Can Celebrities Like Glenn Beck Write Good Children’s Books?
Glenn Beck’s latest book comes out today. Is it a screed against big government? An ode to George Washington? A jeremiad warning Americans their country is heading toward socialism? No, for this book, the pundit breaks from form to write a children’s book called The Snow Angel. It follows up on his 2009 kids’ book, The Christmas Sweater, which became a best-seller.
Beck isn’t the only famous person to try his hand at writing books for young readers. Here’s a survey of other celebrities who’ve published kids’ books, from Prince Charles to Terrell Owens.
Read an excerpt from Tyra Banks’ novel, Modelland.
Here, I’ll start you off:
Thousands of girls stampeded to the square all at once. Heels clacked. Dresses swished. Hairdos wobbled. The T-DOD theme song boomed a pulsating beat.
There was one rule and one rule only: a girl must be walking in order to be chosen.
Other than that, there was no prearranged runway on which the girls could walk, so everyone created invisible ones wherever they were standing. Violence was not encouraged nor was it condemned, and some girls’ parents insisted on adding martial arts training to their walking lessons in preparation for the big day. T-DOD Square was an every- man- for- himself or, more precisely, an every- girl- for- herself event.
Scores of girls marched down their own stretches of the square, paused, posed for the cameras (real and imaginary), and then turned around. Trains of walking girls intersected with others. One area behind Tookie was so crammed with street vendors, it bottlenecked into a slow, shuffling line. Some walkers had only enough space to take a few steps before they had to stop and turn. Tookie’s heart went out to a young girl in a ruffled pink dress who seemed way below the unofficial thirteen- year-old age requirement. She marched in place as if she were on a drill team.
Riiiip. A girl stepped on the train of a walker a few feet from Tookie and tore the fabric right off the dress. Both girls fell forward into a heap. The walkers behind them stepped over their bodies and continued.
How evocative.
Evanna Lynch, in part of her Dear Mr. Potter letter, where she describes first reading about Luna while in a recovery programme for anorexia (via holymotherofhnng)
Wow, Evanna Lynch is a really good writer! (Preorder Dear Mr. Potter. I’ve got a letter in there, too!)
(Source: holymotherofrowling)
That summer, between my freshman and sophomore years, I worked for a Swedish guy named Jan, pronounced Yan. My job was to watch old film reels of the moon. There were hundreds. I worked in a cold, windowless basement. The reels would run from one spool to another on this old machine that looked like a tank. I was supposed to record blemishes and splices in the film. Sometimes the moon was full; sometimes it would get a little more full as I watched. Sometimes the film was scratched so badly it skipped, or it broke. I was in the basement forty hours a week. I watched so many moons.It got so boring, I stopped looking for splices. Instead, I drew pictures on computer paper that I pulled from the recycling bin. Jan was never around, so I drew a lot. I drew rainbows, and people, and cities, and guns, and people getting shot and bleeding, and people having sex. When I got tired I just drew doodles. I tried to draw portraits of people I knew. My family always looked ridiculous, but funny because the pictures resembled them, but not enough. Then I drew all these things from my childhood, like Hello Kitty and Rainbow Brite and My Little Pony. I drew my brother’s G.I. Joes. I made the My Little Ponys kill the G.I. Joes.
Keanu Reeves Publishes $55 Poetry Book
Keanu Reeves is a turning out to be a real Renaissance man. The famous actor and founding member of the band Dogstar, can now add author to his resume.
Reeves has penned a new poetry book called Ode to Happiness (pictured, via) which “externalizes a melancholy internal monologue and subtly pokes fun at it,” according to the book’s description.
The 40-page book, published by Steidl, includes Reeves’ poetry alongside art by illustrator Alexandra Grant. It sells for $55. According to the New York Daily News, the book pokes fun of the “Sad Keanu” meme–series of photos of the actor looking depressed that became an Internet sensation.
The Daily News has more: “’Ode To Happiness’ is a collection of inkblot paintings — which purposely look like they’ve been blurred by tears — and accompanying depressing passages, like ‘I draw a hot sorrow bath’ and ‘In my despair room.’ The last line in the book is a black smudge with the words ‘It can always be worse.’”
Steidl site is currently sold out, but Amazon has a few copies left available for $35.
“externalizes a melancholy internal monologue and subtly pokes fun at it”
ah-mazing.
(Source: shelftalkersanon)
Excerpt of Mindy Kaling’s new book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? can be read here.
It arrives in stores this fall.
There are tips for men in here. TIPS. FOR. MEN. Take note.
Read Tim Burton’s The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy (click the picture).
at the gym today watching fox news with the captions on, some woman called charlie sheen a ‘poet’ and said, ‘he’s like alan ginsburg.’ i know this is the fault of the caption typist but still.
huh-rumpf.
What an egregious error! First of all, comparing Charlie Sheen to Ginsberg, then spelling his name wrong.
Yet, they may have a point. The Daily Beast has turned Sheen’s rants into pure poetry. And it is kind of beautiful. “Can’t is the cancer of happen” is my new mantra.
