By: Melissa Wiley,
on 12/11/2015
We had quite a week here. First a stomach virus laid most of us low, and then yesterday when I was finally feeling more like myself, I managed to wrench my back during a cough. So stupid.
But a lot of nice Decemberish things happened in between the grim bits. Before I got sick, I led a craft workshop for a group of teen girls—we made little Midori-style booklets out of envelopes and washi tape, a favorite project of mine. 
I got the tree up yesterday—no ornaments yet, just the lights—and even a strand of outdoor lights. And we had a double birthday this week, celebrated with marshmallow krispie treats instead of cake.
Last December I was reading novels nonstop for the CYBIL Awards. This year, I’ve hardly read a thing. This month, I mean. Between work and kids and illness, my brain just hasn’t been there. Except for reading Christmas books to the kids, of course. Jingle the Christmas Clown, Christmas Trolls, The Baker’s Dozen, Hanna’s Christmas (Huck’s pick, I swear).
I did a Periscope yesterday (about five minutes before I messed up my back) about how we use Memrise and Duolingo for foreign language and other things—a topic I’ve addressed here on the blog many a time. Earlier in the week when I was too sick to read, I found it soothing to review Memrise topics I’ve completed in the past…U.S. Presidents, British Monarchs. Rilla is loving Duolingo French and is now at a great age to use that program. As I said in the ’scope, it’s a bit too advanced for Huck—too much English spelling, let alone German—but there are aspects of the platform that he really loves, and if I sit with him to help with the spelling he gets along pretty well.
No plans this weekend except rest, answering some letters, and maybe cracking a book that has a spine thicker than a quarter-inch. You?
$50 Gift Certificate Holiday Giveaway Enter here: Mudpuppy Holiday Giveaway The Best Parts of Christmas Written & Illustrated by Bethanie Deeney Murguia Candlewick Press 9/22/2015 978-0-7636-7556-1 32 pages Ages 4—8 “Fritz knows that the best parts of Christmas—from decorating to sharing treats ad opening presents—happen around the tree. And Fritz gets to …
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 12/11/2015
Lego Marvel's Avengers was the best game of PSX and here's why.
By: Kassia Krozser,
on 12/11/2015
Album: Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only The Piano Player
Year: 1973
Another massive world-wide hit for Elton, but arguably one of his major hits that’s aged the poorest. That said, there’s no way I could possibly ignore it for this project for one simple fact: this is the first 45 I ever bought.
The weird thing, I’m not entirely sure where I bought it. But I’m going to take a guess and say that it was at Rudy’s, the discount drug and variety store that was next to the Headliner Foodland at the corner of First & Barstow.
We lived about a mile away, and since I was already riding my bike everywhere — including on a daily basis to Robinson Elementary (even though we technically lived in the Wolters district, Robinson was where the MGM program was) — I know that I bought quite a few of my first singles at Rudy’s, which had a big display rack of the latest music.
So when I discovered that the song I thought was called “Clouds in My Eye” was actually called “Daniel,” I went and spent — let’s say 49 cents of — my allowance to buy it.
And, of course, listen to it over and over and over, and wondering if the lyrics about the older brother and Spain and the clouds in his eye made any sense or not.
Of course, “Daniel” has both a really cheesy-sounding electric piano, and an even cheesier-sounding synth hook, but, of course, Elton was utterly killing it melodically, so it remains impossible to get the chorus out of my head all these years later:
Daniel my brother you are older than me
Do you still feel the pain of the scars that won’t heal
Your eyes have died but you see more than I
Daniel you’re a star in the face of the sky
At some point soon after that, I bought my first album, which was Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only The Piano Player, and didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I might.
While I really liked “Teacher, I Need You” & “Elderberry Wine” and my mom pointed out “Crocodile Rock” reminded her of a 1950s song with her name, but some of the other songs left me cold, so I don’t really have memories of listening to it a whole hell of a lot.
Though, I must have, right?
“Daniel”
The post Certain Songs #391: Elton John – “Daniel” appeared first on Booksquare.
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By: Sarah McIntyre,
on 12/11/2015
In supporting the #PicturesMeanBusiness campaign to get illustrators properly credited for their work, I keep coming across the very similar #NameTheTranslator campaign for translator credits. And it makes sense to campaign for both at the same time, so we don't have to do everything all over again.
Translators have an even harder time than illustrators trying to build up their name as the brand for their business. Whereas most people can look quickly at an illustration and get a sense of it, very few people speak a second language fluently enough to check that an original story and a translated version both read well. It's exciting getting foreign editions of my books with Philip Reeve through the post, but I'm not fluent enough even in French or Russian, to catch any subtle nuances, and the rest could be in Martian for all I know. So unless a native speaker reports back to me, or the book wins an award, I have no idea how well our texts are translated!
But the translator's work means everything to how well the book will go down with people who read it in languages other than English. I don't have much contact with translators, other than on Twitter with Sandra Hessels who works freelance for Veltman, our Dutch publisher. So it was lovely when the Hungarian translator of Oliver and the Seawigs, Örkény Ajkay, popped up with an e-mail to say hello. I thought I'd feature him here on my blog so you can see a little bit of what goes into translating our books.
Sarah: Örkény, you're so important to our book with Hungarian publisher Móra, but writer and illustrators usually don't learn very much about our translators! We want to 'name the translator', but often that's all we can do! I wish we could do more to big you up.
Örkény: It’s so nice to hear about support for translator-awareness! We're used to saying, a bit ironically, that there are 3 true rewards for a literary translator:
1. Copyright © symbol in the colophon next to their name,
2. To read their name in print,
3. Readers’ compliments about the author of the work they translated.
The latter is the best, of course, meaning that the translator managed to convey messages and meaning of the original, and acted like a thin, transparent layer, a delicate interface of some sort, between author’s thoughts and absorbing minds. Okay, interpreters do the same on a daily basis, they are even more the unsung heroes type.
S: You say your career as a translator was kickstarted by a video game! Can you tell me a bit about that?
O: Back in the early 90s I played an adventure video game called Neuromancer with my friends. A friend of mine mentioned he had the book with the same title. This sounded exciting, so I got hold of a copy too, and after reading some chapters, I decided to translate it – without any previous experience in literary translation! It was a sudden, crazy idea, but I liked that. Translating this classic and important SF novel was extremely hard for a beginner, but fortunately I received heaps of help from the author himself! And after years of translation, I heavily revised my First Translation for reprints.
S: So you focus on Science Fiction?
O: Well, most of my translations are SF novels and short stories, yes. But many of them could be tagged as contemporary fiction. And I think fiction is the part to be emphasized.
S: How did you come across Oliver and the Seawigs? What did you think of it?
O: My then-prospective editor was seeking translators for various titles, and offered me this one. I devoured it, and thought it’s zany, it’s fun, and it’s adventure and fiction at its best. Made me recall some great funny adventure games, such as Day of the Tentacle and the Monkey Island series, so I fell in love with the book, even before I finished it.
S: Hurrah! And thank you so much for your hard work! What's it like to translate into Hungarian? Your language is so different to English!
O: Hungarian is unrelated to most European languages, and has its own quirks. For example, there is no gender in our grammar. Everybody in 3rd person singular is “ő” [o with double acute accent]. Where in English “he” or ”she” is used as needed, in Hungarian we use other words to express gender. Sometimes this requires extra creativity.
Hungarian also uses multiple suffixes extensively. Words can have various endings, depending on the given grammatical (accusative, genitive, locative, instrumental etc.) case. This can be challenging, especially when English words are used in different cases but remain the same, or when translated text should fit into an illustration.
S: What was the most challenging part to translate in Oliver and the Seawigs?
O: Besides jokes that cannot be translated directly, it was the names, I think. To find proper/common nouns for all those fantastic characters and places. The idea for proper nouns was that some names should look and feel like foreign names but should read easily in Hungarian, some should be funny in Hungarian, and all should suggest the original meaning, if any. Even the title of the book was hard to translate properly.
S: What does Olivér és a tengerkócok mean in Hungarian?
O: 'Olivér' is the Hungarian version of Oliver. The words 'és a' means 'and the'. We opted out of translating 'sea wigs' directly because it would be 'tengeri parókák' and is too long to fit in.
'Tengerkócok' is a fabricated compound in plural. It’s a pun with 'tenger' (sea) and 'kenderkóc' (hemp fiber). Latter may trigger some maritime associations like hemp ropes or traditional caulking, thus I think it suits sea adventures well. The word 'kóc' itself approximately means 'tangled fiber', but can also mean 'hair(do)', especially a tangled, fuzzy one. It is the stem of the adjective 'kócos' which is used for someone whose hair is tangled, uncombed.
S: Ah, that's perfect! The pictures have a lot of interplay between Iris's wild hair and messy seaweed.
O: The '-ok' suffix at the end contains a '–k' which is the plural indicator, while the '-o-' comes in to dissolve consonant pileup and to ease pronunciation, with respect to notorious Hungarian vowel harmony.
S: Whoa... this sounds seriously complicated. What about some of the other names in the book? 
O: Some names, like Deepwater Bay, Forgotten Mesa etc. were translated literally. The mermaid 'Iris' remained, just written in Hungarian form, 'Írisz'. 'Cliff'; was transformed into 'Szirtesó', being a portmanteau of 'szirt' (primer meaning of cliff) and 'tesó' which is derived from and used for 'testvér' (sibling) but also means 'buddy'. 'Crisp' became 'VanMersze'; which comes from the expression 'van mersze' meaning 'he/she has courage'. In this written form it has also a foreign German-ish, Dutch-ish look for Hungarian readers.
The 'Thurlstone' became 'Nagycudar' meaning 'the big(and)mean'. 'Mr Culpeper' became 'Paprimorc úr'(we put the 'Mr' behind the name). 'Paprimorc' is a portmanteau of 'paprika' (red pepper) and 'morcos' (morose).
S: Ha ha! Mr Morose Paprika! I love it.
O: 'St Porrocks' was a subject of long trying. The 'St' prefix in Hungarian is written in a full 'Szent-' form (too long), and looks way too Hungarian, suggesting a fictional local town. Which would have been confusing since Hungary is a landlocked country, and St Porrocks is by the sea. So I created the name 'Ottahollax' instead. This is a compressed and phonetically written form of 'ott, ahol laksz' which translates word for word as 'there, where you live'.
'The Hallowed Shallows' became 'a Mélységes Sekélyes'. The word 'mélységes' literally means 'it has depth' and means 'deep' as in 'deep secret', 'deep thoughts'. 'Sekélyes' means 'shallows'. Together it is an oxymoron which also suggests mystery, and both words have same structure, same adjective suffixes, same vowels, and 'LY' digraphs (it sounds as 'y' in 'maybe') so it looks pleasant as well.
S: Thank you so much for all your attention to detail! Will you be translating any other of the Reeve & McIntyre books?
O: Currently I'm working on Cakes in Space, which is a similarly lovely and challenging task for me. Most of it is done, but still needs to be finished and polished. And I hear Pugs barking in the distance.
Thank you, Örkény! You can read the first chapter of the Hungarian edition of Oliver and the Seawigs online here at the publisher's website.
Have you ever wondered what life is like in the aftermath of a natural disaster? Is it possible for an individual or community to find joy in the process of rebuilding? Marvelous Cornelius: Hurricane Katrina and the Spirit of New Orleans isn’t typical of the books John Parra has illustrated in the past. The picture book, written by Phil Bildner, is a recount of life post-Hurricane Katrina. Real-life New Orleans, Louisiana sanitation worker Cornelius Washington serves as the jubilant focal point of the story. Parra captures Cornelius’ callouts and tricks through his vivid and bold painting style. The infectious spirit and waterproof soul of Cornelius Washington, as interpreted by Phil’s prose and John’s illustrations, solidifies Marvelous Cornelius: Hurricane Katrina and the Spirit of New Orleans as a strong modern-day folktale.
John Parra has illustrated multiple books for early and bilingual readers. He is a two-time recipient of the Pura Belpre Honor which recognizes a Latino/Latina writers and illustrators whose work affirms and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in children’s literature.
John’s love of art was influenced by his amateur artist father. His father is also an avid baseball fan, which came in handy when John created illustrations for Round Is a Tortilla. When he’s not illustrating kid lit, he shows work internationally.
Watch to find out why Rocco’s favorite book illustrated by John is Round Is a Tortilla, what publishers John will illustrate for next, and to get familiar with diverse books that will enhance the lives of young readers whether they are your children or students.
We’re giving away three (3) John Parra book bundles. Each bundle contains a signed copy of Marvelous Cornelius: Hurricane Katrina and the Spirit of New Orleans, Green is a Chile Pepper: A Book of Colors, and Round is a Tortilla: A Book of Shapes. Enter now!
All entrants must reside in the United States and be at least 13 years old.
BOOKS ILLUSTRATED BY JOHN PARRA
Via John Parra Art
Marvelous Cornelius: Hurricane Katrina and the Spirit of New Orleans (Written by Phil Bildner) – In New Orleans, there lived a man who saw the streets as his calling, and he swept them clean. He danced up one avenue and down another and everyone danced along. The old ladies whistled and whirled. The old men hooted and hollered. The barbers, bead twirlers, and beignet bakers bounded behind that one-man parade. But then came the rising Mississippi—and a storm greater than anyone had seen before. In this heartwarming book about a real garbage man, Phil Bildner and John Parra tell the inspiring story of a humble man and the heroic difference he made in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Green is a Chile Pepper: A Book of Colors (Written by Roseanne Thong) – Green is a chile pepper, spicy and hot. Green is cilantro inside our pot. In this lively picture book, children discover a world of colors all around them. Many of the featured objects are Latino in origin, but all are universal in appeal. With rich, boisterous illustrations, a fun-to-read rhyming text, and an informative glossary, this playful concept book will reinforce the colors found in every child’s day!
Round is a Tortilla: A Book of Shapes (Written by Roseanne Thong) – Children discover a world of shapes all around them: Many of the featured objects are Latino in origin, and all are universal in appeal. With rich, boisterous illustrations, a fun-to-read rhyming text, this playful concept book will reinforce the shapes found in every child’s day!
Waiting for the Biblioburro (Written by Monica Brown) – Ana loves stories. Once morning, Ana wakes up to a traveling library of books resting on the backs of two small burros, with enough stories to encourage her to create one of her own. Inspired by the heroic efforts of real-life librarian Luis Soriano, and his mobile library who journeys to bring literacy and culture to the children of rural Colombia. Teacher’s Guide
Gracias/Thanks (Written by Pat Mora) – There are so many things to be thankful for. For one young boy, it’s flying ladybugs, splashing ocean waves, a best friend, and much more. Straight from the heart of a child flows this lighthearted bilingual celebration of family, friendship, and fun. Come share the joy, and think about all the things for which you can say, “¡Gracias! Thanks!”
My Name is Gabriela (Written by Monica Brown) – Gabriela Mistral loved words and sounds and stories. Born in Chile, she would grow to become the first Nobel Prize-winning Latina woman in the world. As a poet and a teacher, she inspired children across many countries to let their voices be heard. This beautifully crafted story, where words literally come to life, is told with the rhythm and melody of a poem. My Name is Gabriela is beautiful tribute to a woman who taught us the power of words and the importance of following our dreams. The story of Gabriela Mistral will continue to inspire children everywhere. Teacher’s Guide
ABOUT JOHN PARRA
Via John Parra Art (abridged)
John Parra is an award-winning illustrator, fine artist, designer, and educator, best known for his art illustrated Latino-themed children’s books such as Gracias / Thanks and Waiting for the Biblioburro. For his books he has received many awards and honors including: The Golden Kite Award from The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, The Pura Belpré Honor’s Award from The American Library Assoc., The Américas Book Award: Commended Title from CLASP, The International Latino Book Award: Best Interior Children’s Book Art from Latino Literary Now, and The Christopher’s Award from The Christopher’s Inc.
Parra’s original artwork has also been showcased and displayed in numerous gallery shows and museum exhibitions in New York, California, and throughout the United States and abroad. Many of his fine art paintings now reside with private collectors. He has taught art at the Carnegie Art Museum in Oxnard, CA and regularly speaks at primary schools, college universities and literary conferences across the country advocating art and reading education.
John’s artistic path began while growing up in Santa Barbara, CA. He spent his days exploring and drawing landscapes, wildlife, city, and family. His Hispanic roots and heritage provided a rich cultural palette of inspiring imagery and customs. Mexican mural artists, folk-style paintings, pop art, surrealism, outsider art, regional cuisine, music and dance costumes are all visual influences seen in his work. As his artist journey progressed, John went on to graduate from the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA.
Now living in Queens, NY, with his wife Maria, John continues working in his studio, passionately creating art through his imagination and creativity. He received the Pura Belpré Honor award for his book, Green on is a Chile Pepper, and the Hurricane Katrina-inspired, Marvelous Cornelius: Hurricane Katrina and the Spirit of New Orleans.
CONNECT WITH JOHN PARRA
Website
Facebook
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Twitter
CONNECT WITH KidLit TV
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StoryMakers
Host – Rocco Staino
Executive Producer – Julie Gribble
Producer – Kassia Graham
Like it? Pin it.
The post StoryMakers | Marvelous Cornelius’ John Parra appeared first on KidLit.TV.
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By: LAURIE WALLMARK,
on 12/11/2015
Do authors have any input over the cover design of their books?
http://literaticat.tumblr.com/post/129949968155/how-much-input-does-the-author-have-in-cover-art
By: Wendy Orr,
on 12/11/2015
And the winner is... Ginger Woods, who subscribes to my rather irregular newsletter. She chose Abandoned: A Lion Called Kiki - so here's a picture of the little lioness who became Kiki in the book, and her foster mother Mona - (Mona of Rainbow Street is named in her honour). The kids are me, my very excited sister Kathy and brother David - a long time ago in Colorado Springs..png.jpg?picon=3916)
By: Heather Dixon,
on 12/11/2015
I brought my camera & tripod to Temple Square last year, and made some cinemagraphs. The one above is my favorite, but these other ones are fun too.
Waaaait for it…
This one’s subtle. But I like the picture anyway.
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, HOW in the world did she take these pictures without 5 billion people in the background??
I’ll tell you, my friends, and it’s Salt Lake City’s best kept secret:
Temple Square turns the lights back on at 6:00 AM.
Yup.
Even the music plays. When I went, no one was there.
Except me :)
…And about 500 other photographers.
…And one very sleepy family of 7.
(I think they enjoyed it.)
By: Becky Laney,
on 12/11/2015
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By: Phyllis Harris,
on 12/11/2015
Hi Friends,
I wanted to wish you all a very blessed and peaceful Christmas and a healthy and happy new year!
I created this video that shares the sweet words of the late great Margaret Wise Brown from her book ON CHRISTMAS DAY that I was so very blessed to illustrate. I still have a few first edition copies left and you can get a signed copy from the illustrator(me) in my shop here. The beautiful guitar in the background is my talented husband.
To see a preview of this sweet book click on the video below.
You my friends, are the reason for the joy and success of Phyllis Harris Designs and I cherish you and your support. I so appreciate you sharing our website with your friends and family; and I wish you all a blessed Christmas season and a happy 2016!
I will talk to you next year!
Phyllis
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 12/11/2015
You might recognize Ben Mackey’s name because of his kick-ass Twin Peaks tarot cards or Sean Lewis for his work on This American Life. How the hell did these two guys meet? We're about to find out.
By: Jerry Beck,
on 12/11/2015
Cartoon Brew presents an exclusive gallery of the sensitive and whimsical character designs of Alê Abreu's extraordinary feature film debut.
The post An Exclusive Character Design Gallery from ‘Boy and the World,’ Opening Today in LA and NYC appeared first on Cartoon Brew.
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By: John Nez,
on 12/11/2015
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 12/11/2015
Marvel has finally lifted the curtain on the upcoming X-Men event, entitled The Apocalypse Wars. The publisher provided more details about the story after cryptically announcing it at Comic Con Experience 2015 with nothing to show but a logo. Thankfully, we now have confirmation that the story will spring from Cullen Bunn’s upcoming Uncanny X-Men. The news didn’t stop there, as […]
By: Dianna Dilworth,
on 12/11/2015
Carmen Balcells, Gabriel García Márquez’s literary agent who sold his classic title One Hundred Years of Solitude, passed away this past September.
Before she died, she did one final interview with Vanity Fair in which she spoke frankly about her career. In the interview she explains discovering the work and selling it to Harper & Row. Here is an excerpt:
Add a CommentI was reading García Márquez—one of the early books—and I said to Luis, ‘This is so fantastic, Luis, that we have to read it at the same time.’ So I made a copy of it. We both had enthusiasm for it: it was so fresh, so original, so exciting. Every reader says in his mind, of certain books, ‘This is one of the best books I have ever read.’ When that happens to a book again and again, all over the world, you have a masterpiece. That is what happened with Gabriel García Márquez
By: Dianna Dilworth,
on 12/11/2015
The New York Times has released its best books of 2015 lists.
Instead of releasing one top 10 list like many publications, The Times opted to have three top 10 lists, each one selected by one of the publication’s three daily book critics: Michiko Kakutani, Janet Maslin and Dwight Garner. Each selection includes the book’s title, author, and a description about why it was chosen, along with a link to a review of the book.
The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante was among the selected works on Kakutani’s list. The Cartel by Don Winslow made Maslin’s list. H Is For Hawk by Helen Macdonald was one of Garner’s picks.
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By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 12/11/2015
There is apparently a grassroots petition campaign underway in San Diego, where concerned citizens hope to get a ballot initiative that will keep Comic-Con in San Diego. In front of many stores, voters are being asked to sign petitions in support of an initiative that “could save Comic-Con” or “help build a downtown stadium.” […]
By: Caireen,
on 12/11/2015
Twice in the past couple of weeks I've gotten stuck in long lines in our local post office.
Twice, I had a wonderful time standing there.
It's definitely disheartening to see a line snaking out the door from the post office proper into the cramped lobby, with perhaps twenty people waiting, each one clutching half a dozen packages to weigh, price, and ship, with one - yes, ONE - window open. I debate leaving and coming back another time - but what guarantee do I have that another time will be better? And I have my heart set on crossing off this postal errand today. I debate driving to another, larger post office on the outskirts of town, where lines are reputed to be shorter, but it's a ten-to-fifteen-minute drive each way, so how much time would I save, really?
I was having these thoughts in line two weeks ago when I noticed the person in front of me was someone I had worked with in the University of Colorado Philosophy Department's Center for Values and Social Policy when I arrived in Boulder back in the 1990s; I hadn't seen her in years. "Jackie!" I exclaimed. "Claudia!" she replied. We talked long and hard and fast and joyously for the entire 25-minute wait.
Then as I was preparing to depart, errand accomplished, I heard another voice: "Claudia?" A woman who looked vaguely familiar had just joined the end of the still-long line. "Barb?" It was someone else who had worked with Jackie and me in the philosophy department all those years ago. Barb had moved to Utah many years before; I had no idea she had recently moved back to Boulder. We all fell into each others' arms. And, to complete this tale of postal serendipity, why was Barb there in line at the post office? Because she was mailing off a special card to Sara, who had also worked with us, and is now a professor in the philosophy department at University of Washington. Jackie and I scribbled our greetings to her on the back of the envelope.
So last week, when I saw an even longer line at the post office, I didn't despair. First, I remembered my oft-broken commitment to myself to stand on one foot for two minutes a day - two minutes for each foot, or four minutes total. Spending four minutes a day in this way is supposed to make a huge difference in maintaining balance and avoiding falls as we age. It's probably the single most important thing I can do for myself at this time in my life, given a family history of falls. But it's such a boring thing to do! I mean to do it every morning as I heat up the water for my Swiss Miss hot chocolate in the microwave, but I almost never do, as I'd rather tackle something more visibly productive, like unloading the dishwasher. I could do it when I watch TV, but I almost never watch TV, and if I do, I'd rather be curled up on the couch with a cat or dog on my lap. But it's the absolutely perfect thing to do while standing in line.
I began to balance on my right foot. To make conversation with my line-mates, I explained what I was doing. As we started to chat, one of them squinted at me and said, "Do you teach philosophy?" Why, yes, I do. "I took your class!" she said. As we talked, I began to remember her, from perhaps a dozen years ago, as she told me that she still had the paper she wrote for me on Plato, presenting her argument in the form of a Platonic dialogue, and how I had pronounced it "charming." She's now a professor at CU herself, teaching in the humanities program in the College of Engineering, with a master's degree in piano performance and a doctorate in musicology, as well as a three-year-daughter and another child on the way (the reason she declined to do the one-foot-balancing as she waited). The 45-minute wait flew by.
Later today I'm off to the post office again. I no longer dread long lines. I can balance on one foot as I wait and increase my chances of a long and happy life. And odds are that I'll meet up with someone fascinating as I shift my weight from one foot to the other. After all, right now I'm two for two.
By: Catherine,
on 12/11/2015
The Leaky Cauldron has a new way of reaching fans: we have decided to join Instagram! We are trying to stay as relevant as muggle, no-maj, wizardingly possible by joining more social media networks, and we want to be able to connect and share with as many Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling fans as possible.
Thank you already for being such loyal fans to our website, and for following our Facebook and Twitter. Here at Leaky we continue to strive to fulfill our promise to bring you the best, most trustworthy, and timely Harry Potter news–and in as many ways as possible! Please join us in sharing the visual fun and fantastic nature of our beloved Harry Potter series, and follow us on Instagram!
Our username is theleakycauldronnews! See you there!
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By: Maryann Yin,
on 12/11/2015
Emily Trunko, the fifteen year old creator behind the Dear My Blank and The Last Message Received Tumblr pages, has signed a deal with Crown Books for Young Readers. Trunko plans to write two books based on both of her two websites.
Emily Easton, an executive editor, negotiated the deal with Heather Flaherty, a literary agent at The Bent Agency. The publisher will release both books in 2016.
Here’s more from the press release: “Trunko’s Dear My Blank Tumblr (dearmyblank.tumblr.com) launched in March 2015 and showcases anonymous letters that people never intend to, or don’t have the courage to, send—ranging in length from a single sentence to thousands of words, and covering a range of topics and emotions from heartbreak, unrequited love, betrayal, loss, self-awareness, courage, and pride. Over 20,000 anonymous letters from people of all ages have been submitted to the Tumblr, and about 100 new letters arrive every day…Upon the recent launch of her second Tumblr, The Last Message Received (thelastmessagereceived.tumblr.com), Trunko gained 40,000 followers in just three weeks, with nearly 5,000 messages coming in the last two weeks. The Tumblr showcases highs and lows of the human condition, sharing the last messages people received from someone significant in their lives—death, breakup, friendship ending, family fights, etc.”
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By: Caireen,
on 12/11/2015
By: Sarah Stevenson,
on 12/11/2015
Summary: Some time ago I reviewed the first collected volume of the new (and surprisingly awesome) Ms. Marvel comic, starring the rebooted main character Kamala Khan: an ordinary American teenage girl from Jersey City who just happens to be a... Read the rest of this post
I’m a suck for Lego games, so I’ll be getting this, no question, but this seriously looks like a step down from Lego Marvel. We had an open world Manhattan last time, so I don’t know why it’s hyped so heavily in the trailer.
What actually made Lego Marvel amazing was the original story. It was goofy as hell, but in exactly the way that celebrated how amazing the Marvel Universe and its vast array of characters really are. Plus we had locations like the Daily Bugle, Marvel HQ, Latveria, and the Baxter Building. This has . . . Sokovia . . . and South Africa. Very drab.