Sir Terry Pratchetts Unfinished Works Destroyed by Steamroller Critical Linking, August 31

Sir Terry Pratchetts Unfinished Works Destroyed by Steamroller Critical Linking, August 31 Sponsored by Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller The unfinished books of Sir  Terry Pratchett  have been destroyed by a steamroller, following the late fantasy novelist’s wishes. Pratchett’s hard drive was crushed by a vintage John Fowler Co steamroller named Lord Jericho at the Great Dorset Steam Fair, ahead of the opening of a new exhibition about the author’s life and work. Always nice to see a late authors wishes respected. As it turns out, my worries were unfounded: So far, they like books with both boy and girl protagonists, and I believe that’s due to a concerted effort their father and I have made to put a wide variety of books in front of them. Frankly, the primary challenge has been the sheer volume of books with boy leads: A  Florida State University study  found only a third of children’s books published 1900-2000 have an adult woman or female animal character, but adult men or male animals are nearly ubiquitous. The writer  Caroline Paul checked out the  New York Times  bestseller list  for kids and found that of the top ten, not a single one had a female protagonist. Tips for getting boys to read more books with girl characters. I loved my job. I loved going to work and I understood the first week of school that it was impossible to teach any student you despised. A teacher’s job was to responsibly love the students in front of them. If I was doing my job, I had to find a way to love the wealthy white boys I taught with the same integrity I loved my black students, even if the constitution of that love differed. This wasn’t easy because no matter how conscientious, radically curious, or politically active I encouraged Cole to be, teaching wealthy white boys like him meant that I was being paid to really fortify, and make more responsible, Cole’s power. An excellent essay from speculative fiction writer Kiese Laymon about the difference between privilege and power. Sign up to Today In Books to receive  daily news and miscellany from the world of books.