The mounting refugee crisis is hard enough to process as an adult. Trying to see its impact, let alone live it, as a child is virtually impossible without guidance. Of the 65 million people displaced around the world, half are children. One million of those have found refuge in Germany, a trend that has received a mixed response from some Germans, who are suspicious of these outsiders. Accepting refugees is a new experience for many, and the compassion needed for it is sometimes lost inside the atrocious, over-politicized tragedies. Facing that issue head-on is German author Kirsten Boie. Her newest children’s book, Everything …
Did you know that non-magical humans are playing Quidditch? Not only that, but it is an increasingly popular sport in colleges across America, not just Hogwarts, and there are leagues around the world! “What? That wacky soccer-on-broomsticks game from Harry Potter?” is most people’s initial reaction. “So, you’re just running around with twigs for wands and painted-on lightning bolts?” You’re probably surprised to find out, then, that there’s more to Quidditch than meets the eye – and that you don’t need to know anything about Harry Potter to play. You’re telling me this isn’t what you nerds wear to play sports? (Image: HalloweenCostumes.net) …
Between writing the screenplay for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, overseeing the Cursed Child play, and being one of Britain’s pop culture stateswomen, there is a bona fide Rowling revival happening right now. Adding one more stone to that pile is the announcement that the book inspiring Fantastic Beasts, of the same title, is being updated and re-released next year, continuing to stoke the flames of new-wave Potter fandom. Back in 2001, at the height of Pottermania and more than a decade before J.K. Rowling would pen a novel under her Robert Galbraith pseudonym, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them appeared on shelves as …
Indie Reader, the website that works to get undiscovered literary talent into the hands of publishers, has announced the winners of its annual Discovery Awards (IRDAs)! The judging for these self-published titles is done not only by publishing professionals, but also fans of independent books, i.e. the people who read and support these authors to begin with. The competition is, in that way, a very democratic method of getting writers with a lot of talent but no leads in the industry to be as creative as possible in their books without the pressure to compromise. The manuscripts of the six winning books are submitted …
Quick, answer without thinking! What do you think of an Oxford Comma? Do you need to ask your friends, Beyonce and Vladimir Putin? See, it’s a more complicated question than you know. The debate over usage of the serial comma, as it’s also known, has been raging on since we realized we could argue over punctuation. As with every timeless debate, we look to the answers of celebrities for guidance, if not out of sheer curiosity. “Celebrity Oxford Comma“, a Twitter account run by writer Rick Mueller, has been prodding a response out of writers, actors and everyone in the public …
