Marketing Books to Boys

One of the members of a children’s literature listserv send a query to the group.  She explained that she was writing historical fiction and that the setting of her book was the South during the Great Depression.  One of her characters was a teenage boy who was poor, athletic and used reading as his escape. … Read more

Dead Is The Door-Nail

I’ve always heard this expression as: Dead as a door-nail. A rather odd expression to begin with. So I checked on its origins. Apparently no one is absolutely sure of whence the simile came. The best scholars can theorize it is  a reference to the nails used on large wooden doors back in the middle … Read more