What if my kid (or student) hates reading? Great tips from Afoma Umesi! This one is 🔥! readingmiddlegrade.substack.com/p/what-to-do...

What if my kid doesn't like reading?

Advice from parents who raised a bookworm and a kid who couldn't care less, sometimes in the same house.

readingmiddlegrade.substack.com

Okay librarians there’s FINALLY a book coming for all those kiddos who want a sports novel about volleyball. DOUBLES is the first book in a new series by T. Z. Layton who wrote The Academy soccer series. This one’s gonna cause a stampede during sixth grade library.

Writers, watch this. It is SPOT ON and hilarious. (And let's be honest: This is also me, as I just sent off a third revision of some layouts to a designer . . .)

Elle Cordova@ellecordova.bsky.social · last wk.

Rough Draft vs Final Draft

As a tribute to Dolly, why not donate a book? Leave one is a free library. Give one to a friend or neighbor or child. Buy one for a teacher’s wishlist. If you have book donation ideas, add them to this thread. Dolly would love to see people getting books!

If a big film studio rents out the library at your school for filming and said library needs new books, I think part of the arrangement (the rental money goes to the district and not to the actual school) should be that the big film studio funds new books in the library it closed to actual students

Extraordinarily beautiful and more than a little wise, now you can convert your verse loving science haters and convert your science hating poetry-lovers, all in one fell swoop. #kidlit 📚👍 afuse8production.slj.com/2026/08/20/r...

Review of the Day: Fourteen Ways of Looking at Jellyfish by Carole Boston Weatherford, ill. Bagram Ibatoulline - A Fuse #8 Production

Extraordinarily beautiful and more than a little wise, now you can convert your verse loving science haters and convert your science hating poetry-lovers, all in one fell swoop.

afuse8production.slj.com

If, as adults, we're not demonstrating that reading is an enjoyable and worthwhile activity, how can we expect kids to want to engage in it, too? How can they learn to love reading if it's a chore or torturous assignment fought over or rushed through to get to something else? Get caught reading.

New from 404 Media: we solved which AI company is buying massive shipments of rare books, scanning and destroying them to train AI. We put an Apple AirTag in a rare book, followed it. It ended up at an Amazon facility. Its logo is a dinosaur ripping through a book www.404media.co/we-tracked-a...

We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility

We placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books.

404media.co

Remember also there is a huge push from the right to defund and destroy public education in the United States, and "AI" destroying literacy skills under the guide of "helping students" is absolutely going to help that.

Hello 👋🏻 We are here in ✨Pinnacle Bank Arena✨ for No. 1 Nebraska’s Red-White Scrimmage. Expect four sets, most likely. For those at home, you can tune to: 📺: Nebraska Public Media 💻: B1G+ 📻: Huskers Radio Network

It turns out that the contact form on my website has been malfunctioning for the last few months. It should now be working. If you sent me a message during that time, I won't have received it. Could you perhaps send it to me again?

Game day in Lincoln! 🏐: Red-White Scrimmage 📺: NPM 💻: B1G+ 🕒: 3 p.m. CT 🏟️: Pinnacle Bank Arena

An ARC giveaway ! Please comment to enter. Sharing would be appreciated 🙏🏻🙏🏻 Ends 8/18 #mglit #kidlit #Howtobuildamiracle #mgGrit #CapeCod

Following an eight-month renovation, Nebraska volleyball returned to practice at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.

'Like a football facility': Nebraska volleyball raves about renovated Devaney Sports Center

omaha.com

New AI toolbars and prompts are showing up in Google Docs and Gmail. If you don’t want Gemini’s help in writing documents and emails, here’s how to turn that stuff off. www.wired.com/story/how-to...

How to Disable the AI Features in Gmail and Google Docs

New AI toolbars and prompts are showing up in Google Docs and Gmail. If you don’t want Gemini’s help in writing documents and emails, here’s how to turn that stuff off.

wired.com

Many of us have been saying… Refusing to write with/by AI is absolutely a necessary “act of resistance against an ever-dumber world” (not to mention against the tech companies and powers that want to make us pliable, unthinking slaves)

Opinion | I’m Begging You: Never Write With A.I. (Gift Article)

It’s bad for your brain and worse for democracy.

nytimes.com

It is funny that as more people get duped by AI, the response more frequently seems to be to insist that the models are developing godlike intelligence and we all need to be sooo careful when the real lesson is clearly that the human psyche can get absolutely one-shotted by personalized flattery

Here are all of the Nebraska positional previews for the 2026 season. Setter: roundtable.io/sports/ncaa/... Middle Blocker: roundtable.io/sports/ncaa/... Opposite: roundtable.io/sports/ncaa/... Libero/Defensive Specialist: roundtable.io/sports/ncaa/... Outside Hitter: roundtable.io/sports/ncaa/...

Nebraska Volleyball Position Previews: Outside Hitter

After elevating her game last year, Harper Murray leads a deep position group poised for a breakout campaign.

roundtable.io

Ask me how happy I am that someone sold me an ANCIENT laptop (for less than it costs to eat out) that has pre-AI word processing and flash-drive storage. I never use AI, but the time save of not having to figure out how to shut it off is amazing. I’m going to be sad when it dies.

Man Typing on Retro Computer

Alt: Man Typing on Retro Computer

static.klipy.com

What happens when media companies buy each other and let AI run the show. Second day in a row with a Nebraska header over news from another state. That said, enjoy your guac people of St. Louis, I wish you well.

Omaha World-Herald@owhnews.bsky.social · 2mo ago

GuacoTaco brings a fun, personal touch to Mexican fare in Manchester, while Sobremesa is generically dull in St. Charles.

So which actor gets to voice the character ‘giving tree’?

Jesse Hawken@jessehawken.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Studio execs are going to want to adapt more poems for the big screen now

If you have type-O positive blood and you can manage it, please consider donating blood *as soon as possible* - this is a very bad situation.

public health guy@publichealthguy1.bsky.social · 2mo ago

yikes

New email address to watch out for: laurazatsheadwaterliterarymana@gmail.com is NOT me and is soliciting manuscripts and funneling them to an editorial service. I always do my dev eds myself 💅

Laura Zats@lzats.bsky.social · 3mo ago

It’s not the first time it’s happened, but apparently some scammer is going ham this week pretending to be me. They’re using the address laurazatsheadwaterliterary@gmail.com.

Last week of vacation. One last trip to the library.

At libraries around the country, "Avoiding AI" workshops have elicited unprecedented demand.

Librarians are hosting viral 'Avoiding AI' workshops for people who are fed up with Big Tech | TechCrunch

At libraries around the country, "Avoiding AI" workshops have elicited unprecedented demand.

techcrunch.com

My feeds in August are 50% teachers complaining about silly games admin makes them play to start school… And 50% teachers selling packets of silly games for students to start school… If we don’t like it, they don’t either.

Abster Abstract

Alt: Green penguin holding a mirror on a pink background with title Look In the Mirror.

static.klipy.com

POSITION PREVIEW: Virginia Adriano is poised to build on a solid debut season while Ryan Hunter and Jayden Robinson also factor into the opposite position for the Huskers in 2026. roundtable.io/sports/ncaa/...

Nebraska Volleyball Position Previews: Opposite

Adriano emerged as a solid contributor in her first season with the Huskers, while Hunter and Robinson add depth on the right pin.

roundtable.io

My read for today: BLADE by Wendy Walker. I hear echoes of the nonfiction book from the 90’s - Little Girls in Pretty Boxes.

Seeking advice from fellow Celtic harpists: I have been unsuccessful in trying to order a replacement tuning key (original got lost during move). Online shops I found don't ship to Canada. Tried getting one from Amazon but it was the wrong size. Advice welcome! Photo for ref: my harp (before move).

Regarding my avatar: Tollers are cute, but very smart. Examples: pulls out kitchen drawers, scales them like a mountain climber, eats what is on counter Lever door knobs: no problem Stormy weather: escorts self to basement shelter Time to come in: he’ll take that under consideration, no promises