Which Way Home, Tangled, Cafe Zupas

Child Migrants Each year, thousands of Latin Americans travel hundreds of miles, hoping to enter the United States illegally. About five percent of those attempting to make the journey are children traveling alone, often on the tops of freight trains. Some of these children are in their teens. Some are as young as eight or

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Basic Economics, Avatar: the Last Airbender

How to not be duped by political blarney Karl Marx was not a scientist. Nor was Adam Smith before him. They were philosophers. Theorists. Idea men. That’s what all economists in those days were. They had little tested knowledge, and so which economic system was best was all a matter of opinion. But things are

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JB Speculates: eBooks, Book Contracts, Agents, and Libraries

I’ve looked in the crystal ball I hide under my desk and caught a glimpse of what ebooks will change in the next few years. Specifically I saw what will happen to: Book Contracts Literary Agents eBook Aggregators and Libraries After showing me the vision, the ball thanked me for shopping at Walmart. Weird. PRINT ONLY CONTRACTS The only reason to

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Interview with Author Kelly Barnhill

Kelly Barnhill is a writer, teacher and Mom from Minneapolis. Her fiction has appeared in Postscripts, Weird Tales, Clarkesworld and other publications. She’s also published a number of high-interest science books for children. They have wonderful titles like Sewers and the Rats That Love Them, Blood-Sucking, Man-Eating Monsters, Sick, Nasty Medical Practices, and The Wee Book of Pee. 

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Top 200 Juvenile Novels of 2010

Two weeks ago I published the top 200 novels and authors of YA fiction. As I stated then, looking at bestselling novels only gives one view into what readers are enjoying. Looking at library circulation gives another view that complements sales. These rankings are based on the circulation (number of times the book was checked out) at

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