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!
Holiday season is here and everyone at Scholastic is feeling festive. This past week, our team spotted some great articles—from gingerbread houses to literary gift giving and even a list of "Ugly" Christmas Sweaters. Check it out:
- Here are 8 clever ways to celebrate the holidays with books, including giving books as gifts, creating bookmark holiday cards or even making a book advent calendar. Fun fact: In Iceland, most people receive a book as a present on Christmas Eve!
- A list of 13 wildly impressive gingerbread houses inspired by popular movies and TV shows such as Breaking Bad and Harry Potter.
- Speaking of Harry Potter, A.V. Club explores Christmastime in the Harry Potter books. “In all seven of the Harry Potter Christmases… J.K. Rowling never flinches from the dark reality she’s created for her titular character.”
- This is super impressive: The Dyker Heights community in Brooklyn has a tradition of transforming their neighborhood using insanely over-the-top Christmas decorations.
- Looking for the perfect holiday party outfit? Here’s 10 Literary "Ugly" Christmas sweaters to make your holiday parties spectacular.
- We love a good movie, but we’re all about the books here at Scholastic! Take a look at this round-up of 10 novels to pair with Christmas movies this holiday season.
- Michelle Obama read 'The Night Before Christmas' with Miss Piggy during the 93rd Annual National Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony.
- This Jewish a cappella group put a hilarious Hanukkah spin on the Whip/Nae Nae.
Winter festivities aside, here’s what the On Our Minds team read this week:
- Apparently, the world's loneliest ATM is in Antarctica.
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens soon, which begs the question, do you remember your first Star Wars experience? The New York Times reporter Michael Wilson discusses introducing his 6-Year-Old to the iconic film series.
- President Barack Obama’s favorite book of 2015 is Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff and Michelle Obama’s is The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander.
- Have you read these 12 excellent memoirs by women of color? The list includes titles such as Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina by Michaela DePrince and Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas.
- The New Yorker presents: a history of punctuation for the Internet Age.
- Publishers Weekly asked children’s authors to share their favorite childhood books. Scholastic author Alex Gino’s favorite? Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein.
- I hope you’re not feeling hungry! Here are the 9 best children’s books about food.
- Scholastic librarian Deimosa spotted this great Booklist Online article discussing multicultural titles that deserve attention.
- Too Cute! Watch the original Harry Potter screen tests that launched Daniel Radcliffe’s career as the literary character. Bonus: the first screen test Daniel, Rupert and Emma did together!
- Well this is impressive… The Denver Public Library constructed a giant cardboard maze for customers of all ages.
- This week, The New York Times explored “The Hyperbole of Internet-Speak,” explaining that “hyperbole is in some ways necessary, as the impact of certain words erodes with time.”
- On December 9, 1881, the first African-American, William Henry Smith, was named as librarian of the U.S. House.
