Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Diane Magras

Jo Kershaw @mthrjo.bsky.social · 11h

Ok, did not expect “The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe” to feel quite so relevant to this moment.

Here’s Edmund, deciding to side with the leader who he’s been told disappears people.

He did want Turkish Delight and to be a prince (and later a king) and to pay Peter out for calling him a beast. As for what the Witch would do with the others, he didn't want her to be particularly nice to them - certainly not to put them on the same level as himself; but he managed to believe, or to pretend he believed, that she wouldn't do anything very bad to them, 'Because,' he said to himself, 'all these people who say nasty things about her are her enemies and probably half of it isn't true. She was jolly nice to me, anyway, much nicer than they are. I expect she is the rightful Queen really. Anyway, she'll be better than that awful Aslan!' At least, that was the excuse he made in his own mind for what he was doing. It wasn't a very good excuse, however, for deep down inside him he really knew that the White Witch was bad and cruel.

10 90 300

Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · 9d

I love seeing this quote because we're in a world where we need to remember this. We all have the potential of being good at what needs to be done to help our world be a better place. I haven't gone back and read this book for a long while, but I'm wondering now if it's even more relevant to today.

brennenarkins.bsky.social @brennenarkins.bsky.social · Dec 12

Awesome excerpt time:

"Amar?" Nora looked up at him from her blanket. "I know I'm good at this, but...I'm scared."

He found her hand. "I'm scared too - that never changes - but we'll be all right. Just remember: We're going to do this together."

- Diane Magras, SECRET OF THE SHADOW BEASTS

1 3

Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · 13d

Every once in a while, I get a Google Alert on one of my past books. this time, it was this amazing video by a young fan. To know that my work is still reaching its readers in this way is so fulfilling. (And what a great vid, too!)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEk2...

#MGLit #MiddleGradeBooks

Wacky Wednesday Review for Hunt for the Mad Wolf’s Daughter

YouTube video by Kristen Grace

www.youtube.com

1 5

Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · Aug 19

This is definitely a stellar MG to get lost in. The moral questions are fantastic, and the characters vivid and wonderful. I hope you enjoy it!

1 1

Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · Aug 18

I had so much fun reading the ARC of @sarahjmendonca.bsky.social's wonderful debut, and gobbled it up yet again when it came out! So it's out, and here's my review. (And librarians and teachers: This is one that will fly off your shelves!) #MGLit #KidLit

www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Diane Magras's review of An Encantadora's Guide to Monstros and Magic (Encantadora, #1)

5/5: This is such a delightful book. I was fortunate to read an advance copy, and read it again once it had been published, which felt like a visit to a fascinating friend. It was impossible to put do...

www.goodreads.com

1 1 5

Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · Aug 18

I have always been a huge fan of those medieval scribes' wonderful imaginations.

www.openculture.com/2025/08/why-...

Why Knights Fought Snails in Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts

The snail may leave a trail of slime behind him, but a little slime will do a man no harm... whilst if you dance with dragons, you must expect to burn. - George R. R. Martin, The Mystery Knight As an...

www.openculture.com

3

Reposted by Diane Magras

James McConnachie @jamesmcconnachie.bsky.social · May 29

What questions should writers ask? Katherine Rundell nails it in ‪@thetls.bsky.social‬

36 110

Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · May 27

Happy #BookBirthday to @amybmucha.bsky.social for her absolutely delightful new #mglit GEO'S FORTUNE, about friendship, predictions, truth, and magic in a realistic world of cool natural stones.
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/777234...

Geo's Fortune by Amy B. Mucha: 9781682636718 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

What happens when Geo's fortune-telling scheme exposes what seem to be some very real manifesting abilities? Thirteen-year-old Geo Leoni desperately needs to earn some cash this summer, fast. So she ...

www.penguinrandomhouse.com

1

Reposted by Diane Magras

Lisa Stringfellow @engagereaders.bsky.social · May 6

KINGDOM OF DUST is a 2025 Children’s Africana Book Award honoree! I had no idea!

I’m thrilled that the committee felt my West African-inspired fantasy honored and respected Nigerian culture. 🙏🏾📚

cfas.howard.edu/outreach/cab... #CABAbooks @harperkids.bsky.social #QuillTreeBooks

Children’s Africana book Award honor chapter book

Kingdom of Dust
The Smoke That Thunders
Flying Through Water

2 2 5

Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · May 6

So many congrats!!!

1 1

Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · May 6

My immediately family has no plans. We'd love to go on a lovely little vacation, but it's not worth the risk.

1 1

Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · May 6

So true. It's reached the point where I am seriously afraid of flying.

1 1

Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · May 6

And I'm grateful that she continues to be my companion for both my author job and my day job. She's been on my lap for nearly every Zoom presentation or meeting, sometimes showing her face, but often just purring quietly while I do my work and, of course, stroke that very soft and lovely ruff.

1

Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · May 6

And I think how wonderful it's been for my little boy to grow up with this very sweet cat. He was in 4th grade when we lost our first cat (to FIP), which was heartbreaking. I'm so glad that he's had the chance to enjoy the quiet independent companionship that a wonderful cat will give.

1

Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · May 6

But I also think about these past ten years and how often we've been in the same room together, three introverts doing our own thing, with Flora sleeping on one lap, then another, then playing with one of us, then climbing "Mount Mommy," as my son called it when he was small.

1

Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · May 6

I think of that often, how kind her foster owner was, but also how that foster owner had been tempted to keep her. I'm glad she let Flora go to us. For one, I suspect she'd have had trouble in a house with that many other cats. For another, she adores fish and can only take a little bit of chicken.

1

Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · May 6

When we first met her, she was a friendly but wary young mother (somehow, only 7 months old or so) who had been abandoned as a pregnant cat in TN. She was living with a very kind foster owner who had three or four other cats, in a chicken-only house due to one cat's allergies to fish.

1

Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · May 6

On Wednesday, Flora will have been part of our family, the sole cat in this house, and beloved companion of her three human subjects, for ten years. And as you can see, she has not lost a wisp of her grace and beauty.

A brown tabby cat with a ruff sits in a contemplative pose, tail curved around her, on a rust-colored throw with a window to one side and the start of a stairway and a doorway behind.

2 5

Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · May 6

A beautiful summary of David Attenborough's favorite ocean experiences: "Young children playing on a beach today will live through perhaps the most consequential time for the human species in the past 10,000 years. They will grow up to see how this story ends…"
www.thetimes.com/life-style/c...

David Attenborough at 99: ‘I will not see how the story ends’

The natural history presenter, who turns 99 this week, has an obsession with sea life that began in boyhood. Here he reflects on his most moving encounters

www.thetimes.com

2

Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · May 6

So agree. This is one of my favorite novels ever.

Lynne Perednia @perednia.bsky.social · May 6

A reason to celebrate! JAMES is a remarkable novel with a wonderful protagonist. #booksky #reading

NPR @npr.org · May 5

The 2025 Pulitzer Prizes were announced Monday afternoon. Percival Everett won the award for fiction for his novel James, a powerful re-imagination of Huckleberry Finn.

1

Reposted by Diane Magras

Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · May 4

‘The Comprehensive Bookshop” - my cartoon for this week’s @theguardian.com books.

Title: The Comprehensive Bookshop

Image: an enormous, low building fills the frame, running almost to the horizon in a featureless desert.

Captions:
A ceaseless stream of delivery trucks flows from publishers' warehouses to an ever-expanding building out in the desert. Within, hundreds of miles of shelving hold copies of every book ever published.

Customers arrive with authors or genres in mind, but the near infinite choice and maze of passages soon overwhelm them. Cars decay in the parking lot as their owners browse for months on end.

The bedraggled figures who occasionally stagger from the exit are taken to a nearby hospital, but upon recovering, inevitably "Just pop back to grab a few more books."

68 320 1.5K

Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · May 5

A starred Kirkus review for a fantastic monster-filled #MGlit heist! Check this out, friends, for another amazing book for classrooms, libraries, and kids' hands (Out on July 8, 2025): www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews...

AN ENCANTADORA'S GUIDE TO MONSTROS AND MAGIC | Kirkus Reviews

A desperate monster hunter gambles on a magical heist.

www.kirkusreviews.com

2

Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · Apr 29

That's one of the many things I think about when I hear people wishing that things would return to the way they were a year ago. We need change that goes forward, that supports the world we want to see.

1 1

Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · Apr 29

I just don't understand why our government, when the decent people were in charge, allowed this happen. It's a secret police who can do what they like, and that is against all principles of human decency.

1 1

Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · Apr 29

That is utterly terrifying and heartbreaking. This should have been stopped a long, long time ago.

1 1