Linkorice

Play online Scrabble all by yourself! (Or better yet, play it with me.)

Just in time for the Narnia release: The great Philip Pullman-Narnia debate is reopened. Pullman responded to this article on child_lit, but unfortunately I left the message at work, so I'll have to forward it home to post. In the meantime, gacked from R. J. Anderson, His Dark Materials condensed. (I wrote a long post in semi-defense of Pullman on RJA's LJ here.)

My child_lit friend Pooja Makhijani has a great website featuring South Asian Children's Literature: www.poojamakhijani.com/sakidlit.html.

The editor of the Horn Book, Roger Sutton, has a supersmart children's lit blog here (and knowing Roger, he's sure to kick up a controversy sometime soon). The Horn Book also recently posted its Fanfare list of the best books of the year; I recommend especially An Innocent Soldier by Josef Holub from Arthur A. Levine Books (guest-edited for the imprint by the wonderful Janna Morishima) and Permanent Rose by Hilary McKay, which makes my own best books of 2005 list (as Saffy's Angel was best of 2003 and Indigo's Star best of '04). If you've never read McKay, she is *terrific*, smart and funny and surprising and moving.

All the same goes for William Stafford's poetry -- the adjectives and the recommendation. I currently have "An Introduction to Some Poems" by William Stafford as the Poem of the Season on my door at work; I also love especially "A Ritual to Read to One Another."

Jeremiah provided a Five Bucks to Friday gift guide and better still Christmas cards (scroll down past the cartoon and blog for each, though you should read them on the way).

The actor James Urbaniak, who (Ben tells me, as he gave me the link) played R. Crumb in "American Splendor," has a splendidly intelligent and amusing blog.

Two great groups that occasionally play 1920s-style jazz in the Seventh Avenue F train station: The Blue Vipers and River Alexander's Mad Jazz Hatters (a trio that includes an actual washtub bass!). Whenever these bands are playing in the station, I know it's going to be a good morning; there are marvelous free MP3s at both links if you'd like to brighten your own day.

From Leaky: Forbes magazine identifies the fifteen richest fictional characters, including, in a hilarious profile, Lucius Malfoy.

And finally, I updated www.cherylklein.com with my 2006 writers' conference appearances. I'm currently collecting thoughts (much like Dumbledore with his Pensieve) for a talk based off Aristotle's Poetics, which will really be about plot structure, moral development, and the importance of emotion in children's/YA picture books and fiction. . . . I'm thinking of it as Jane Austen meets the Wild Things.

Happy December!