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This is Us is on hiatus until September and we’re jonesing for a Pearson fix, stat. Short of writing some pretty elaborate fanfic about Randall, Kate, and Kevin or rewatching seasons one and two on Hulu, there’s not a whole lot we can do to fill the gaping hole in our hearts, right? Not true. As This is Us fans and literary connoisseurs, we’re in the that sweeping family drama sweet spot. So, snuggle into the couch with one of these incredible novels, guaranteed to tug at your heartstrings and maybe – maybe! – produce a few This is Us worthy tears.

R. L. Stine was a man ahead of his time. In the early ‘90s, he started a children’s horror series that would go on to sell over 400 billion copies worldwide. His success was largely due to an impressive ability to connect with children: the cover art alone was like visual candy (credit Tim Jacobus). The first chapter reeled us in with something relatable (sibling rivalry). And the next thing we knew, we were under the covers, frantically hoping Carly Beth could escape the Halloween mask before it was stuck on her forever (The Haunted Mask, 1993).

There was one other aspect of Stine’s formula that was critical to his success: the titles. By his own admission, this was the first thing he’d come up with before starting a new book. And while most of them seem pretty silly, a strange pattern reveals itself once you review them as a whole. Stine wasn’t just writing horror for kids. He was writing about the horror of being a kid. In fact, most of his titles perfectly summarize the single most terrifying thing his readers were going through at that time: puberty.

It’s a busy time in the poetry world, with April being National Poetry Month, Shakespeare’s birthday (maybe) and death day (for sure) observed on April 23, and National Poem in Your Pocket Day on April 26. To celebrate the last of these, here are a few poems you might want to keep in your pocket for inspiration this Thursday…

We love reimagining books as something else. (Have you read our Favorite Books as Halloween Candy posts?) For Record Store Day, we're reimagining books as some of the greatest albums out there.

Photo by Pietro Jeng from Pexels

Whether you know her as Beth March, Juliet, Cosette, Julia Vaughan, or Mirabelle, we can all agree on one thing: Claire Danes is a literary dream. Her extensive resume is peppered with literary adaptations that we love. And while we’re steadfast in our belief that the book is always better, we would happily watch Claire Danes embody our favorite characters for hours on end. 

If you’re anything like us, you think about Back to the Future all the time. Your mornings are spent coming up with complex Doc Brown-inspired dog care contraptions. “Heavy” is your favorite piece of discarded slang. And every time you hear Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode,” you’re transported back to the Enchantment Under the Sea dance. We’re celebrating the upcoming release of Kim Smith’s beautifully illustrated Back to the Future by honoring a few '80s products we haven’t thought of in years – products paramount to the original Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale film.