Read Alert Roundup 5/3/07
Canadians rock. They really do. As well as spelling things correctly and saying ‘zed’, Canadians also have the Writers’ Union of Canada’s Freedom to Read Award. This award is won by someone who has stood up for the … well, the freedom to read. It’s an anti-censorship award. And in case you’re still doubting that Canadians rock? This year, the award was won by 10 year old Evie Freedman, for her passionate defence of Deborah Ellis’ Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israeli Children Speak.
Speaking of censorship, Higher Power of Lucky author Susan Patron responds to the brouhaha surrounding her inclusion of the word ’scrotum’ in her Newbery Award Winning book. Also, Neil Gaiman has posted the last last word on Scrotumgate.
BBC radio is podcasting a short story by Jonathan Strange author Susanna Clarke.
The Guardian lists the top 100 books Britons can’t live without. Number one? Good old Pride and Prejudice. Nice to see Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials in the top ten.
Have I mentioned the In Your Pants phenomenon? That all book titles are improved by the addition of the words In Your Pants? (no really, try it.) Yeah. Well, some US teens took the joke a little too literally, and actually put library books in their pants. They got in trouble.
I am less jealous of the Michael Morpurgo thing Mike blogged about last week, and more jealous of this YouTube video where John Green, Maureen Johnson, Cecil Castellucci, Holly Black, E Lockhart and Cassie Claire all sit in a NY cafe writing together.
Does anyone think that a person who says he loves reading because “it’s good to stimulate the mind using comprehension skills” maybe doesn’t really love reading? Or maybe he’s just clueless: “If there were more books that interest kids our age - books on hip hop and drugs, you know, the stuff you see on TV - If they put that stuff into books, a lot more people would be reading.”
