We have a guest post at Monkey Poop today. Writer Elizabeth Eckhart compares two book to film YA dystopias, The Hunger Games and Divergent. Take it away, Elizabeth. Comparing Divergent to The Hunger Games by Elizabeth Eckhart Since the release of Twilight in 2008, movie studios have been scrambling to replicate the franchise’s worldwide success with a series of adaptations of popular Young Adult book series. However, most of these attempts to make lightning strike twice have

I’m very excited to have Kathryn Lasky on my blog today! Kathryn Lasky is a prolific author, having written everything from fiction to nonfiction for people of all ages. She has won numerous awards and has even had a book turned into a movie (Legends of the Guardians based on the Guardians of Ga’Hoole series). So you can bet I was excited to receive an email asking if I’d like to take part in the blog tour for her newest book, The Extra. Here’s the synopsis from the publisher

Due to the nature of this blogpost, there will be spoilers for The Giver and for Inception (the movie). So consider yourself forewarned. I recently saw Inception for the second time and it made me think again about ambiguous endings. At the end of Inception, the filmmaker doesn’t say specifically what happens in. We’re left wondering: Did the main character get home? Or was he still dreaming? I found myself looking for “clues”, like “The top stopped spinning in this segment b

Abbreviated/edited email: Dear Amitha, I’m working on a short story that takes place in a hospital. The patient is in the room with his family when an orderly shows up. What does this orderly say?  Does he introduce himself in a friendly way or is the relationship strictly analytical and dry?  How can I avoid clichés when describing this scene? Is a clipboard mandatory? Would they wear scrubs and a stethoscope? Also, what should I avoid in the “doctor-talking” between patient

(spoiler alert) I picked this book up at the library when I was there looking for something else completely. I’ve been wanting to read one of Jones’s books and the description on the cover about magic and mythology really sucked me in. I love a good fantasy novel. At first glance, the idea seems a genuinely good one: what would happen if the constellations came to life as real people? I imagine this book is meant to appeal to the Percy Jackson set (I still haven’t read those