Rush Limbaugh has won Author of the Year in the Children’s Choice Book Awards for his latest kids book Rush Revere and The Brave Pilgrims: Time-Travel Adventures with Exceptional Americans.

Kids could vote for their favorite author, illustrator and book of the year online between March 25th and May 12th. Limbaugh beat Jeff Kinney, Rick Riordan, Veronica Roth and Rachel Renee Russell, who were also finalists in the category.

The ceremony took place on Wednesday night in New York. Limbaugh blogged about his experience at the ceremony on his website. “I have to tell you, there were so many immigrants that came up to me before the event started, when everybody was being seated and during the event, and they were telling me what coming to America meant to them,” he wrote. “One of them was the photographer, one of the official photographers for the event.  There were a lot of people that were working the event that came up and wanted me to understand how much America had meant to them, and it was really great.”

Scribd has updated their iOS and Android mobile apps with a new feature that lets readers highlight their favorite passages.

The update allow a reader to mark up the pages of an eBook the same way they might mark up the pages of a print book. The tool allows readers to share their highlighted passages with friends.

In addition to the highlighting feature, Scribd’s latest app update also includes a note taking tool that lets users write down notes as they read. Another new addition includes a Zoom feature that allows readers to zoom in on maps and other illustrations within the app.

Do you ever wonder what your novel would sound like if it was adapted by a composer?

New York City- based programmer/musician Hannah Davis and Saif Mohammad, a Research Officer at the National Research Council Canada (NRC), have created software that will allow you to answer this very question. TransProse reads a novel and identifies different emotions that are evoked throughout the book. Then it takes this information to automatically create music based around those  identified values.

We’ve embedded TransProse’s musical adaptation of Peter Pan below.

Read more

Neil Gaiman has donated a special tour book edition of The Ocean at the End of the Lane for a charity eBay auction.

This particular copy features Gaiman’s signature on the cover. The interior contains a doodle he drew called “The Clown-shoes of Cthulhu.”

Thus far, this item has drawn 30 bids and is currently priced at $610. Bidding will be closed on May 18th. The proceeds will be given to The Neurofibromatosis Network.

Lionsgate has launched TheHungerGamesExclusive.com to give fans their first look at the next installment of The Hunger Games film franchise, Mockingjay Part 1. The Facebook announcement has drawn more than 48,000 “likes.”

Visitors who explore the website will find notes from a filmmaker roundtable, excerpts from the script, and a Mockingjay motion poster. The photos feature Julianne Moore dressed as Alma Coin, Woody Harrelson playing mentor Haymitch Abernathy, and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman portraying head gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee.

In the video embedded above, Moore sits for an interview and shares her thoughts on Suzanne Collins’ books, the characters, and the story itself. Mockingjay Part 1 will hit theaters on November 21, 2014. Mockingjay Part 2 is set to follow on November 20, 2015. What do you think? (via BuzzFeed)

How has the power of words affected you? The animated video above features an 81-second TED-Ed lesson called “Lessons from Auschwitz: The Power of Our Words.”

The story itself was originally shared by musician Benjamin Zander during his TED talk on “The Transformative Power of Classical Music.” Over at the TED Ed website, visitors can access a quiz, a discussion board, and more resources. What do you think?

Sony has reportedly acquired the film rights to Glenn Greenwald’s book  No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Security State.

According to a report in Variety, James Bond film producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli will produce the film. The film will be based on the Pulitzer-Prize winning book in which Greenwald reveals how he worked with Edward Snowden to unveil top-secret NSA about mass government surveillance. Salon has an excerpt from the book: Read more

Julia Fierro runs the The Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop and recently published her first novel Cutting Teeth. To promote the new novel she has been doing interviews, as any other writer would. In an unusual twist, she has interviewed herself. 

In the interview published on The Nervous Breakdown blog, the New York-based writer talks about how she manages to find the time to write as she raises two kids and runs the writing workshop. She also reveals her fears and her dark taste in television. Here is an excerpt from the interview:

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you abandon all household chores that aren’t absolutely essential. Sure, we’re living in chaos, but mom’s making great progress on her next novel and the number of Sackett Street writers attending classes has doubled in the last three years. It turns out that women can “have it all”—they might be miserably tired, suffer from high blood pressure, and not have enough time to eat well, exercise or have meaningful relationships, but you can do anything when you don’t give yourself a reason not to.

Publishers Weekly has promoted three editors. Jonathan Segura, former senior editor for digital media, has been named executive editor. Rachel Deahl, the former senior news editor, is now news director. Daniel Berchenko the former copy chief is now managing editor.

Here is more from the press release: “Jonathan Segura’s new role involves expanding Publishers Weekly’s digital reach and moving the organization toward a digital-first environment. Rachel Deahl, who writes the “Deals” column as well as about business trends, technology and rights, takes on the day-to-day activities of the e-newsletter PW Daily. Daniel Berchenko is now responsible for managing the editorial production process of the magazine.”

Earlier this week, the magazine’s Editorial Director Michael Coffey announced plans to retire in June after 26 years with the publication. Jim Milliot, who has been with the company for 21 years, will take the lead at the publication.