Bestselling author Lauren Oliver and notorious relics collector H.C. Chester interview each other about Curiosity House: The Shrunken Head (HarperCollins, 2015).
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Blog: The Children's Book Review (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: H.C. Chester, Magic, Interview, Mysteries, Ages 9-12, Humor, Chapter Books, Author Interviews, featured, Oddities, Lauren Oliver, Add a tag
Blog: The Mumpsimus (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: oddities, Strange Horizons, Cheney publications, Add a tag
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.
Blog: PaperTigers (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Children's Books, bullying, Mary Pope Osborne, Books at Bedtime, reading to children, reluctant readers, Susanne Gervay, I Am Jack, Monday with a Mad Genius, Add a tag
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…
Blog: Just One More Book Children's Book Podcast (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Ages 0-3, Ages 4-8, Courage, Fairy tales and legends, Picture book, Girl, Making a difference, Resilience, Beautiful, childrens book, Fun, Adventure, Humour, Assertiveness, Fairy tales gone wild, Fairness / Justice, Mary Pope Osborne, Giselle Potter, review, Podcast, Add a tag
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.
Tags:childrens book, Giselle Potter, Mary Pope Osborne, Podcast, reviewchildrens book, Giselle Potter, Mary Pope Osborne, Podcast, reviewBlog: Crossover (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: random items of interest, favorite fonts, Mary Pope Osborne, Add a tag
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)
The courier fetish is just a hangover from the days when publishers would accept nothing else. It's still the screenwriters' fave, because being equal-spaced it means a page=a minute with reasonable consistency.
But reading courier is like walking barefoot over cobblestones I think.
I note-take in Arial and write drafts in Times New Roman. Habit is a weird thing.
(Joke: Courier walks into a bar. Barman says, "Sorry, we don't serve your type in here.")
Times New Roman rules!
Nick: That's a truly funny joke. Thanks for sharing :)
Yes, it does, Charlote!
I like Courier, because it has a little "funk" factor. But I love to use American Typewriter as much as possible for that purpose. I do admit it might be a little tough to read a full length novel that way, though.
But I write picture books, so display fonts are right up my alley. When choosing the typeface for pb spreads it is key to find a font that echos the style of the art. So, for me, funk is key.
Here is something that designers with type can have a field day at:
http://www.myfonts.com/
My favorites there are McCracken and Minya Nouvelle for the text in picture books. I used them when I designed my own PB.
I'm an Arial fan and have been for as long as I've been using a wordprocessor instead of a typewriter...
I write in Verdana and Trebuchet. Sometimes I change it over to Times New Roman for submission, sometimes not. I've noticed that many of my editors also use Verdana (or Arial). It doesn't seem like Courier or Times are the mandatory type anymore.
I love me a good Helvetica, especially a nice bold Helvetica with some 70's roundness to it.
But when it comes to mss. it's all about the Courier. Mostly because it's the closest to my old manual typewriter of days gone by.
I don't get the Arial (sp?) font myself.
Times New Roman all the way. Yet another thing we have in common.
I'm a Times New Roman 12 pt. girl myself for my WIP. But in my corporate days, I loved the combination of Palatino and Helvetica for my resume.
I love Arial. I get annoyed that Times is usually the default. It seems to stiff and conservative to me LOL.
Cloudscome, are you calling me stiff? ;)
I love the font issue. People feel as strongly about fonts as they do hometowns, universities, etc.
I much prefer serif fonts, but think the Times family is overexposed.
I tend to choose a different font for every project. Currently working in Bookman, Book Antiqua, American Typewriter, and Caslon with oldface numerals.