Happy St. Patricks Day! 

There was some scary book news this week, or at least very disappointing news. A memo was dispersed to Chicago Public Schools asking teachers to remove all copies of Marjane Satrapi's award-winning graphic novel about the Iranian revolution, Persepolis, from classrooms and libraries. At first, CPS administrators had no comment, but after the memo went viral and groups like the ACLU got involved, they issued a letter backpedaling to say that it was misinterpreted and "all schools" was meant as only seventh grade classrooms. This article does a great roundup of the timeline. My favorite bit is when the teachers union responded with a statement about hoping the school system isn't going back in time to the 1950s. Right on. Equally scary yet absurdly hilarious is the fact that voucher schools in Louisiana are using textbooks that say, and I am not kidding, that hippies did not bathe and worshiped satan, that the KKK did great community service, and that dragons are real. Voucher schools were declared unconstitutional in December 2012 but are still functioning because the issue is up on appeal. 

Google announced this week that several of its features would be shutting down in the next few months, including Google Reader. If, like me, you have been reading some or all your blogs in Reader, there have been many posts all over the web, from tech blogs to reddit on how to find the best replacement, however, I tend to think that we should wait until July gets closer because there might be an even better alternative by then. At the very least, we can get opinions from people who have been using alternatives for months. In any case, everyone should take the time to back up their Google data. You can use their Takeout service to backup everything from your contacts to your drive files and it saves as a .zip file. After doing it for your Reader files, you'll be able to import all your subscriptions to another service. 

Some of our favorite Aussie book bloggers (Reynje from Wordchasing, Trinity from Trin in the Wind, and Mandee from Vegan YA Nerds) have joined forces to create a podcasting superteam called The Ladies of YA. They recorded and published Episode One this week and you can listen to it here or visit/follow their blog or Twitter for regular updates on forthcoming episodes. Podcasting seems to be de rigueur these days  but you'll hear no complaints from us as two more of our favorite blogs have started podcasting as well. You can listen to the first podcast from Sarah & Laura at Clear Eyes, Full Shelves here. They covered all sorts of issues but primarily talked about diversity in YA and particularly the portrayal of Asian characters. Maggie and Noelle over at YA Anonymous are old hat at podcasting (read: they've made a whopping TWO instead of one so far) but we look forward to more from them as well. Go forth and listen!

A few of our favorite authors spoke on various subjects this week: Sara Zarr talked about her upcoming book, The Lucy Variations, including the challenge of moving to a third-person narrative. (which, spoiler alert, was actually one of the reasons all three of us did not love it as much as Zarr's other work) Stacia Kane, author of the Downside Ghosts series, reposted a story from years ago about embarrassing herself when she was first starting out and met an "author" and reminded readers why writers love to hear from them. And Katherine Paterson, author of Bridge to Terabithia and Jacob Have I Loved sounded off on NPR after being awarded the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for her contribution to children's literature. 

Entertainment Weekly posted the cover for David Levithan's August release, Two Boys Kissing. Certainly this is groundbreaking in traditionally published YA and we're excited to see it, despite David Levithan's work not being our favorite. There is an accompanying interview at EW where Levithan discusses the cover process, the wo-year anniversary of his earlier Boy Meets Boy, and how his upcoming book is for a new generation. Speaking of upcoming books, Mindy Kaling announced this week that along with her show being renewed for another season, she will be writing a foll0w-up to her Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (Catie's review) 

We missed a cover reveal of interest (to us:)) last week -- that of Leila Sales' September release, This Song Will Save Your Life. All three of us read and enjoyed her 2011 release, Past Perfect and I was excited to hear that we have more to read from her in the near future. MTV did the cover reveal and there is a soundtrack to accompany the book included in the news piece. The aforementioned Aussie bloggers read and LOVED Simmone Howell's third book, Girl Defective recently so we were ecstatic to see that US publisher Atheneum picked the book up for release in the States. Jill Grinberg of the Jill Grinberg Agency sold the rights and the book is described as, "A teen noir High Fidelity, and features 15-year-old Sky Martin, her older, wilder best friend Nancy, and Sky's kid brother "Super Agent" Gully, who go to the dark heart of their Coney Island-esque suburb via teenage raves, violent fangirls, and strange, true love." Sadly, it is likely to be a 2014 release in the US so a lot of us will likely be purchasing this book from international booksellers or swapping with Aussie buds of ours. I, for one, can't wait a whole year. 

In movie news, a Kickstarter was started to fund a potential Veronica Mars movie and the goal of 2 million dollars was reached (and exceeded!) in about twelve hours. (As of early Sunday morning, the total was over $3.5 million) We're excited to see where the project goes from here, as clearly there is more interest than they anticipated. The success of the fundraising spurned a discussion about the interconnectedness of content creators, artists, actors, etc. and the consumers of their work. GalleyCat had a great piece on what's currently going on, innovation-wise and what we might see in the future. And in a very timely move, Simon & Schuster will be rereleasing Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas' YA book Rats Saw God. Another movie we're glad to see moving forward is an adaptation of Laini Taylor's amazing Daughter of Smoke & Bone, slated to be written by Stuart Beattie, who, among other projects, wrote and directed the adaptation of John Marsden's YA hit Tomorrow, When the War Began. 

More Bookish News: 

• The Random House Hydra imprint vs. SFWA feud over contract terms, which we covered in last week's O & E, is still ongoing. Publisher's Weekly reported on further developments and then on Random House changing its contract terms. 
• Fan of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries? Well perhaps you'll like this YouTube adaptation of Game of Thrones, reimagined as taking place in a  high school. Spoiler: You might recognize a familiar face or two from LBD in the cast. 
• Literary nonprofit First Book will be awarding $500,000 to Lee & Low and HarperCollins to print more multicultural books for children.