The Daily Rumpus
Get Overly Personal Emails
From Stephen Elliott
Sylvia Plath wrote a children’s book…and apparently Jim Carrey is going to as well?
Brain Pickings has scans of the text and charming illustrations of Plath’s book, a story about young Max Nix and his bright yellow It Doesn’t Matter suit.
...moreLast week, British children’s author Terry Deary (famous for his Horrible Histories series) declared that public libraries are unnecessary relics of a past age; they cheat authors of their rightful earnings and “are doing nothing for the book industry.”
A few days later, Julia Donaldson, another British children’s author, fired back:
...more…libraries are the places where our readers and book-buyers are created.
What was your favorite book as a child?
The Phantom Tollbooth? Little House on the Prairie? Something by Roald Dahl that was kind of grotesque and frightening but also a complete immersion in delight?
The Sensible Nonsense Project collects short essays about favorite childhood books and how they continue to reverberate with us into adulthood.
...moreMichael Chabon knows how to turn a phrase. Complex language is part of what makes his work so idiosyncratically his and his veteran wordsmith tendencies are widely applicable and translatable over different mediums (he’s co-writing an HBO series with his wife, Ayelet Waldman).
...moreMark Twain’s humor is post-age. His children’s book, Advice to Little Girls was published in 1865 and was a comedic gem amongst the moralizing, heavy-on-the-role-models books of the genre. His story is recast as a slideshow of illustrations by the children’s book illustrator and writer, Vladimir Radunksy.
...moreSeems like big kids and parents alike are getting a lot of writing mileage out of Go the Fuck to Sleep, Adam Mansbach’s playfully honest plea to his daughter to expedite her bedtime rituals.
The book and its hype have generated all kinds of discussion–on parenting, on the popularity of e-books, on the genre of “children’s books for adults.” Particularly interesting are the questions of whether the book would have been such a hit had it been written by a woman, considering the different scrutiny burdening moms who are learning to be perfect on the job.
...more“After years of finding children’s books tucked away in authors’ bibliographies (Graham Greene wrote children’s books!), followed by quick disappointment (how can they be out of print?), I realized that I was having this same frustrating revelation over and over. And when I would bring these discoveries up with my friends, they would have the same reaction (John Updike wrote children’s books!
...more
Shockingly not boring: a look inside an English cardboard factory.
WWI-era airplane detection hearing aids.
Could the common cold be the trick to avoiding swine flue? (spoiler alert: maybe!)
Fact of the day: Japanese barcodes are better than ours.
...more
Magazine offices are the new Detroit.
The winner of the second annual World Building of the Year award: the Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre.
NY Times on the best Children’s books of 2009.
Most bad-ass headline of the day: Plan to pierce heart of urban monster volcano.
...more