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Author and Illustrator Ashley Bryan Honored in New Penn Exhibit

Ashley Bryan, renowned author and illustrator, lived to create. And throughout his long life, he created much joy in the lives of others. Bryan — also a poet, painter, and a musician — brought the richness of African culture, the vibrance of Black American spirituality and tradition, and the lost voices of enslaved people, to books read by children and adults of all races. He is one of the main reasons a large body of children’s literature today is illustrated with people of color.

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Alexandra Petri’s US History

On Petri’s deranged timeline, John and Abigail Adams try sexting, the March sisters from Little Women are sixty feet tall, and Susan Sontag goes to summer camp. Nearly eighty short, hilarious pieces span centuries of American history and culture. Ayn Rand rewrites The Little Engine That Could. Nikola Tesla’s friends stage an intervention when he falls in love with a pigeon. The characters from Sesame Street invade Normandy. And Mark Twain–who famously said reports of his death had been greatly exaggerated–offers a detailed account of his undeath, in which he becomes a zombie. Read more

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