In Our Feeds: Word Crimes, reading YA, board games & more

Brittany Sullivan  //  Jul 18, 2014

In Our Feeds: Word Crimes, reading YA, board games & more

Every Friday, we share a handful of links that we found funny, provocative or just plain cool. We call it In Our Feeds. Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday everyone! To start the weekend off on the right foot, listen to "Weird Al" Yankovic’s "Word Crimes" (a wonderful parody of Robin Thicke’s "Blurred Lines").  This video speaks to the die-hard word nerd in all of us, especially OOM grammar expert Lia! From the misuse of the word “literally” and the difference between “less” and “fewer,” to WR1T1NG W0RD5 W1TH NUMB3RS, Weird Al covers the vast range of horrendous word crimes that can occur in our everyday language.

Still need something to listen to? OOMer Stephanie recently saw YA author Rainbow Rowell talk about her book Landline, where she discussed how she incorporates certain pop culture references and songs into her books. Then, Stephanie spotted this annotated playlist collected from Rowell’s own Spotify mixes on BuzzFeed – check out this great playlist to get some literary inspiration!

Speaking of YA, Mike spotted a Huffington Post article asking parents the question, why not read YA with your kids? The young adult genre really has something for everyone, and has the added benefit of providing parents with new insights and connections into their kids’ worlds. Here at Scholastic, we love to read YA!

And whether you’re reading YA or classic literature, have you ever read something and hated it, only to later find out that your favorite author loved it? Megan has and shared this article from The New Yorker about “Reading Through Someone Else’s Eyes.”  Also this week, Megan learned that common family games can be educational tools in disguise, gradually building executive function skills for successful learning and helping any child become a more flexible, organized and strategic thinker. Read all about it in this fascinating article from The Atlantic.

Lastly, Nadia noticed this touching article by 14-year-old high school freshman Anna Jane Bishop, titled “My Advice to All Introverts Starting High School.” Her advice to introverts everywhere includes, “Try new things, and get a little uncomfortable. If I can do it, you can do it, too, and I promise you will not regret it.” So what are you waiting for? Go out and try something new!  

You won’t want to miss these other stories that were in our feeds this week:

Have a great weekend!