The study was called "Gender Stereotyping and Under-representation of Female Characters in 200 Popular Picture Books: A Twenty-first Century Update."The authors looked at the top-selling books in 2001 and a seven-year sample of Caldecott Award-winning books.What did they find:That "images of men continue to dominate children's picture books."-There were nearly twice as many male as female title and main characterswith male characters appearing in 53 percent more illustrations than females-Female main characters were more nurturing-Men were shown outdoors more often and women were seen indoors more -More women than men appeared to have no paid occupationIn 2005 the same team...
The Literary Plagiarism Museum
Here's a good one:The author of the book A War Against Truth has been accused of plagiarism.In January Raincoast Books of Vancouver, the publisher of A War Against Truth: An Intimate Account of the Invasion of Iraq by Paul William Roberts, got word from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the book contains numerous "elements [that] . . . closely resemble or are indistinguishable from passages" in an article they published on Sept. 29, 2002. The article by Jay Bookman was titled "Bush's real goal in Iraq: Invasion would mark the next step toward an American empire"Initially the publisher was going insert...
Wounded Booksellers Kicked by U. S. Post Office
The U.S. Post Office doing away with surface mail is a no-brainer. Only 2.7% of all international mail is sent via surface mail (or sea-mail as it should be called since the mail spends most of its time in cargo ships on the high seas). The "slow boat to china" routine doesn't really mesh with the new wired world.The problem is:The 2.7% is made up of almost 100% of todays independent booksellers. Removing the primary option for delivery of your overseas orders cannot be a good thing. Of course these changes do not impact the major aggregators like Amazon who...
The House of Poetry
April once again brings us National Poetry Month, our yearly attempt to promote the genre to the masses or as poet Charles Bernstein frames it "promoting poetry as if it were an "easy listening".There are events going on everywhere for everyone so contact your local library or bookstore to see what's going on in your community or check the Poetry Near You page at Poets.orgA highlight is the 15th Annual Poets House Showcase in New York. Each April Poets House puts on a show. Every poetry book published in the U.S. the previous year goes on display for the month....
Another University Bookstore Goes to the Chains
First it was Sonoma State University now it is the University of Kentucky.The family owned and independent Kennedy Book Store has had the contract for the UK Book Store for the last 6 years. Kennedy Book Store has been a "campus mainstay since its was founded in 1950" by... Joe Kennedy, who remains the company president."What the University wants for the right to run the bookstore:a 10-year lease and $3 million to $4 million toward renovation of the 16,250-square-foot store.Kennedy offered $2 million and wisely "could not go beyond that given uncertainties that could arise during a 10-year lease"They are...