Quick Link: Annotations by Famous Authors

Check out Flavorwire's fascinating slideshow of famous authors' annotations of classic books. There are many links to view more annotations, as well. Not surprisingly, Mark Twain's comments are hilarious.

(Semi-related note: Mark Twain is the only person I would desperately want at my dream dinner party.)

New Imprint Resuscitates Forgotten YA of Years Past

I have a question: what is a classic? A children's book classic? Does it fall within a particular genre or time period? Has it evolved or are we glued to the traditional idea of it, forever and ever?  These have been thoughts trampling around my brain the past week, so I found it eerily fitting to come across news about a new imprint aiming to revitalize out of print YA books, to return to the public a variety of "classic" books from bygone eras.

The imprint, explained Ig publisher Robert Lasner, will “bring back the very best in young adult literature, from the classics of the 1930s and 1940s, to the thrillers and social novels of the 1970s and 1980s.”

I was struck by the word choice, "classics of the 1930's...", but not because I doubt the merit of the books slated for return. Rather, I wonder whether a classic would go out of print in the first place, and thus is such a term even relevant or should it start to ebb out of the conversation. I welcome these additions, specifically because the writers in question are predominantly women whose works introduced darkly comedic traits directly to Young Adult audiences. Considering the over-abundance of YA novels now, many of which fall into the thriller and dark territory, it certainly is worth experiencing and exploring the texts of earlier decades that contributed--maybe even helped shape--the status of YA now.

Do you think it will appeal to the young generations now though? The Imprint is not shy of sharing that they are targeting the original generation of readers, not current teens. Will a 70's thriller seem unappealing, or just retro enough to be cool?

Newest Issue of Through the Looking Glass available online

The most recent issue of Through the Looking Glass, an online journal featuring scholarly explorations in children's literature, is available for viewing at this link. General Editor David Beagley states that articles in this issue "explore the huge changes that loom in children's and YA literature through the new world of online media."

Articles that exemplify this include Stephanie di Palma's "Blogging or Believing? Do themes presented by scholarly discourse correlate with the casual conversations of people through the world wide web?" and David Beagley's "Blurring the Boundaries: the changing i-Discourse of children's literature."

This issue also introduces a new column, called A Tortoise's Tale, which features school and classroom issues and ideas. In the inaugural contribution, Amanda von der Lohe discusses the consequences of censoring classic literature in an article titled "Old Jim Won’t Be a N*gger No More: Ramifications of Using Censored Versions of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in the Classroom."

From Publisher's Weekly: The 13 Worst Reviews of Classic Books

Publisher's Weekly has pulled their 13 favorite worst reviews from Bill Henderson's recently reissued Rotten Reviews Redux. Check out this link to see scathing reviews of many of the books considered classics today, from Wuthering Heights to The Great Gatsby. My favorite? "[Walt] Whitman is as unacquainted with art as a hog is with mathematics." Now that's a simile.