MidWeek Blog Bites

Periodically, I rail about the invisible existence of good books for boys, and while I am a great lover of Guys Read there are precious few places to point people on the lookout for the best in male protagonists, etc. Meanwhile, Guardian UK blogger Tom Kelly takes issue with what is offered to boys. Adventure novels, he asserts, aren't all they're cracked up to be. In resurrecting the "Great Adventure Novel," Kelly believes writer are also trying to resurrect a world that no longer exists; one that is predominantly and powerfully white and male, where evil is foreigners, and where a Cold War attitude remains. Or is this just a version of reality?

Via Locus, we hear that Shiny Things, the new YA webzine which is going live in August, is now open to submissions. If nothing else, you've got to love the name. Don't all of us magpies love shiny things?

The CBC reports that Canadian children's author Robert Munsch, a man who receives upwards of two thousand speaking requests a year, created a video conference school visit for a group of First Nations students who had requested that he visit their school for two years in a row. Caring deeply about all of his readers, even those in remote areas, Munsch created the expenses-free "visit" for students at Eel Ground School, and two other First Nations schools, Metepenagiag in Red Bank and Elsipogtog. (Only Canadians know how to pronounce those, and where they are.) Mr. Munsch, who wrote Love You Forever, has convinced these three schools that he really does love kids.

PaperTigers interviews loner Deborah Ellis, author of one of my favorite books, The Breadwinner, and many more. Her interview and her life are entirely intriguing to me.

Ooh! If you're anywhere near the Central Valley (of California, that is), you may want to check out what's going on at the Arne Nixon Center in March! Sharon Creech, Walter Dean Myers, Sarah Weeks, and Avi, four popular and critically acclaimed authors, have joined together to form A.R.T., Authors Reader's Theatre, which will be reading/performing on March 2. "An Evening with Lemony Snicket" is scheduled for March 27th. Check it out!