School and public libraries across the country are being cut back or worse.
We see the reports almost daily, like this one from NPR and this Indiegogo project started by two kids who want a library in their school.
I’ve heard people comment that “I don’t need no lie-berry ‘cuz I can find everything I need on my smartphone.” Except, perhaps, the proper pronunciation of the word li-BRARY.
It saddens me that professionals once revered and honored (in the case of librarians) have become luxuries to cut from budgets, and necessary public services (in the case of libraries) are considered expendable.
Rod Serling penned an episode of The Twilight Zone which aired in 1961, The Obsolete Man, about a day when librarians would be considered obsolete, expendable, unnecessary.
It’s fifty years later, and look where we are.
It’s up to us — writers, readers, those who care about public access to information and the quality of life for our communities and our nation — to support our libraries and our librarians.
Learning, and equal access to information, should never be considered obsolete.
When I think of the five books I’ve written so far for the “Scary Tales” Series — currently working on #6 now — I sometimes consider their relative “fear factor.”
I have been open about my debt to Rod Serling’s “The Twilight Zone.” Many people mistakenly think of TZ as a horror series. It was not, almost never. The stories were strange and always came with a twist. I’d call them intellectually ticklish. What I’ve tried to do with ST is capture some of that strangeness while still delivering the goosebumps.
This upcoming one, The One-Eyed Doll (September 2014), might be the scariest, creepiest of all. I’d put Home Sweet Horror in second place in terms of traditionally “scary,” Good Night, Zombie in third, with Nightmareland fourth. The least scary, but possibly most surprising, more in the thriller mode, is I Scream, You Scream. Of course, we all react differently. Some folks are afraid of spiders, others jump on chairs at the sight of mice.
When I started this series, I had big ambitions. I imagined — this is true — a painter working on a large canvas. I told my editor, “I don’t know if people will really see what I have in mind until I’ve done 20 titles, a color here, a splash there, because I want this to cross genre, move the “Horror” into Science Fiction, Fantasy, Thriller, Realistic and even Historical Fiction. I am most eager to do some Sci-Fi with this series, because in space they can’t hear you scream. But that’ll have to wait for now.
Here’s the new cover. I am so grateful for the opportunity given to me by Jean Feiwel and Liz Szabla to write these books. Don’t they look great? Aren’t I lucky? And what do you think of Iacopo Bruno’s latest cover? I love it!
～PROFILE～
Screenwriter / Sci-Fi Legend
Served in the 11th Airborne Division during WWII
Known as the "angry young man" by execs"You're traveling through another dimension..."Wikipedia Bio
[To see past editions of Jew of the Week, visit Owen's blog,
Winning the Polyglottery!]
written and illustratedby Shaun TanScholastic 2009I've been wanting to write about this since before it came out. Life gets in the way, and books get shuffled further down piles, and suddenly a person finds themselves thinking "Wait, didn't I already review that?"Following Tan previous books to these shores, The Arrival, I know there was a lot of anticipation over how Tan would follow-up his
