So I found the letter that the Animorphs author and trans ally K. A. Applegate wrote after the series ended and I’m FLOORED

I mean

You want something even crazier? Animorphs ended in May 2001.  She didn’t know what was coming, but damn if she didn’t give her readers a much needed dose of reality about the horrors of war right before we were really going to need it.

If you enjoy easily-digestible sci fi, and can get your hands on the animorphs books, I really recommend it. They’re fucking great and thoughtful in a lot of ways you might not have picked up on as a kid. I’ve read the first dozen or so books over the last couple of years and they’ve literally changed the way I look at the world.

Not to butt in since the series came along when I was in high school and thus a bit after my time, but I am a librarian and as such I am ALL ABOUT matching people to the books they need in whatever format is available.. You can download the entire series. It’s free.

Applegate’s statement on the piracy subject is quoted from an AMA here for those that have moral issues with it. for those that don’t want to click, she says: “We do not take them down. Or ask for them to be taken down. I think once the books are available to buy—paper or e—it would be nice if people who could afford it would buy. (our kids have very expensive tastes. You know: food and whatnot.) But for years they’ve been unavailable except by ‘pirated’ means. These men and women kept the series alive. They kept the books available. So no, we did NOT take these books down.”

Go forth, and read.

Oh hey. The Animorphs books just keep getting more and more relevant to our present circumstances:

Why Animorphs is Frighteningly Relevant in Contemporary Trumpian America 

I am not a popular blog. As such, it is SO WEIRD. So very weird. To see a post I randomly tacked information to, roll BACK around to my dash, with further commentary, months later.

September 2nd is Indigenous Literacy Day! This is a day run by the Indigenous Literacy Foundation to create awareness around the literacy needs of indigenous children, the importance of teaching language and culture, and fostering a lifelong love of reading.

These are some titles written by and about queer First Nations people. The books are:

people rant about teenage characters being portrayed by grown up actors but i’d like to know how exactly did this happen that 65 years old alan rickman played 38 years old severus snape

I love the vibe of this shelf :)

⭑ anon reveal for @levesquehazels​: i hope you’ve had fun w this, michelle!! <333

just some of the the changes in design for the Penguin Symbol on old Penguin Paperbacks 

he did a little dance and for this crime he was imprisoned in a bubble

An incomplete list of signs that you have a crush (in a Maggie Stiefvater novel):

(“What a strange, wonderful repressed place this is”)

1. You let them handle your car/demon horse/other mode of transportation

2. You really like it when they handle your car/demon horse/other mode of transportation

3. You give them a loaf of bread, even though you aren’t sure that’s what’s done.

4. You fear that any amount of attention you pay to them means that your feelings for them are immediately obvious for all the world to see.

5. Your feelings are immediately obvious for all the world to see. You consume them with your eyes.

I see #MidnightSun trending on Twitter, and as a recovering Twilight fan myself, I just want to urge fans to consider making a donation to support the Quileute Tribe’s Move to Higher Ground Project:  a project dedicated to moving the community from a tsunami disaster zone at the edge of the Pacific Ocean to a safer, better and higher ground. –and also to support other causes that directly benefit Native people such as the Navajo Hopi Covid Relief Fund. https://www.gofundme.com/f/NHFC19Relief As we speak, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe is fighting against disestablishment by the Trump administration- you can learn more about how to help on their website and this great article in Teen Vogue: Native Tribe’s Rights to Permanent Homelands Are at Risk. As someone who LOVED the Twilight series, read fanfic, made fanart, and will most definitely have a raucous, drunken read-aloud party of Edward’s inner monologue if Midnight Sun does actually drop…  I think it is so important to never erase that Twilight perpetuates racist and othering ideas about Indigenous people, and the series’ success did not benefit the Quileute Tribe monetarily while SMeyer and the franchise rocketed to mega-success, fame, and wealth.  There’s a lot of talk about the series’ misogyny, which is important, but I think that in 2020, anybody who’s White and who’s still participating in the fandom should centralize critiques of the series’ racism, learn about the issues, and more than that, should back that up with funds and material support.

Tbh, out of all the causes that constantly beg for my attention and participation and donation (I feel guilty skipping most of them, but I am a finite resource, and while I care, I also can’t afford to care too much), whenever it is something involving Native Americans, I tend to go to those projects. Maybe this is party white guilt, but they are also the people who are regularly and constantly marginalised the most, in their own country, underfunded and ignored. Most of us know that a gofundme for a white person usually get way more attention than one for a black person (and both usually not enough), but as far as I know that is even worse in this case. Even though it almost always is not a single person asking for help, but efficient organisers, who will get so much more value out of every single donation! So, yeah, sorry for rambling, I just hope that this hellish virus won’t be the thing that killed off those tribes that managed to survive our tender mercies.

Thought you all would appreciate this

what if netflix gave us the content we deserve?

“Only Mostly Devastated” is a YA gay retelling of Grease and I’m not exaggerating when I say that every gay who loves Grease must read it (coming from a lesbo who dressed as Danny for Halloween once)

Verdict: it was for sure very cute, and although it doesn’t end with a flying car, it is the perfect update on the most ridiculous romance ever put to screen

OH AND when the MC said he was “hopelessly devoted” I nearly screamed out loud

thisby. 

between your heart and mine

Penguins new ad campaign celebrates well-read books

This new ad campaign from Penguin appeals to those of us who think beat-up, torn, taped, scribbled-upon books are more appealing than pristine ones. I wondered if the books photographed here were found as is, or lovingly distressed by the art director, then I saw the small print in the lower right of each ad, which suggests they were found that way.

https://boingboing.net/2019/07/05/penguins-new-ad-campaign-celeb.html