The Stacks
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Living on the wrong side of the racks
In this first post to be included under the umbrella of the Comic as Object Project, we want to share a book that is both the most recent to be acquired here at the Butterflies & Aliens Library but also a throwback to the very first comics we ever read as a kid: Archie Digests!
The Comic as Object Project
As part of our Head Alien’s ongoing studies at the University of Alberta School of Library and Information Studies, this project starts with a basic, and I think self-evident, premise taken from a different medium altogether – that a video call is not the same as an in-person meeting…
Drawn Together, Judged Together
Today’s assignment? To investigate “a graphic novel or comic that has been challenged recently in western society.”
Our choice? Well, it’s the 2019 winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Best Picture Book, among other accolades…
Who is this ISBN guy?
So, no, this isn’t a post about International Standard Book Numbers, and, no, this isn’t even really directly about the book we are featuring.
But since the back cover of this book provides one of two featured quotes in my Book Cover Project, and the front cover features on my “book wall” pictured at the start of the project, it seemed to make sense to give the book its due as a case study for that same project…
Star Wars: A New Approach
In 2015, no doubt propelled by the-marketing-machine-that-is-Disney acquiring Lucasfilm three years prior, three “original retellings” of the original three Star Wars movies arrived in bookstores and libraries in hardcover format, followed by paperback editions in 2019…
Oh Yes!
As we continue to explore book covers as part of our Head Alien’s Book Cover Project, we wanted to pull an example from our visual storytelling collection. And Oh No! (Or How My Science Project Destroyed the World), written by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Dan Santat, published in 2010 by Disney Hyperion Books, is a great example…
Everything is #@%!ed or Everything is f*cked?
So does this post need a content warning?
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
First published in 1970, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume quickly became a bestselling novel. Forty-four years after its first publication, Atheneum Books released a new edition of the book with a truly brilliant jacket design by Lauren Rille and illustrations by Debbie Ridpath Ohi…
Introducing The Book Cover Project
You may have noticed mention of The Book Cover Project in several recent posts. If you haven’t seen it yet, I’ll include a link below. But first I thought I’d share the associated introductory video presentation here on its own…
You sold a book…
Book News: A push for free textbooks
For this week’s addition to the library school book news project we’re stepping a bit outside the usual trade book publishing focus here at The Butterflies & Aliens Library. But in the big business that is publishing, textbook publishing is the biggest. So as a bibliophile and a student, any push to make textbooks free is going to get my attention…
Book News: Sensitivity Readers in Publishing
For this week’s contribution to the library school book news project, I wanted to share a CBC article exploring the rise of “sensitivity readers” in publishing. It relates to many of the topics that have come up in the course, including representation and diversity in publishing, the fine line between editing and self-censorship, and the not-so-fine and much muddier line between censorship versus serving your audience… which may or may not be the same as catering to the market…
