Pause your doomscrolling and listen to this story.

If you found that Jimmy Kimmel getting pulled due to FCC coercion was a heinous attack on free speech (& it sure as hell is!) wait till you hear about the 10,000 books that have been banned in schools & libraries! If you're an author, join the fight @authorsabb.bsky.social We're stronger together!

How many times can I revise a single chapter in a Princess in Black book? Currently looking like the answer is: infinite

My then-12 year old once told a soccer opponent "you look like you go to McDonald's for the flavor", and we all took collateral damage from that one.

A very good article about the current political situation in Utah

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My wife & I tried role play but we kept fighting over who would be Mr. Bean

It seems like the more money and power people have, the less they're able to care about anything except getting even more money and power. It's such a sad, useless goal. And it will never, ever feel like enough. Like being totally accepted for who they are. Like unconditional love.

None of us can stop all the bad things. But we can each do something. And that adds up. Don't let what you can do get subtracted because it all feels too overwhelming and you stop. That's what they count on. Push on in your specialty. Keep that determined light within you lit.

Post a movie you like with a terrible rotten tomatoes score

When I buy something online, why do they give me a "subscribe to emails" box to untick if they're just gonna go ahead and subscribe me anyway

Hello Shannon! Just so you know, after 13 years as a children’s librarian and 27 as a mom, Princess Academy remains my favorite middle grade book. ❤️❤️❤️

My teens and college kids often tell me things their professors and teachers say that strike them as off or wrong. And we talk about it. This is great stuff! Learning that they don't have to always agree with the smart and authoritative or with anyone! Different opinions isn't a firing offense.

When you read a book and love it and then take the time to post a review online, it means SO MUCH to the writers. Thank you.

Please give me an unironic list of things that have gotten better over the last ten years because I’m spiraling. I’ll start: you can buy an enormous TV from Costco for like $100 bucks now.

These are very easy things to say: I am against gun violence, no matter who is the victim or perpetrator. I am against genocide, no matter who is the victim or the perpetrator. I am against child abuse, no matter who is the victim or the perpetrator. Please let's choose love over fear.

I think it's underestimated how much it affects kids to visit a place where people care about books. Ebooks are much more convenient in many ways, but the physical monument to books makes an impression. It says that our civilization cares about this.

this is so real

As a librarian, I endorse this message.

Cannot express how much I love reading with my 6yo! It's so fun picking out stories together and doing silly voices 👹 Highly recommended.

Our once a week library trip was one of our weekly highlights when my kids were tiny. I would also add to write down the title and author of ones that are obvious favourites because *you will not remember what it was when they want to check it out again*.

Yes, this. Read to your kids. All the time. Including that one that they've asked you to read six hundred thousand times already. READ IT AGAIN. Read to your kids until *they* ask you to stop reading to them.

And your local library may have a storytime or other activity for small ones that you can attend at the same time. I loved doing this with my kids & we all have fond memories of so many of those stories we read then.

Pro tip: you don't have to be an expert in finding books on your own. You have unlimited, free access to book experts at your library. and librarians LOVE being asked for help. It feeds their souls. You're doing them a solid. Don't hesitate. LIBRARIANS ARE ON YOUR SIDE.

I mean, I get it if they're tired and just wanna get to sleep and don't know how to find good books. But it's such a great time to chat to your kid about what's happened during their day, too. AND SNUGGLES!

It's free. It's joyful. It builds intellect, empathy, and connection. It's good for your kids. It's good for you. It's good for your relationship. It's good for the environment, your local community, the whole world. Win win win win win. Go to the library. Read to your kids.

Best advice I can give to parents: once a week go to the library, pick out a stack of books (make sure your kid gets to pick out several on their own) and then throughout the week, read them together. Reread their favorites. Talk about them together. Snuggle and read. Ask open ended questions.

DREAM ON just got its fourth starred review! I'm so delighted. We worked on this book for over four years and poured all of ourselves into it. It's extremely gratifying that it's getting such kind notice.

Thank you, indie bookstores! I'm tickled pink that DREAM ON is debuting on your bestseller list.

it's gotta be crazy for salmon to find out about bears like that

I was on a Spider-Man panel with Roger Stern once, and he talked about the day when Marvel went from 17pg scripts up to 22pgs. And how he knew *exactly* how he was going to use those 5 new pages: Subplots & character beats. Not Spider-Man pages. PETER PARKER pages.

Our latest author interview features @shannonhale.bsky.social! Here, Hale talks about some of the ways her own childhood has inspired her stories, the fun she finds in writing graphic novels, and why it’s important for her to keep challenging herself. 📚 ✍️ Lisa Bullard buff.ly/x9EvAXb

Day three in Texas! AUSTIN - tonight 6pm Book People. Tomorrow is Nashville, then on to Louisville and Decatur. bookpeople.com/event/2025-0...

I ❤️ librarians Not only are they the custodians of all that makes us human, they almost universally act like they understand what that means

Happy book birthday to DREAM ON, the latest graphic novel from fan favorite author @shannonhale.bsky.social, with illustrations by Marcela Cespedes! With 2 starred reviews, it is a joyful book perfect for readers who want to enjoy a gentle and accessible friendship story 🥰 bit.ly/4kQjjrZ #edusky

Today I was in a school library with a trained librarian. The school includes unhoused children and the kids of university professors. Watching how the librarian made all the kids feel welcome. Seeing the stiff, tense, worried body language soften. As they saw, maybe there is a space for me here. 💜

These are my public events. I'll also be doing a lot of school assemblies across 10 states this fall. Children's writers and illustrators often visit schools to talk to kids about books and creating art, though those opportunities have been decimated lately due to book banning and DEI fears.

DREAM ON tour starts today! UT - see me 2:30pm at Rose Park Elementary TX - I'll be in Katy on Wed and Austin on Thurs TN - Nashville on Fri KY - Louisville on Sat GA - Decatur on Sun See my website for more upcoming book festivals and events in UT, NC, CA, TX, OH, MN, & CO shannonhale.com/events

if a school teaches results and not how to question them, it is not a school but indoctrination

My fear is not that higher education ceases to exist due to AI, but that actual education is once again restricted to a privileged few and everyone else gets this garbage.

I keep going back to the kids of those rich tech oligarchs - they have MINIMAL technology in the classroom. They know how bad AI is, they don’t let *their* kids near it.

I keep thinking about this skeet. Cutting out creativity in the name of "efficiency" tracks perfectly with the priorities of modern America, but that doesn't make it any less diabolical.

i can't help but feel like this is the inevitable result of an education system that has (for decades) placed a disproportionate value on the results of standardized tests and final grades, instead of on the *process* of learning itself. what a sad elegy for our societal priorities.

I will spend three goddamn weeks "teaching this part" instead of letting the robot do it in ten seconds because the robot is not thinking, and if you use it, neither are you. And if I use it, neither am I.

The fun part of writing a story is going for a walk and accidentally solving a plot snarl while looking at a bird. The fun part of writing about someone else's story is suddenly seeing the cool patterns in the text. DISCOVERING the cool patterns. And being excited about the discovery.

It's in trying the thing that you learn to do the thing AND you learn why the thing is worth doing. Going "ChatGPT, summarise this novel" or "ChatGPT, give me ideas for a story about X" will get you mediocre slop, and you WON'T HAVE DONE THE THING.

As a university English instructor (and also an author), I will never use the robot in my teaching. I put a ridiculous amount of effort into trying to convince students that the point is to do the thing, even if you do it badly. OF COURSE you're going to do it badly. You've never done it before.

Here are my in-class instructions for integrating AI into your work: Don't. Generative AI is a bullshitting, planet destroying plagiarism machine that prevents learning. It's dehumanizing and you deserve better from your professors, your institution, and yourself because you and your voice matter.

people not in creative fields truly cannot grasp that the process is the point no process, no point