Reminiscences on ‘classic’ YA of Yesterday

Jezebel columnist Lizzie Skurnick’s has just released a book, Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classic We Never Stopped Reading, which is all about her re-reading and reminiscing on her favorite YA books as a child and teen in ways both humorous and profound…though mostly humorous. Shelf Discovery includes esays from Skurnick’s Jezebel column, “Fine Lines” and [...]

Regency England like you’ve never seen it before: A book trailer for ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’

My second foray into video booktalks and trailers… Jane Austen’s classic text (well…85% classic text) with some added zombie mayhem – including a plague of undead terrorizing Hertfordshire, Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s ninjas terrorizing Elizabeth Bennett, and the Bennett sisters fighting back against all this with their finely honed combat skills. Pride and Prejudice and [...]

The book trailer you won’t forget: Jake Wizner’s ‘Castration Celebration’

…yes, that is the title. Even better? The book trailer is set to a song entitled, “I saw my parents having sex” — a musical number right from the pages of Castration Celebration. Jake Wizner’s previous YA novel, Spanking Shakespeare (2008) tackled the horrors of senior year for one uniquely named, Shakespeare Shapiro and won [...]

When Twilight girls attack

A spoof from Funny or Die that pokes fun at the Twilight teenage girl phenomenon — and their willingness to fight for Edward against Twilight villain James (played by actor Cam Gigandet).

Funny, I know: A reading response to ‘Alice, I think’

Alice: 15 years old, home schooled for 10 of those, and heading back to school for the first time since her disastrous first day of grade 1, which she attended dressed as a hobbit – complete with a pointy felt cap. Funny, endearing, full of thrift store fashions and hippie parents and all set in [...]