Word of the Day: Kidult

Ever watch a kid movie, catch a joke, and look over at the kids to see if they get it? I have, and the more I watch kid entertainment or read kidlit, the more I catch winks that were obviously meant for me, the adult. For example, I read a Edgar nom that was a really heavy detective pastiche, playing on all the cliches--and a middle-grader hasn't been exposed long enough to appreciate this. A nod to librarians and parents? I don't know.

Anyway, what had me thinking was this article on what's called kidult entertainment (like the new Rango movie). Interesting stuff.

It keeps me wondering: how much entertainment (and I'll include books here) is really for kids, and how much is through the adult lens? Are we directing kids' entertainment too much?

Food for thought.

Kids and E-Books

I know, I know: you're sick of people speculating on the future of print and e-books. But this article in Publishers Weekly talks about kids' reading habits now, where e-books are a hit, and where kids still reach for the good ol' print version. Interesting stuff.

Happy weekend, all!

Blogs? No Thanks

I had heard before that teens don't really care much for blogs, but this NYT article explains why. If you write for teens, it has some great information on teen tech habits, so check it out.

Interesting stuff.

Girls With Grit

There's an interesting article up at the L.A. Times online about the depiction of teen girls in movies. Girls have more grit these days, and Valley girls are out is the short of it. We like grit here, so good news, right?

Read the whole thing here.

Don't Quit Your Day Job

For fun, because it's Wednesday and there's a two-foot snowdrift on my driveway waiting for me to shovel it: ever wonder what Charlotte Bronte and Franz Kafka earned at their day jobs? Find out here (link stolen from GalleyCat).

And for you history buffs, check out Brian Thornton's weekly posting of bastards (yes, you read that right). Anticipating the release of his The Book of Bastards in August, he's posting a weekly profile of a bastard in history. Such fun, and a history lesson too--which is great for me, because I sort of flunked history.

Anyway. Off to brave the snow.

Tweet Your Alibi

On a mystery-related note today: check out this article on how the FBI is using social networking sites to investigate suspects. They're using Facebook photos and Tweets to check alibis and find evidence of robberies--how very innovative of the Feeb people. And for us mystery writers: there's another new way to create an alibi for your character. He was tweeting at a ballgame.

As you can imagine, lawsuits and civil liberties protests abound. And you may want to check your list of Twitter followers--Bob Jones may not be your friend at all.

Still. Interesting story material, huh?

Adults Reading YA

Just a quick interruption of the YA Edgar Extravaganza (!) for an interesting article in the LA Times discussing why adults read YA. The short of it: because it's more fun.

But then we already knew that, right? Right.