She NEEDS to wake us up at 6am because CHIPMUNKS EXIST and that is NOT OKAY

why do all the apps now have to act like the creepy guy who interrupts you at the library to ask you what you’re reading, who wants this

"Reading books taught me how to write them." -Lauren Wolk @fuse8.bsky.social afuse8production.slj.com/2026/05/19/w...

"Four thirty in the afternoon, as pleasant as it may be, does not constitute a good morning." Someone just told me to "have a good night." It's 2pm.

"Frankly, I'm inclined to believe that the lesson here is that the human brain is a Rubik's Cube that occasionally solves itself after a good night's sleep."

Now some middle grade... #BeAnAmbassador #WeNeedDiverseBooks Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All, Red White and Whole, A Sea of Lemon Trees, Ghost, A Kind of Spark, Amari and the Night Brothers, Brady Mason's Perfect Fit, The Queen Bees of Tybee County, Merci Suarez Changes Gears, How to Say Goodbye in Cuban

100 Chapatis, Chooch Helped, Federico and the Wolf, Home in a Lunchbox, Dim Sum Palace, Dancing Hands, While We're Here, and Song in the City I could do this ALL DAY. #BeAnAmbassador #WeNeedDiverseBooks

Thoughts on gatekeeping, children's books, diverse voices, and how you can create a picture book that somehow, remarkably, gets everything right, all at once. I review the latest from @annewynter.bsky.social & Micha Archer: #kidlit 📚👍 afuse8production.slj.com/2026/05/08/r...

"I cannot imagine poison would taste worse than this. It tasted like the ink from a pen used to sign a death certificate."

"And if we want today’s youth to be tomorrow’s adults who still read for pleasure, then we have to allow for reading to be about pleasure in childhood as well."

Recently someone compared searching email to asking AI ("the info's there, it's a database!") and wow it turns out there is a records manager inside me and she says "bruh no fucking way are those the same"

A Queen of YA Is Back: Sarah Dessen on Nostalgia, Teen Jobs, and More bookriot.com/sarah-dessen...

We *know* that AI products like ChatGPT cause harm. Just like we *know* fossil fuel companies are responsible for climate change, pollution, and premature deaths. And yet these are both industries the US government, across state and federal levels, keeps trying to protect from any liability.

"Yoda...once said: "Do or do not. There is no try." But that's bullshit. He was a senile old cucumber who happened to be magical. Try is all there is. It's all try."

Unsolicited writing advice, no.19: Ask yourself: why do I read? Then ask yourself: why do I write? If there's no intersection between your answers, then maybe reconsider what it is you're writing.

Thanks to @silverunicornbooks.bsky.social for another fabulous Kids Graphic Novel Fest, and especially @dansantat.bsky.social for making the trip. Looking forward to more books with @laurelsnyder.bsky.social and @bottomshelfbks.bsky.social !

Happy #IndependentBookstoreDay!

@fuse8.bsky.social Is it spring?

still can’t believe that given the choice between “bountiful, free, clean energy from the earth, wind, and sun” and “poisonous dead animal sludge price sensitive to global politics” we keep choosing the latter

"My message to our legislators has been: If we want our kids to be better readers, then every kid needs access to a fully funded library and access to a certified librarian." -Cherity Pennington, school librarian @slj.com (April issue, p. 5)

"An answer economy without strong habits of verification is not a more informed society." news.virginia.edu/content/qa-a...

Founded in 1965 as a campus determined to "radically reimagine liberal arts education," the small liberal arts college started facing significant financial headwinds seven years ago. It failed to find a "strategic partner" to help afford its operating expenses.

I emailed someone and THEY CALLED ME instead of emailing back (it was not time-sensitive)

"I guess, if I had to nutshell them, I’d say that Cake is like They Might Be Giants if they were trying harder to get laid and didn’t care about teaching kids about science."

The United States is destroying itself | Rebecca Solnit

See, this is why literature and the freedom to read is important. He clearly didn't read DON'T EAT BEES by @devpetty.bsky.social! theonion.com/swollen-rfk-...

NASA isn't why the US doesn't have universal healthcare, or a social safety net. The US doesn't have those things because politicians with the power to provide them choose specifically not to (with varying levels of support from voters). Enthusiasm for human spaceflight doesn't drive that choice.

Also? It's weird to talk about anyone using AI to write "their book." If you used AI to write it, friends, it's not actually "your book." It's a book created by an LLM that was trained on stolen stories. You didn't write a book. You wrote some prompts.

Having a tough time understanding why anyone would want to use AI to write a book. Like, what's the point? No one is making you write books. If you don't love writing, there are no good reasons to write them. I keep coming back to this... poets.org/poem/student...

"That’s part of the reason why I think the opening of this book is so smart. Henkes begins with these lines: 'Is it spring? Yes, said the flowers in the garden down the street.' Many flowers are idiots. So this rings true to me."

“They’re just not willing to accept that there is such a thing as a sincere and genuine liberal religious tradition.”

"This kind of thing is specifically what AI is not capable of...a human touch, a moment of sincere kindness."

Idea: When you're filing your taxes, it'd be like when you make a donation to your alma mater, you get to check the boxes for where you want your money to go (financial aid, library, "area of greatest need," etc.). How many people would check "war," do you think?

Then the pandemic hit, and I thought, “Everybody’s into sourdough and nobody trusts the cops. The time has clearly arrived.”

When you're a greyhound, every time is naptime.

Every time I text a friend "happy birthday!" a message pops up asking if I want to create a reminder so I remember their birthday next year. Dude, I've clearly got it covered already, so...no.

And here is our one-sheet that you can hang up/distribute!

"I have still yet to see one positive feature of AI that has made my life better, but the negatives are piling up..."

when someone’s net worth reaches a billion dollars it should roll over to zero like the scores in old video games

Time to call your reps! No matter where you are, no matter who your rep is they need to hear from you. Script is available at @5calls.org.

I love witty banter in any genre, and so THE KAIJU PRESERVATION SOCIETY by @scalzi.com was a real delight. If this book were a person it actually *would* be fun at parties!

Book bans harm authors and their readers in surprising and insidious ways, writes @authorgracelin.bsky.social, who explains how new legislation might help stop the spread of book banning in her home state of Massachusetts. gazettenet.com/2026/03/09/g...

TOPIC: Do you use contests, conferences or challenges to help you move forward with your work? What makes that kind of external motivation helpful--and are there any you would particularly recommend? #kidlitchat

"I'm moderating a panel about AI in the literary world on Thursday. My main question to all of the panelists will be: WHY? How has AI made anything about the literary world better? Or the world in general?"

Heard a strange sound

If we made the green energy transition this war would be unthinkable and these authoritarians wouldn’t be in power — not in the US, not in Iran, not in Saudi Arabia, not in Russia. Hydrocarbons are killing our freedom and just plain killing us.

"This isn’t because screens are inherently attention-destroying. It’s because the dominant platforms have been deliberately engineered to fragment attention in service of advertising revenue." aeon.co/essays/what-...