHINKABLE by author Mark Sable and artist Julian Totino Tedesco. The book is published by Boom! and Ross Richie and Andrew Cosby will produce, along with Mandalay’s Peter Gruber and Cathy Schulman.

Created and written by Mark Sable, “Unthinkable” centers on a brilliant man who was recruited just after 9/11 into a government think tank consisting of America’s most imaginative minds and tasked with dreaming up wild scenarios for possible attacks on U.S. soil. Years after the think tank was disbanded, the attacks the man concocted begin to occur, and he becomes the only one who can stop them. But the government has become his pursuer.

UNTHINKABLE gained a bit of notoriety earlier this year when Sable was detained at LAX after authorities found on of the scripts for the book.
• Meanwhile, Aurora has optioned Platinum’s Nightfall by Scott O. Brown and Ferran Xalabarder. The story concerns a man in a prison full of vampires. Has anyone ever seen a copy of this comic?
• Warren Ellis’s GLOBAL FREQUENCY — a 12 issue maxi-series about eh covert operations that battles other covert operations– has already been the subject of a TV pilot, spearheaded by John Rogers and starring Michele Forbes. Although well received by those who saw it, it was never picked up, some say because of anger over the pilot being leaked onto bit torrent sites. (It seems like this would pass for valuable pre-awareness these days.) But someone is trying it again, Ellis writes:

The CW will again try to adapt Warren Ellis’ comic book “Global Frequency,” this time Scott Nimerfro will script the pilot.

• Idris Elba, lately of THE LOSERS, will play Heimdall in the Thor movie. We did not know Elba was Norse but welcome his participation.

At Fourth Letter, Esther Inglis-Arkell becomes enraged by female comics characters who stand around and explain why they wear skimpy costumes.

And I heard the justification about how Canary’s outfit was in tribute to her mother, even when that means she’s in panties and a jacket in the First Wave books. And I’ve heard the one about Poison Ivy being a plant and therefore unconcerned about human modesty. Oh, and I’ve heard the one about Supergirl being invulnerable and therefore not needing pants. There are a few about how Huntress wanted to show off the fact that she was shot, and she lived, and that’s why she fought in a bikini. And then there’s the one about Batman and Superman . . . oh. Wait. There aren’t that many excuses for how Batman and Superman dress because, golly, for some reason, the male heroes in this mostly male-controlled medium put their fucking clothes on when they’re going to fight someone.

UPDATE: J. Caleb Mozzocco also covers this:

I can’t disagree with anything she said in her post; she’s dead-on right. If I had anything to add, it would be that the writer’s doing the justification of the costumes almost never have any real control over those costumes, and probably think they’re doing something valuable by finding a reason for explaining a costuming choice that sounds better than “Some guy 20-65 years ago though this was totally hot, and wondered if his editors would let him get away with it.” (That doesn’t make it any less irritating though, especially for a character like Power Girl, who is given explanation after explanation for her cleavage window. The first one of these speeches you read is never as annoying as the second, third or fifth).

Jesus, people, can’t you imagine for one minute that your own viewpoint is not the only one on Earth? AND what is wrong with calling cheesecake cheesecake? Plus, do you really know what sexualized men look like? If you think THIS is sexual, just go and google “French Rugby Team.” (Link NSFW.) Heck, Gay porn even has its own version of the Brokeback pose, although showing a surprising lack of flexibility. (Also NSFW)

To be fair, we suppose that there are times when a state of unclothedness is not merely used as titillation. Take, for example, the Greek water polo team.

Nothing sexy there! Or suggestive.

Just people doing their job! We salute the Greek water polo team!

The Greek water polo team!

The Greek–say, why are they wearing helmets, anyway?

Via Josh Neufeld.

       They've (apparently) announced the longlist for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (though not, of course, at the official site -- few and far between are the prizes and sites that manage to coordinate that ...).
       The Khaleej Times article, Three Saudis Listed for Arabic Booker Prize, lists the sixteen longlisted titles, selected from 115 submissions from seventeen countries.
       The only one of the longlisted authors that has a book under review at the complete review is Ali Bader, whose Papa Sartre I recently got to.
       I look forward to learning more about all the longlisted books -- and hope that more than just the winning title eventually winds up available in translation.

       In The Myanmar Times Zon Pann Pwint reports that English classics gathering dust not fans in Burma ('Myanmar').
       As U Khin Maung Sein of the Zaw bookshop says:

"There is not much of a market for classic literature books. Very few avid readers now take an interest in classics of Western literature; books by Albert Camus, James Joyce and John-Paul Sartre, which were snapped up within three days of going on sale a decade ago. These days even renowned books such as Outsider by Albert Camus have not sold at all this year," he said.

Myanmar readers may struggle with such books, which are difficult for native speakers to understand. However, in the absence of comprehension readers can take refuge in collecting.

       The Latin American Herald Tribune reports in Fuentes: Literature Should Resist Idea of Absolute Truths that:

Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes said that it is important that authors "play around with truth and lies" because the alternative is to promote the idea that absolute truth exists, which would imply "a dictatorship."

In a talk Wednesday at the Latin American Art Museum in Buenos Aires, Fuentes said that the "separation between the press and literature" lies in the fact "it's assumed the press aims to tell the truth."

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Dino Buzzati's late-60s 'graphic novel', Poem Strip -- admirably finally made available in English by New York Review Books.

JANE-ITIS

Earlier this week I visited the Jane Austen exhibit at the Morgan Library and Museum. I'm sure I'll be back several times, probably dragging friends with me, before it leaves in March, but I wanted to make my first visit alone.

I get annoyed at people who claim exclusive ownership of a particular book or author based on pereceived expertise or deep sensitivity or something. "You didn't write the damn books," I always want to snap when someone refers to a writer she's not acquainted with by her first name, turns up her nose at "noobs" or otherwise assumes superiority over the average schmo. "They're out there for everyone to read--get over yourself!"

But Jane is mine. She rescued me from a difficult and somewht chaotic childhood and showed me the possibility of order and beauty. she sparked an early intrest in psychology by illuminating the ways people reveal their motives and feelings through language, gesture and dress. In college, I did my honors English independent study on the importance of theatrics in Mansfield Park, wrote a screenplay of the cabinet scene in Northanger Abbey for a film adaptation class, and used Lady Catherine deBourgh as my character study for my acting final. We are bonded in the way, in some cultures, the person who saves your life is considered your soul's guardian from that point forward.

So I resented the hell out of the dabblers who blocked my view of her letters to Cassandra and of the autograph pages of her only surviving manuscript, Lady Susan. They had come to the books through the movies, I imagined, and thought of her works as romantic chick lit. I wanted them out.

The culmination of the exhibit is an excentric film in which a variety of artists and scholars share their reactions to viewing the letters and manuscripts, and their personal responses to her life and work. I watched it with several of the tourists whose presence I so resented.

And a funny thing happened. As we listened to such disparate literary personalities as Siri Hustvedt and Colm Tóibín describe their awe at viewing letters that were written in her own hand, a fragile, temporary community began to build. As a body, we snorted and hooted at Cornel West's assertion that if he met her he would give her a hug--imagine her reaction!--and melted at his response to the question of whom he would invite to dinner with her: Chekhov. Yes! (Though I identified with Fran Lebowitz's confession that she couldn't bear to invite anyone else; she would want Jane all to herself.) We sat up a little straighter when Tóibín suggested seating her between Freud and Jung: such rich possibilities for brilliance and truth, or, more likely, for disaster.

And then it was over, and I left, not looking at anyone, not wanting to spoil the experience with chitchat. But I keep thinking how glad I am to have shared this experience after all--about the magic of great fiction that can entrance generations of diverse readers, and can engender the feeling in each of us of a personal, vital relationship that feels very much like love.

Susan O'Doherty, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist with a New York City-based practice. A fiction writer herself, she specializes in issues affecting writers and other creative artists. She is the author of Getting Unstuck without Coming Unglued: A Woman's Guide to Unblocking Creativity (Seal, 2007). Her Career Coach column appears every Monday on Inside Higher Ed's Mama, Ph.D. blog , and she is a regular monthly panelist on Litopia After Dark. Send your questions to her at Dr.Sue at mindspring dot com.

Check it out! WB has now launched a new Perfect Potion Maker game to earn additional entries for the Road to Hogwarts Sweepstakes. As seen on YahooKids (and open to play without entering the sweepstakes) you can make your own Potions or follow some of those recipes found on the site. Completion of the activity will earn you another entry for a chance to win a  trip to the Grand Opening of the W... Read the rest of this post

Thanks to TLC reader Emma, we know that the city of Hunsbury, England will feature in overhead shots for the upcoming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Emma pointed us to this article which says:

"The Warner Brothers team went up in a helicopter to film aerial footage of the residential area last Thursday.As reported by this newspaper they had posted letters to residents asking them to leav... Read the rest of this post

The always fabulous Imelda Staunton is the subject of a new profile in the Daily Mail. In the new interview she remarks on her return performance as the horrible ex-Professor Umbridge and her reign of (interrogation) terror in the upcoming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, noting:

 "Now, that is a great role,' she says with relish. 'It was wonderful playing this baddie dressed in pink, and t... Read the rest of this post