READ magazine is performing William Shakespeare’s classic comedy, Much Ado About Nothing on Facebook.

For three days, starting at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, April 26, an updated version of Shakespeare’s classic comedy will be presented on Facebook. The story will unfold through status updates, comments, videos, and more. Teachers, students, parents, and Shakespeare fans everywhere can “like” all the characters’ fan pages and participate as the play is performed live in their Facebook news feeds! It’s an exciting way to experience Shakespeare, as well as a perfect opportunity to open up class discussions about cyberbullying and social aggression.

Go to www.weeklyreader.com/ado to learn more, and to “like” READ magazine, project collaborator The Ophelia Project, and all the characters in the play. Then, on April 26, 27, and 28, enjoy the performance!

Japan is a fascinating land with a history and culture that goes far beyond Hello Kitty and anime. This is a good time to learn more about it. How? By reading a great book, of course! Here is a quick list of highly recommended young adult novels about Japan or Japanese people. I found them on the various blogs or websites mentioned here. Whether you like fantasy, action, mystery, or humor, you will find something to love here. If you read one of these, let other kids know what you think. Write to us at word@weeklyreader.com.

Read In a Single Sitting recommends:

Hiroshima Dreams by Kelly Easton Lin can’t explain the knowledge she has of the future, of what people will say or what will happen. It’s a gift she shares with Obaasan, her grandmother, who has recently come from Japan to live with Lin’s family. But seeing the future is more than knowing whether or not a boy will call. What is Lin to make of the visions she has of a day long ago, when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima? Acclaimed author Kelly Easton’s poignant coming-of-age novel about a girl with psychic abilities is rich in imagery and memorable characters.

Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn In his palace at Inuyama, Lord Iida Sadamu, warlord of the Tohan clan, surveys his famous nightingale floor. Its surface sings at the tread of every human foot, and no assassin can cross it. But 16-year-old Otori Takeo, his family murdered by Iida’s warriors, has the magical skills of the Tribe—preternatural hearing, invisibility, a second self—that enable him to enter the lair of the Tohan. He has love in his heart and death at his fingertips. The stunningly powerful bestseller, “Across the Nightingale Floor,” is an epic story for readers young and old. Set in a mythical, feudal, Japanese land, a world both beautiful and cruel, the intense love story of two young people takes place against a background of warring clans, secret alliances, high honour and lightning swordplay.

Cynthia Leitich Smith recommends:

Ninjas, Piranhas, and Galileo by Greg Leitich Smith (Little Brown, 2003).  Elias, Shohei, and Honoria have always been a trio united against That Which Is The Peshtigo School. But suddenly it seems that understanding and sticking up for a best friend isn’t as easy as it used to be. Elias, reluctant science fair participant, finds himself defying the authority of Mr. Ethan Eden, teacher king of chem lab. Shohei, all-around slacker, is approaching a showdown with his adoptive parents, who have decided that he needs to start “hearing” his ancestors. And Honoria, legal counsel extraordinaire, discovers that telling a best friend you like him, without actually telling him, is a lot harder than battling Goliath Reed or getting a piranha to become vegetarian. What three best friends find out about the Land of the Rising Sun, Pygocentrus nattereri, and Galileo’s choice, among other things, makes for a hilarious and intelligent read filled with wit, wisdom, and a little bit of science. Ages 10-up. Read The Story Behind The Story from Greg Leitich Smith. Don’t miss the companion book, Tofu and T. Rex.

Primary Source recommends:

The Sign of the Chrysanthemum by Katherine Paterson
A teenager comes to know himself through contacts with social ills and political unrest while searching for his father in Japan’s capital during the Heian period.

Of Nightingales that Weep by Katherine Paterson
The vain young daughter of a samurai finds her comfortable life ripped apart when opposing warrior clans begin a struggle for imperial control of Japan.

The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler
Fourteen-year-old Seiki, a tea merchant’s son who longs to be samurai, attempts to solve the mystery of a stolen jewel

Hachiko Waits by Lesléa Newman
Professor Ueno’s loyal dog, Hachiko, waits for him at the train station every afternoon, And even after the professor has a fatal heart attack while at work, Hachiko faithfully continues to await his return until the day the dog dies. Based on a true story; includes an author’s note and glossary of Japanese words.

Booklist recommends:

Blue Fingers: A Ninja’s Tale by Cheryl Aylward Whitesel Grades 5-8. Twelve-year-old Koji’s life is transformed when he is captured in a forest and forced to attend a mysterious ninja training camp high in the mountains near his home. At first he mistrusts and is mistrusted, but soon he becomes a fully trained “blade of grass” and takes part in dangerous raids against a corrupt lord. The most engaging passages of the novel describe these raids and the warriors’ sometimes brutal training regime: infants’ joints are temporarily unhinged to accustom them to pain, increase their overall agility, and allow them to hide in unlikely places. Whitesel includes a lot for readers who like action stories, but she also delivers enough ninjutsu philosophy to give older middle-graders something to think about. An author’s note provides interesting insight into the mystery surrounding ninjas and explains their evolution from fighting farmers to dark-garbed terrors in the night. Includes a glossary of Japanese terms.

The Master Puppeteer by Katharine Paterson. Who is the man called Sabura, the mysterious bandit who robs the rich and helps the poor? And what is his connection with Yosida, the harsh and ill-tempered master of feudal Japan’s most famous puppet theater? Young Jiro, an apprentice to Yosida, is determined to find out, even at risk to his own life. Meanwhile, Jiro devotes himself to learning puppetry. Kinshi, the puppet master’s son, tutors him. When his sheltered life at the theater is shattered by mobs of hungry, rioting peasants, Jiro becomes aware of responsibilities greater that his craft. As he schemes to help his friend Kinshi and to find his own parent, Jiro stumbles onto a dangerous and powerful secret.

OK. End.

Today is National Grammar Day. (Ah, much better.) So what does that mean exactly? Well, from where I sit, it means that I am going to take extra special care to make absolutely certain my grammar is impeccable. And the best way to do that is to make this post as short as possible. Too late. I started a sentence with “And.” No good? Well, I think in today’s world it has become more acceptable. As long as you don’t use it at the beginning of LOTS of sentences!

But… what about but?

Just like “and,” please use “but” sparingly to begin your sentences. But I didn’t mean for this to turn into a long, boring post about but and and. And now things are starting to get out of hand. And the ands are piling up. But I can’t stop. And I think I lost track of me grammar and are reverting back to the badness that did started this whole thing. Ack! OK, well happy National Grammar Day, anyway. Be kind to your commas. They save lives.

Happy Read Across America Day!

That’s right, today is the birthday of beloved children’s author, Dr. Seuss. Although the whimsical word wizard is no longer with us, we honor him each year by doing what he taught so many of us to love in our youth: reading.

So whether you’re currently engrossed in a classic novel, up to your neck in vampire fiction, hanging on to a harrowing true story of survival, ingesting and digesting today’s news, reliving yesteryear’s history, sopping up heartfelt love poems, or even just casually perusing the pages of READ magazine, we wish you well on all your wordy adventures. Wherever you may go today, whatever sea you sail, savor this slice of life we call reading and befriend every great white, literary whale. For “you have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.”

But before we go…

Let’s have a little talk about tweetle beetles….
What do you know about tweetle beetles?

Well…  When tweetle beetles fight, it’s called a tweetle beetle battle.
And when they battle in a puddle, it’s a tweetle beetle puddle battle.

AND when tweetle beetles battle with paddles in a puddle, they call it a tweetle beetle puddle paddle battle.
AND…  When beetles battle beetles in a puddle paddle battle and the beetle battle puddle is a puddle in a bottle… …they call this a tweetle beetle bottle puddle paddle battle muddle.
AND…  When beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles and the bottle’s on a poodle and the poodle’s eating noodles… …they call this a muddle puddle tweetle poodle beetle noodle bottle paddle battle.

It’s true. I swear. Reading is amazing. Yah!

Charlotte’s Web
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
The Cat in the Hat
The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe
The Golden Compass

(Technical note: podcast will work best in Internet Explorer or Safari.)

My Childhood Home I See Again
- by Abraham Lincoln, 1846

My childhood home I see again,
And gladden with the view;
And still as mem’ries crowd my brain,
There’s sadness in it too–
O memory! thou mid-way world
‘Twixt Earth and Paradise;
Where things decayed, and loved ones lost
In dreamy shadows rise–
And freed from all that’s gross or vile,
Seem hallowed, pure, and bright,
Like scenes in some enchanted isle,
All bathed in liquid light–
As distant mountains please the eye,
When twilight chases day –
As bugle-tones, that, passing by,
In distance die away –
As leaving some grand water-fall
We ling’ring list it’s roar,
So memory will hallow all
We’ve known, but know no more–
Now twenty years have passed away,
Since here I bid farewell
To woods, and fields, and scenes of play
And school-mates loved so well–
Where many were, how few remain
Of old familiar things!
But seeing these to mind again
The lost and absent brings–
The friends I left that parting day –
How changed as time has sped!
Young child hood grown, strong manhood grey,
And half of all are dead–
I hear the lone survivors tell
How nought from death could save,
Till every sound appears a knell
And every spot a grave–
I range the fields with pensive tread,
I pace the hollow rooms;
And feel (companion of the dead)
I’m living in the tombs–²
A here’s an object more of dread,
Than ought the grave contains–
A human-form, with reason fled
While wretched life remains–
Poor Matthew! Once of genius bright,–
A fortune-favored child–
Now locked for age, in mental night,
A haggard mad-man wild–
Poor Matthew! I have ne’er forgot
When first with maddened will,
Yourself you maimed, your father fought,
And mother strove to kill;
And terror spread, and neighbors ran,
Your dang’rous strength to bind;
And soon a howling crazy man,
Your limbs were fast confined–
How then you writhed and shrieked aloud,
Your bones and sinews bared;
And fiendish on the gaping crowd,
With burning eye-balls glared–
And begged, and swore, and wept, and prayed,
With maniac laughter joined–
How fearful are the signs displayed,
By pangs that kill the mind!
And when at length, tho, dreer and long,
Time soothed your fiercer woes –
How plantively your mournful song,
Upon the still night rose–
I’ve heard it oft, as if I dreamed,
Far-distant, sweet, and lone;
The funeral dirge, it ever seemed
Of reason dead and gone–
To drink it’s strains I’ve stole away,
All silently and still,
Ere yet the rising god of day
Had streaked the Eastern hill–
Air held his breath, the trees all still
Seemed sorr’wing angels round:
Their swelling tears in dew-drops fell
Upon the list’ning ground–
But this is past, and nought remains
That raised you o’er the brute–
Your mad’ning shrieks and soothing strains
Are like forever mute–
Now fare thee well: more thou the cause
Than subject now of woe.
All mental pangs, by time’s kind laws,
Hast lost the power to know–
And now away to seek some scene
Less painful than the last –
With less of horror mingled in
The present and the past–
The very spot where grew the bread,
That formed my bones, I see
How strange, old field, on thee to tread
And feel I’m part of thee!

Looking out
from smooth crib bars
a bird
wearing a hat
the colors so bright
yet so dim
mixing…
blurred…

My hat rack
my earliest memory
my nursery companion
he never left me
he was so
Trustworthy
Beautiful
Colorful

And now he sits
perched forever
in my brother’s room
but still…
I love him so

And as the days
grow weary
and I find
that I can’t go any further
I talk to him
he winks at me
flutters his wings
and I stroke
the smooth-painted oak
of his feathers
and I am okay.

Writing Away My Fears
By Olivia Gabel, Grade 7

Ever since I was a little girl I have been afraid of mold. One day during the second grade I had gotten a flower. I loved that flower so much. I had kept it in its vase in my bedroom for so long that it eventually started to grow mold. I was terrified of it, I could NOT stand going in my room because of it. After a while it had gotten to the point where I had to throw it away. My mother was sick in bed and my dad was at work. (I had the day off from school.) My mom couldn’t get out of bed, doctors orders, and it was my full on responsibility to walk all the way downstairs and toss it. I simply tried my hardest to avoid the subject of the flower. Whenever my mom would ask me if I had done the horrible deed, I replied with a quivering no. She had nagged me and nagged me to do it, but I never could. The flower had died a long time ago and I knew it must be done. So I gathered up my courage and grabbed the tiny glass vase and bolted downstairs and to the sink, I dumped out the water as quickly as I could and launched the flower and its remnant leaves into the trash. I remember how my hands were shaking and how I longed for the burden to be gone. As soon as I threw it away I rushed upstairs to my bed and started to cry.

Now that it is nearly five years later I have slightly overcome my fear. When I see mold on the shower curtain I shudder, but nothing more. If I ever see mold that can be removed I do it as soon as possible. If a beach towel has been wet for a while and starts to mildew I trash it immediately. But if it is something I have to touch, you better get ready, because it is now your job to take care of it. When my fish tank started to get a little bit of mold on the fake plant, I knew that it was time for the tank to be clean. Now because this time I would have to literally put my hand in the water and clean it with the siphon, I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to do it. But I watched as my dad and brother did it and I know that next time I will be able to do it, because I will have the courage.

The latest issue of READ magazine is all about King Arthur and the knights of the round table. You know the legends. You love the romance, the adventure, the magic. Well now you can put your love of Arthurian Legends to the test by writing and producing a short film and entering our video contest for a chance to win $200!

You don’t have to be a READ subscriber to enter (although it wouldn’t hurt.)* The winning entry and a few runners up will be showcased here on our blog. The deadline to enter is February 28, 2011.

See more contest details and upload your videos here.

Good luck to all!

*Must be 18 or younger to enter.