This seems to be especially true for women. Honestly, they don’t get a lot of credit for their contributions when they are younger. So it stands to reason this doesn’t change once they reach their golden years. Which leads to why I believe that old lady sleuths are so amazing. They shatter multiple misconceptions that people have about those that check both the boxes of being elderly and of being female....

I’ve organized this list of ereader accessories into rough categories so that you can easily choose the accessory that will best suit your recipient. There are holders, stands, chargers, lights, screen protectors, and more! Odds are, there’s someone on your holiday gift list who has an ereader. If so, they’re likely also on the lookout for ways to perfect their reading experience. This side-bound combo cover/stand is excellently engineered. I like that the stand is on the inside of the front cover....

And some, apparently, get dressed in the dark. Here on Fashion Disasters, we’ll showcase those poor slobs who just can’t seem to get it right. Today: Power Girl! (You knew this was coming, didn’t you?) Power Girl has long had a controversial costume, with her iconic look shrouded in rumor and apocrypha (if not shrouded in much else). The sad truth is that that costume? The one you’re thinking of?...

And some, apparently, get dressed in the dark. Here on Fashion Disasters, we’ll showcase those poor slobs who just can’t seem to get it right. Today: Zatanna! Now look, before you say anything, I know this one’s going to be controversial. Believe me, I was torn on putting her on the list. But I think we all need to face facts where our girl Zatanna is concerned, and there’s no time like the present....

Shortly before learning about StoryBundle (which is sort of like an indie/garage band mixed tape) I finished Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity, and had started to think about how choosing and recommending books is a lot like making a mixed tape for ourselves, friends, and crushes. Sometimes we are looking for more than a single book recommendation; we want to jump head first into an author’s oeuvre or expose a friend to a specific subject matter–maybe you are obsessed with bees and want to know everything about them....

The familial nature of sports teams lends itself well to romance series that turn the spotlight on various players. Plus there’s so much opportunity for conflict. I will admit, though, that I’m rather picky about my sports romances. Because let’s be real, both romance and sports can and do uphold lots of societal ills: racism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, fatphobia, and toxic masculinity, to name a few. I’m always on the hunt for romances that celebrate the best of what sports has to offer....

I read it as a middle-schooler, after my mother’s boss (a 60-something school librarian who read a book a night) learned that I loved science fiction and started sending grocery bags of mass-market paperbacks home to me. I can’t remember the book’s title. I’ve spent hours online trying to find it. I can tell you the basics, though. The protagonists were a plucky teen who’d stowed away on a spaceship and his delicate girlfriend, who was too good for this universe, too pure....

GENRE KRYPTONITE is a regular feature about genres we have an inexplicable weak spot for. Check out previous entries here. I always thought my adolescent infatuation with The Perks of Being a Wallflower would fade as I, you know, stopped being an adolescent, but the shine hasn’t ever worn off. I break out in hives at the thought of having to read a teenage girl coming-of-age story–living through it was enough the first time, thankyouverymuch–but I can’t get enough of the ones about dudes....

I’m not, generally speaking, a fan of historical fiction. I tend to prefer novels set in the modern day or the not-too-distant past. With one very glaring exception. Novels set in New York City, during the Gilded and Progressive Ages, are absolutely my literary weakness. In case you’re not up on your “ages,” that’s about the time period spanning post-Civil War until pre-Great Depression. Why does that era so fascinate me?...

The contest has two categories: short poem (1–49 lines or fewer than 500 words for prose poems) and long poem (50+ lines or more than 500 words for prose poems). The poems must be speculative, which is a rather wide genre that includes hard sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and, of course, speculation about hypothesized scenarios, creatures, places, and objects. This year David C. Kopaska-Merkel, author of Metastable Systems and editor of Dreams and Nightmares, served as the Rhysling Chair....

Nalah leads the fiercest all-girl crew in Mega City. That role brings with it violent throw downs and access to the hottest boydega clubs, but the sixteen-year-old grows weary of the life. Her dream is to get off the streets and make a home in the exclusive Mega Towers, in which only a chosen few get to live. To make it to the Mega towers, Nalah must prove her loyalty to the city’s benevolent founder and cross the border in a search for a mysterious gang the Ashé Ryders....

Something I’ve realized after the first two sessions is that, while I’ve always been fascinated by the gothic, I’ve read a limited number of the core texts (something I plan to remedy in the coming months and years). Dr. Hirst’s descriptions have already captured the comic book area of my brain (in her defense, it’s really rather unavoidable), however, and I’m seeing a whole shelf of adaptations that would line up beautifully beside Deadman: Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love....

Hi Kid Lit Friends! We are living in a golden age of graphic novels, and one of my favorite sub-genres is nonfiction graphic novels. I have loved reading these books and think they are such an invaluable way to reach readers and instill a love of nonfiction in them. Here are some of my favorites; what are yours? For Middle Grade Readers (Recommended for Ages 8+): For Older Middle Grade Readers (Recommended for Ages 10+, But Please Use Your Discretion!...

I’m a children’s librarian, so I have the fun task of reading a lot for work (though, not on the job—at least, not too often). Last year, the powers that be asked that the children’s librarians choose a selection of books from a larger list so that we might discuss them at one of our regular meetings. The list had nonfiction titles, graphic novels, picture books, and fiction pieces. The graphic novel in my list was Victoria Jamieson’s All’s Faire in Middle School....

Aunts also hold several particular places in literature. They are truth-tellers, boon-granters, caregivers (or lack-of-care-givers in some cases), and partners in crime — sometimes literally. Mothers are often absent in literature in order to provide a reason for a child to set out on their own before they usually would, and aunts often provide an adult figure where a birth parent would not suffice, in order to move the plot along....

“With your help, Rochelle Humes and Little Box of Books are going to send thousands of diverse and inclusive storybooks to primary schools all over the UK. We want our children to grow up to be anti-racist, to grow up understanding that ‘normal’ is different for everyone. We need children to understand and celebrate diversity and to see themselves represented in all aspects, and at all levels, of society. Change begins with children....

I’ve scoured Etsy for a wide range of holiday bookmarks, but it should come as little surprising the bulk of the bookmarks for end-of-the-year holidays are Christmas in flavor. There are a handful of Hanukkah, as well as some Kwanzaa bookmarks, but those are far fewer in number. To make up for this lack of holiday diversity in bookmarklandia, I’ve incorporated a number of non-denominational winter seasonal bookmarks, ranging from snow flakes to cute animals in winter apparel....

Surely my mother wanted to keep her faith going down the matrilineal line, but there was no Byzantine Catholic church anywhere near where I grew up. So she chose the closest thing, Roman Catholicism. I was baptized in that faith and my parents sent me to Catholic school for eight years. Because my parents grew up in different traditions, my relationship to my religion was informed more by schooling than by family....

Those white kids experienced the full spectrum of human emotion and experiences. Their stories weren’t ever glued together by their ethnic identities or religions. No. They got to be passionate about music, dance, or even the blonde jock, while being themselves. What’s more, they got into all sorts of shenanigans to follow their dreams. And goodness, wasn’t I jealous. I’d read these stories with my eyes wide open, knowing that I could never dream like them....