School Librarians have been among Shmoop’s greatest advocates (and constructive critics). So, it was a treat for us to spend the day with hundreds of Teacher Librarians from around California. The theme of this year’s CSLA conference was “serendipity.” Ellen shared her “5 Rules of Serendipity” and spoke about the critical role that Teacher Librarians play as mentors, researchers, guidance counselors, and police officers of the digital revolution inside their schools.

- Within five years, textbooks will be the biggest market for e-book devices, dwarfing sales to casual readers, predicts Sarah Epps, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc.

- E-textbooks accounted for about 3 percent of total U.S. college textbook spending during the current school semester, according to Student Monitor LLC in Ridgewood, New Jersey. Digital textbooks may reach 20 percent of total textbook sales in five years, CourseSmart’s Lyman said.

“Print will expire faster in the textbook world than in the trade book world,” Epps said. “The technical barriers will disappear and five years is enough for the content to catch up with demand. The potential is there.”

My, How We’ve Grown! Did You Know:

• Shmoop is the #1 High School educational publisher on the Amazon Kindle, with 300+ titles currently available
• Shmoop is the #2 educational App developer for iPhone/iPod, with 250+ Apps currently available

Full Article: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=azBjsoux51D4

Food, friends, naps, and good conversation. What could be better than that? Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks with the people we love. We at Shmoop have decided to invite our best friends to our Turkey Day feast – we’re grateful for them, after all.

Now, we just have to figure out who is going to sit next to whom:

These dinner guests will get along like – you know – peas and carrots, ice cream and pie, Aunt Nene’s green jello and marshmallows (how the heck does she get those marshmallows to float, anyway?)…

1. Scout Finch and Huck Finn:
Watch a childhood crush develop as Scout and Huck share exploits, plan adventures, and show each other their slingshots. When nobody’s looking, they’ll steal the silverware, find treasures in the hole of a neighbor’s tree, and meet up with Jim on the river.

2. Holden Caulfield and Hamlet:
These two sensitive, maladjusted young men should have enough in common to keep them talking the whole night. Both privileged? Check. Both lovesick? Check! Both despise liars and phonies? Check! Both going to tackle the world’s hypocrisy head-on? Checkmate!… Whenever they can get around to it, anyway.

3. Grendel and Luna Lovegood:
Letting Grendel into the room is a fast way to kill a good dinner party, so don’t seat him next to anyone faint-of-heart or vegetarian. The un-fazeable Luna Lovegood will make Grendel feel right at home by asking him all about mythical monsters and swapping tales of run-ins with humankind. And if Luna’s magic wand can’t keep Grendel in check, maybe her radish earrings will.

4. Porphyria’s Lover and Madame DeFarge:
Porphyria’s Lover is a passionate, poetic, thinky-feely kind of guy who likes long walks on the beach and staying up all night to admire the corpse of a strangled girlfriend. None of your other guests will want to get near him, so throw him in a corner and use Madame DeFarge as a buffer zone. Her attitude? Bring it!

5. Alice and The Walrus:
Who has a better resume for spending an evening with The Walrus? Alice has extensive singing-walrus experience from traveling through the Looking-Glass, and with her mind so radically opened by her adventures in Wonderland, she’ll be the only guest who has any idea what “cu-cu-cachoo” means.

Only the brave host would seat these duos together. If the mashed potatoes start flying, don’t say that we didn’t warn you…

1. Edgar Allan Poe and Ulysses S. Grant:
Nothing is more embarrassing than watching friends and family getting blitzed at a dinner party. Poe liked his absinthe and Grant was a reported alcoholic, so if you want to give your other guests a fighting chance at the wine, make sure to stick these two at opposite ends of the table.

2. Jay Gatsby and The Giver:
Letting these two get on a roll is bound to make everyone depressed. Everything was better in the good old days, they’ll tell you: the men had more hopeful futures, the women were more loving – heck, even the colors were brighter!

3. J. Alfred Prufrock and Teddy Roosevelt:
Blankets don’t get much wetter than J. Alfred Prufrock, so be careful not to seat him next to a carouser like Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy was so famously high-energy that when he invited a foreign ambassador to join him for a day of sports, the ambassador is said to have collapsed from exhaustion.

4. Hedda Gabler and The Misfit:
Sometimes, having too much in common can be a bad thing. Hedda Gabler is bored, manipulative housewife who breaks up relationships, destroys careers, and encourages people to commit suicide for entertainment. Similarly, The Misfit is an escaped convict who murders an entire family along the roadside because he wants to do something mean before the police catch him. The last thing these two need, aside from cutlery, is an evening picking each other’s brains.

5. Emily Dickinson and Boo Radley:
The only thing worse than a conversation gone wrong is no conversation at all. These two notorious recluses might not be the liveliest guests at the table. But, who knows, maybe they would hit it off after passing soap carvings and crumpled-up poems to each other under the table.

Brady Wood, VP of Shmoop, gave this talk at the iNACOL Virtual School Symposium in Austin, Texas.

The talk include 15 of our favorite websites that High School English teachers can use either with students or for their own professional learning.

2 teachers in Palm Beach, Florida demonstrate and review Shmoop. Lee Keller says, “this is one of the best educational sites I’ve ever seen.”

This Halloween, scare up some fun with these history- and lit-inspired costumes:

1. Put on a three-corner hat and cape, pull a cardboard boat around your waist, and pose as George Washington crossing the Delaware during the American Revolution.

2. Dress up as Benjamin Franklin with a kite and singed hair. Be careful around the French maids.

3. Pretend to hitchhike as Christopher Columbus with a sign that says “India or bust.”

4. Dress up like Abe Lincoln – with two tickets in his breast pocket.

5. Test people’s knowledge of US history trivia by putting on a turn-of-the-century suit, carrying some bags of fake money, and painting your nose purple. Yes, JP Morgan really did have a purple nose.

6. Try a scandalous costume for a trio: Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy, and John F. Kennedy.

7. Wear a suit and a Richard Nixon mask. Carry a hallowed-out pumpkin filled with film. You’re reenacting the “Pumpkin Papers,” in which future President Richard Nixon used to take down Soviet spy Alger Hiss in one of the Cold War’s most notorious espionage cases.

8. Dress up as Betsy Ross with a half-finished American flag. Include a rainbow flag, a pirate flag, and yellow smiley face among your book of samples.

9. Sport your finest 1920s-style outfit, a plastic Tommy gun, a cigar, and your best Al Capone accent. Rave about the merits of the 18th Amendment and Prohibition.

10. Roll up your sleeves and get ready to flex those guns. Rosie the Riveter is one of the best “girl power” costumes in history. (World War II: Home Front)

Ten Literature & Poetry-Inspired Halloween Costumes

1. Bust out the Photoshop to make an “oil painting” of yourself aged about 50 years. Frame it, put on your best Victorian-style outfit, and trick-o-treat as Dorian Gray. (The Picture of Dorian Gray)

2. Go on a hunt after your friend who is dressed as a white whale with bloodshot eyes. Chase the whale around the streets with a toy harpoon in hand. Rant and rave to strangers about catching the whale. (Moby-Dick)

3. Dress up like a grizzled old sailor, rave unintelligibly, and hang a fake albatross around your neck à la “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”

4. Put on a collared shirt, a tie, a long coat, and a red hunting hat. Carry a record under your arm and collect candy as Holden Caulfield. (The Catcher in the Rye)

5. See who gets the Scout Finch reference when you walk around barefoot with a banged-up ham costume and knife slash through the back. (To Kill a Mockingbird)

6. Put on a straw hat and some ratty old clothes, pull a cardboard canoe around your waist, and try your luck as Huckleberry Finn. Don’t be afeared to use *some* Antebellum Missouri slang. (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)

7. Pay your dues to George Orwell by dressing up like a pig brandishing a liquor bottle and insisting that “two legs are better than four.” (Animal Farm)

8. Put on a long, plain dress and plaster a scarlet “A” to the front. Get your friend to dress like a priest. (The Scarlet Letter)

9. Dress up like Lady Macbeth and try to scrub imagined bloodstains off your hands. Rinse, repeat. (Macbeth)

10. For a truly terrifying Halloween costume, give your kid brother face paint, some tattered rags, a conch shell, and a (fake) pig head on a stake. Don’t let him see that you’ve got glasses. (The Lord of the Flies) 

Share Your Costumes and Ideas

• Post your ideas in the Comments, below
• Post your photos on our Facebook Page

October is LGBT* History Month and Shmoop invites you to meet LGBT characters and writers throughout literature and history. Check out the following reads for some different perspectives on LGBT history.

*(lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender)

In Shmoop Literature

Giovanni’s Room: A controversial semi-autobiographical novel about an African-American man coming to terms with his homosexuality… in pre-Civil-Rights-Movement, nineteen-fifties America. Talk about the wrong place at the wrong time.

The Merchant of Venice: Shakespeare’s classic play about two merchants and a pound of flesh raises questions about why Antonio (one merchant) gives up so much for his beloved friend Bassanio.

The Color Purple: There’s something to be said for an extremely unfortunate black woman making the most of her situation by standing up to her dirtbag husband. Oh yeah, and running off with his mistress.

Brideshead Revisited: Meet Anthony Blanche, the literary forefather of hilariously over-the-top dandies who you might meet today on Ugly Betty or Glee.

Orlando: A classic love story about a man who falls for an androgynous Russian princess only to have his heart broken, move to Constantinople, spontaneously transform into a woman, run away with a band of gypsies, and ultimately return to England and marry a sea captain, all in the space of 4 short centuries.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: The story of a repressed man struggling with his gay identity. Interestingly, the film version (starring gay icon Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman), repressed the gay storyline due to a 1930s law (the Hays Code) that prohibited any mention of homosexuality in motion pictures.

In Shmoop Poetry

Howl: All we can say here is wowsa. It’s been fifty years, but gay Beat poet Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” hasn’t lost any of its shock value – or its cultural significance. The poem’s graphic depictions of sex stirred a legal battle that launched the Beat movement into the public consciousness.

In Shmoop Biography

Tennessee Williams: Growing up gay in the American South in the 1930s wasn’t easy. Williams often explored sexual identity, repression, and homophobic elements of society in his Pulitzer Prize-winning career as a playwright.

Virginia Woolf: Woolf explored themes of bisexuality and open relationships both in her writing (see Orlando) and in her personal life.

In Shmoop Civics

Equal Protection: Wanna know why women can’t be drafted? Or why California laws about having sex with minors used to be more stringent for men than for women? Or why state laws affecting the LGBT community must meet fewer requirements than those affecting women or African-Americans? Then take a look at the history of Equal Protection and its sometimes unequal application.

‘Tis the season of the ultimate heart-thumping adrenaline rush. Ghost stories, haunted houses, Children of the Corn. We’ve got the literary epinephrine that will make this a most memorable Halloween.

Edgar Allan Poe
This Halloween, take the time to meet the madness behind the method: the drugs, the alcohol, the womanizing, and the mental instability behind one of the greatest scary-story tellers of all time. On a much creepier note, Poe also had Jerry Lee Lewis beat by about a century when he married his 13-year old cousin, Virgina, at the age of 27.

Dracula
The classic tale of Count Dracula is so tattooed on our culture (see: Sesame Street) that we sometimes forget to, you know, actually read the thing. We even forget that the tale draws on folklore about a wealthy count whose greed symbolically sucked the life force out of the peasant class. Horror story and social commentary all in one? Delicious.

Frankenstein
You know that pale green, square-headed, blood-drooling, zombie-like monster you always see at Halloween? Well, his name isn’t Frankenstein. Victor Frankenstein is actually the brilliant Swiss scientist who creates the creepy creature. But when you read the book, ask yourself: who is the real monster?

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The classic tale of a well-respected man who, upon drinking a strange brew in the evening, turns into a different person and goes crazy all night.

The Turn of the Screw
If you’re a fan of The Shining, The Omen, Children of the Corn, The Sixth Sense, or The Others, you’ll be glad to know that this story gave rise to the Creepy Children genre. Published in 1898, it tells about a nanny who may be the victim of a haunting. Or, she might be a deranged murderer. OR, the kids might just be two royal pains in the ass. You decide.

The Tell-Tale Heart
Edgar Allen Poe could spin a scary story like nobody’s business. This tale is a psychological masterpiece about the meticulous process of killing an old man.

The Red Room
The Gothic counterpart to Cream’s “The White Room,” only with more ghosts and fewer lava lamps.

The Picture of Dorian Gray
If you think the photo albums tucked away in your attic are incriminating, get a load of this guy. Dorian Gray sells his soul to Satan so that over time, his portrait ages while he remains young and beautiful and oh-so very wicked. In a very Voldemort-ey turn of events, however, he discovers that if you put your life force into an object, you might want to keep an eye on it.

“The Raven”
The classic tale of a lonely man whose imagination runs wild when a raven flies into his house. (Quoth the reader: Shut the door!!)

“Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
Speaking of birds that will scare the crap out of you, the “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is a complicated poem about a sailor that endures the wrath of the sea by shooting his ship’s good-luck albatross. Time to re-think that B.B. gun.

“My Last Duchess”
Buckle up for a wild ride as this unnamed Duke shows you the portrait of his former Duchess, who got the axe – probably literally – for “smiling” too much. And you thought modern art was scary.

“Porphyria’s Lover”
Here’s another one for the ladies. This poem is about a man who strangles his lover with her own hair and then spends the night admiring her corpse. The fact that it is written in the first person gives it that extra something, so be sure to read it to your friends.

Twilight
The first in the hit series of about high school, first love, and… vampirism? Upon arriving at a new school, Bella Swan meets the mysterious Edward Cullen, who’s gorgeous, freakishly strong, and happens to be a vampire. A forbidden (and logistically-problematic) relationship ensues. Think Romeo and Juliet, except one of them’s already dead and drinks blood.

New Moon
In Book Two of the Twilight series, Edward mysteriously dumps Bella, leaving us to agonize over the will-he’s and won’t-she’s of what could be called teen love (if it weren’t for the fact that Edward is a century years old).

What’s on your list? Add your suggestions below in the comments.

Drumroll please. Shmoop introduces our 8th subject,
Shmoop Music.

The same website that compared 19th century literature to Gossip Girl and called Emily Dickinson a packrat takes on Kurt Cobain and John Lennon.

Remember VH1’s Pop-Up Video and how sweet it was to snack on juicy trivia as you watched a music video? Shmoop Music takes things to a whole new level. Whet your whistle on some of the most influential songs of all time. Drink in the songs you know and can’t get enough of. We offer shocking backstories and gritty details, and we explore the meaning of the lyrics, the music, and the songwriting.

Music is a delicious treat for finicky young intellectual palates. Music can help your students find an appetite for poetry, literature, and history. What better way to assuage student fears about poetry than to begin with an analysis of Bob Marley’s lyrics?

Don’t See Your Favorite? We’re Just Getting Started. Shmoop Takes Requests

• Subterranean Homesick Blues (Bob Dylan)
• Concrete Jungle (Bob Marley and the Wailers)
• Livin’ on a Prayer (Bon Jovi)
• Born in the USA (Bruce Springsteen)
• Life on Mars (David Bowie)
• Welcome to the Jungle (Guns N’ Roses)
• Purple Haze (Jimi Hendrix)
• Blaze of Glory (Jon Bon Jovi)
• Through the Wire (Kanye West)
• Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin)
• Famous Blue Raincoat (Leonard Cohen)
• Sweet Home Alabama (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
• Paper Planes (M.I.A.)
• Like a Prayer (Madonna)
• Kids (MGMT)
• Head Like a Hole (Nine Inch Nails)
• Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)
• When Doves Cry (Prince)
• Fake Plastic Trees (Radiohead)
• Paranoid Android (Radiohead)
• Samson (Regina Spektor)
• I Am the Walrus (The Beatles)
• I Want to Hold Your Hand (The Beatles)
• Roxanne (The Police)
• Heroin (The Velvet Underground)
• Free Fallin’ (Tom Petty)
• One (U2)

Letters like this make the hard work worthwhile. Stick with it, Noel!

“I just wanted to say that I just found your site, and MAN DID I FIND IT LATE! this website is my dream come true, I’m 20 years old, started reading and getting into classics at about 18-19, I found a new love and it changed my life. Now I’m giving myself an education on all things dealing with writing, trying to break down, analyze and compare novels, plays, movies, it’s like my life project right now. I’m not going to college (yet) so for now I have to do all this on my own. I love this site because i don’t even have to gather any of this info myself (as I have been doing), and what’s the icing on the cake? the language used; funny, down to earth, great for a young guy like me just getting started in the reading world. I can’t tell you how much this site means to me, but I’m changing my reading list to include all the books you cover here first, so I can compare my notes with yours. Thanks again I really appreciate this site and anything I can do to help, well you have my email address.”

- Noel

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