BOB is Nigh

Let’s leave the question of just how stupid this kind of book tournament is for another time. SLJ is going to be running one this spring and I’ve said I’ll judge a round (just because it’s stupid doesn’t mean it isn’t fun) and will let you know what it’s like.

Says BOB Judge Roger Sutton.

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Books Gone Missing

The British Library has ‘misplaced’ 9,000 books. Novelist Michèle Roberts who worked there, relives the joy of losing herself in its labyrinths.

Novelist Michèle Roberts on the British Library’s lost books in The Guardian

That Yellow Brick Road

For those who have not yet run across these ideas, Rumeana Jahangir over at the BBC writes about those who think that L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz is an economic parable in Secrets of the Wizard of Oz.  Gotta say I’ve been teaching the book for a couple of decades and while I think it might be possible Baum was playing a bit with things like William Jenning Bryan’s silver standard idea, it sure seems he was more interested in creating a “modern” fairy tale than a more elaborate allegory for adults. (Edited to add: JL Bell has an excellent post on this.)