Jon Scieszka's smiling about the state of children's literature.
In today’s news, we say goodbye to Kirkus reviews, discuss the eternal question of how to put a price tag on art, and find out what Jon Scieszka thinks about the current state of kid lit. Enjoy!
- Last week the Nielsen Company announced the end of Kirkus magazine, which reviewed approximately 5,000 books per year. The announcement has been met with mixed reactions across the publishing industry, with some glad to see the often negative reviews disappear and others saddened by the loss of a well-known review outlet. The New York Observer and New York Times discuss the magazine’s decline in recent years and relay the mixed reactions.
- If a song on iTunes costs $.99, how much should a single short story cost? That’s what Paper Cuts is asking in response to The Atlantic‘s decision to sell short stories online. As a way to bring back its fiction component, the magazine plans to publish one story per month online for a price of $3.99 (whether you subscribe to the magazine or not). Paper Cuts attempts to explain the price per story, but gives up, reasoning, “If stories are really worth $4 a pop, the latest edition of ‘Best American Short Stories’ would be selling for $80.”
- Jon Scieszka is about to end his duties as National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature (a new representative will be announced in January), so as a farewell he evaluates the current state of children’s fiction in a Los Angeles Times article. One of Scieszka’s goals as ambassador was to reach out to reluctant readers, and he feels one way to do that is “to expand the definition of reading to include humor, science fiction/fantasy, nonfiction, graphic novels, wordless books, audio books and comic books.” He goes on to give examples of each type of book, proving that children have more books than ever to choose from. His conclusion: “The state of children’s books? Thriving. Inspiring.”
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