Not Ready for Armageddon

I just finished listening to Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens, a mashup of Harry Potter, the Da Vinci Code, and Revelations, with a wicked sense of humor. Imagine that a switchup of newborns in the hospital could lead to the Antichrist being raised as a normal British boy, while an American envoy's son gets saddled with the name "Warlock", and a third baby gets left out in the cold.

Meanwhile, a smooth agent of the devil, Crowley, and a self-satisfied angel, Aziraphale, are plotting to bring about the end of the world as we know it, aided by four horsemen on Harleys, and a Hellhound. Oh, there's more... there's the attractive young descendent of an ancient witch who wrote the entirely accurate Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, a Witch Hunter Sargeant, his Jezebel of a neighbor, a meek young apprentice Witch Hunter... and many other eccentric characters. They're all heading for Lower Tadfield to witness the apocalypse, but trip over themselves and each other along the way. The humor is biting, but the hellhound isn't!

Fanfic

Liz B. of A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy has started an interesting discussion related to her SLJ article about writing fan fiction, When Harry met Bella: Fanfiction is all the rage. But is it plagiarism? Or the perfect thing to encourage young writers?

Isn't this the ideal way to get students involved in reading, and thinking about WHAT they're reading? I have read some Harry Potter fanfic online (examples: 1, 2), and the creativity is astounding. There are ongoing comics, adults-only versions, and all kinds of extensions of existing or imagined storylines. The writers/illustrators have read and re-read all the books, and incorporate their own ideas and interpretations and imaginings. True reading should always be so interactive.

Perhaps the Harry Potter and Twilight books should have been on our students' summer reading lists...

Happy Birthday Harry Potter!!!

Yes, according to J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter is 29 today. Hard to believe. To celebrate, I took the Twitter "Which Harry Potter Girl Are You?" quiz. . . Hermione Granger, no surprise.

And what a wonderful day it was in Chicago! To celebrate my last official day of summer vacation, I took the Parkways Foundation's fundraising tour of the control house of Buckingham Fountain, where we each got to turn the seahorses on or off. I visited the main Chicago Public Library's new YOUmedia room for teens to tell them how much I love the "Not What You Think" campaign. I checked out the Chicago Model City at Chicago Architecture Foundation, and I shopped a little, too.

Finished off the day with my first visit to the new Modern Wing of the Art Institute. The art was fascinating, and the galleries showcased it perfectly; the gauzy natural light on the third floor is divine. My only complaint: the northeast corner of the third floor is a perfect vantage point to view Millennium Park's Lurie Garden, but the shades are closed until dark. Kathryn Gustafson and Piet Oudolf designed their "sunny plate" with a tilt toward the southeast sun, so this is the ONLY building with a perfect view of their lovely plantings. Surely just one shade open to the north wouldn't damage the collection? Shouldn't that view be considered a unique display for their Architecture and Design collection? No other museum has it, and they've blocked it.

Photos to come...