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It’s sad but true: bad moms make for great stories.

I’m not talking about the kind of bad mom who made you eat your broccoli or picked you up from a high-school dance in her pajamas. I mean the really bad mothers you (hopefully) only see in books. The ones that take such pleasure in manipulating, belittling, or just generally screwing up their offspring that you can't help but assume the author took the advice to "write like your parents are dead" to heart.

Yes, they're terrible mothers, but with every abandoned baby and murderous rampage, these women make for page-turningly compelling reading. So for Mothers' Day, let's celebrate five of these literary momsters who definitely don't deserve breakfast in bed this year. 

Here at Quirk, we love watching our books get transformed into apps when the opportunity presents itself. Check out a few examples of that, here. 

Last week, we released our latest venture into book-to-app with How to Con Your Kid. Our new friends at Papertrell did an absolutely amazing job, and you can get the app now in the App Store and via Google Play. 

To celebrate, we want to give YOU a chance to be one of the first to try the app out! We've got a Rafflecopter set up below, and you can enter to win a download code for How to Con Your Kid plus a copy of the original book. Winners will be contacted via email, and will have their choice of iOS or Android codes. 

Good luck! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I will start by saying that I love my kids. But, ahhh…the joys of parenthood. Their first smile. Their first word. Their first step. Their first tantrum. Their first defiant 'no'.

No matter how great of a parent we think we are, we will all eventually find ourselves in the cage match battle of wills. You know? The one that goes like this…

Recently the Quirk compound was visited by beloved children's book character Flat Stanley.

As many of you will recall, young Stanley was rendered two-dimensional when a huge bulletin board fell on top of him. He didn't let flatness keep him down, though; in fact, he took advantage of the situation by folding himself into envelopes and mailing himself all around the world. Since then, kids in over 6.000 schools–including my nephew Sam–have participated in the Flat Stanley Project by creating their own Flat Stanleys and mailing them all over the place.

The Stanleys are mailed back with photos and information about where they've been. So here are some of the pictures from Stanley's visit to Quirk. (Spoiler alert–Sam got an A.)

Image via Tumblr

Do you remember what reading was like as a kid? Making weekly trips to the library to pick out ANY BOOK that you wanted. Intensively listening as someone read a story out loud to you and your peers. Looking in wonder at the pictures that went along with the words.

Even if you’re an avid reader now, there’s no denying that reading was a lot more enjoyable back then. Thankfully, that magic isn’t gone. Here are five ways to tap into your inner child and make that next book on your to-read list a little more exceptional.