The Literary Legacy of Beverly Cleary
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The Literary Impact of Beverly Cleary
Beverly Cleary is not just a writer of beloved kids and teen books but a major influence on children’s literature in general. From her first novel, Henry Huggins, to her last, Ramona’s World, Cleary built emotionally immersive series that still resonate with children today. Even at her death at the age of 104 in 2021, Cleary was still important to the world of children’s literature, and her impact continues to be felt far and wide.
The Bestselling Books of the Week, According to All the Lists
It’s another week where the bestseller lists cannot agree: no single title made it into the top ten on all five of the biggest lists. In some instances, this is a categorization problem. USA Today and Publishers Weekly have one big list encompassing all categories, so they include several Easter picture books in the top ten, whereas most of the other lists separate children’s books into their own list.
This Book Forever Changed How I Think About Stories
It may be an understatement to say reading this book changed how I think about stories. In fact, it helped to shape my entire worldview. I read it over ten years ago, and it hasn’t left my brain since. I think I’ve always understood the world through stories, but this book showed me how narratives operate: how they function to organize our world, how they act upon us, and how changing them also changes our reality. I remember finishing it and having to stare into space to process it. When I was (briefly) a high school English teacher, it was the first text I taught. And I think it’s a must-read for anyone interested in stories—which is all of us.
Top-Notch T-Shirts to Celebrate Libraries
Will wearing library T-shirts help you thank the librarians in your cities and schools? Will it help secure federal support that is desperately needed? Well, no. But if you want to look cute while checking out books, shopping at the book fair, contacting your lawmakers, and protesting, a new T-shirt might be the ticket.
8 Gothic Romantasy Books That Will Haunt Your Heart
Gothic romantasy is a subgenre of romantasy, and, I’d argue, it often overlaps with dark academia romance and fantasy tales. It’s a delightful genre, combining much of what I love about a good story: the speculative and a great romance, with gothic, often creepy elements. By creepy, I don’t necessarily mean the romance, though dark romance fans may disagree. By creepy, I mean the setting and/or a gothic plot that pairs well with the romance. Sometimes, the creepiness is more subtle, and other times, it takes the hand of the romance and walks step-for-step. In any case, it makes for great reading.
Romance Beyond the Couple: Books That Celebrate Community, Friendship, and Found Family
In a world that can often feel isolating, these stories offer something radical: a vision of love that expands outward. Romance reminds us that people can grow together, build support systems, heal through connection, and sometimes, accidentally form a group chat that changes their whole life.
8 of the Best New M/M Romantasy Books
The lack of enough M/M romantasy almost always extends to other LGBTQ identities, particularly sapphic. There’s also a small market for romantasy featuring queer women. Some sapphic books in other genres may have gained traction, but not in the same way that M/F romantasy or M/F-focused books in general have. This definitely merits a similar list, but that’s for another day.
2025 YA Microtrend: Wrestling With Queer Identity and Religion
It’s been with deep interest that I’ve noted several YA books published so far this year that dive into the tricky territory of being a queer person of Christian faith. I wouldn’t say this is a trend this year because saying so suggests that it’s a new issue. Instead, I’d say it’s a topic that simply has not shown up as much in YA as one might anticipate, especially as the YA landscape has broadened and become more inclusive. If anything, it’s a microtrend in 2025, and it’s likely a topic we’ll see continue to grow over the next few years. It would be impossible not to, especially as we live through an era where an attack on one freedom guaranteed in the First Amendment is an attack on all the freedoms it guarantees.
Obsessed with Ariana Grande’s ETERNAL SUNSHINE: BRIGHTER DAYS AHEAD? There’s A New Book for That
If you love the sci-fi elements of Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine that explore the concepts of memory, keep that vibe going with the latest from The Dreamers author Karen Thompson Walker. A year after her child is born, Jane is discovered in Prospect Park with no memory of what has happened to her. As psychiatrists try to unpack what has caused this lapse in Jane’s memory, our protagonist reveals that she is having visions of a young man who died 20 years ago—and he has a warning for her about something terrible that will happen in her future.
