August 2008

  • Gris Grimly, creepy, dark and totally cool

    By mous on 8/26/08 7:31am
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    Gris Grimly is one of my favorite kid's book author and illustrator. Grimly's style is creepy, dark and humorous. I have a couple of his books and they are at the top of my favorites list.

    I came upon his books while shopping for my daughter's eighth birthday a few years ago. Every birthday she gets a couple of really nice hardback books, usually classics with beautiful illustrations, that year she requested that I refrain from buying cutesy, girly books. So after digging through all the books with bunnies, and fairies, and princesses I finally struck gold with Gris Grimly's Wicked Nursery Rhymes. The following year I got Edgar Allen Poe's Tales of Mystery and Madness illustrated by Grimly.

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  • Down with censorship, read a banned book

    By mous on 8/11/08 11:32am
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    The American Library Association(ALA) has announced the 27th anniversary of Banned Book Week(BBW) to be September 27- October 4. It will take place in schools and libraries across the country.

    I'd heard of BBW before, but I wanted to find out which books specifically had been banned and I was really surprised by some of the children's book titles that appeared on the ALA list of banned books. It wasn't surprising to see Judy Blume mentioned on the list several times, she approached the topics of adolescence with such bare-boned honesty that left many parents squirming in their seats.

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