Darkside, by Tom Becker
Tom Becker’s debut novel Darkside opens with a kidnapping: thirteen-year-old Ricky Thomas is abducted from the middle of Trafalgar Square in broad daylight, and, strangely, none of the hundreds of...
Five questions with Charles Burns
Thanks to the fine people at Pantheon Books, Wordcandy was recently given the opportunity to ask Charles Burns (author of Black Hole, one of our recent Featured Book titles) a few questions. 1. ...
When the licensing gods fail us…
Sometimes it's hard to be an anime/drama geek. Distribution is limited, only a fraction of the interesting projects get translated, and the stuff you'd actually pay for doesn't get licensed at al...
Gnomeo and Juliet
(Sometimes I double-check the dates when I read these things, just to be totally certain they weren't posted on April Fools' Day.)It turns out that there WILL be an animated version of Shakespeare...
How Not To Be Popular, by Jennifer Ziegler
Jennifer Ziegler’s How Not to be Popular is not, as some of you might think, an unauthorized sequel to Meg Cabot’s How To Be Popular. Sure, there’s the nearly identical titles, and the fact that ...
Tramps Like Us Vol. 14, by Yayoi Ogawa
TOKYOPOP has just released the final volume of Yayoi Ogawa’s sublimely romantic manga Tramps Like Us, and while we are definitely going to miss seeing new installments of this story every few months, we are thrilled that Ogawa ended her fourteen-volume series on such a satisfying note...
New and improved
We've been talking recently about coming up with an updated version of our Wordcandy Guide to the Best Shojo Manga. We think our original list is still pretty solid (although Pheromomania Syndrom...
Spiderwick Chronicles on a budget
Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi are awesome, but their Spiderwick Chronicles books are way overpriced. The novels cost a hefty $10.99 apiece--not bad for a conventional hardcover, but these books...
Just in case.....
I thought I would post the latest trailer for Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia (the movie adaptation of the second book in the Chronicles of Narnia series), just in case you missed it during t...
Suzanne Collins's new book
I was bitterly disappointed by the final book in Suzanne Collins's Underland Chronicles (I mean, it's one thing to have an ambiguous ending, but Gregor and the Code of Claw didn't even make sense....
Confessions of a Serial Kisser, by Wendelin Van Draanen
Seventeen-year-old Evangeline Logan, the heroine of Wendelin Van Draanen’s new YA novel Confessions of a Serial Kisser, has a lot in common with the eponymous star of her kid-friendly Sammy Keyes mystery series. Both girls are smart, resourceful, and fearless...
Well, it's cheaper than diamonds.
Happy Valentine's Day, dear readers. If you're in the market for an expensive but very, very awesome Valentine gift, the last volume of the world's most offbeat-yet-sublimely romantic manga is on...
Black Hole, by Charles Burns
Charles Burns’s graphic novel Black Hole is lyrical, meticulously illustrated, and thought-provoking. It’s also creepy, stomach-churning, and unnecessarily grim. Delicate flowers might want to s...
Highly unlikely
A link on BuzzSugar took me to this article:"Harry Potter fans are set to get a double treat in the film of the final story – and movie makers are set to double their money. Crew working on the si...
How could anybody turn down Crockett Johnson?
I was browsing in Olympia's Fireside Bookstore over the weekend, and I came across this:Isn't it lovely? Crockett Johnson (author of Harold and the Purple Crayon, one of the awesomest kids' books...
A Girl of the Limberlost, by Gene Stratton Porter
I am very disappointed. I recently went on a quest to find an attractive, non-battered copy of Gene Stratton-Porter's deliciously over-the-top novel A Girl of the Limberlost, and this was m...
Brave Story, by Miyuki Miyabe
The world is full of fantasy novels featuring eleven-year-old boys with crappy home lives, but Miyuki Miyabe’s Brave Story stands out from the crowd. This award-winning novel combines conventiona...
Perfume: the true Hollywood story
My local NPR station had a great interview up this morning with Charles Burr, the New York Times perfume critic and author of The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris and New...
I didn't realize she was still writing these...
From Anime News Network:"Celebrated artist Rumiko Takahashi (Maison Ikkoku, Ranma 1/2, Inuyasha) will publish the latest chapter in her annual Rumic Theater series in this year's fifth issue (on s...
Ballet Shoes, the movie
I've been periodically checking up on the progress of the BBC adaptation of Noel Streatfeild's Ballet Shoes, but I still managed to totally miss the boat: this made-for-TV movie aired on December ...
Comic news round-up
Publishers Weekly recently published an interview with indie comic god Jeff Smith. Click here to read more about Smith's upcoming title RASL, a quarterly series PW describes as "a blend of science...
Why, movie gods? WHYYYY?!?
Variety is reporting that Hollywood is making ANOTHER film adaptation of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. Now, as longtime Wordcandy readers know, I am not a fan of Wuthering Heights (classic lo...
The clock is ticking...
Today is the LAST DAY to nab a free digitally downloaded episode of Bleach, Naruto, or Death Note from VIZ Media and Amazon Unbox, Amazon’s digital video download service.Unbox normally offers epi...
Life is unfair.
Check out this announcement from Harvard:J.K. Rowling, author of the world-renowned "Harry Potter" novels, will be the principal speaker during the Afternoon Exercises of Harvard University's 357t...
Runemarks, by Joanne Harris
Joanne Harris’s novel Runemarks—her first book for children—features an intriguing female protagonist, a collection of secondary characters from Norse mythology, and an imaginative, fully-developed setting. There have been more impressive fantasy novels released in the past few years, but Runemarks is a solid entry into the growing field of entertaining novels for young readers written by “serious” authors...
It's alive!!!
Well, we're finally seeing signs of life on the Yen Press/ICE Kunion front. Yen Press's webpage is UP, and it's full of Korean-manhwa goodness. Yes, dear readers: new volumes of Goong, Angel Dia...