Thought of the day:
This is life in a nutshell. And I think it’s good to keep this quote in mind in fiction, too. Generally, people don’t have major revelations and change all at once. It’s something that needs to happen gradually, over the course of the story, so your character isn’t the same person he/she was when you started out.
(image: Design Crush)
Love this literary map of the UK and Ireland:
Shall we visit William Wordsworth, C.S. Lewis, or John Keats first?
(image: Geoff Sawers, The Literary Gift Company)
Love these literary birthday cards at The Wandering Reader:
Kind of wish I’d gotten this one my office for Charles Dickens’ birthday. (H/T Book Riot)
The brilliant albatross bookmark that always keeps your place–even while you read.:
Swelling with New England pride at this section of The Booklovers Map of America Showing Certain Landmarks of Literary Geography by pictorial cartographer Paul M. Paine:
Heck yeah birthplace of American literature! (via Maria Popova at Brain Pickings)
I’m a little obsessed with A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead and Erin Stead. Both the art and the story are charming and cozy and whimsical. So of course I squeaked when I saw the Horn Book interviewed illustrator Erin Stead about art, color, and her book And Then It’s Spring. A couple of favorite responses:
“3. My favorite spring song is “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most.” What’s yours?
EES: I haven’t been able to think of anything that tops Mel Brooks’s “Springtime for Hitler.””
Erin, you are correct. On a more serious note, about knowing our history:
“I don’t necessarily mean the books that have become part of the canon (although that is an excellent place to start). A lot of good books can get lost in today’s online-blogging-twitter-algorithm shopping, but it’s nothing a good library, new or used bookstore, or a little Leonard S. Marcus can’t fix. Sometimes I worry that we’ve given up a little of the weird or the dark in picture books, while not realizing that some of the books we still love are entirely weird. I love Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, but as an elevator pitch, that book is strange.”
Make sure to check out the whole interview.
I really need this book.
I would have loved examining all the colors when I was young, and even now I love the design of it. (via and photos: Design Mom)
I don’t read a lot of graphic novels, but based on this list of suggestions it sounds like I should venture into those waters more often. One that looks especially cool:
For fans of young adult: ‘Friends With Boys‘ by Faith Erin Hicks (writer/artist). First Second, 2012. Softcover. Black & White. 224 pages. $15.99
An energetic and thoroughly engaging story about a teenage girl headed to high school after being home schooled her whole life. Though her three older brothers are already installed safely at high school, Maggie faces her own challenges, especially as their mother has recently vanished, with no sign of returning. With incredibly expressive art and vivid character design, Hicks’ story leaps off the page with its enthusiasm and sweetness, tinged (as all high school stories probably should be) with just enough darkness to keep things interesting. There’s also a supernatural element to Friends With Boys, and the way it resolves is decidedly unexpected and strengthens the book’s metaphors even more powerfully.
They know their target audience! Lots of other great suggestions, too.
What literary-leaning graphic novels would you suggest?
Wouldn’t this be the cutest picture to have in a children’s bookstore or section of a library?
It’s by WildLifePrints, which has tons of other adorable and funky animal scenes.
