MightyWriters

My Uncle Joe plays the drums, the violin and the guitar
I think that’s all he plays
He played the guitar
and sang to me on my birthday

I see my Uncle Joe on the weekends and on Tuesdays
His songs make me feel happy
and sometimes sad too!
Do any of your uncles make you happy and sad too?

Once when my Uncle Joe sang a song to me
it made me cry and cry and cry
The song was making me cry
because it sounded so great to me!

I like my Uncle Joe and his songs too
He is fun to be around
His clothes are almost like my Dad’s clothes.

—Shirl Holt

A cartoon by the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Tony Auth published Tuesday portraying South Philadelphia High principal LaGreta Brown asleep at her desk—a reference to the charge that the school’s leadership was in disarray on Dec. 3 when Asian students were beaten in a series of well-publicized attacks—drew a swift and sharp response from a number of Brown supporters yesterday at a School Reform Commission yesterday.

According to a story in today’s Inquirer, J. Whyatt Mondesire, head of the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP, called the cartoon “disgusting,” and said “the Inquirer should be ashamed of what it did to Mrs. Brown.”

Fueling the fire, Inquirer publisher Brian Tierney fired back: “In a battle of credibility between Jerry Mondesire and Tony Auth, I’m going to go with Tony Auth all the time.”

Philadelphia Inquirer story here
KYW post here

Click here!

“Treat Her Right,” Roy Head

According to a story in the LA Times, grown-
ups are increasingly reading young adult books—
attracted by “well-written, fast-paced and enga-
ging stories.”

The LA Times story makes quite the case: young adult
stories are more fun, have better plots, etc., etc.

David Levithan, the editorial director and vice president
of Scholastic, is quoted thusly: ”You go on the sub-
way and see 40-year-old stockbrokers reading
‘Twilight.’”

Really?

Read here.

“You gotta admit, sometimes Margene is just a plain airhead.”

—Ginnifer Goodwin (Margene in “Big Love”)

Your e-dition of Mighty Times, right here, ladies and germs!

Hard copies available at Mighty Writers World Headquarters now!

Big shout-out to our friends at Bartash Printing!

“Building a Better Teacher,” by Elizabeth Green
Excerpt: “But what makes a good teacher? There have been many quests for the one essential trait, and they have all come up empty-handed. Among the factors that do not predict whether a teacher will succeed: a graduate-school degree, a high score on the SAT, an extroverted personality, politeness, confidence, warmth, enthusiasm and having passed the teacher-certification exam on the first try. When Bill Gates announced recently that his foundation was investing millions in a project to improve teaching quality in the United States, he added a rueful caveat. ‘Unfortunately, it seems the field doesn’t have a clear view of what characterizes good teaching,’ Gates said. ‘I’m personally very curious.’” New York Times

“Book Tour? More Like a Safari,” by Carolyn Kellogg
Excerpt: “As the business of publishing changes, book tours increasingly look like bad risks. ‘In 99.9% of cases,’ says Peter Miller, director of publicity at Bloomsbury USA, ‘you can’t justify the costs through regular book sales… Book tours used to be about local media. ‘You would go to these places to get reviews, interviews, TV and radio,’ Miller explains, but with print outlets closing down and cutting coverage and new technologies enabling long-distance video interviews, ‘it is becoming less important to do that kind of tour.’” LA Times