“Heidi Maier, the new superintendent of the 42,000-student Marion County public school district in Florida, said in an interview that she made the decision based on solid research about what works best in improving academic achievement in students.” In place of traditional homework, 20,000 elementary school students will spend 20 minutes reading a book of their choice each night, reports The Washington Post. Pair with T.K. Dalton on books, kids, and gender.
HomeWORK More Like HomeFUN
The Magnetic Fields: Rock’s Most Bookish Band?
At the NYRB, the Magnetic Fields' Claudia Gonson offers a sort of "Life in Reading": "I was very into Lord Jim for a year."
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Vote Knope
The most important news of 2013 so far: Parks and Recreation star Amy Poehler is currently writing a memoir, to be published in fall of 2014.
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Disrupting the Truth
Recommended Reading: How social media swallowed print newspapers — i.e., the future of the book.
Huck Finn, Improved
Cartoonist Ruben Bolling has identified some additional ways in which Huck Finn might be cleaned up for today's delicate readers.
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Doodles by Famous Authors
"Authors – especially those who wrote with pens instead of those soulless computer things – are prime doodlers." Check out this gallery of doodles by famous authors, from Sylvia Plath to Franz Kafka to Henry Miller.
Dead Father
Recommended Reading: Susan Choi on a resurrected stage adaptation of Donald Barthelme's novel Snow White.