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So here's some exciting news! We have a title, a character and an [http://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/may/26/before-his-dark-materials-how-lyras-story-began-exclusive-extract extract] for the first volume in Philip Pullman's new trilogy, out in October. ''La Belle Sauvage'' is the canoe owned by Malcolm Polstead. His daemon is Asta. And you can read an interview about it with Philip Pullman [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rE45VHtSzw here]. As you can imagine, we at Bookbag Towers are beyond excited. Roll on October! And while we're on the topic of young readers, here's some more good news. [http://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/record-number-teenagers-say-they-enjoy-reading Record numbers] of children say they enjoy reading. A survey by the Literacy Trust has found that more than half of children and young people say that they read for pleasure. Isn't that great?
And here's a nice piece of news.''Clockwork Orange'' author Anthony Burgess's lost dictionary of slang has [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/03/anthony-burgesss-lost-slang-dictionary-discovered been found] among his archives. Burgess only managed three letters and several hundred entries but there are some gems in there and it reminds of how much he - and we - treasure language. We particularly liked this bit - ''arse: I need not define''. Ha!
What else? Oh, yes! Are you watching the adaptation of [[The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood|The Handmaid's Tale]] on Channel 4? Ok, perhaps it's not the cheeriest of books for this positive newsletter but it's a fantastic adaptation, beautifully shot and acted. We can be happy about a wonderful piece of work even if it is about serious things with very worrying current ramifications, right? As we always say, literature - and adaptations of it - are vital tools of resistance.