Bento Books is offering a free sample of the immensely popular Japanese novel, Math Girls. The website describes it as “Glee for math nerds” and Boing Boing notes that you get a pretty good math lesson in each book. Sounds like something I need to read—if only for the education!
A wonderful speech by Patrick Ness on the importance of libraries as he accepted the 2011 Carnegie Medal for Monsters of Men, which I cannot wait to read!
Hooray!
The lesser-known creation of Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, is coming to the BBC!
Coming Soon: Dirk Gently trailer | Tor.com | Science fiction and fantasy | Blog posts.
If you follow the YA lit world at all, you’ve probably read about the literary festival in Humble, Texas that dis-invited Ellen Hopkins, allegedly because a single librarian encouraged a small group of parents to complain.
It’s ridiculous and a terrible crime that any teen lit author be censored, but it has brought some good. Four other authors have declined to attend the festival in solidarity with Ms. Hopkins, and then Chris Crutcher left this comment on a Publisher’s Weekly post on the subject:
The point is, it’s a fight we have to wage loudly, if for no other reason than to show the kids we believe they can think for themselves and that we believe in freedom whether that particular freedom “suits” us or not. I’m watching from the sidelines here, but if any of these authors, or any authors the Humble ISD high school kids decide are worth reading, find a way to go there and stage a show for the kids, I’ll attend free of charge, having been among the “disinvited” more times than I can count.
Amen.