🌱🦔Books, animals, comedy, and everything else under the sun!🐢🌿
Can someone please fill me in on this whole banned books thing. I do not understand, why are we banning books? And more importantly why are we celebrating it? I’m assuming it’s sarcastic but am I missing something here?
It’s a celebration of books that WERE banned :)
Banned books week is raising awareness of books that have been, and are still being, banned, and it encourages people to read those “banned books”. Banned books week is a celebration of all the controversial ideas that people have tried, and failed, to suppress through banning. It’s celebrating the fact that, despite the efforts of many close minded people, we still have free access to so many wonderful books!
So, in the interests of reviving booklr… do any of you have a specific book (or books) that you read when you’re feeling down?
Definitely Harry Potter.
Also the Hyperbole and a Half book.
The Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull, and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.
I have a few. Harry Potter of course. Usually Prisoner of Azkaban. I also reread Ready Player One and A Court of Thorns of Roses and A Court of Mist and Fury.
saving francesca by melina marchetta is my go to book for when i’m in a really bad place. never fails to get me out!
Sarah Dessen books are my comfort books. Anna and the French Kiss, and Lola and the Boy Next Door also never fail to make me happy!
Harry Potter or Fangirl! They always give me comfy vibes. But I also like to pick up middle grade books if I’m feeling down
Literally any book by the wonderful Terry Pratchett! The discworld books in particular never fail to make me laugh and get me out of my head.
Also, if I’m in a weird head space I really enjoy reading poetry. Personally, my favorite poet is W. H. Auden.
My friend’s 13 y/o daughter wants to read about protagonists (preferably female) her ageish 12-14. She likes science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction she’s not a fan of classic books and nonfiction. She read some of Rick Riordan’s books and thought they were “fun but not great”. She did love The Series of Unfortunate Events & Hunger Games. Usually she reads a mix of MG books and YA…Does anyone have recs?
Ooh this is my area of expertise!!
Middle grade:
Some younger YA:
Some authors:
-Jessica Day George
-Gail Carson Levine
-Avi (though if she’s a historical-fiction fan she probably already read him)
-Pam Muñoz Ryan
YA:
-The Books of Bayern series by Shannon Hale
MG:
-Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
-If That Breathes Fire We’re Toast by Jennifer Stewart
-The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede
And I second everything heretherebebooks said
Also adding Castle Hangnail by Ursula Vernon!
The Companion Quartet by Julia Golding (A series of 4 books about a young girl within that age range. She goes to live with her aunt and discovers the hidden world of magical animals and their human companions.)
The Ranger’s Apprentice Series by John Flanagan (This is a medieval historical fantasy series that follows a group of young people as they become apprentices (particularly Will who becomes the ranger’s apprentice). It’s definitely fantasy, but it does have many historically accurate details. I absolutely loved this series when I was 12-14 and I still do.)
The Tiffany Aching sub series of Discworld by Terry Pratchett (If you are looking for a well written young female protagonist this series is awesome. It’s a sub series in that it takes place within the larger discworld collection, but the Tiffany Aching series was written for young adults. This series follows a young witch discovering her place in the world. I can’t recommend these books enough!)
Savvy by Ingrid Law (About a 13 year old girl who inherits magical powers on her birthday and goes on a road trip to save her father.)
The Tapestry Series by Henry H. Neff (This is a fantasy series that incorporates a lot of Irish mythology. It starts off in a magic school setting similar to Harry Potter, but as it progresses it develops into more world building. The later books might be twords the upper end of the age range, but I started the series when I was about that age. These are still my favorite books.)
I would also like to second the list by @heretherebebooks because I also read and loved all of those books when I was that age.
Hope this helps! 📚
Into The Spiderverse took 100% of its critically acclaimed visuals from comic books and street art and while there are obvious in-universe reasons for this it can’t be ignored that BOTH of these are traditionally seen as “lowbrow” populist art forms, here celebrated for their inherent beauty, complexity and sociopolitical importance. In this essay I will-
Where’s the essay OP
Not a full essay but lemmie tell you. Spoilers below.
Why does Miles stop at a time-sensitive moment to paint one of Peter’s suits when he’d probably want to get going as quickly as possible? Three reasons.
One, on a character level Miles is about to go into the scariest endgame fight he’s been in the entire movie. Taking the time to make the costume his own, to take this little part of the old Spiderman’s legacy and probably get some encouraging words from Aunt May is important to pysch himself up enough to do this.
Two, suiting up for the first time is an important rite of passage in superhero comics. It represents the character deliberately taking on the role. Miles has been wearing a kid’s costume because he feels like a kid trying to take on the role of a hero. By putting on a real costume, his own costume that he designed, he is becoming his own hero.
Three, his costume is an extension of his art. He uses spray paint to alter it, and we see little drips and splatters in the costume’s design. Miles is a street artist and his spider-suit is a street artists’s creation.
Miles’s street art and his coming into his own as Spiderman are directly linked in the narrative in a way that’s too perfect to be accidental. His costume is made with spray paint. He’s bitten while painting a mural. He uses his spider-powers to put a sticker where his dad can’t find it. Jefferson doesn’t like Spiderman’s methods or Miles’s art. But in the end, he’s willing to work with both. And street art is the shared history Aaron, Jefferson and Miles all have even if they ended up on three drastically different paths.
Miles paints murals, throws stickers up on street signs, etc, both as self-expression and an expression of love for his city. It’s that same love for his home that makes him Spiderman, the city’s protector. His vigilante heroism and his illegal art are expressions of exact same thing.
And comics! This movie loves the language of comics!
It loves the humor in seeing the words float in the air around the characters! It loves stylized human figures and kirby dots and dynamic transitions! It loves the way comics tell stories (note that every time a characters is narrating their backstory in Into The Spiderverse it switches to comic format, doing highly comic-specific things like having three characters telling their stories side by side.)
Miles reads Spiderman comics in-universe and they’re what helps him understand what’s happening. How many people who worked on this movie do you think read a comic at a formative age and saw themselves in it, in some way?
Of course, if I’m going to talk about the “language” of comics or the “language” of street art I can’t ignore the fact that these two art forms have influenced each other immensely over the years, joyfully borrowing from each other at every opportunity.
(I really need more stand-alones)
I start: We were liars by E. Lockhart
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
As an author my dream isn’t to make millions or be famous, my dream is to have someone love my characters so much that they draw fan art, my dream is to have people argue over ships, my dream is to touch the readers heart in the way others have touched mine.
Enjoy music, art, film and books without feeling personally aligned to and having to endorse and defend every view of their creators
