Fusenews: Nearer My Blog to Thee

Nostalgia enters a kind of second life online, doesn’t it?  The thing is, few publications choose to take advantage of this fact.  Now one magazine for kids is taking advantage of a grown (and child-bearing) readership.  Remember Highlights?  For me it was the periodical I saw in pediatrician and dentist waiting rooms the most.  For others it was their favorite mag.  Now the journal has started a new site called I Was a Highlights Kid!  PR Specialist Hillary Bates spoke of how the idea came about.  She said:

"We were inspired to put this together by letters and stories we got from former-children who still think of Highlights. Any long-time Highlights employee will warn newbies, ‘don’t wear your Highlights sweatshirt to the store if you are in a hurry!’ People love to share their stories of what the magazine meant to them. We often wished for a way to save these stories, and here it is."

The site is up and running today so be sure to check out the featured article "Freakonomics co-author Stephen J. Dubner recalls having a poem published in Highlights."  Expect Ranger Rick, Owl Magazine, Jack & Jill, and Cricket to start scratching their heads in thought. 

• Do twins get a bad break in literature?  This writer for The Guardian argues that they don’t fare too well in terms of realism. "From Tweedledum and Tweedledee, to The Bobbsey Twins and all those other twins from children’s books with cutesy similar-sounding names in between, siblings are seen as a ‘unit’. These are two halves of the same whole rather than fully rounded individuals who can do perfectly well thank you in their own right."  Hmm.  Well I’m reading The Doppleganger Chronicles by G.P. Taylor right now (Cybils related, she explained quickly) and . . . yup.  They’re a unit.  Then there’s Fred & George from the Harry Potter books, but we all know how they end up at the end.  Fraternal twins seem to fare better, but I dunno.  Tis a puzzlement.  Thanks to YPulse for the link.

• I know that there must be a couple starving authors out there who read me.  Perhaps you would like some moolah to tide you over?  They’ve changed the rules for the PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship, y’know.  Here’s the skinny from the press release:

• Oh, Flat Stanley. You most certainly do get around.  Melinda Greenblatt alerted me via the child_lit listserv to this great article in the Hartford Courant.  Called Obama’s Letter Was Answer to a Little Boy’s Request it talks about how a class sent little Flat Stanleys to various famous people.  Just one wrote back:

"Sometimes I get a little nervous before talking in front of a crowd, but Flat Stanley helped me practice the speech," Obama wrote. "He made me recite it in front of him and then even gave me some advice so the speech would go smoothly. Flat Stanley is really a great coach."

Here’s the picture that accompanied the letter:

And you can see the full Obama letter in pdf form here, if you like.  Thanks again to Melinda for the links.

• This is for New Yorkers only . . . curious about when the new Donnell might open up in the Orient-Express Hotel?  This article basically says to get good and comfortable for now.  That’s okay.  The children’s room has moved to 42nd Street anyway and our opening date is November 17th!  More later…

• The Daily Telegraph reports (reports?) that Harry Potter readers are easily slotted into four different categories that reflect each of the four Hogwarts houses.  Groovy.  Thanks to YPulse for the link.

• Daily Image:

Weeding the collection?  Ending up with a lot of hardcover beauties that it would be a shame to toss?  Lisa Von Drasek recently discovered this link where your old-timey out-of-date titles become awesome book purses.  Says Penwiper337 they’re "a nice accessory for the librarian side of steampunk."

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