iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

I've had to keep this secret for a bit, but here's something I've been working on! This story was a blast to write. I can't wait for you all to meet the characters (including, of course, plenty of dragons!). #MGLit #KidLit

Publishers Marketplace Deal Report: Skyward by Diane Magras, Imprint: Scholastic. Diane Magras's SKYWARD, in which a 13-year-old, desperate for acceptance to the Junior Division of a competitive sport on dragonback, must win over the dragon she's paired with or see her dream fizzle, to Jennifer Thompson at Scholastic, for publication in 2028, by Sara Megibow at Megibow Literary Agency (world). sara@megibowliterary.com. Children's: Middle Grade Fiction, February 10, 2026

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Dr Jo Kershaw @mthrjo.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

Ok, did not expect “The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe” to feel quite so relevant to this moment. Here’s Edmund, deciding to side with the leader who he’s been told disappears people.

He did want Turkish Delight and to be a prince (and later a king) and to pay Peter out for calling him a beast. As for what the Witch would do with the others, he didn't want her to be particularly nice to them - certainly not to put them on the same level as himself; but he managed to believe, or to pretend he believed, that she wouldn't do anything very bad to them, 'Because,' he said to himself, 'all these people who say nasty things about her are her enemies and probably half of it isn't true. She was jolly nice to me, anyway, much nicer than they are. I expect she is the rightful Queen really. Anyway, she'll be better than that awful Aslan!' At least, that was the excuse he made in his own mind for what he was doing. It wasn't a very good excuse, however, for deep down inside him he really knew that the White Witch was bad and cruel.

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Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

I love seeing this quote because we're in a world where we need to remember this. We all have the potential of being good at what needs to be done to help our world be a better place. I haven't gone back and read this book for a long while, but I'm wondering now if it's even more relevant to today.

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Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

Every once in a while, I get a Google Alert on one of my past books. this time, it was this amazing video by a young fan. To know that my work is still reaching its readers in this way is so fulfilling. (And what a great vid, too!) www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEk2... #MGLit #MiddleGradeBooks

youtube.com

Wacky Wednesday Review for Hunt for the Mad Wolf’s Daughter

YouTube video by Kristen Grace

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Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

I had so much fun reading the ARC of @sarahjmendonca.bsky.social's wonderful debut, and gobbled it up yet again when it came out! So it's out, and here's my review. (And librarians and teachers: This is one that will fly off your shelves!) #MGLit #KidLit www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

goodreads.com

Diane Magras's review of An Encantadora's Guide to Monstros and Magic (Encantadora, #1)

5/5: This is such a delightful book. I was fortunate to read an advance copy, and read it again once it had been published, which felt like a visit to a fascinating friend. It was impossible to put do...

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James McConnachie @jamesmcconnachie.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

What questions should writers ask? Katherine Rundell nails it in ‪@thetls.bsky.social‬

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Lisa Stringfellow @engagereaders.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

KINGDOM OF DUST is a 2025 Children’s Africana Book Award honoree! I had no idea! I’m thrilled that the committee felt my West African-inspired fantasy honored and respected Nigerian culture. 🙏🏾📚 cfas.howard.edu/outreach/cab... #CABAbooks @harperkids.bsky.social #QuillTreeBooks

Children’s Africana book Award honor chapter book

Kingdom of Dust
The Smoke That Thunders
Flying Through Water

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Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

On Wednesday, Flora will have been part of our family, the sole cat in this house, and beloved companion of her three human subjects, for ten years. And as you can see, she has not lost a wisp of her grace and beauty.

A brown tabby cat with a ruff sits in a contemplative pose, tail curved around her, on a rust-colored throw with a window to one side and the start of a stairway and a doorway behind.

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Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

A beautiful summary of David Attenborough's favorite ocean experiences: "Young children playing on a beach today will live through perhaps the most consequential time for the human species in the past 10,000 years. They will grow up to see how this story ends…" www.thetimes.com/life-style/c...

thetimes.com

David Attenborough at 99: ‘I will not see how the story ends’

The natural history presenter, who turns 99 this week, has an obsession with sea life that began in boyhood. Here he reflects on his most moving encounters

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Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

So agree. This is one of my favorite novels ever.

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

‘The Comprehensive Bookshop” - my cartoon for this week’s @theguardian.com books.

Title: The Comprehensive Bookshop

Image: an enormous, low building fills the frame, running almost to the horizon in a featureless desert.

Captions:
A ceaseless stream of delivery trucks flows from publishers' warehouses to an ever-expanding building out in the desert. Within, hundreds of miles of shelving hold copies of every book ever published.

Customers arrive with authors or genres in mind, but the near infinite choice and maze of passages soon overwhelm them. Cars decay in the parking lot as their owners browse for months on end.

The bedraggled figures who occasionally stagger from the exit are taken to a nearby hospital, but upon recovering, inevitably "Just pop back to grab a few more books."

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Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

A starred Kirkus review for a fantastic monster-filled #MGlit heist! Check this out, friends, for another amazing book for classrooms, libraries, and kids' hands (Out on July 8, 2025): www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews...

kirkusreviews.com

AN ENCANTADORA'S GUIDE TO MONSTROS AND MAGIC | Kirkus Reviews

A desperate monster hunter gambles on a magical heist.

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Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

I just gobbled up GEO'S FORTUNE, a wonderful new #MGLit coming out in a month: May 27, 2025. It's all about #rocks, #friendships, #magic, and #family. A warm, compelling, beautiful story that was impossible to put down. Here's my review! www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

goodreads.com

Diane Magras's review of Geo's Fortune

5/5: With a stellar opening line that feeds directly into the conflict, this beautiful middle grade debut is an utter gem. (Okay, a pun, but it's true.) The author dips into facts, stories, and more a...

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Cate McQuaid @catemcquaid.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

I weeded out the ways the current administration is targeting the arts – massive cuts at IMLS and NEH, threats to the Smithsonian Institution, interference with the Kennedy Center, and more. Plus, resources, actions, and steps to take. Hands off the arts! catemcquaid.substack.com/p/hands-off-...

catemcquaid.substack.com

Hands off the arts

A catalog of federal attacks on arts and humanities, and concrete steps to resist

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Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

Like many authors, I have a day job. Mine's for a humanities council. On April 4, DOGE attacked our biggest funder, the NEH. Humanities councils nationwide are now without funding. If you care about history and the humanities, please contact your Congress members: www.statehumanities.org/action-ale

statehumanities.org

Action Alert: NEH Targeted by DOGE - Federation of State Humanities Councils

Save Our Humanities Councils: DOGE Cuts to NEH will Damage Cultural Organizations in Every State April 4, 2025 – UPDATE On April 4, the Federation learned—through our contacts and reporting … Read mor...

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Chuck Wendig @chuckwendig.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Also, libro.fm is great for audiobooks.

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Gints Zilbalodis @gintszilbalodis.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Ok, this is the last one

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Kbport714 @kbport714.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Just finished The Bionic Boy @lynnplourde.bsky.social and loved it! What a truly inspiring book about courage, friendship, and finding out “you CAN!” @nancyrosep.bsky.social Out in October

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Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Check this out, friends! This sounds so, so good!

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Watchdog Progressive @watchdogprg.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

My mom outlived her savings - she was a bookkeeper and very thrifty. Then, Alzheimer's disease took the rest of her savings. Placing her in a home was the only choice for her care. $330 per day. Medicaid paid for that expense. It was a lifesaver. #ProtectMedicaid

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Alice Mercer @alicemercer.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

My husband had a massive brainstem stroke at age 57 and requires round the clock care. This has only been possible with Medicaid. He's survived for a decade so far. Quote and share your Medicaid/MediCal story if you have one.

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Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

I'm not on social media much at all these days (busy with writing, family, day job, and recovering from illness), but here's something happy that happened in our house: Our son made bread for the first time. His choice: sourdough baguettes, using a bit of my starter. So delicious! #Bread

Three baguettes, one already cut into at an angle, with glorious slashes, a few bubbles, and a rich array of shades from golden brown to a bit dark.

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thx @tal-tul-tum.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

Please do not worry ~ I can help out here. I’ve been enjoying this site for many years. They are *extremely* wordy, but that’s thoroughness for you 😅 And they do have weather data! As long as there are satellites 🛰️ www.severe-weather.eu

severe-weather.eu

Severe Weather Europe

Global Weather News and Forecasts, covering the United States, Canada and Europe

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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 27/02/2025

Why haven't we seen more backlash against the GOP's proposed cuts to Medicaid? One reason is that people may not know they're on Medicaid, because Medicaid has different names in different states (see 🧵). Another is that some people may not realize that they (or their kids) could qualify.

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Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg @theradr.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

They want us all dead and wholly dependent on them from our mass graves.

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Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

A thing that everyone should do RIGHT NOW is download your Social Security statements. What you've paid in, what you're owed. www.ssa.gov/myaccount/st...

ssa.gov

Get Your Social Security Statement | my Social Security | SSA

Check out what the Social Security Statement should look like based on your age.

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ex-Lethality Jane @lethalityjane.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

The measles outbreak in Texas is reminding me of the public letter Roald Dahl wrote about losing his daughter to measles in 1962, just before the vaccine was publicly available.

Excerpt from a public letter Roald Dahl wrote encouraging people to vaccinate their children.

Olivia, my eldest daughter, caught measles when she was seven years old. As the illness took its usual course I can remember reading to her often in bed and not feeling particularly alarmed about it. Then one morning, when she was well on the road to recovery, I was sitting on her bed showing her how to fashion little animals out of coloured pipe-cleaners, and when it came to her turn to make one herself, I noticed that her fingers and her mind were not working together and she couldn’t do anything.

“Are you feeling all right?” I asked her.

“I feel all sleepy,” she said.

In an hour, she was unconscious. In twelve hours she was dead.

The measles had turned into a terrible thing called measles encephalitis and there was nothing the doctors could do to save her. That was twenty-four years ago in 1962, but even now, if a child with measles happens to develop the same deadly reaction from measles as Olivia did, there would still be nothing the doctors could do to help her.

On the other hand, there is today something that parents can do to make sure that this sort of tragedy does not happen to a child of theirs. They can insist that their child is immunized against measles. I was unable to do that for Olivia in 1962 because in those days a reliable measles vaccine had not been discovered. Today a good and safe vaccine is available to every family and all you have to do is to ask your doctor to administer it.

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George Penney @georgepenney.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

🧵Spotted on Market Day in Aotearoa New Zealand: A young human (9?) is inspecting the basil plants, her face a map of concentration. She asks her dad : "Do you think this one will like our house?" Her wraps an arm around her shoulders. "Yeah. I think it'll be alright. Want to get it a buddy?" (1)

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Jane Voter @janevoter2018.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

Most of us have used Global Positioning System (GPS) for navigation & we can thank Gladys West for creating the foundation for GPS. She used her mathematical & programming expertise to invent an accurate model of the Earth. She was inducted into the US Air Force Hall of Fame.

Pictured: Gladys West-the mathematical and computer programming expert who created an accurate model of the Earth, which was the foundation for GPS. She was inducted into the US Air Force Hall of Fame, one of the highest honors offered by the Air Force.

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Lorie Barber 🚫👑 @barberchicago.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Tiny act of resistance that’s amusing. Just tried it and it works! Will be doing this quite a bit. Every day. For the foreseeable future. Because my pettiness knows no bounds. www.google.com/gasearch?q=g...

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Democrats @democrats.org · 12/02/2025

Here’s what Democrats did today (February 12):

A blue graphic with text that reads:

What Democrats Did Today
February 12, 2025
—Every single Senate Democrat voted against confirming Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence
—Senator Raphael Warnock introduced the Capping Prescription Costs Act to cap all out-of-pocket costs on prescription drugs
—Arkansas Senate Democrats successfully voted down a bill to allow municipalities to remove fluoride from their water systems
—A coalition of 191 House and Senate Democrats sent a letter demanding the removal of Elon Musk’s operatives from the CFPB
—Democrat Ken Jenkins won a special election for Westchester County Executive, soundly defeating his Trump-backed opponent

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Cindy Baldwin @cindybaldwinbooks.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

Disabled rights are being attacked on multiple fronts right now. One is the lawsuit 17 states have joined trying to get the federal government to do away with Section 504. This is DIRE. Info: dredf.org/protect-504/ Script to email your state AG: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

dredf.org

Texas v. Becerra: What it is and How You Can Help Stop the Attack on Section 504 - DREDF

Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund

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Veronica Bane @veronicabane.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Authors, publishers, and other bookish folks! I come to you with a specific ask for the book drive that I hope you will share widely. Essentially, I need specific books to meet the needs of teachers/families who lost their books in the LA wildfires. 🙏 Here is that list: tinyurl.com/LAFireBookDr...

tinyurl.com

Los Angeles Book Drive Wishlist Information

Los Angeles Book Drive Wishlist Thank you for your kindness and your generosity! We have received so many donations to support those who lost their libraries in the Los Angeles wildfires, and we are ...

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Bxknits @bxknits.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

I just took this training, and it was well done. If you are concerned about the safety of immigrants in this country, they need active allies. This is a way I’m pushing myself to step up.

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Leah Greenberg ❌👑 @leahgreenberg.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

Folks it's time to get in motion. Find your local group. Let's go.

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David Hogg @davidhogg.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Here’s what we did today

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Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

So glad to see this amazing book receive this honor. I absolutely loved it.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @aoc.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Had an awesome time chatting with Jon Stewart & @weeklyshowpodcast.bsky.social talking about how to fight the dumpster fire. Gear up. It’s time to brawl.

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Ruth @poofer.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

AOC spot on , this is what leadership looks like.

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Diane Magras @dianemagras.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

So I did a bit of home repair the other day. We had an old stopper and overflow plate in our tub that were falling apart, so I replaced them. It wasn't hard, but it wasn't something I'd done before. I'm not exactly a fix-it person. It made me think of my mom, who was.

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