Read it, wear it, give it

Thanks to the evilest woman I know my very dear friend Molly, I started buying some of my perfume through a small company called Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. One of BPAL's schticks is perfume lines based around books and poetry. For some time now they've offered perfumes inspired by the works of most recent Newbery winner Neil Gaiman. Ever the ones to use their powers for good, the people at Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab and their non-perfume-items sister store, Black Phoenix Trading Post have started a shop-for-charity project you might find of interest. From BPAL's recent email:

What have we here?

New jewelry?!

The hell you say!

Black Phoenix Trading Post is OVERJOYED to present the first in a series of lockets and pendants inspired by the short stories of Neil Gaiman! This is a charitable, not-for-profit venture: proceeds from every single piece go to Match It For Pratchett, which is raising money to match Terry Pratchett's $1,000,000.00 donation to the Alzheimer's Research Trust.

Thank you so much, Neil, for giving us so many years of joy, wonder, and inspiration, and for the pleasure of working with you on this project!

And as all of us in the YA lit world know, Terry Pratchett won a Printz Honor for his book Nation. My personal favorite of the Gaiman scent locket pendants is inspired by one of his YA stories, "The Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire," which appears in Gothic! Ten Original Dark Tales edited by Deborah Noyes. I'd post a picture but the only ones I can get are framed in the BPAL logo. But go look!

So the gist of all of this is: buy yourself or a friend/loved one some beautiful jewelry, know that the proceeds are going to a good cause, and while you're waiting for the jewelry to arrive, read a Gaiman or Pratchett book. Or look at the cover of the March School Library Journal, because my lord, that picture is gorgeous.

(Not a BPAL employee, just a satisfied customer.)

The tie-in item I'd kill for

Thanks to the miracles of design and licensing, we book fans can wear jewelry or buy other tchotchkes based on our favorite books. We can wear pendants in the shape of the Dark Mark, or the One Ring. With these items in mind, I'm begging of you, Scholastic, will you please grant the rights to someone, anyone, to make replicas of the mockingjay pin that Katniss wears in the Hunger Games? I realize it might not be as big a seller as that gold Time-Turner, but I'm sure I could find you at least ten people who would buy one.

Life imitates YA lit!

A perennial YA book group fave is Janet Tashjian's wonderful The Gospel According to Larry, about a teen who becomes a huge star by advocating anti-consumerism. One of Larry's big life rules is that he only allows himself to own 75 items. I know I could never do that. I own a thousand BOOKS!

But it looks like Larry's ideals have jumped off the page and into real life: How to Live with Just 100 Things, from Time Magazine. The article focuses a little more on simple living and decluttering than anticonsumerism, but we of the YA lit world know that Larry did it first.

Jewelry that sucks

I may not like the Twilight books, but I couldn't help but think of them when I saw this. My question is, if Bella and Edward get married (in book twelve or whatever), will their wedding rings look like these?




(The interested can purchase their very own baby vamp rings from Catbird NYC.)