Infograph by Scholastic and devised from the Kids & Family Reading Report: Fifth Edition which is due out in January 2015. The Kids & Family Reading Report is a national survey of children ages 6–17 and their parents exploring attitudes and behaviors around reading books for fun.
James Patterson is pissed: Calls out Obama for book support
[youtube]http://youtu.be/JkkVPJBkvqA[/youtube] “There’s a book burning going on in America, You’re invited. Especially the kids. You see they’re shutting down your local bookstores. Shutting down libraries. Publishers are dying. American literature will be next on the flames.” James Patterson is on the loose. After throwing money at it (pledging over $1.5 million to bookshops in America and the UK) Patterson is now throwing books on the fire to wake up the the government and promote his #SaveOurBooks campaign. Patterson has started a White House petition where he is asking the president to pledge that once a month, he will go into a library, bookstore, or appear...
Beauty and the Botanicals
The LuEsther T. Mertz Library of The New York Botanical Garden houses one of the greatest collections of botanical and horticultural works on the planet. Eight centuries of rare books, stunning botanical artworks, illustrated manuscripts, medieval herbals, exquisite garden prints and flower books, nursery catalogs, explorers’ notebooks, and more are contained within. First printed illustration of Anthrium gladifolium. Colored lithograph based on W. Liepoldt, 1879 American Bog Plants. Aquatint with additional hand coloring by Thomas Sutherland from Robert Thornton's Temple of Flora, 1807 To commemorate the treasures contained in the library an exhibition Flora Illustrata is underway featuring more than 50 books and objects...
A Little Free Library loving third-grader on the power of books
"They fuel our minds like cars and gas" - Madison I think we might have met the poster child for the Little Free Library phenomenon. Her name is Madison and she is a third grader at Wade Park, a Cleveland public school. She was interviewed as part of a feature on the "huge impact" of Little Free Libraries for WKYC. Needless to say she stole the show. [youtube]http://youtu.be/GGHeh6OPhg4[/youtube] Full story at WKYC h/t The Root
Required Viewing: Toni Morrison does Colbert
"There is just the human race, racism is a construct" - Toni Morrison On recently rereading Beloved for the first time, being an American writer, racism and much more. 7 minutes of pure joy.