Eating Utensil Gets First Grader in Trouble

It’s an absurdity you’d expect Douglas Adams to mention as a quick aside in one of his books.  That is, a First Grader from Newark, Delaware had to go before a character witness hearing last week at his school.  Why?  Because he brought an eating utensil that serves as a fork, spoon, and knife to [...]

Stephanie Meyer Accused of Plagiarism

From MTV News:
There are some things you can always count on in one of today’s modern vampire novels: a breathless, cross-species love affair, bone-breaking lovemaking, lots of smoldering eyes and buckets of spilled blood. But, according to TMZ, an author named Jordan Scott claims she saw a few too many similarities between her 2006 vamp [...]

The New YWS Experiences Bobofication

For many of you YWS’ers, the name Bobo strikes awe, admiration, and even aspiration.  To most of you, however, it probably just strikes you as odd and unfamiliar. I invite you, however, you cast your eyes upon the top of the YWS home page, where you will see a logo much like this one:

Now, you [...]

Because of Bureaucracy, Kids Lose Their Summer Break

In the Western San Bernadino County, California school district, school children are about to lose their summer break.  Due to a bureaucratic snafu, they have to go to school for an additional 34 school-days.
From the LA Times:
“We made an error on the minimum days of about five minutes,” said Dickson Principal Sue Pederson. “Realistically, that’s [...]

Can Creative Writing Be Taught?

I was reading an interesting article this morning in the DC Examiner that posed the question: can creative writing be taught?
Can it?  I don’t think so.  Creative writing relies on an active imagination, which is fortunately something almost all of us are born with.  Unfortunately, that imagination isn’t always nurtured and many people lose it [...]

A Right to Online Privacy?

Recently in California, a student at the University of California wrote a poem on her MySpace blog about how much she hated her hometown Coalinga. The poem was picked up by the local newspaper in Coalinga, and the student subsequently received death threats from residents there.
The student sought to bring a suit against the [...]

“Where The Wild Things Are” Movie

I’m excited, this looks great:

NaNoWriMo

The first time I heard about NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) was back in either 2001 or 2002.  I was a member of The Young Writers Club, and another person was talking about having to write 50,000 words during the month of November.  I didn’t hear anything else about it for another two years.
Now NaNoWriMo [...]

Anonymous Reporting of Bullies?

An AP news article from yesterday talks about an online Web site that six schools in Utah developed to combat bullying.  Through the Web site, students can send an anonymous tip to supervisors.  Since the tip is anonymous, the student avoids the snitch label.
As the article says, there really is a code of silence in [...]

McCain’s & Obama’s Favorite Book

With all the talk about the party conventions here in the United States, I thought it might be appropriate to check into what each candidates’ favorite books are.
Unfortunately, there’s no easy list out there.  However, one interesting fact did emerge: both John McCain and Barack Obama share a favorite book.  What is it?  For Whom [...]