EAPEA #4

Yes, that's right! It's time for another addition of Exceptionally Awesome People of Exceptional Awesomeness!

This time we're singing the praises of fellow Hoosier, John Green. John Green is a social media rock star and a best-selling author. He is half of the massively popular YouTube series, VlogBrothers where he and his brother, Hank make jokes, discuss universal issues of humanness, and support general nerd culture. He will also be seeing his best-selling young adult novel, The Fault in Our Stars (TFIOS, to those in the know) turned into a film! The book was excellent, a great mix of thought provoking questions and teenage sarcasm. While I have unresolved feelings about books (especially those I've enjoyed) being turned into movies, Green has been very vocal on social media about his involvement and approval of this adaptation of his book. He has written several other popular books as well.

But what makes John Green worthy of EAPEA honors? He's a smart, clever, non-obnoxious presence on the internet. As I become more and more removed from teenage culture, I become more and more baffled at who and what are popular in the young people corner of the internet. The only frustration I have with Green is that he didn't have a YouTube channel when I was a teenager. Check him out all over the internet.

There's No Magic Like Children's Books

To quote Kathleen Kelly from the Nora Ephron classic, You've Got Mail: "The books you read as a child become part of you in a way that no other reading in the rest of your life does." One of the many benefits of my Master's program is the excuse to read great kids' books. I've been reminded of books I loved as a kid and been exposed to a long list of new greats.

As I'm sure a lot of you were, I was a voracious reader as a kid. My all-time favorite is Harriet the Spy. I really, really wanted to be Harriet M. Welsch when I was ten years old. Unfortunately, my neighborhood was quite boring. I still love a good composition notebook, though.

This is what a hero looks like.
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If I had to choose an author whose work was consistently awesome I'd go with E.L. Koningsburg without hesitation because: From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Escaped adolescence without reading this one? Get thee to the library! Or Amazon, whatever. Should you know a nerdy child at any time in your life, immediately hand them a copy of The View from Saturday and stand back; your work here is done.

I want to go to there. Also, pencil sketches, amiright?
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These, of course, can all be described as one of the greatest kid terms of all time: "chapter books." You remember when you graduated from those flimsy little readers to chapter books, don't you? It was marvelous. You'd passed up the beautiful illustrations of picture books and entered the children's book void. Then, behold! Chapter books!

Life-altering chapter books aside, picture books are their own kind of magical. An easy way to find wonderful picture books is to hit up the list of Caldecott winners. The Caldecott award, in case you're not a children's literature nerd, is an award given for illustrations in literature. Some of my favorite past winners include Make Way for Ducklings, Where the Wild Things Are, and Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble was written by William Steig, who wrote some of the greatest picture books. He's responsible for Amos and Boris as well as a personal favorite from my childhood, Doctor DeSoto (yes, that's the story of the fox who's a dentist).

Go forth with your library card! Relive your childhood! Be the favorite relative this holiday season! Read!