#and story time by edward bloor

[keepitdreamin]

trying to remember a book i read in like 5th or 6th grade and i think it's the westing game although i mostly just remember the vibe of reading this mystery book as a class and theorizing about who did it. i also remember at the time really liking the writing style so i guess i'll have to read it now and see if it rings any more bells.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

No, You Don’t Automatically Owe Your Parents Love and Respect: A Reading List

Bug’s recent post about Turning Red, and especially all the thoughtful responses, made me decide to put together a list of Middle Grade and YA novels in which the parents are negligent, imperfect, judgmental, narrow-minded, and/or some combination of all four, and aren’t shown to be in the right by the end of the story. More importantly, while the child protagonist may face pressure from other characters to help/accept their parent, the book overall doesn’t suggest this is automatically The Right Thing To Do. I decided to leave off books where parents are straight-up abusive (like A Step From Heaven, What Jamie Saw, Rules of Survival, and The Great Gilly Hopkins,) because the parent(s) in those stories are unambiguously in the wrong—it’s clear to the reader, if not the protagonist, pretty much from the beginning that these are not good parents. This list obviously isn’t exhaustive, and I tried to include as many books as possible that were “genre fiction” (fantasy, sci fi, mysteries, adventures, most historical fiction) that subverts putting the burden on the child to accept their parent’s flaws, because those stories aren’t nearly as common as realistic fiction that tackles the imperfect parent.

The first section are Middle Grade novels, the second are YA novels and the last section are novels for adults that have child protagonists and are Alex Award recipients, an award “given to books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults”. I also tried to list the books in sections one and two approximately in order of suggested reading age, from youngest to oldest. Even though I have a bee in my bonnet about Middle Grade books being retroactively labelled as YA, I did include a few Middle Grade novels in the YA category (like Silent to the Bone and Homecoming,) which would almost certainly have been published as YA if the category had existed when the books came out. Animorphs isn’t included because I’m assuming if you’re reading this you’re already a fan of the series.

Final Caveat: I would strongly recommend all of these books, but some have aspects that haven’t aged well, ie, The Planet of Junior Brown was published in 1971 and its attitude towards mental illness is accordingly outdated, and The Letter, The Witch, and the Ring’s portrayal of gender exploration is similarly outdated, but again, it came out in 1972, and for the time it was incredibly subversive and ground-breaking.  

The “My Teacher” series by Bruce Coville, especially My Teacher Is an Alien

The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring by John Bellairs

Island of the Aunts by Eva Ibbotson

ParaNorman from LAIKA Studios

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn  

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi

Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

****************************

Silverwing and Sunwing by Kenneth Oppel

His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman (although The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage unfortunately ret-cons this to some extent)

Silent to the Bone by E.L Konigsburg

Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt

The Planet of Junior Brown by Virginia Hamilton

Homecoming by Cynthia Voight

Tangerine by Edward Bloor

Dead Girls Don’t Write Letters by Gail Giles

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

The Pigman by Paul Zindel

Hero by S.L. Rottman

Burning Up by Caroline B. Cooney (a lot of Cooney’s books subvert the Mother Knows Best trope)

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

********************************

The Death of Bees by Lisa O’Donnell (not a sequel to The Secret Life of Bees : )

Help for the Haunted by John Searles

[slugtranslation-hypmic]

I know you've given some Japanese literature recs in the past but do you have any other books you recommend or maybe just personally enjoyed reading?They don't have to be only Japanese authors, really just anything you've enjoyed reading.

I answered a question about favorite books in the past and then took it down a few hours later in a fit of paranoia, haha. The terrifying ordeal of (one's favorite books) being known. But book recommendations or books one enjoys reading are a slightly different matter (lord knows I do NOT enjoy reading or recommend some of my favorite books), so I can give it a go.

Under a cut for length

The Once and Future King by T. H. White. My favorite book and one I will recommend to almost everyone. TOaFK is a collection of four smaller books (with a fifth "sequel", The Book of Merlin, that I think works best as a standalone, as most of the best bits have been retroactively added into the first book anyway) that retell the story of King Arthur from an anarchistic viewpoint as Arthur grows up and struggles to understand the causes of human suffering and warfare. Some portions of the books are beautifully witty and fun while other portions are deeply sentimental and heartbreaking. TOaFK humanizes these legendary, larger than life figures like no other adaptation of Arthur I've ever read before. Despite being very much written as response to WWII, it reads as a response to the human condition, no matter the age. It explains the answer to ending violence and also explains why this is fundamentally impossible in the same breath. A beautiful, brutal book. I am not blind to its faults (its treatment of the female characters, particularly Guinevere, is a bit lackluster, and there are some issues with anti-Scottish sentiments), but I love it to death and think it is very much worth your time.

Tangerine by Edward Bloor. This is a kid's book but one that I think holds up well even into adulthood. Following a visually handicapped boy as he moves to a new, primarily white suburb on the edge of a Black and Hispanic neighborhood and learns to navigate in his new life and new communities, this novel discusses the concepts of things hidden in plain sight that everyone refuses to see.

David Doesn't Get It by Vi Cao. This isn't a mainstream book at all - it's a bound collection of webcomics - but fuck it, I'm going to recommend it anyway. You can read it here on Webtoon as the author adds more comics from her backlog over time. DDGI is a diary/essay webcomic by the fictional character David Nguyen as he talks about his struggles to assimilate with the world, particularly in regards to asexuality, generational trauma and cycles of abuse, and family life as a Vietnamese-American. Along the way, his other family members and loved ones offer their own stories and experiences. I barely cry these days, but DDGI is one of the few things that makes me sob every time. Vi's writing and delivery are transcendentally good, and I'm incredibly grateful that I've been able to talk with her and have her writing as a part of my life. The first few comics can be a bit crass and feel a little outdated, but going in for the long haul is completely worth it imo.

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I am a shameless Dostoevsky fan, and normally I'd recommend The Brothers Karamazov, but there is just... something so charming about The Idiot that I am going to stick it on this list instead. Idiot follows a naive, innocent to the point of foolishness man returning to Russia from a long stay in a Swiss sanatorium whereupon he ends up in a love triangle due to his own naive actions. A very interesting look at different flavors of love and how they intersect with pity. In terms of translations... I am not terribly fond of Pevear and Volokhonsky (which I mention because they're usually the easiest to find in bookstores)... although your preferences may certainly differ.

A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick. This is pushing the definition of an enjoyable book slightly, but PKD produces some of the best interpretations of psychosis I've ever read (at least, they're similar enough to my experiences and thought processes that I find them compelling), and this is... one of the more straightforward ones, shall we say. Scanner focuses heavily on the concept of paranoia and being watched and does an amazingly accurate job of depicting the "braindead" states of drug-induced (or otherwise) psychosis.

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. I find Gaiman entertaining almost all of the time, but Anansi Boys is my favorite of his works. It's like if American Gods was funny. Taking place in the same universe as American Gods, actually, Anansi Boys follows two brothers Charlie and Spider as they attempt to deal with the death of their father, the trickster god Anansi, and their sudden reintroduction into each other's lives after an entire lifetime spent apart. Hilariously written.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Heller is one of my favorite authors, but I wouldn't usually classify him as an enjoyable read. Catch-22 is, perhaps, an exception to that. Skirting around the reasons why I like it, which are a bit too personal for comfort, Catch-22 describes a ridiculous platoon of soldiers attempting to cope with the ridiculousness of warfare in a way that is generally humorous up until a string of deaths near the last third of the book.

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. God, I love Ishiguro's writing, and I feel like this novel is one of his strongest. It's certainly my favorite to read. Remains tracks an aging British butler on a trip through the English countryside (the scenery descriptions are heavenly) as he recounts the major moments of disappointment and pride in his career; however, readers soon discover he's a rather unreliable narrator and understand that there is a lot more regret below the surface than first appears. Ishiguro is very, very good at writing stories about nostalgic melancholy, failed men, and failed states that once thought themselves great. This one is, I think, the most narratively succinct of all of them.

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. Man, I love Diana Wynne Jones. I read tons of her stuff as a kid. I'm recommending this one not because it's a favorite, per se (I think I like her Chrestomanci series more), but because it's very well-known and is self-contained in a way many of her things aren't. HMC is quite different from the movie version, but if you liked the scenes of Sophie and Howl bitching at each other, then you will love this. It is a book entirely comprised of bitching. Howl has a car and drives like a fucking maniac. Howl is a wreck. So is Sophie, but in a completely different way. Calcifer is still great. Funny, lovely, lots of delightful background characters, nobody is a sexy anime boy but everyone has a good time.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. The writing styles of this book... are a feast. This book is a delightful treat to read. It is a series of 6 slightly interconnected stories that nest within one another, held together by the common thread of a piece of music called The Cloud Atlas String Quartet and the reincarnated soul of a character in the previous story. Each story focuses on a different theme, in a different time period and location, and has a wildly different writing style. Some stories are action-focused while others are slower paced, but I genuinely enjoyed each one and can't recommend this enough.

Watchmen by Alan Moore. I am not a fan of superhero stories at all, so Watchmen, a deconstruction of the superhero genre, is one of the few I enjoy. Set in an America where superheroes were once real and have now been largely outlawed, Watchmen challenges the concepts of authority and heroes as several masked vigilantes rise again to respond to a mysterious threat and their own moral struggles.

The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. Discworld is a loooong (40+) volume series that can be read in mostly any order, set in the fantasy land of Discworld where anything can happen, provided it is ridiculous. The first Discworld books poke fun at the fantasy genre in general which is... okay... but the series quickly turns into various social commentaries portrayed in such delightful and inspiring ways. I would say that this series is one written with a lot of anger and a lot of hope that our own ridiculous world can become somewhat of a better place if we all take our heads out of our own asses from time to time.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. This graphic novel is a coming of age story set in the Iranian Revolution which serves as, imo, a very easily accessible introduction to a topic which shamefully isn't discussed much in my part of the world. Satrapi also talks about her experiences with the cultural divide between Iran and Europe during the 1980s and 1990s. I read this book fairly young (when i was 10 or so) and it has stuck with me ever since.

East of Eden by John Steinbeck. I fucking love EoE. This is a meta (in that the characters are aware of their own roles and discuss their roles within this framework) retelling of the Biblical stories of Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel set in a turn of the 20th century California Central Valley farming community. EoE discusses the concepts of free will, in particular the free will to do acts of good or acts of evil, and the nature of good/evil itself. Can't recommend this enough, regardless if people like Steinbeck's other works or not.

[panharmonium]

Hiya again, @travelling-through-worlds​ !  Don’t mind me, I’m just starting a new thread here to continue our conversation from here, since our old one was getting so long - I didn’t want my reblog to totally swallow your dashboard! :)

especially in Naruto I think the bonds and relationships between the characters are SO well done, and I find it to be one of the strongest points of the series. I think that that is probably one of the main reasons so many of us find this story to be so compelling

yessss, I totally agree!  

re: which college I went to - I’ll refrain from naming the exact one, just because I try not to put info that would narrow down my offline identity too closely on a public blog, heh, but I did my bachelors and masters degrees at schools in the Northeast USA.  I do agree with you that the English courses in your area sound a little different than the ones here - often “English” as a college course of study here refers to English literature, as opposed to English language, so you wouldn’t see the phonetics and pronunciation work you mentioned.  You will still probably have the occasional text or class that just doesn’t spark any interest in you; there’s always bound to be something out there we don’t connect with, even if the work might still have some kind of literary merit.  I remember I took one course during my degree (I think it was on post-modernist American Lit and related texts, or something like that) and I hated it.  We were doing Hunter Thompson, Brett Easton Ellis, Tom Wolfe, etc, and I just despised everything we read.  That’s rare for me; I can usually find something to appreciate in most of the “school” books I’ve worked with, but I remember reading I Am Charlotte Simmons and Less Than Zero and wanting to just dump them in a lake. 

What are some of your favourite books and series? :) I scrolled through your archive for a bit and I think I’ll be adding Merlin to my list of things to watch.

Oh, I love Merlin SOOOOO much!  One of my absolute favorite universes of all time (and one of my favorite fandoms, too - I met so many awesome people there!)  I can’t believe it took me so long to start watching it (but then again, I’ve always been really slow about picking up TV shows X) ).  Probably my other biggest past fandoms (besides Merlin and Naruto) have been Teen Wolf and Star Wars, though there are a number of other series/universes that I love but don’t post as much about (Lord of the Rings, DC Comics, House MD, Star Trek, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Fullmetal Alchemist, Gilmore Girls, etc).  As far as books go, it’s hard to choose - a couple of my favorites are Crusader by Edward Bloor, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, as well as the Protector of the Small series by Tamora Pierce and the Animorphs series (childhood favorite) by K. A. Applegate.

Do you happen to work in the teaching field by the way? (It’s something I’ve thought about doing myself.)

I used to, yes!  My masters degree is in education, and I used to be a public school teacher.  Nowadays I work in children’s services at a public library, though.  (I loved many parts of teaching, and the school I worked at was wonderful, but work-life balance became really difficult after a few years, so switching to a less intense work environment ended up being the right decision for me.

I find it helpful to kind of compare it to singing. 

Ooh, yes, this is exactly why I think tonal languages are so cool!!!  I have a music background, so I just think it’s so amazing to have languages that utilize pitch changes like that.  (And it’s SUPER cool that you’re able to pick certain words up in the original Naruto dialogue due to occasional similarities between the languages - there are some shared words like that between Arabic and Spanish, too, which it was always fun to see students pick up on!) 

[uovoc]

2021 media consumption year in review

God tier

On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden - graphic novel/webcomic. Hugely tender story about second chances for the crew of a historical restoration spaceship, and lesbians finding each other across the stars. The negative space in this is so fucking good and every full-page spread punched me in the gut.

Colza - animated short. Farming lizards, aeoroplanes, and gorgeous orchestral score.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead - Tiny heartfelt time travel mystery that unfolds among the neighborhood kids in 1970s New York. Well-deserved Newberry Medal winner.

Infinity Train - cartoon. Specifically seasons 2 and 3, worth getting through season 1 for. it's all about the raw emotion baby!!

Legend of Hei - urban xianxia webtoon about 10-yr-old cat yao's adventures with his human and nonhuman friends. Wholesome friendship and kickass animation.

Cherry Magic: 30 Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard - jdrama. Adachi can read the mind of anyone he touches, including his officemate who has a massive crush on him. Hilarious and tender gay romcom.

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore - for best results read the first 2 Graceling books first.

This American Life - podcast. Interviews and essays from the American public on a variety of topics. Sometimes moving, often fascinating, occasionally humorous, always deeply personal.

99% Invisible - podcast. Design and architecture. "No stories about people. Just stories about stuff." — Roman Mars, host.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - Journal of a man who lives in an infinite labyrinth with an ocean trapped in its walls. Has its weak points, but overall incredible for its surreal atmosphere, gentle subversion of horror tropes, and distinctive narrative voice.

Decent entertainment

Space Sweepers - movie

O Human Star by Blue Delliquanti - webcomic

Leverage - live-action show

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts - cartoon, quit 2/3 of the way through

A Conspiracy of Truths by Alexandra Rowland

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

The Mitchells vs the Machines - movie

Nezha Reborn - movie. Cool worldbuilding, felt more like a videogame though.

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vgo - novella

When the Tiger Came down the Mountain by Nghi Vgo - novella

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

Fei Ren Zai - webtoon

All Saints Street (I really agree it should be translated as All Hallows Ave for maximum pun) - webtoon

Tangerine by Edward Bloor

The Eternal Smile by Gene Luen Yang - graphic novel

The Books of the Raksura by Martha Wells - book series

The Owl House - cartoon

Moonlight - movie

To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything - movie

Always Coming Home by Ursula K Le Guin

The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie

A Choir of Lies by Alexandra Rowland

Limetown - podcast

Dark Water by Laura McNeal

Disliked and often DNF

Bitter Root - graphic novel

The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

Archive 81 - podcast

Old Gods of Appalachia - podcast

SAYER - podcast

Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego - cartoon

To Say Nothing of the Dog By Connie Willis

The Extraordinaries by TJ Klune

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

Provenance by Ann Leckie

Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett

Space Opera by Catherine Valente

The City We Became by NK Jemisin

Too like the Lightning by Ada Palmer

It Devours! by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor

The Expanse - TV series

84k by Claire North

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore

Fred, the Vampire Accountant by Drew Hayes

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Placemakers - podcast

Autonomous by Annalee Newitz

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Ologies - podcast. Got bored after a while.

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis Taylor

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett

Assorted nonfiction books

A Slip of the Keyboard by Terry Pratchett - essays.

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer - Essays on the intersection of indigenous spirituality with natural science. Commits the sin of bad science metaphors.

The New Jim Crow By Michelle Alexander - how mass incarceration perpetuates institutional anti-black racism in the United States.

Burn It Down: Women Writing About Anger ed. Lily Dancyger - the essay by Minda Honey was great, the rest of them were nothing new.

Getting Physical: The Rise of Fitness Culture in America by Shelly Mckenzie - concise and very readable history of how Americans have conflated physical health with moral virtue, starting in the 1950s.

Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener - critical memoir of author's career in tech startups. Her crippling insecurity and substitution of personal attacks for critical analysis were… not good.

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel Kolk - neurology of trauma. Pretty technical, more targeted towards practicing clinicians than patients.

NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity by Steve Silberman - history of autism research and perception of autism in America, starting with Kanner.

Vesper Flights by Helen MacDonald - essays on human-animal interactions with GOOD science metaphors.

H is for Hawk by Helen McDonald - full of cool falconry facts in addition to being a memoir about falconry as a quietly feral expression of love and grief.

Loving Mr. Spock by Barbara Jacobs - memoir of author's marriage to an autistic man. Very dated and now reads badly. Quit 2 chapters in.

The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida

Spectrum Women ed. Barb Cook and Michelle Garnett

The Way I See It by Temple Grandin

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman - how the transition from primarily print-based mediums to television has affected Americans' information processing and political engagement.

No Time to Spare by Ursula K Le Guin - essays.

Eating the Ocean by Elspeth Probyn - metaphysical-literary analysis of the relationship between humans and fish. Quit 3 chapters in bc I was expecting more environmental science.

First, Break All the Rules by Gallup - How to be a good manager, boiled down to: don't spend too much time trying to fix people's weaknesses; instead, figure out how to utilize their strengths.

Race after Technology by Ruha Benjamin - how digital automation deepens racial discrimination while appearing benevolent.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain - good insights into workplace advantages, but is suspiciously lacking in any mention of autism.

Change: How to Make Big Things Happen by Damon Centola - how the structure of relationship networks affects adoption of social change. Good stuff, would recommend.

Aliens in America by Sandra Tsing Loh - essays about growing up in a chinese-german family in LA.

The Madwoman and the Roomba by Sandra Tsing Loh - got maybe half a chapter in and DNF.

The Origin of Others by Toni Morrison - meh. At least it was short.

Where Land and Water Meet: A Western Landscape Transformed by Nancy Langston. Historical analysis of how human perception of water and land has directed wetlands management strategy, using the Malheur Basin as a case study.

The Polyamorists Next Door: Inside Multiple-Partner Relationships and Families by Elisabeth Sheff. Ethnographic study of American polyamorous families with children. Pretty good outline of typical relationship models among the sample population.

They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein. Meh. I think it's targeted more towards beginning writers.

The Lesbian Polyamory Reader by Marcia Munson and Judith Stelboum. Was published in the 90s and contains more 2nd-wave feminist philosophy than practical knowledge. TBH it feels pretty stale now.

[rubykgrant]

I made a slightly condensed version of my Spooky Ref list; it still has a heck ton of movies and books, but now I combined certain categories, eliminated a few, and removed some of the titles that don’t quite fit. If you are looking for things to watch or read so you can get into the Halloween mood (or of you just like some creepy content), here you go!

Movies and Books for October

These range from children’s media to adult content, so be sure to check the ratings/reviews, this way you’ll find ones that are suitable for the right viewers. The dates of movies and names of authors for books are included to make searches easier

(a * symbol is for when a title is in both sections, a book that got made into a movie, ect)

Halloween and Ghosts

Movies- Hocus Pocus (1993), *the Halloween Tree (1993), the Nightmare before Christmas (1993), Trick r Treat (2007), Monster House (2006), Halloweentown (1998), the Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1949), Scary Godmother Halloween Spooktacular (2003), Poltergeist (1982), the Haunting (1999), Casper (1995), Ghostbusters (1984), the Haunted Mansion (2003), Thirteen Ghosts (2001), the Others (2001)

Books- How to Drive Your Family Crazy on Halloween by Dean Marney,*the Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury, the Haunted Mask (Goosebumps) by RL Stine, Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge, Stonewords a Ghost Story by Pam Conrad, Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn, Ghost Beach (Goosebumps) by RL Stine, All the Lovely Bad Ones by Mary Downing Hahn, the Crossroads by Chris Grabenstein, Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn

 Witch/ESP/Mental Powers

Movies- *Practical Magic (1998), *the Wizard of Oz (1939), *the Witches (1990), Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989), Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost (1999) *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001), the Craft (1996), the Witches of Eastwick (1987), *Carrie (1976), *Firstarter (1984), *Matilda (1996), the Last Mimzy (2007)

Books- *Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman, *the Witches by Roald Dahl, Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones, *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by JK Rowling, *the Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum, T*Witches by HB Gilmour and Randi Reisfeld, the Worst Witch by Jill Murphy, *Carrie by Stephen King, *Firestarter by Stephen King, *Matilda by Roald Dahl, Scorpion Shards (Star Shards Chronicles) by Neal Shusterman, the Witch’s Boy by Michael Gruber

 Vampire and Werewolf

Movies- Blade (1998), the Little Vampire (2000), Hellboy Blood and Iron (2007), *Hotel Transylvania (2012), Fright Night (2011), What We Do in the Shadows (2014), Alvin and the Chipmunks meet The Wolfman (2000), Ginger Snaps (2000), Van Helsing (2004) Wolf Children (2012), the Wolfman (1941)

Books- Bunnicula by James and Deborah Howe, Dracula by Bram Stoker, ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King, Red Rider’s Hood by Neal Shusterman, the Werewolf of Fever Swamp (Goosebumps) by RL Stine, Werewolves Don't Go to Summer Camp (Bailey School Kids) by Debbie Dadey and Marcia Jones, Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause, Night of the Werepoodle by Constance Hiser

 Zombies and Slasher/Gore

Movies- Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998), ParaNorman (2012), Night of the Living Dead (1968), *Pet Sematary (1989), Zombieland (2009), Resident Evil (2002), Dawn of the Dead (2004) Scream (1996), a Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), *I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), Kill Bill (2003), Happy Death Day (2017), the Hills Have Eyes (2006), US (2019), Friday the 13th (1980), the Thing (1982), *the Girl with all the Gifts (2016)

Books- *Pet Sematary by Stephen King, the Haunting of Derek Stone by Tony Abott, Welcome to Dead House (Goosebumps) by RL Stine, *I know What You Did Last Summer by Lois Duncan, the Dark Half by Stephen King, The Dead Girlfriend (Point Horror) by RL Stine, Another by Yukito Ayatsuji, the Prom Queen (Fear Street) by RL Stine, *the Girl with all the Gifts by MR Carey

 Demons/Possession/Afterlife

Movies- the Omen (1976), Insidious (2010), the Exorcist (1973), *Christine (1983), City of Angels (1998), All Dogs go to Heaven (1989), Fallen (1998), *Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Bedazzled (2000), What Dreams May Come (1998), the Book of Life (2014), Flatliners (2017), *the Lovely Bones (2009), Coco (2017), Jennifer’s Body (2009), the Mummy (1999)

Books- *Christine by Stephen King, Needful Things by Stephen King, HECK where the bad kids go by Dale E Bayse,* Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin, Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, Paradise Lost by John Milton, Inferno by Dante Alighieri, *the Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

 Monsters/Mythology/Dangerous Animals

Movies- Monsters Inc (2001), Godzilla (1998), *a Monster Calls (2016), *Jurassic Park (1993), King Kong (1933), Doug’s 1st Movie (1999), Darkness Falls (2003), Atlantis the lost empire (2001), Sinbad Legend of the Seven Seas (2003), *the Last Unicorn (1982), Urban Legend (1998), *How to Train Your Dragon (2010), the Flight of Dragons (1982), Shrek (2001), *the Hobbit (1977), Quest for Camelot (1998), Ferngully the last rainforest (1992), Lake Placid (1999), Jaws (1975), *Cujo (1983), Deep Blue Sea (1999), Anaconda (1997)

Books- *a Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, *Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton, Sasquatch by Roland Smith, *the Last Unicorn by Peter S Beagle, the Moorchild by Eloise Jarvis McGraw, the Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) by Rick Riordan, the Boggart by Susan Cooper, *How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell, Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville, *the Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, *Cujo by Stephen King, Cat in the Crypt (Animal Ark Hauntings) by Ben M Baglio, Congo by Michael Crichton, Watership Down by Richard Adams, the Dark Pond by Joseph Bruchac

 Dolls and Toys, Circus/Carnival/Clowns, Comedy Horror

Movies- *Coraline (2009), the Adventures of Pinocchio (1996), Child’s Play (1988), Toy Story (1995), 9 (2009), We’re Back a dinosaur’s story (1993), the Care Bears Movie (1985), Little Nemo adventures in Slumberland (1989), *Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983), *Big Top Scooby-Doo (2012), Killer Klowns from Outer Space, *IT (2017), *Beetlejuice (1988), Army of Darkness (1992), Gremlins (1984), Arachnophobia (1990), Jawbreaker (1999), Tremors (1990), the Frighteners (1996), Twilight Zone the Movie (1983), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Eight Legged Freaks (2002), the Goonies (1985)

Books- Frozen Charlotte by Alex Bell, *Coraline by Neil Gaiman, No Flying in the House by Betty Brock, Doll Bones by Holly Black, Joyland by Stephen King, *Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, the Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, *IT by Stephen King, the Cuckoo Clock of Doom (Goosebumps) by RL Stine, a Dirty Job by Christopher Moore jr, Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (Treasury) by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated by Stephen Gammell, JTHM (Director’s Cut) by Jhonen Vasquez

 Gothic/Dark Fantasy, Curse/Transformation

Movies- *the Addams Family (1991), Rebecca (1940), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Mama (2013), the Phantom of the Opera (2004), Crimson Peak (2010), Legend (1985), the Dark Crystal (1982), Labyrinth (1986), *the Neverending Story (1984), *the Secret of NIMH (1982), Anastasia (1997), Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), Willow (1988), *the Last Unicorn (1982), the Princess Bride (1987), *Legend of the Guardians the Owls of Ga'Hoole, Beauty and the Beast (1991), the Princess and the Frog (2009), the Swan Princess (1994), the Thing (1982), the Mask (1994), Freaky Friday (2003), Song of the Sea (2014), Pirates of the Caribbean the Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Books- the Raven by Edgar Allen Poe, the Shining by Stephen King, Remember Me by Mary Higgins Clark, a Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, Well Witched (Verdigris Deep) by Frances Hardinge, Poison by Chris Wooding, *the Neverending Story by Michael Ende, *Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C O'Brien, a Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz, the Dark Portal by Robin Jarvis, Zel by Donna Jo Napoli, *the Last Unicorn by Peter S Beagle, *Guardians of Ga’Hoole by Kathryn Lasky, Owl in Love by Patrice Kindl

 Mystery/Thriller/Psychological/Suspense

Movies- Clue (1985), *Holes (2003), Get Out (2017), Hot Fuzz (2007), Minority Report (2002), Kidnap (2017), Saw (2004), Wind River (2017), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), the Great Mouse Detective (1986), Eve’s Bayou (1997), Breaking In (2018), Cube (1997), *Secret Window (2004), Silent Hill (2006), the Sixth Sense (1999), the Good Son (1993), Psycho (1960), Donnie Darko (2001), Fargo (1996), the Game (1997), the Invisible Man (2020), Breaking In (2018)

Books- *Holes by Louis Sachar, the Lost (the Outer Limits) by John Peel, We’ll Meet Again by Mary Higgins Clark, When the Bough Breaks by Jonathan Kellerman, *Secret Window Secret Garden (Four Past Midnight) by Stephen King, House of Stairs by William Sleator, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King, Tangerine by Edward Bloor, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the Girl who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King

 Sci-Fi/Space Aliens, Robots and Technology

Movies- I Robot (2004), the Iron Giant (1999), the Terminator (1984), AI artificial intelligence (2001), the Stepford Wives (2004), Wall-E (2008), *Screamers (1995), *Sphere (1998), *Blade Runner (1982), *2001 a Space Odyssey (1968), MIB (1997), Mission to Mars (2000), Galaxy Quest (1999), Alien (1979), ET the extra terrestrial (1982), Independence Day (1996), Spaced Invaders (1990), Buzz Lightyear of Star Command the Adventure Begins (2000), Chicken Little (2005), *War of the Worlds (1953), *Contact (1997), Signs (2002), Treasure Planet (2002), Frequency (2000), Back to the Future (1985), the Time Machine (1960), Planet of the Apes (1968), Lost in Space (1998)

Books- the Terminal Man by Michael Crichton, Feed by Matthew Tobin Anderson, *Second Variety (Screamers) by Phillip K Dick, *I Robot by Isaac Asimov, Cell by Stephen King, *Sphere by Michael Crichton, *Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Blade Runner) by Philip K Dick , *2001 a Space Odyssey by  Arthur C Clarke, a Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, the Dark Side of Nowhere by Neal Shusterman, *War of the Worlds by HG Wells, *Contact by Carl Sagan, Childhood’s End by Arthur C Clarke, Aliens Don’t Wear Braces (the Baily School Kids) by Debbie Dadey and Marcia Jones, the Invasion (Animorphs) by KA Applegate

 Dystopia/Disaster, Other Worlds

Movies- Waterworld (1995), the Matrix (1999), Escape from New York (1981), *Demolition Man (1993), the Day After Tomorrow (2004), Volcano (1997), the Fifth Element (1997), Titan AE (2000), Armageddon (1998), Twister (1996), the Birds (1963), the Book of Eli, (2010) Spirited Away (2001), *Alice in Wonderland (1951), Pleasantville (1998), *the Phantom Tollbooth (1970), *the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), *Hook (1991), the Pagemaster (1994), *James and the Giant Peach (1996)

Books- Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix, Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, the Road by Cormac McCarthy, the House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer, 1984 by George Orwell, Armageddon Summer by Bruce Coville and Jane Yolen, the Giver by Lois Lowry, the City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau, *Brave New World (Demolition Man) by Aldous Huxley, Malice by Chris Wooding, * the Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, *Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, the Golden Compass (His Dark Materials) by Philip Pullman, *The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (the Chronicles of Narnia) by CS Lewis, *James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

 Anime/Manga and J-Horror

Movies- Akira (1988), Perfect Blue (1997), Ring (1998), Dark Water (2002), Ghost in the Shell (1995), Tokyo Godfathers (2003), Cat Soup (2001), *Cowboy Bebop the Movie (2001), Blood the Last Vampire (2000), Pokemon the First Movie (1998), Sailor Moon R Promise of the Rose (1993), DBZ the World’s Strongest (1990), Digimon the Movie (2000), Ju-On (2000)

Manga- Claymore by Norihiro Yagi, Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata, *Yu Yu Hakusho by Yoshihiro Togashi, *Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa, *Blue Exorcist by Kazue Katō, *Soul Eater by Atsushi Ōkubo, *Inuyasha by Rumiko Takahashi,

Anime- *Yu Yu Hakusho, *Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, *Soul Eater, *Blue Exorcist, *Inuyasha, *Cowboy Bebop, Mob Psycho 100, .hack//SIGN , the Promised Neverland, Paranoia Agent, Tokyo Ghoul, Hellsing Ultimate

 Super Hero

Movies- Hellboy (2004), Ghost Rider (2007), the Incredibles (2004), Batman Beyond return of the Joker (2000), TMNT (2007), Logan (2017), Black Panther (2018), Sky High (2005), Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse (2018), Justice League Crisis on Two Earths (2010), Batman Under the Red Hood (2010)

Comics- Animal Man (New 52, 2011) DC Comics, Swamp Thing (New 52, 2011) DC Comics, BPRD Dark Waters (2012) Dark Horse Comics, Nextwave (Agents of HATE, 2006) Marvel Comics

Animated Series- Batman the Animated Series, X-Men Evolution, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003), Darkwing Duck, the Powerpuff Girls, Teen Titans (2005), Static Shock, Green Lantern the Animated Series

 Cartoons and TV shows

Over the Garden Wall, The Simpsons (Treehouse of Horrors), Regular Show (Terror Tales of the Park), Adventure Time (Stakes), Scooby-Doo Where Are You/What’s New Scooby-Doo,  El Tigre the Adventures of Manny Rivera, Phineas and Ferb (Night of the Living Pharmacists), Gravity Falls, Good Omens, Miracle Workers, Grimm, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, What We Do In the Shadows, Hotel Transylvania the series, Wolf’s Rain, Danny Phantom, Aaahh Real Monsters, the Munsters, So Weird, Tutenstein, Gargoyles, Xena Warrior Princess, Are You Afraid of the Dark, Tales from the Crypt, Goosebumps, Samurai Jack, Metalocalypse, Super Jail, My Life as a Teenage Robot, Futurama, the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, *Beetlejuice (animated series), Sabrina the Animated Series, the Owl House, Bewitched, Growing Up Creepy, the Addams Family (animated series), a Series of Unfortunate Events, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Star VS the Forces of Evil, Amphibia, Infinity Train, Penn Zero Part-Time Hero, Murder She Wrote, the Venture Bros, Avatar the Last Airbender, Invader ZIM, People of Earth, Star Trek Next Gen, Rick and Morty, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command

[wefallintobookland]

October: Book Inclusivity Challenge

Week 3: Eerie Setting and Atmosphere

So for this week I am throwing back, with Story Time by Edward Bloor. I read this book a WHILE ago when in like junior high and it came out in 2001, so many of you may not know about it.

Kate is forced to go to an elite school because her uncle George, who is 2 years younger than her, is a genius and if the school took him she would have to go too. This school, Dragooned, is an extremely corrupt and abusive place for children to learn, putting immense amounts of pressure on their students to get high testing marks. The classrooms are windless and dank, and it feels like horrible things are around every corner. Even though I read this book long ago, the atmosphere this book had was definitely eerie, as well as creepy. It was an exaggerated sense of the real school system and the way they treat the students and the sole focus on what mark you get. Having said that, it’s not far off and some of these settings could actually be a place in the world, which made my skin crawl even more. So that’s why I think it fits for this week, it’s categorised for ages 10-15 but I think everyone can get some enjoyment and perspective from it.

This is part of the #lornaslibrary challenge. And again it’s late, so sorry. I did this challenge so I would be able to post with out much work and it totally failed. Oh well, one more to go. ;)

[onceland]

EXCLUSIVE: The 7 Biggest Secrets From Hook & Emma's 'Once Upon a Time' Wedding: Vows, Honeymoon & Much More!

Source

Wedding bells are officially ringing in Storybrooke!

Once Upon a Time's highly anticipated musical episode is almost here, which means that we're just a few days away from witnessing Emma Swan and Killian Jones say "I do" in a breathtaking wedding ceremony. (Trust us. It's perfect.)

ET had the pleasure of visiting Once Upon a Time's set in Vancouver, Canada, last month during filming of the musical matrimony, and we sat down with stars Jennifer Morrison and Colin O'Donoghue for an intimate and in-depth interview that focused on each and every aspect of their on-screen wedding.

From their "honest" vows, to Emma's "timeless" wedding gown, and their dream honeymoon -- only ET has all the inside scoop straight from the stars of the series! Plus, we've got additional details from executive producers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, as well as Once Upon a Time's head costume designer Eduardo Castro.

So, shall we get started? Or, as O'Donoghue cleverly put it: who's ready for some "music and dance and some mighty fine romance" at Captain Swan's wedding?

Just a warning that this is the biggest Once Upon a Time article we've ever written, so grab a comfy seat, put your cellphone on silent and get ready to go on an emotional roller coaster of feels. And, as always, please remember to breathe!

1. The Venue: The Once showrunners confessed that they had considered a number of "other places" for Emma and Killian to tie the knot -- yes, even Granny's! -- but in the end, they settled on a brand new Storybrooke location for the ceremony. "Without wanting to spoil the episode, there's a story reason for why it's on the roof," Horowitz revealed. "But there's also something to us that was super romantic about having Storybrooke as the backdrop."

Emma and Killian will tie the knot in front of a dream-worthy sunset and surrounded by their closest friends and family. "It's the place where they've kind of come together," Horowitz continued. "Where their love has grown and where both of them as characters have grown, so seeing the whole town kind of beneath and surrounding them felt like a really cool way to do it."

"I thought it was perfect," Morrison dished. "We just felt, like, what better way to make it feel extra special than to have [the wedding] also be the musical episode?"

2. The Suit: In case you missed it, we already dished a little on Killian's dashing (and "really soft!") suit, but did you know that black velvet wasn't always the original plan? Once's head costume designer, Eduardo Castro, spilled an "interesting note" about Hook's suit to ET during an email interview.

"Originally we had an ivory gabardine suit made and, somehow, it did not hit the mark," Castro wrote. "At the very last moment, we threw out the ivory and went for a black velvet Burberry jacket that was far more in keeping with Hook's demeanor."

Kitsis furthered that he and Horowitz had a very specific vision in mind when it came to Hook's look. "Adam and I both thought that Hook needed to have a tux that reflects his personality, so you can't go from leather to just a basic tux," he said. "We felt like he had to have a little edge to it, so the velvet felt like the Hook version of fancy."

When asked if he feels "suave" in his wedding attire, O'Donoghue was bashful with his response. "I guess so," he chuckled. "I hope it looks OK."

"You look amazing!" Morrison chimed in while brushing a piece of lint off of O'Donoghue's sleeve. "He's been getting a little jealous about all of the attention the dress has been getting, so I'm trying to butter him up a little bit about his velvet jacket."

3. The Dress: Morrison, who could not stop beaming during our interview, praised her "absolutely incredible" relationship with Castro and that from "day one" he has included her in each and every fashion choice for Emma. So, naturally, the blonde beauty was an integral part in creating Emma's wedding "vision," and even O'Donoghue had something to add!

"We had talked about it and Colin did say, 'It should be something very vintage,' and I was like, 'Yeah, I agree!' Something Eddy and Adam and I had always talked about was that everything she wears should feel a little bit timeless," Morrison explained. "So we definitely wanted to stay in the classic range with her for the wedding gown, and we felt like what better than a real fairy tale like Grace Kelly's? She was definitely the inspiration for this."

Castro echoed Morrison's sentiments, writing, "Jennifer and I looked at several designs, and she immediately responded to Grace Kelly's wedding dress -- originally designed by Helen Rose in 1956 nearly 60 years ago! The Grace Kelly gown addressed all the concerns that Jennifer Morrison had, so we decided to replicate it."

"Originally, the wedding was to be shot outside, therefore considerations of warmth needed to be addressed," Castro added. There was a "time crunch" to complete the intricate Alecon Lace and ivory peau de soie gown and matching silk tulle veil and both were constructed in the Once Upon a Time workrooms over the course of two weeks. "We barely had time to fit the gown once, but it all worked out," he said.

As for Emma's gorgeous headpiece? Castro said that his colleague, Isabel Bloor, only had "a few days" to construct it, but it immediately became Morrison's favorite part of the ensemble. "I want to keep this headpiece thing!" the actress declared. "I think it's so spectacular."

4. The Rings: As we were interviewing the on-screen couple, we could not help noticing the massive sparkler on Morrison's finger, which was freshly accompanied by a unique, slightly mismatched wedding band.

"Oh yeah, that's the ring! He's got good taste, this one," Morrison said while gesturing to O'Donoghue when we audibly "Ooh-ed!" mid-sentence. "You actually picked them, didn’t you?"

"Mmmhmm," O'Donoghue confirmed. "I picked the engagement ring and then they showed me this [wedding band] and I was like, 'Yeah, that'll do.'" To which Morrison added, "They're very inclusive with us around here. It's really nice."

Kitsis and Horowitz explained that they have always encouraged the actors to "take ownership of their characters," and allowing them to select things like the right gowns or props is a natural extension of that. "I think our props department is awesome and I'm sure that they had some great rings," Horowitz said. "Nobody knows the character of Hook better than Colin, so of course he'd be the one to figure out what it should be."

5. The Vows: We're not going to get into the specifics of the vows because we want you all to experience the same, tear-filled awe that we witnessed on set. "The goal with the vows was to have the characters speak sincerely from the heart to each other, and we hope that comes across," Horowitz said.

For the actors, both Morrison and O'Donoghue admitted that Emma and Killian's nuptials are the perfect blend of simplicity and heart.

"I can't speak for Colin, but when I read this script, I loved the whole script," Morrison said. "I felt like just in every single page of it, I was smiling and happy. And not just as someone on the show, but as someone who is a fan -- I just loved it. I was just so happy, and part of what I liked so much about the vows was how simple and honest and direct they are."

"They weren’t over the top and they're not convoluted in any way," she continued. "I think Hook and Emma are two people who are very direct and they know each other so well at this point. And the fact that the writers made sure that they knew exactly what they needed and wanted to hear in that moment was very, very cool to me."

"Yeah, I felt the same way," O'Donoghue agreed with his co-star. "I was glad that it wasn't reams and reams of lovey-dovey stuff just for the sake of it. It was, as you said, very direct, to the point. I liked the fact that Hook doesn't shy away from the fact that he wasn't great at the start and he just wanted revenge. He just cuts to the chase and says Emma is the reason that he believed that he could love again. She sort of showed him what it was to be in love, so that's what I liked about it."

6. The Reception: We already told you a little bit about the "inspiration" behind Emma and Killian's reception song, "A Happy Beginning," but did you know that this particular musical moment in the episode is going to send you into a complete and total frenzy? It definitely made Morrison extremely giddy…

"It's been so fun! I mean, I feel like I just keep repeating myself. It's just so fun, it's just so fun! You're going to have a whole article of Jennifer said, 'It's just so fun!' over and over again," she exclaimed. "We got to go to the recording studio, we got to work with a great voice coach and, for Emma, the music came from a very organic place. It wasn’t a fantasy sequence or Fairy-Tale Land where it would make sense, but it's just been fun!"

O'Donoghue added that it was great to be able to work with the composers of the musical episode, Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner. "I had never sang in a way where you had to be so expressive and tell the story on top of trying to get the melody out," he explained. "What's great is that the songs all feel like they've been around for forever as part of this sort of Disney world. They really incorporated these brand new songs so well into the story of Once Upon a Time and I think that it's fantastic."

As for Captain Swan's first dance as husband and wife? Prepare to be blown away by their smooth moves. "Yes, we get to dance!" Morrison said. "I mean, I wish I got to dance more. I grew up dancing, so I was wishing that there was more dancing to it."

"I didn’t grow up dancing. I guess I'm just a natural," O'Donoghue said with a laugh.

"He is a natural," Morrison confirmed, "but we also have to deal with the fact that he only has one hand!" O'Donoghue added that learning the choreography has been a bit of a "complicated" process when it comes to the "lifts and stuff," but the two actors are used to the one-handed challenges.

"You have to move the dance balance around differently and, obviously, we don’t want to, like, have any injuries with the hook. We've gotten really good at working around that hook though," Morrison explained with a giggle. "Wait -- That sounded wrong. I didn’t mean it the way that sounded!"

"You just said that in an interview," O'Donoghue taunted.

"I didn’t mean to!" Morrison protested through a fit of laughs. "Aw, man!"

(Writer's Note: When we offered to strike that part of the interview from the record, O'Donoghue was quick to playfully back up his co-star's words. "No, no, no! You can keep it in.")

7. The Honeymoon: Once again, we're not going to spoil the episode's events for you, but when the musical hour ends, and we prepare for "The Final Battle" ahead, it's clear that newlywed bliss may not immediately be in the cards for our couple.

So what do the actors think Emma and Killian's "dream honeymoon" would be? "Five minutes alone probably," O'Donoghue chuckled.

"Yeah, exactly!" Morrison smiled. "Just somewhere with a door locked. I think just a couple bottles of wine and some french fries and a bath, maybe?"

"Oh really, what else?" O'Donoghue pressed.

"I don’t know!" she answered playfully. "I just feel like it should be really relaxing because their lives are very stressful because they're always trying to save people and I feel like a romantic bath might be nice."

"Well, there you go!" O'Donoghue said as he and Morrison burst into laughter.

[barthosprompts]

Hi there. I love your prose and was wondering if you had any tips for improving prose. I only find things about improving grammar, but rarely about prose. Also what are your favorite books and where do you get so many ideas?

to be completely honest, most of the books i can remember, i was forced to read them for school. those include; tangerine by edward bloor, or hatchet by gary paulsen. the odyssey books, warriors books (pressured by friends), and even harry potter. i actually think it’s kind of funny that i have no real favorites, but i think it’s because finding books i was legitimately interested in was hard.

i gave up around 6th grade when it came to books, because the protags were unrelatable or the romance was incredibly forced or gross. it really does feel like a shame, because teachers always boasted about how great of a reader i was (even had my own little reading group to sit in, where other college reading level elementary students were).

branching off that, i think most of my ideas came from things i would like to see in books that i could never quite find. it was a lot of picking and choosing. ideas come from lots of places- pictures, dreams, movies, books, games, comics, etc- and that’s always where i got mine. i can’t really tell you how i got so many of them, but for all the ideas i seem to get about characters, story ideas evade me.

as for prose, i actually didn’t think i was very good at that? but some things that help me are;

don’t cram everything i can into one sentence; like run on sentences, they bore the reader. 

try to be decisive about are your words, but remember that the way you write and the style in which you do so need to match you. if you focus too hard on being like another writer and what you think people will expect of you, you’ll burn out and refuse to continue.

your readers will know what you mean, so you don’t need to state the obvious. that’s telling, not showing.

strong verbs can make an impact. you don’t need to replace common words with uncommon ones, but mixing those up can do wonders.

think about the sentence flow. think about the way i am differing my sentences and the lengths. they vary. this sort of thing can keep your readers interested. if all the lengths stayed the same, no doubt your readers would just skim right over everything. you don’t have to keep this in mind the entire time, but if you find yourself bored over something you’ve written, consider if that might be part of the problem.

lots of people tell you to avoid adjectives, but i think that since writing is constantly evolving, there are many great exceptions, so take any advice regarding that with a bit of salt.

and in case none of that helped you, i scoured across the internet to find some other sites, like this one, this one, and perhaps this one.

[bellamysgriffin]

funniest books too? funniest movies?

oh god books:

scarlett epstein hates it here

me and earl and the dying girl is so funny

the haters 

anything by jesse andrews tbh

let it snow

a little something different

story time by edward bloor

fangirl had its moments fr

taming of the shrew hardcore

movies:

on the town

paper towns

ferris bueller’s day off

the duff

stranger than fiction tbh

mean girls

clueless ofc

teen beach movie honestly akjdlfskj

send me book/movie/tv/ship asks!

[helloworlddemo1122-yahoopar-blog]

EXCLUSIVE: The 7 Biggest Secrets From Hook & Emma's 'Once Upon a Time' Wedding: Vows, Honeymoon & Much More!

Wedding bells are officially ringing in Storybrooke!

Once Upon a Time's highly anticipated musical episode is almost here, which means that we're just a few days away from witnessing Emma Swan and Killian Jones say "I do" in a breathtaking wedding ceremony. (Trust us. It's perfect.)

ET had the pleasure of visiting Once Upon a Time's set in Vancouver, Canada, last month during filming of the musical matrimony, and we sat down with stars Jennifer Morrison and Colin O'Donoghue for an intimate and in-depth interview that focused on each and every aspect of their on-screen wedding.

From their "honest" vows, to Emma's "timeless" wedding gown, and their dream honeymoon -- only ET has all the inside scoop straight from the stars of the series! Plus, we've got additional details from executive producers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, as well as Once Upon a Time's head costume designer Eduardo Castro.

So, shall we get started? Or, as O'Donoghue cleverly put it: who's ready for some "music and dance and some mighty fine romance" at Captain Swan's wedding?

Just a warning that this is the biggest Once Upon a Time article we've ever written, so grab a comfy seat, put your cellphone on silent and get ready to go on an emotional roller coaster of feels. And, as always, please remember to breathe!

MORE: 'Once' Bosses Break Down Our 5 Most Anticipated Songs From the Musical Episode!

ABC

1. The Venue: The Once showrunners confessed that they had considered a number of "other places" for Emma and Killian to tie the knot -- yes, even Granny's! -- but in the end, they settled on a brand new Storybrooke location for the ceremony. "Without wanting to spoil the episode, there's a story reason for why it's on the roof," Horowitz revealed. "But there's also something to us that was super romantic about having Storybrooke as the backdrop."

Emma and Killian will tie the knot in front of a dream-worthy sunset and surrounded by their closest friends and family. "It's the place where they've kind of come together," Horowitz continued. "Where their love has grown and where both of them as characters have grown, so seeing the whole town kind of beneath and surrounding them felt like a really cool way to do it."

"I thought it was perfect," Morrison dished. "We just felt, like, what better way to make it feel extra special than to have [the wedding] also be the musical episode?"

2. The Suit: In case you missed it, we already dished a little on Killian's dashing (and "really soft!") suit, but did you know that black velvet wasn't always the original plan? Once's head costume designer, Eduardo Castro, spilled an "interesting note" about Hook's suit to ET during an email interview.

"Originally we had an ivory gabardine suit made and, somehow, it did not hit the mark," Castro wrote. "At the very last moment, we threw out the ivory and went for a black velvet Burberry jacket that was far more in keeping with Hook's demeanor."

ABC

Kitsis furthered that he and Horowitz had a very specific vision in mind when it came to Hook's look. "Adam and I both thought that Hook needed to have a tux that reflects his personality, so you can't go from leather to just a basic tux," he said. "We felt like he had to have a little edge to it, so the velvet felt like the Hook version of fancy."

When asked if he feels "suave" in his wedding attire, O'Donoghue was bashful with his response. "I guess so," he chuckled. "I hope it looks OK."

"You look amazing!" Morrison chimed in while brushing a piece of lint off of O'Donoghue's sleeve. "He's been getting a little jealous about all of the attention the dress has been getting, so I'm trying to butter him up a little bit about his velvet jacket."

PHOTOS: Hook's Wedding Suit - Plus, Colin O'Donoghue on Why Fans Will Be 'Very Happy!'

3. The Dress: Morrison, who could not stop beaming during our interview, praised her "absolutely incredible" relationship with Castro and that from "day one" he has included her in each and every fashion choice for Emma. So, naturally, the blonde beauty was an integral part in creating Emma's wedding "vision," and even O'Donoghue had something to add!

"We had talked about it and Colin did say, 'It should be something very vintage,' and I was like, 'Yeah, I agree!' Something Eddy and Adam and I had always talked about was that everything she wears should feel a little bit timeless," Morrison explained. "So we definitely wanted to stay in the classic range with her for the wedding gown, and we felt like what better than a real fairy tale like Grace Kelly's? She was definitely the inspiration for this."

Castro echoed Morrison's sentiments, writing, "Jennifer and I looked at several designs, and she immediately responded to Grace Kelly's wedding dress -- originally designed by Helen Rose in 1956 nearly 60 years ago! The Grace Kelly gown addressed all the concerns that Jennifer Morrison had, so we decided to replicate it."

ABC

"Originally, the wedding was to be shot outside, therefore considerations of warmth needed to be addressed," Castro added. There was a "time crunch" to complete the intricate Alecon Lace and ivory peau de soie gown and matching silk tulle veil and both were constructed in the Once Upon a Time workrooms over the course of two weeks. "We barely had time to fit the gown once, but it all worked out," he said.

As for Emma's gorgeous headpiece? Castro said that his colleague, Isabel Bloor, only had "a few days" to construct it, but it immediately became Morrison's favorite part of the ensemble. "I want to keep this headpiece thing!" the actress declared. "I think it's so spectacular."

MORE: 'Once' Stars Spill on the Big Musical Episode Surprise: 'Hook and Emma Get Married!'

4. The Rings: As we were interviewing the on-screen couple, we could not help noticing the massive sparkler on Morrison's finger, which was freshly accompanied by a unique, slightly mismatched wedding band.

"Oh yeah, that's the ring! He's got good taste, this one," Morrison said while gesturing to O'Donoghue when we audibly "Ooh-ed!" mid-sentence. "You actually picked them, didn’t you?"

"Mmmhmm," O'Donoghue confirmed. "I picked the engagement ring and then they showed me this [wedding band] and I was like, 'Yeah, that'll do.'" To which Morrison added, "They're very inclusive with us around here. It's really nice."

Kitsis and Horowitz explained that they have always encouraged the actors to "take ownership of their characters," and allowing them to select things like the right gowns or props is a natural extension of that. "I think our props department is awesome and I'm sure that they had some great rings," Horowitz said. "Nobody knows the character of Hook better than Colin, so of course he'd be the one to figure out what it should be."

5. The Vows: We're not going to get into the specifics of the vows because we want you all to experience the same, tear-filled awe that we witnessed on set. "The goal with the vows was to have the characters speak sincerely from the heart to each other, and we hope that comes across," Horowitz said.

For the actors, both Morrison and O'Donoghue admitted that Emma and Killian's nuptials are the perfect blend of simplicity and heart.

"I can't speak for Colin, but when I read this script, I loved the whole script," Morrison said. "I felt like just in every single page of it, I was smiling and happy. And not just as someone on the show, but as someone who is a fan -- I just loved it. I was just so happy, and part of what I liked so much about the vows was how simple and honest and direct they are."

ABC

"They weren’t over the top and they're not convoluted in any way," she continued. "I think Hook and Emma are two people who are very direct and they know each other so well at this point. And the fact that the writers made sure that they knew exactly what they needed and wanted to hear in that moment was very, very cool to me."

"Yeah, I felt the same way," O'Donoghue agreed with his co-star. "I was glad that it wasn't reams and reams of lovey-dovey stuff just for the sake of it. It was, as you said, very direct, to the point. I liked the fact that Hook doesn't shy away from the fact that he wasn't great at the start and he just wanted revenge. He just cuts to the chase and says Emma is the reason that he believed that he could love again. She sort of showed him what it was to be in love, so that's what I liked about it."

EXCLUSIVE: 'Once Upon a Time' Bosses Reveal If Colin O'Donoghue Will Sing in Musical!

6. The Reception: We already told you a little bit about the "inspiration" behind Emma and Killian's reception song, "A Happy Beginning," but did you know that this particular musical moment in the episode is going to send you into a complete and total frenzy? It definitely made Morrison extremely giddy…

"It's been so fun! I mean, I feel like I just keep repeating myself. It's just so fun, it's just so fun! You're going to have a whole article of Jennifer said, 'It's just so fun!' over and over again," she exclaimed. "We got to go to the recording studio, we got to work with a great voice coach and, for Emma, the music came from a very organic place. It wasn’t a fantasy sequence or Fairy-Tale Land where it would make sense, but it's just been fun!"

O'Donoghue added that it was great to be able to work with the composers of the musical episode, Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner. "I had never sang in a way where you had to be so expressive and tell the story on top of trying to get the melody out," he explained. "What's great is that the songs all feel like they've been around for forever as part of this sort of Disney world. They really incorporated these brand new songs so well into the story of Once Upon a Time and I think that it's fantastic."

As for Captain Swan's first dance as husband and wife? Prepare to be blown away by their smooth moves. "Yes, we get to dance!" Morrison said. "I mean, I wish I got to dance more. I grew up dancing, so I was wishing that there was more dancing to it."

"I didn’t grow up dancing. I guess I'm just a natural," O'Donoghue said with a laugh.

"He is a natural," Morrison confirmed, "but we also have to deal with the fact that he only has one hand!" O'Donoghue added that learning the choreography has been a bit of a "complicated" process when it comes to the "lifts and stuff," but the two actors are used to the one-handed challenges.

ABC

"You have to move the dance balance around differently and, obviously, we don’t want to, like, have any injuries with the hook. We've gotten really good at working around that hook though," Morrison explained with a giggle. "Wait -- That sounded wrong. I didn’t mean it the way that sounded!"

"You just said that in an interview," O'Donoghue taunted.

"I didn’t mean to!" Morrison protested through a fit of laughs. "Aw, man!"

(Writer's Note: When we offered to strike that part of the interview from the record, O'Donoghue was quick to playfully back up his co-star's words. "No, no, no! You can keep it in.")

EXCLUSIVE: 'Once Upon a Time' Star Colin O'Donoghue Plans Ultimate Captain Swan Proposal

7. The Honeymoon: Once again, we're not going to spoil the episode's events for you, but when the musical hour ends, and we prepare for "The Final Battle" ahead, it's clear that newlywed bliss may not immediately be in the cards for our couple.

So what do the actors think Emma and Killian's "dream honeymoon" would be? "Five minutes alone probably," O'Donoghue chuckled.

"Yeah, exactly!" Morrison smiled. "Just somewhere with a door locked. I think just a couple bottles of wine and some french fries and a bath, maybe?"

"Oh really, what else?" O'Donoghue pressed.

"I don’t know!" she answered playfully. "I just feel like it should be really relaxing because their lives are very stressful because they're always trying to save people and I feel like a romantic bath might be nice."

"Well, there you go!" O'Donoghue said as he and Morrison burst into laughter.

Once Upon a Time's musical episode, "A Song in Your Heart" airs Sunday, May 7 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.

How you feeling, Oncers? Tweet your magical thoughts to @LeanneAguilera on Twitter and keep it locked to ETonline for the rest of the week for exclusive interviews with stars Ginnifer Goodwin, Josh Dallas and Lana Parrilla!

[yistezuyda643882]

children's short stories audiobooks : Story Time by Edward Bloor | Kids

Listen to Story Time new releases children's short stories audiobooks on your iPhone, iPad, or Android. Get any AUDIO BOOKS by Edward Bloor Kids FREE during your Free Trial

Written By: Edward Bloor Narrated By: Julie Dretzin Publisher: Recorded Books Date: November 2004 Duration: 10 hours 8 minutes

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

What other fandoms are you familiar enough with to use as an AU prompt? Pokemon Trainer AU? Homestuck AU (they'd still probably die but at least there are lots of ways to come back to life)?

I’m not that familiar with Homestuck, definitely not enough to do an AU.  I read the novelizations of the Pokemon show as a kid but never saw the show or played any of the video games.  I did play the super-obscure Pokemon board game, but most of my trading cards were printed in Japanese (I had a strange childhood), so my experience there is, uh, probably not quite overlapping with everyone else’s.

Anyway, if you want list of all my fandoms… Boy howdy.  I don’t think I can come up with them all.  However, I can list everything that comes to mind between now and ~20 minutes from now when I have to end my procrastination break and go back to dissertating.  So here it is, below the cut:

Okay, there is no way in hell I’ll be able to make an exhaustive list.  But off the top of my head, the fandoms I’m most familiar/comfortable with are as follows:

Authors (as in, I’ve read all or most of their books)

Patricia Briggs

Megan Whalen Turner

Michael Crichton

Marge Piercy

Stephenie Meyer

Dean Koontz

Stephen King

Neil Gaiman

K.A. Applegate

Ernest Hemingway

Tamora Pierce

Roald Dahl

Short Stories/Anthologies

A Good Man is Hard to Find, Flannery O’Connor

The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka

I Am Legend, Richard Matheson

Dubliners, James Joyce

Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes

Who Goes There? John W. Campbell

The Man Who Bridged the Mist, Kij Johnson

Flatland, Edwin Abbott

I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream, Harlan Ellison

To Build a Fire, Jack London

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Ambrose Bier

At the Mountains of Madness/Cthulu mythos, H.P. Lovecraft

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle

The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving

The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury

Close Range: Wyoming Stories, E. Annie Proulx

The Curious Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson

Bartleby the Scrivener (and a bunch of others), Herman Melville

Books (Classics)

Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neal Hurston

The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The Secret Garden, Francis Hodgson Burnett

Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson

Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

The Secret Annex, Anne Frank

Nine Stories, J.D. Salinger

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

Tom Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain

East of Eden, John Steinbeck

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison

Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut

The Stranger, Albert Camus

The Call of the Wild, Jack London

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

Lord of the Flies, William Golding

Atonement, Ian McEwan

1984, George Orwell

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith

The Iliad/The Odyssey, Homer

Metamorphoses, Ovid

Journey to the Center of the Earth, Jules Verne

The Time-Machine, H.G. Wells

The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, Hamlet, MacBeth, Othello, and The Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Thomas Stoppard

Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett

Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood

Books (YA SF)

Young Wizards series, Diane Duane

Redwall, Brian Jaques

The Dark is Rising sequence, Susan Cooper

The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Diana Wynne Jones

The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis

Abhorsen trilogy, Garth Nix

The Giver series, Lois Lowry

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

Uglies series, Scott Westerfeld

Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt

A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin

Song of the Lioness, Tamora Pierce

A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline L’Engle

Unwind, Neal Shusterman

The Maze Runner series, James Dashner

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Patricia C. Wrede

Sideways Stories from Wayside School, Louis Sachar

Ella Enchanted, Gail Carson Levine

Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card

The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster

Coraline, Neil Gaiman

Among the Hidden, Margaret Peterson Haddix

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Avi

Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice

Poppy series, Avi

The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd

Tithe, Holly Black

Life as We Knew It, Susan Beth Pfeffer

Blood and Chocolate, Annette Curtis Klause

Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie

The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum

Haunted, Gregory Maguire

Weetzie Bat, Francesca Lia Block

Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White

East, Edith Pattou

Z for Zachariah, Robert C. O’Brien

The Looking-Glass Wars, Frank Beddor

The Egypt Game, Zilpha Keatley Snyder

The Book Thief, Markus Zusak

Homecoming, Cynthia Voigt

Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll

The Landry News, Andrew Clements

Fever 1793, Laurie Halse Anderson

Bloody Jack, L.A. Meyer

The Boxcar Children, Gertrude Chandler Warner

A Certain Slant of Light, Laura Whitcomb

Generation Dead, Daniel Waters

Pendragon series, D.J. MacHale

Silverwing, Kenneth Oppel

Good Omens, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Define Normal, Julie Anne Peters

Hawksong, Ameila Atwater Rhodes

Heir Apparent, Vivian Vande Velde

Running Out of Time, Margaret Peterson Haddix

The Keys to the Kingdom series, Garth Nix

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Joan Aiken

The Seer and the Sword, Victoria Hanley

My Side of the Mountain, Jean Craighead George

Daughters of the Moon series, Lynne Ewing

The Midwife’s Apprentice, Karen Cushman

Island of the Aunts, Eva Ibbotson

The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern

The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm, Nancy Farmer

A Great and Terrible Beauty, Libba Bray

A School for Sorcery, E. Rose Sabin

The House with a Clock in Its Walls, John Bellairs

The Edge Chronicles, Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell

Hope was Here, Joan Bauer

Bunnicula, James Howe

Wise Child, Monica Furlong

Silent to the Bone, E.L. Konigsburg

The Twenty-One Balloons, William Pene du Bois

Dead Girls Don’t Write Letters, Gail Giles

The Supernaturalist, Eoin Colfer

Blue is for Nightmares, Laurie Faria Stolarz

Mystery of the Blue Gowned Ghost, Linda Wirkner

Wait Till Helen Comes, Mary Downing Hahn

I was a Teenage Fairy, Francesca Lia Block

City of the Beasts series, Isabelle Allende

Summerland, Michael Chabon

The Geography Club, Brent Hartinger

The Last Safe Place on Earth, Richard Peck

Liar, Justine Larbalestier

The Doll People, Ann M. Martin

The Lost Years of Merlin, T.A. Barron

Matilda Bone, Karen Cushman

Nine Stories, J.D. Salinger

The Tiger Rising, Kate DiCamillo

The Spiderwick Chronicles, Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi

In the Forests of the Night, Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

My Teacher is an Alien, Bruce Coville

The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, Julie Andrews Edwards

Storytime, Edward Bloor

Magic Shop series, Bruce Coville

A Series of Unfortunate Events, Lemony Snicket

Veritas Project series, Frank Peretti

The Once and Future King, T.H. White

Raven’s Strike, Patricia Briggs

What-the-Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy, Gregory Maguire

The Wind Singer, William Nicholson

Sweetblood, Pete Hautman

The Trumpet of the Swan, E.B. White

Half Magic, Edward Eager

A Ring of Endless Light, Madeline L'Engle

The Heroes of Olympus, Rick Riordan

Maximum Ride series, James Patterson

The Edge on the Sword, Rebecca Tingle

World War Z, Max Brooks

Adaline Falling Star, Mary Pope Osborne

Six of Crows, Leigh Bardugo

Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi

Parable of the Sower series, Octavia Butler

I, Robot, Isaac Asimov

Neuomancer, William Gibson

Dune, Frank Herbert

The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Emily M. Danforth

The Martian, Andy Weir

Skeleton Man, Joseph Bruchac

Comics/Manga

Marvel 616 (most of the major titles)

Marvel 1610/Ultimates

Persepolis

This One Summer

Nimona

Death Note

Ouran High School Host Club

Vampire Knight

Emily Carroll comics

Watchmen

Fun Home

From Hell

American Born Chinese

Smile

The Eternal Smile

The Sandman

Calvin and Hobbes

The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For

TV Shows

Fullmetal Alchemist

Avatar the Last Airbender

Teen Titans (2003)

Luke Cage/Jessica Jones/Iron Fist/Defenders/Daredevil/The Punisher

Agents of SHIELD/Agent Carter

Supernatural

Sherlock

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Angel/Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Firefly

American Horror Story

Ouran High School Host Club

Orange is the New Black

Black Sails

Stranger Things

Westworld

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Movies

Marvel Cinematic Universe

Jurassic Park/Lost World/Jurassic World/Lost Park?

The Breakfast Club

Cloverfield/10 Cloverfield Lane/The Cloverfield Paradox

Attack the Block

The Prestige

Moon

Ferris Bueler’s Day Off

Django Unchained/Kill Bill/Inglourious Basterds/Hateful 8/Pulp Fiction/etcetera

Primer

THX 1138/Akira/How I Live Now/Lost World/[anything I’ve named a fic after]

Star Wars

The Meg

A Quiet Place

Baby Driver

Mother!

Alien/Aliens/Prometheus

X-Men (et al.)

10 Things I Hate About You

The Lost Boys

Teen Wolf

Juno

Pirates of the Caribbean (et al.)

Die Hard

Most Disney classics: Toy Story, Mulan, Treasure Planet, Emperor’s New Groove, etc.

Most Pixar classics: Up, Wall-E, The Incredibles

The Matrix

Dark Knight trilogy

Halloween

Friday the 13th

A Nightmare on Elm Street

The Descent

Ghostbusters

Ocean’s Eight/11/12/13

King Kong

The Conjuring

Fantastic Four

Minority Report/Blade Runner/Adjustment Bureau/Total Recall

Fight Club

Spirited Away

O

Disturbing Behavior

The Faculty

Poets

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Marge Piercy

Thomas Hardy

Sigfried Sassoon

W. B. Yeats

Edgar Allan Poe

Ogden Nash

Margaret Atwood

Maya Angelou

Emily Dickinson

Matthew Dickman

Karen Skolfield

Kwame Alexander

Ellen Hopkins

Shel Silverstein

Musicals/Stage Plays

Les Miserables

Repo: The Genetic Opera

The Lion King

The Phantom of the Opera

Rent

The Prince of Egypt

Pippin

Into the Woods

A Chorus Line

Hairspray

Evita

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

Fiddler on the Roof

Annie

Fun Home

Spring Awakening

Chicago

Cabaret

The Miser

The Importance of Being Earnest

South Pacific

Godspell

Wicked

The Wiz

The Wizard of Oz

Man of La Mancha

The Sound of Music

West Side Story

Matilda

Sweeney Todd

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Nunsense

You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown/Snoopy

1776

Something Rotten

A Very Potter Musical

Babes in Toyland

Carrie: The Musical

Amadeus

Annie Get Your Gun

25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

The Final Battle

Rock of Ages

Cinderella

Moulin Rouge

Honk

Labyrinth

The Secret Garden

Reefer Madness

Bang Bang You’re Dead

NSFW

War Horse

Peter Pan

Suessical

Sister Act

The Secret Annex

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Disclaimer 1: Like a lot of people who went to high school in the American South, my education in literature is pretty shamefully lacking in a lot of areas.  (As in, during our African American History unit in ninth grade we read To Kill a Mockingbird, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn… and that was it.  As in, our twelfth-grade US History class, I shit you not, covered Gone With the Wind.)  There were a lot of good teachers in with the *ahem* Less Woke ones (how I read Their Eyes Were Watching God and The Bluest Eye) and college definitely set me on the path to trying to find books written/published outside the WASP-ier parts of the U.S., but the overall list is still embarrassingly hegemonic.

Disclaimer 2: There are a crapton of errors — typos, misspelled names, misattributions, questionable genre classifications, etc. — in here.  If you genuinely have no idea what a title is supposed to be, ask me.  Otherwise, please don’t bother letting me know about my mistakes.

Disclaimer 3: I am not looking for recommendations.  My Goodreads “To Read�� list is already a good 700 items long, and people telling me “if you like X, then you’ll love Y!” genuinely stresses me the fuck out.

Disclaimer 4: There are no unproblematic faves on this list.  I love Supernatural, and I know that Supernatural is hella misogynistic.  On the flip side: I don’t love The Lord of the Rings at all, partially because LOTR is hella misogynistic, but I also don’t think that should stop anyone else from loving LOTR if they’re willing to love it and also acknowledge its flaws. 

[earnestlyeccentric]

Story Time

Author: Edward Bloor

Rating: 4/5

When George and Kate gets letters of admission from Whittaker Magnet School, George is thrilled and Kate, devastated. Whittaker boasts the highest standardised test scores and the finest education in all of America, if not the world. But at a great price.

Spoilers ahead.

Plot and Pacing: Story Time is a satire about the importance we place on standardised testing…

[keepitdreamin]

has anyone else ever read story time by edward bloor?? i read it way back in elementary school and since then every time i’ve tried to describe it to somebody they have no idea what i’m talking about (and get concerned because tbh it was Weird) and until like last year, i didn’t know the name and was never able to find evidence that it even existed

[rubykgrant]

Updated! Big List of Spooky Movies and Books!

Get ready for Halloween~

I’m a notorious list-maker; I love collecting stories, and I also love sharing them with people who are either looking for ref or just want to find something interesting. “Spooky” is a pretty broad term, so I listed different categories below that will hopefully make more sense. Some movies/books fit into more than one category, so I picked one and stuck it there. Some stories have a film and book version that are both worth taking a look at, so I put a *by those titles (and they appear in the movie and book list). These range from being for kids to more mature, so if that is a concern for you be sure to check out the rating/content yourself

I’ve updated this since I’ve added a few more titles to my collection, and added more categories (but I think I’ll call this done for now, I can’t update it every couple of months)

I wanted to limit myself, at least a little (otherwise the list would have gon on forever). So each category has at least 3 titles listed, but no more than 7. A few of these are more funny than scary, and some might not really be “spooky” at all, but they still fit the theme. Something to keep in mind, I only listed stories that I own. This is not a complete list or a “best of”. I went with the ones from my personal collection because I know them best and I enjoy them. Hopefully I listed a few that will help somebody with research, or at least entertain them for a bit!

Enjoy~

Halloween

Movies- Hocus Pocus (1993), *the Halloween Tree (1993), the Nightmare before Christmas (1993), Trick r Treat (2007), Monster House (2006), Halloweentown (1998), the Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1949)

Books- How to Drive Your Family Crazy on Halloween by Dean Marney,*the Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury, the Haunted Mask (Goosebumps) by RL Stine, Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge

Ghosts

Movies- Poltergeist (1982), the Haunting (1999), Casper (1995), Ghostbusters (1984), the Haunted Mansion (2003), Thirteen Ghosts (2001), *the Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

Books- Stonewords a Ghost Story by Pam Conrad, Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn, Ghost Beach (Goosebumps) by RL Stine, the Crossroads by Chris Grabenstein, Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn, *a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

 Witch

Movies- *Practical Magic (1998), *the Wizard of Oz (1939), *the Witches (1990), Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989), Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost (1999) *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001), the Craft (1996)

Books- *Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman, *the Witches by Roald Dahl, Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones, the Unwilling Witch by David Lubar, *Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by JK Rowling, *the Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum

 Vampire

Movies- Blade (1998), the Little Vampire (2000), Hellboy Blood and Iron (2007), Hotel Transylvania (2012), Fright Night (2011)

Books- Bunnicula by James and Deborah Howe, Dracula by Bram Stoker, ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

 Werewolf

Movies- Alvin and the Chipmunks meet The Wolfman (2000), Ginger Snaps (2000), Van Helsing (2004) Wolf Children (2012), the Wolfman (1941)

Books- Wolfen by Whitley Strieber, Red Rider’s Hood by Neal Shusterman, the Werewolf of Fever Swamp (Goosebumps) by RL Stine

 Zombies

Movies- Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998), ParaNorman (2012), Night of the Living Dead (1968), *Pet Cemetery (1989), Zombieland (2009), Resident Evil (2002), Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Books- *Pet Cemetery by Stephen King, the Haunting of Derek Stone by Tony Abott, Welcome to Dead House (Goosebumps) by RL Stine

 Demons/Devil/Possession

Movies- the Omen (1976), Insidious (2010), the Exorcist (1973), *Christine (1983), Fallen (1998), *Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Bedazzled (2000)  

Books- *Christine by Stephen King, Needful Things by Stephen King, On the Devil’s Court by Carl Deuker, HECK where the bad kids go by Dale E Bayse,* Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

 Curse/Transformation

Movies- *Beauty and the Beast (1991), the Princess and the Frog (2009), Penelope (2006), Kubo and the two strings (2016), the Swan Princess (1994), the Thing (1982), the Mummy (1999)

Books- *Beauty and the Beast translated by Richard Howard and illustrated by Hilary Knight, the Witch’s Boy by Michael Gruber, Owl in Love by Patrice Kindl, the Invasion (Animorphs) by KA Applegate

Monsters

Movies- Monsters Inc (2001), Eight Legged Freaks (2002), Godzilla (1998), *a Monster Calls (2016), Pokemon the First Movie (1998), *Jurassic Park (1993), King Kong (1933)

Books- *a Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, *Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Cryptids and Mythology

Movies- Harry and the Hendersons (1987), Darkness Falls (2003), Atlantis the lost empire (2001), Song of the Sea (2014), *the Last Unicorn (1982), Urban Legend (1998), Tall Tale (1995)

Books- Sasquatch by Roland Smith, *the Last Unicorn by Peter S Beagle, the Moor Child by Eloise Jarvis McGraw, the Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) by Rick Riordan

 Giants/Tiny Folk

Movies- Honey I Blew Up the kid (1992), the Borrowers (1997), Mickey and the Beanstalk (1947), *Thumbelina (1994), the Princess Bride (1987), Gulliver’s Travels (1939), *Horton Hears a Who (2008)

Books- *Horton Hears a Who by Dr Seuss, Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand by Gail Carson Levine, Trouble with Trolls by Jan Brett, *Thumbelina (Hallmark pop-up book)

 ESP/Psychic/Mental Powers

Movies- *Carrie (1976), *Firstarter (1984), *Matilda (1996), the Last Mimzy (2007)

Books- *Carrie by Stephen King, *Firestarter by Stephen King, *Matilda by Roald Dahl, Scorpion Shards (Star Shards Chronicles) by Neal Shusterman

 Dolls and Toys

Movies- *Coraline (2009), the Adventures of Pinocchio (1996), Child’s Play (1988), Toy Story (1995), 9 (2009)

Books- Frozen Charlotte by Alex Bell, *Coraline by Neil Gaiman, No Flying in the House by Betty Brock

 Circus/Carnival/Fair

Movies- We’re Back a dinosaur’s story (1993), the Care Bears Movie (1985), Little Nemo adventures in Slumberland (1989), *Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983), *Charlotte’s Web (1973), Dumbo (1941)

Books- Joyland by Stephen King, *Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, *Charlotte’s Web by EB White

 Gothic

Movies- the Others (2001), the Addams Family (1991), Rebecca (1940), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Mama (2013)

Books- the Raven by Edgar Allen Poe, the Shining by Stephen King, Remember Me by Mary Higgins Clark

 Dark Fantasy

Movies- Legend (1985), the Dark Crystal (1982), *the Princess and the Goblin (1991), Labyrinth (1986), *the Neverending Story (1984), *the Secret of NIMH (1982), Anastasia (1997)

Books- Well Witched (Verdigris Deep) by Frances Hardinge, Poison by Chris Wooding, *the Neverending Story by Michael Ende, *Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C O'Brien, Zel by Donna Jo Napoli, *the Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald, a Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz

 Dragons

Movies- *How to Train Your Dragon (2010), the Pagemaster (1994), Mulan (1998), the Flight of Dragons (1982), Shrek (2001), *the Hobbit (1977), Quest for Camelot (1998)

Books- *How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell, Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville, *the Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

 Other Worlds

Movies- Spirited Away (2001), *Alice in Wonderland (1951), Space Jam (1996), the Book of Life (2014), *Hook (1991), Pleasantville (1998), *the Phantom Tollbooth (1970)

Books- *Peter Pan by JM Barrie, Malice by Chris Wooding, * the Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, *Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

 Mystery/Thriller

Movies- Clue (1985), *Holes (2003), Get Out (2017), Hot Fuzz (2007), Minority Report (2002), Kidnap (2017), Saw (2004)

Books- *Holes by Louis Sachar, the Lost (the Outer Limits) by John Peel, We’ll Meet Again by Mary Higgins Clark

 Psychological

Movies- Cube (1997), *Secret Window (2004), Silent Hill (2006), the Sixth Sense (1999), the Good Son (1993), Psycho (1960), Donnie Darko (2001)

Books- *Secret Window Secret Garden (Four Past Midnight) by Stephen King, House of Stairs by William Sleator, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King, Tangerine by Edward Bloor, Lord of the Flies by William Golding

 Action/Adventure

Movies- Anaconda (1997), Dire Hard (1988), National Treasure (2004), the Goonies (1985), *Treasure Planet (2002), the Mask of Zorro (1998), *James and the Giant Peach (1996)

Books- *Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, *James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl,

 Space Aliens

Movies- MIB (1997), Mission to Mars (2000), Galaxy Quest (1999), Alien (1979), ET the extra terrestrial (1982), Independence Day (1996), Spaced Invaders (1990)

Books- a Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, the Dark Side of Nowhere by Neal Shusterman

 Robot/Technology

Movies- I Robot (2004), the Iron Giant (1999), the Terminator (1984), AI artificial intelligence (2001), the Stepford Wives (2004), Wall-E (2008), *Screamers (1995)

Books- the Terminal Man by Michael Crichton, Feed by Matthew Tobin Anderson, *Second Variety (Screamers) by Phillip K Dick, *I Robot by Isaac Asimov, Cell by Stephen King

 Nature/Animals

Movies- Lake Placid (1999), *Animal Farm (1954), Jaws (1975), *Cujo (1983), Ferngully the last rainforest (1992), Wild America (1997), the Lion King (1994)

Books- *Cujo by Stephen King, Cat in the Crypt (Animal Ark Hauntings) by Ben M Baglio, Congo by Michael Crichton, *Animal Farm by George Orwell, Watership Down by Richard Adams, Weslandia by Paul Fleischman

 Illness/Medical

Movies- Outbreak (1995), Balto (1995), Osmosis Jones (2001), Repo the genetic opera (2008)

Books- Breath by Donna Jo Napoli, Because of Anya by Margaret Peterson Haddix, a Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon

 Comedy Horror

Movies- Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Beetlejuice (1988), Army of Darkness (1992), Gremlins (1984), Arachnophobia (1990), Jawbreaker (1999), Tremors (1990)

Books- Aliens Don’t Wear Braces (the Baily School Kids) by Debbie Dadey and Marcia Jones, the Cuckoo Clock of Doom (Goosebumps) by RL Stine, a Dirty Job by Christopher Moore jr, Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

 Slasher/Gore

Movies- Scream (1996), a Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), *IT (2017), *I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), Kill Bill (2003), Happy Death Day (2017), the Hills Have Eyes (2006)

Books- *I know What You Did Last Summer by Lois Duncan, the Dark Half by Stephen King, *IT by Stephen King

 Dystopia/Disaster

Movies- Waterworld (1995), the Matrix (1999), Escape from New York (1981), Demolition Man (1993), the Day After Tomorrow (2004), Volcano (1997), the Fifth Element (1997)

Books- Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix, Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, the Road by Cormac McCarthy, the House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

 Time Travel

Movies- Frequency (2000), Meet the Robinsons (2007), Back to the Future (1985), *the Time Machine (1960), Planet of the Apes (1968), Lost in Space (1998)

Books- *the Time Machine by HG Wells, Found (the Missing) by Margaret Peterson Haddix, the Jaunt (the Skeleton Crew) by Stephen King

 Anime and J-Horror

Movies- Akira (1988), Perfect Blue (1997), Ring (1998), Dark Water (2002), Ghost in the Shell (1995), Digimon the Movie (2000)

Manga- Claymore by Norihiro Yagi, Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata, Yu Yu Hakusho by Yoshihiro Togashi, Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa

 Super Hero

Movies- Hellboy (2004), Ghost Rider (2007), the Incredibles (2004), the Mask (1994), Batman Beyond return of the Joker (2000), TMNT (2007)

Comics- Animal Man (New 52, 2011) DC Comics, Swamp Thing (New 52, 2011) DC Comics, BPRD Dark Waters (2012) Dark Horse Comics, Nextwave (Agents of HATE, 2006) Marvel Comics

 TV Shows and Cartoons

Invader ZIM, the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Beetlejuice (animated series), Gravity Falls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Grimm, the Twilight Zone, So Weird, Are You Afraid of the Dark, Danny Phantom, the Munsters, the Addams Family (animated series), Tales from the Crypt, Scooby-Doo Where Are You/What’s New Scooby-Doo, Sabrina the Teenage Witch (animated series), Gargoyles, Strange Days at Blake Holsey High, Aaahh Real Monsters, Tutenstein, Goosebumps, the New Spooktacular Adventures of Casper, Futurama, the Venture Bros, Rick and Morty, Metalocalypse, Over the Garden Wall, Star VS the Forces of Evil, People of Earth