Here’s a post that appears today on Kansas State University’s Department of English blog. Since 1942, the BBC’s Desert Island Discs program has invited guests (known as “castaways”) to divulge which eight recordings they would take, were they stranded on a desert island. Though the BBC program has never asked members of Kansas State University’s
To keep our spirits up amidst the cascading catastrophes inflicted by the Russian Asset and his quislings (the GOP), the resistance needs a soundtrack. Here’s my offering for 2019. And here’s last year’s mix, which is also featured in a post that includes “75 better names for 45,” since there are so many more apt
Going to the MLA Convention in Chicago? Here are all the sessions on children and YA literature, and on comics. Or, at least, this is what I could find. If I’ve missed anything, please let me know. Thanks! 012: Comics Fandom in Transition  12:00 PM—1:15 PM Thursday, Jan 3, 2019  Hyatt Regency – Roosevelt 3
Separating children from their parents is a violation of basic human rights and does not deter asylum-seekers. Hostile to facts and compassionate only towards himself, Mr. Trump has pursued this policy with reckless indifference to its consequences. As of the end of last month (over four months after the court-imposed deadline to reunite these families),
Over at Kansas State University’s English Department blog, I have a post on my three months at the Internationale Jugendbibliothek in Munich. I’ll excerpt a little bit here (the first paragraph, and the conclusion) but go over there to read the whole thing (and to see more photos). Since the first of September I have
Last month, there was some on-line discussion about this quote (from me) in a CNN.com article: But Nel argues that the answer isn’t simply removing “problematic” children’s classics like Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” which uses the N-word 219 times, from school reading lists. Such stories, “if used carefully, appropriately and in context can
Today (20 Oct. 2018) would be Crockett Johnson’s 112th birthday. In commemoration of that event, here is the second of two posts for you! The first was an interview with the author and the publisher of the new satirical book Donald and the Golden Crayon. The second – below – is a Harold collection featuring
Today (20 Oct. 2018) would be Crockett Johnson’s 112th birthday. In commemoration of that event, I have two – yes, two – posts for you! The first is an interview with the author and the publisher of the new satirical book Donald and the Golden Crayon. Enjoy! “In the middle of the night, Donald woke
I wrote this for Kansas State University’s Department of English blog – we were asked to write about what we did over the summer. But I wrote a little more than the blog needs. So, we’re running an excerpt on the English blog, and I’m printing the full version here. “Being a professor means you
The third in my occasional “Archives of Childhood” series. The Archive of Childhood, Part 1: Crayons (27 Dec. 2014) The Archive of Childhood, Part 2: The Golliwog (13 Jan. 2015) What are your earliest memories? Recent conversations with family and friends have challenged my assumption that most people remember early childhood. I now wonder if it is
