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As if your status of Book Nerd wasn’t high enough – what with your endless bookshelves, strange priorities to buy books over groceries, and constant chatter about what this character did in that book – bring your new pet into the fold with a deeply literary or historical name. Pick a perfectly bookish name in honor of your favorite character!

We’ve all been there: you’re in the middle of a road trip and everyone agrees to stop and spend the night somewhere. Or, you miss your flight home from a vacation and have to stay at the nearest hotel. In situations like these, if you haven’t planned ahead you may find yourself with less than ideal accommodations. 

The next time you find yourself pulling off the highway and up to a hotel that looks like it hasn’t been updated since last century, follow The Complete Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook to make your one star room feel at least like one and a half star one.

Hey there, kids (and kids-masquerading-as-adults)! Have you ever pretended to be a spy? Don’t lie, of course you have. For one thing, spies have gadgets, and gadgets make you cool. I bet you didn’t know you could make your own secret agent devices at home, though!

In the Nick and Tesla series, “Science Bob” Pflugfelder and Steve Hockensmith combine creative inventions with thrilling adventure stories. The third book in the series, Nick and Tesla’s Secret Agent Gadget Battle, just released on May 6. And now you can try out your own snooping skills by making your own Fingerprint-Finder System! Read on to learn how, and to enter a giveaway to win the first three books!

(By the way, you can visit NickandTesla.com to learn more about the books, watch Science Bob in action, and submit your own gadget-making projects.)

Some of the world’s most well-known fairy tales were written by Hans Christian Andersen. It’s no wonder his beloved short stories have survived since the early 1800s and have been told and re-told in countless different formats. However, some of the most memorable versions of these stories have come from Disney. With major adaptations such as The Little Mermaid and Frozen (a loose adaptation of The Snow Queen), Disney brought these stories to life for children everywhere. But what other Andersen tales should Disney bring to life? We've got a few suggestions.

Back when we wrote Signing Their Rights Away, a Quirk book about the signers of the U.S. Constitution, we visited Philadelphia’s famous Christ Church Burial Ground, the final resting place of some Declaration and Constitution signers. Tourists typically make a beeline for Ben Franklin’s grave. Most never think to check out the stone of Major William Jackson—even if they’d know where to find it.

Jackson was the official secretary to the Constitutional Convention back in 1787, and served as George Washington’s “writing-aide” during that summer-long session to craft the U.S. Constitution. Jackson’s signature appears in the bottom-left corner of the U.S. Constitution. Since he was not a delegate from a particular state, historians don’t regard him as an official signer of the document. But people sometimes call him the “40^th signer”—in quotes.

Jackson has laid in the Christ Church’s Burial Ground since his death in 1828, but the stone on his grave (and that of his wife Elizabeth) has, over time, suffered damage and erosion. (See photo here.) Historians at the church recently did some detective work among their records to identify the precise location of the Jacksons’ grave. They then donated their own money to commission a new plaque, which will be installed and dedicated this weekend, Sunday, May 18.

The event is open to the public, so come check it out: 1:00 pm at

Christ Church Burial Ground, 5^th and Arch Streets, in Quirk’s hometown of Philadelphia, PA.