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Bestselling author Lauren Oliver and notorious relics collector H.C. Chester interview each other about Curiosity House: The Shrunken Head (HarperCollins, 2015).

Alas, March is shaping up to be a tremendously busy month, and so things here at The Mumpsimus are likely to continue to be light for a little bit, but part of the busy-ness comes from writing stuff for other places, including my latest Strange Horizons column, this one made up of meditations and hypotheses and, for all I know, wrongheaded foolishness about some intersections between the poetry and science fiction/fantasy communities.

If, then, you have some bizarre and pathological need to read more of my words, and you haven't yet sought the clinical help you should seek for this, then click the link above.

If, however, you are looking for a list of unusual deaths, that would be here.

The new school year has kicked in now so I was glad to spot A Year of Reading’s recommendation of Monday with a Mad Genius by Mary Pope Osborne as a good read-aloud to bring some excitement and magic to those first few days back at school. I was interested, too, to read Mary Lee’s method for getting her class back into reading after the long summer vacation:

Lots of my students haven’t read all summer long, and I am modeling what they need to do to rebuild their fluency and stamina: start with lots of quick, easy reads to build confidence and refresh skills.

My younger son can’t keep his nose out of a book (sometimes I even get exasperated): but my older boy, who is about to turn 9, is starting to need some chivvying and he hasn’t read as much this summer as I would have hoped. One way I’ve found to encourage him is to sit down and read the first chapter to him… except then we all get into it and it turns into a bedtime book!

I’m about to try out the technique with Susanne Gervay’s superb book I Am Jack. You can read the first chapter on Susanne’s website. She has also provided some good ideas and materials to download. Reading the book together at home and discussing it provide a valuable springboard for bringing up the subject of bullying. By writing the story, Susanne has put into practice one of the messages that underpins the book: the pen is mightier than the sword. It presents a well-rounded perspective from all angles, whether that of the victim, the bully, friends, onlookers, teachers, schools or parents… And it’s also a cracking good story that I think he’ll enjoy. Maybe we’ll read it together all the way through then he’ll feel inspired to pick up the sequel, SuperJack…

Author: Mary Pope Osborne
Illustrator: Giselle Potter
Published: 2000 Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
ISBN: 0689825501 Chapters.ca Amazon.com

This playful retelling is a refreshing departure from the boy-burglarizes-giant version of the giant beanstalk story.

While reading the news this morning, I ran across two items you might find interesting.

• Writers talk their favorite fonts over at Slate. I'm a Times New Roman girl myself. Courier just seems wrong to me. Which font is your favorite?
• An AP article that has been making the rounds: Hillel Italie talks to Mary Pope Osborne (Magic Tree House)