Have you ever seen a book trailer? Book trailers can be made of music and text set to still images, acted out, or animated. They can also contain interviews with authors.

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Example book trailer (Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book):

*spoilers*

I don’t know much about clevvertv.com but in August they reported that Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer’s last novel in the Twilight saga, will indeed be made into a film like the first three books, Twilight, New Moon (hitting theaters next week) and Eclipse.

The article says that Melissa Rosenberg, the movie’s screenwriter, hinted that part of the book would be toned down for the movies’ young audience. This is welcome news, as I couldn’t imagine how the sure-to-be tween blockbuster would visually portray scenes such as these:

…large purplish bruises were beginning to blossom across the pale skin of my arm. My eyes followed the trail they made up to my shoulder and then down cross my ribs. I pulled my hand free to poke at a discoloration on my left forearm, watching it fade where I touched and then reappear. [...] There was a faint shadow across one of my cheekbones, and my lips were a little swollen [...] The rest of me was decorated with patches of blue and purple.
- Bella, post-sex

and

Bella’s body, streaming with red, started to twitch, jerking around in Rosalie’s arms like she was being electrocuted. All the while, her face was blank—unconscious. It was the wild thrashing from inside the center of her body that moved her. As she convulsed, sharp snaps and cracks kept time with the spasms.
- Jacob, describing Bella, who refuses to end the pregnancy that is violently killing her (and who also seems to have never heard of a c-section).

But hey, Bella waited to have sex until marriage, and all life – even that of a half-human fetus who breaks its mother’s spine and will likely chew its way out of her womb – is sacred. So who’s complaining?

These are so lovely, I have to share: illustrations by Brian Wildsmith in A Child’s Garden of Verses.

I couldn’t express it better than Vintage Kids’ Books:

if this book was butter, right now I would be smearing it all over toast

Get the book here.

Wicked parents, sleeping beauties (or princes?), quests, disguises, magic, love, danger… the Guardian has great a fairytale series going on with retellings and analysis by writers such as Philip Pullman, Marina Warner, and AS Byatt. Thanks to Monica Edinger (another interesting blogger, and Alice fan, discovered!) @ educating alice for pointing it out.

by Laura Barrett

One night in Twilight-world, Edward reveals to Bella that he has snuck into her room to watch her sleep, and that’s he’s been doing so for, oh, about a month. But Bella doesn’t mind, or think this is creepy, or any kind of violation, because it’s sooooo romaaaaantic.

Now Edward can watch you while you sleep, too.

Creepy McStalkerson

Like Poshdelux, I can’t even put this disturbing piece of pop culture into articulate words. I just stare at it in disbelief, and then gag.

Now picture this decal on the wall of some young girl’s room… (if only I had photoshop…)

Check out this fantastic blog displaying a growing collection of art inspired by Where The Wild Things Are. All of the pieces are unique and gorgeous, but here are my favorites:

"Wild Snow" by Bobby Pontillas

"Back Home" by Alberto Cerriteno

"Hide and Seek" by Dan Matutina

"Wish You Were Here" by Nate Wragg

"That Very Night" by Sarah Caterisano

"And It Was Still - Wait A Minute!" by Willie Real

Learn more about the project and the artists – even buy a piece – here.

A recent essay in The New York Times introduced me to Accelerated Reader, a reading management software system that has been around for more than 20 years, but that I had never heard of until now. Thank God. I shudder to think how it could have mangled my sense of literary excellence and maimed my love of reading.

Accelerated Reader presents teachers with a book list and it awards, or instructs teachers how to award, each book a point value. The points are based on the number of words in the book and its reading difficulty (a formula of [10 + reading level] x [words in book / 100,000]).

Students choose from the book list, aiming to reach a total point goal (perhaps individual schools or teachers establish this goal? I’m not sure). Once students finish a book (or pretend to finish), they take a computerized test. Past students of the program have said that these tests ask “What color was character A’s jacket in the third chapter?”-type questions wholly unrelated to theme, character, symbolism or anything important. Perhaps the quizzes are a good way to measure vocabulary, plot, etc. But are they really more effective than a group discussion, or a reading journal, at evaluating a student’s comprehension of the text or reading development?

What disturbs me most about Accelerated Reader is the arbitrary point system which assigns – I’m still trying to comprehend this – 8 points on a 50- (or so) point scale to Hamlet. One point less than the latest Gossip Girl book.

Here’s a sampling of the points awarded to other books:

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: 44
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: 34
Jane Eyre: 33
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: 32
Sense and Sensibility: 22
Frankenstein: 17
To Kill A Mockingbird: 15
Black Beauty: 10
Heart of Darkness: 10
I Like it Like That (Gossip Girl): 8
Hamlet: 7

My elementary school used a program called “Book It,” in which we won a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut after reading a certain number of books. We got to choose which books we want to read, read at our own pace, and certainly did not have to choose books based on points.

According to the article (and my peers who experienced the program in elementary school),

Librarians and teachers report that students will almost always refuse to read a book not on the Accelerated Reader list, because they won’t receive points. They base their reading choices not on something they think looks interesting, but by how many points they will get. The passion and serendipity of choosing a book at the library based on the subject or the cover or the first page is nearly gone, as well as the excitement of reading a book simply for pleasure.

I know the points are not based on literary merit, but even if students know this – which they probably don’t – Accelerated Reader cannot claim beyond a doubt that students will not subconsciously begin to rank the books according to their point value, deeming books with higher points as more advanced and more worthy of reading.

Perhaps children are more easily able to relate to and understand some books, such as Gossip Girl, vs. others, such as Hamlet (Now pause to ask: is this a good thing?).

And now, for your reading pleasure, two excerpts:

Her close-cropped brown hair was neatly tousled; her white cashmere V-neck was just deep enough to suggest a hint of cleavage without her having to worry about being sent home by Mrs. M, the headmistress, for dressing like a slut

To be, or not to be: that is the question

If anyone out there has participated in Accelerated Reader, or better yet, taught it – what do you think of it?

Since the first book, the Harry Potter series has incited religious conservatives and over-protective parents to reprehensible acts against intellectual freedom, including book bannings and even book burnings. As the later books in the series were published, more theologians began to come around (spoiler alert!) – finally – to the overarching ethical and spiritual themes and narratives that make the series not just a fun, imaginative children’s story but a commentary on some of life’s most important issues: love, friendship, trust, morality, equality, good vs. evil, sacrifice.

(Boston Globe Photo / Tim Bower)

No time to read the article? Here are two take-aways:

At the same time, scholars of religion have begun developing a more nuanced take on the Potter phenomenon, with some arguing that the wildly popular series of books and films contains positive ethical messages and a narrative arc that is worthy of serious scholarly examination and even theological reflection.

Paul V.M. Flesher, director of the religious studies program at the University of Wyoming and the author of an article about Harry Potter for the Journal of Religion and Film: “There’s a Christian pattern to this story. It’s not just good versus evil. Rowling is not being evangelistic – this is not C.S. Lewis – but she knows these stories, and it’s clear she’s fitting pieces together in a way that makes sense and she knows her readers will follow.”

And if you didn’t see The Onion’s take on the anti-Harry Potter movement, it’s definitely worth checking out.