Download or read book Tales of Literacy for the 21st Century written by Maryanne Wolf and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-07-21 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Literary Agenda is a series of short polemical monographs about the importance of literature and of reading in the wider world and about the state of literary education inside schools and universities. The category of 'the literary' has always been contentious. What is clear, however, is how increasingly it is dismissed or is unrecognised as a way of thinking or an arena for thought. It is sceptically challenged from within, for example, by the sometimes rival claims of cultural history, contextualized explanation, or media studies. It is shaken from without by even greater pressures: by economic exigency and the severe social attitudes that can follow from it; by technological change that may leave the traditional forms of serious human communication looking merely antiquated. For just these reasons this is the right time for renewal, to start reinvigorated work into the meaning and value of literary reading. Being Literate in the 21st Century wrestles with critical, timely questions for 21st-century society. How does literacy change the human brain? What does it mean to be a literate or a non-literate person in the present digital culture: for example, what will be lost in the present reading brain, and what will be gained with different mediums than print? What are the consequences of a digital reading brain for the literary mind and for writing itself ? Can knowledge about the reading brain and advances in technology offer new forms of literacy and new forms of knowledge to the peoples in remote regions of the world who would never otherwise become literate? By using both research from cognitive neuroscience, psycholinguistics, child development, and education, and considering literary examples from world literature, Maryanne Wolf plots a course that seeks to preserve the deepest forms of reading from the past, while developing the cognitive skills necessary for this century's next generation.
Download or read book Fairy Tales Transformed written by Cristina Bacchilega and published by Wayne State University Press. This book was released on 2013-11-01 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholars of fairy-tale studies will enjoy Bacchilega's significant new study of contemporary adaptations.
Download or read book Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century written by Kim Fu and published by Tin House Books. This book was released on 2022-02-01 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The strange and wonderful define Kim Fu’s story collection, where the line between fantasy and reality fades in and out, elusive and beckoning." —The New York Times Book Review A LitHub, ALTA, and PureWow Best Book of the Month A BuzzFeed and WIRED Pick for a Book You Need to Read This Winter In the twelve unforgettable tales of Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, the strange is made familiar and the familiar strange, such that a girl growing wings on her legs feels like an ordinary rite of passage, while a bug-infested house becomes an impossible, Kafkaesque nightmare. Each story builds a new world all its own: a group of children steal a haunted doll; a runaway bride encounters a sea monster; a vendor sells toy boxes that seemingly control the passage of time; an insomniac is seduced by the Sandman. These visions of modern life wrestle with themes of death and technological consequence, guilt and sexuality, and unmask the contradictions that exist within all of us. Mesmerizing, electric, and wholly original, Kim Fu’s Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century blurs the boundaries of the real and fantastic, offering intricate and surprising insights into human nature.
Download or read book 21st Century Ghost Stories written by Paul Guernsey and published by . This book was released on 2021-08-10 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This vibrant collection of award-winning supernatural stories from around the world offers something for every taste in the uncanny. Yes, there are ghosts. But you'll also find pieces involving revenants or reanimated corpses of different sorts, including-but not limited to-zombies, as well as stories that make literary use of fairies, vampires, demons, The Devil Himself, snakes (talking, and otherwise), time slips (aka unintentional time travel), mystery animals, ancient curses, contemporary curses, a plague even scarier than the coronavirus, Santería, and a number of haunted objects, including fine dinnerware, some smoky panes of old window glass, and a stuffed rabbit with a bad attitude. We've got several stories that fit the category of magic realism, a couple that are just plain hard to categorize, and one that has to do with dragons. Each of these 30 stories, in addition to providing the reader with a thrill, a chill, a laugh, or a new perspective on life and death, is also a small literary gem that you'll want to revisit again and again.
Download or read book 21 Lessons for the 21st Century written by Yuval Noah Harari and published by Random House. This book was released on 2019-01-29 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In Sapiens, he explored our past. In Homo Deus, he looked to our future. Now, one of the world’s most innovative thinkers explores what it means to be human in an age of bewilderment. “Fascinating . . . a crucial global conversation about how to take on the problems of the twenty-first century.”—Bill Gates, The New York Times Book Review A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR How can we protect ourselves from nuclear war or ecological catastrophe? What do we do about the epidemic of fake news or the threat of terrorism? How should we prepare our children for the future? 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is a probing and visionary investigation into today’s most urgent issues as we move into the future. As technology advances faster than our understanding of it, hacking becomes a tactic of war, and the world feels more polarized than ever, Harari addresses the challenge of navigating life in the face of constant and disorienting change and raises the important questions we need to ask ourselves in order to survive. In twenty-one accessible chapters that are both provocative and profound, Harari untangles political, technological, social, and existential issues and offers advice on how to prepare for a very different future from the world we now live in: How can we retain freedom of choice when Big Data is watching us? What will the future workforce look like, and how should we ready ourselves for it? Why is liberal democracy in crisis? Harari’s unique ability to make sense of where we have come from and where we are going has captured the imaginations of millions of readers. Here he invites us to consider values, meaning, and personal engagement in a world full of noise and uncertainty. When we are deluged with irrelevant information, clarity is power. Presenting complex contemporary challenges clearly and accessibly, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is essential reading.
Download or read book Neil Gaiman in the 21st Century written by Tara Prescott and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-03-19 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Neil Gaiman has emerged as one of the most influential literary figures of the 21st century. To borrow a phrase from his viral 2012 University of the Arts commencement speech, Gaiman "makes good art," from his graphic novels to his social media collaborations, award-winning fantasy fiction and beloved children's books. This collection of new essays examines a range of Gaiman's prolific output, with readings of the novels American Gods, Anansi Boys, The Graveyard Book and The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Children's books The Wolves in the Walls and Blueberry Girl and the online short story collection A Calendar of Tales are discussed. Gaiman's return to the serial comic book form with Sandman: Overture is covered, and artist JH Williams III contributes an exclusive interview about his collaboration with Gaiman on Overture. Cartoonist Judd Winick offers a personal essay on his connection to Gaiman's work.
Download or read book Inviting Interruptions written by Cristina Bacchilega and published by Wayne State University Press. This book was released on 2021-02-23 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As we make our way deeper into the twenty-first century, wonder tales—and their critical analyses—will continue to interest and enchant general audiences, students, and scholars.
Download or read book Writing 21st Century Fiction written by Donald Maass and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-10-16 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Capture the minds, hearts, and imaginations of 21st century readers! Whether you're a commercial storyteller or a literary novelist, whether your goal is to write a best-selling novel or captivate readers with a satisfying, beautifully written story, the key to success is the same: high-impact fiction. Writing 21st Century Fiction will help you write a novel for today's readers and market, filled with rich characters, compelling plots, and resonant themes. Author and literary agent Donald Maass shows you how to: • Create fiction that transcends genre, conjures characters who look and feel more "real" than real people, and shows readers the work around them in new ways. • Infuse every page with an electric current of emotional appeal and micro-tension. • Harness the power of parallels, symbols, metaphors, and more to illuminate your novel in a lasting way. • Develop a personalized method of writing that works for you. With an arsenal of thought-provoking prompts and questions, plus plenty of examples from best-selling titles, Writing 21st Century Fiction will strip away your preconceived notions about writing in today's world and give you the essential tools you need to create fiction that will leave both readers and critics in awe.
Download or read book Tom Thumb written by Margaret Hillert and published by Norwood House Press. This book was released on 2016-07-15 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An easy format retelling of the classic fairy tale, Tom Thumb and the tiny boy's big adventures. Newly re-illustrated with a fresh and modern look, these Beginning-to-Read books in the 21st Century Edition foster independent reading and comprehension. Using high frequency words and repetition, readers gain confidence while enjoying classic fairy tales and folklore stories. Educator resources include reading reinforcement activities and a word list in the back. Activities focus on foundational, language and reading skills. Sections include phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. Teachers' notes available on website.
Download or read book Disability Visibility written by Alice Wong and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2020-06-30 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Disability rights activist Alice Wong brings tough conversations to the forefront of society with this anthology. It sheds light on the experience of life as an individual with disabilities, as told by none other than authors with these life experiences. It's an eye-opening collection that readers will revisit time and time again.” —Chicago Tribune One in five people in the United States lives with a disability. Some disabilities are visible, others less apparent—but all are underrepresented in media and popular culture. Activist Alice Wong brings together this urgent, galvanizing collection of contemporary essays by disabled people, just in time for the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, From Harriet McBryde Johnson’s account of her debate with Peter Singer over her own personhood to original pieces by authors like Keah Brown and Haben Girma; from blog posts, manifestos, and eulogies to Congressional testimonies, and beyond: this anthology gives a glimpse into the rich complexity of the disabled experience, highlighting the passions, talents, and everyday lives of this community. It invites readers to question their own understandings. It celebrates and documents disability culture in the now. It looks to the future and the past with hope and love.
Download or read book Four Good Friends written by Margaret Hillert and published by Norwood House Press. This book was released on 2016-07-15 with total page 17 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An easy format retelling of the classic fairy tale, Bremen Town Musicians and their search for a place to live. Newly re-illustrated with a fresh and modern look, these Beginning-to-Read books in the 21st Century Edition foster independent reading and comprehension. Using high frequency words and repetition, readers gain confidence while enjoying classic fairy tales and folklore stories. Educator resources include reading reinforcement activities and a word list in the back. Activities focus on foundational, language and reading skills. Sections include phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. Teachers' notes available on website.
Download or read book Immigrant Voices written by Megan Bayles and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The eighteen stories collected in Immigrant Voices highlight the complex relationships of immigrants in the United States at the beginning of the twenty-first century with their families, friends, new surroundings, and home countries. The authors themselves have made many of the same kinds of transitions as the characters they portray, and they offer fresh perspectives on the immigrant experience. Coedited by award-winning author Achy Obejas and cultural studies scholar Megan Bayles, this anthology addresses the perennial questions about society and the individual that the authors of the Great Books have pondered for centuries. Letting Go to America, M. Evelina Galang. Absence, Daniel Alarcón. Mother the Big, Porochista Khakpour. The Bees, Part 1, Aleksandar Hemon. Grandmother's Garden, Meena Alexander. Otravida, Otravez, Junot Díaz. Wal-Mart Has Plantains, Sefi Atta. Fischer vs. Spassky, Lara Vapnyar. The Stations of the Sun, Reese Okyong Kwon. Echo, Laila Lalami. No Subject, Carolina De Robertis. The Science of Flight, Yiyun Li. Hot-Air Balloons, Edwidge Danticat. Home Safe, Emma Ruby-Sachs. SJU ATL DTW (San Juan Atlanta Detroit), Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes. Diógenes, Pablo Helguera. Bamboo, Eduardo Halfon. Encrucijada, Roberto G. Fernández.
Download or read book Telling Tales written by Patience Agbabi and published by Canongate Books. This book was released on 2014-04-03 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SHORTLISTED FOR THE TED HUGHES PRIZE 2015 Tabard Inn to Canterb'ry Cathedral, Poet pilgrims competing for free picks, Chaucer Tales, track by track, it's the remix From below-the-belt base to the topnotch; I won't stop all the clocks with a stopwatch when the tales overrun, run offensive, or run clean out of steam, they're authentic and we're keeping it real, reminisce this: Chaucer Tales were an unfinished business. In Telling Tales award-winning poet Patience Agbabi presents an inspired 21st-Century remix of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales retelling all of the stories, from the Miller's Tale to the Wife of Bath's in her own critically acclaimed poetic style. Celebrating Chaucer's Middle-English masterwork for its performance element as well as its poetry and pilgrims, Agbabi's newest collection is utterly unique. Boisterous, funky, foul-mouthed, sublimely lyrical and bursting at the seams, Telling Tales takes one of Britain's most significant works of literature and gives it thrilling new life.
Download or read book The 20th Century Children s Book Treasury written by Janet Schulman and published by Knopf Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 1998-09-14 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unparalleled in scope and quality and designed for reading aloud and sharing, this splendid anthology brings together some of the most memorable and beloved children's books of our time. Here are classics such as Madeline and Curious George; contemporary bestsellers such as Guess How Much I Love You and The Stinky Cheese Man; Caldecott Medal winners such as Make Way for Ducklings and Where the Wild Things Are; and family favorites such as Goodnight Moon, The Sneetches, Winnie-the-Pooh, and Alexander & The Terrible, No Good Very Bad Day, soon to be a motion picture. The selections range from concept books and wordless books to picture books and short read-aloud stories, and represent the complete array of childhood themes and reading needs: ABCs, number and color books, stories about going to bed and going to school; tales about growing up, siblings, parents, and grandparents; animal stories, fantasies; fables; magical stories; stories about everyday life--and more. This beautiful edition includes a recommended list of books published in the time since this anthology's original compilation, including Caldecott Honors Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! and Olivia, with descriptive annotations intended to guide parents to these new books and new voices of the 21st century. Also included are an introduction from editor Janet Schulman, capsule biographies of the 62 writers and artists represented in the collection, color-coded running heads indicating age levels, and indexes. As a gift, a keepsake, and a companion in a child's first steps toward a lifelong love of reading, The 20th Century Children's Book Treasury belongs in every family's bookcase.
Download or read book Tenth of December written by George Saunders and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-01-03 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The prize-winning, New York Times bestselling short story collection from the internationally bestselling author of Lincoln in the Bardo 'The best book you'll read this year' New York Times 'Dazzlingly surreal stories about a failing America' Sunday Times WINNER OF THE 2014 FOLIO PRIZE AND SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2013 George Saunders's most wryly hilarious and disturbing collection yet, Tenth of December illuminates human experience and explores figures lost in a labyrinth of troubling preoccupations. A family member recollects a backyard pole dressed for all occasions; Jeff faces horrifying ultimatums and the prospect of Darkenfloxx(TM) in some unusual drug trials; and Al Roosten hides his own internal monologue behind a winning smile that he hopes will make him popular. With dark visions of the future riffing against ghosts of the past and the ever-settling present, this collection sings with astonishing charm and intensity.
Download or read book Sum written by David Eagleman and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2009-02-10 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At once funny, wistful and unsettling, Sum is a dazzling exploration of unexpected afterlives—each presented as a vignette that offers a stunning lens through which to see ourselves in the here and now. In one afterlife, you may find that God is the size of a microbe and unaware of your existence. In another version, you work as a background character in other people’s dreams. Or you may find that God is a married couple, or that the universe is running backward, or that you are forced to live out your afterlife with annoying versions of who you could have been. With a probing imagination and deep understanding of the human condition, acclaimed neuroscientist David Eagleman offers wonderfully imagined tales that shine a brilliant light on the here and now.
Download or read book Gender Swapped Fairy Tales written by Karrie Fransman and published by Faber & Faber. This book was released on 2020-11-03 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover a collection of fairy tales unlike the ones you've read before . . . Once upon a time, in the middle of winter, a King sat at a window and sewed. As he sewed and gazed out onto the landscape, he pricked his finger with the needle, and three drops of blood fell onto the snow outside. People have been telling fairy tales to their children for hundreds of years. And for almost as long, people have been rewriting those fairy tales - to help their children imagine a world where they are the heroes. Karrie and Jon were reading their child these stories when they hit upon a dilemma, something previous versions of these stories were missing, and so they decided to make one vital change.. They haven't rewritten the stories in this book. They haven't reimagined endings, or reinvented characters. What they have done is switch all the genders. It might not sound like that much of a change, but you'll be dazzled by the world this swap creates - and amazed by the new characters you're about to discover.
