Netflix’s ‘Shadow and Bone’ Satisfies in Every Way

Television adaptations of fantasy books tend to have a bad reputation. Many fans of such novels are so protective of their favorite characters and storylines that there is added pressure for studios to get the story right. So when Leigh Bardugo’s bestselling novel Shadow and Bone was first announced to be made into a television series for Netflix, all eyes were on showrunner and executive producer Eric Heisserer to bring this world to life in a way that would do it justice. Heisserer took on the difficult task to not only adapt Shadow and Bone into eight episodes, but to also include the characters from Bardugo’s Six of Crows duology, which is set at a different point in time in the novels. With Bardugo consulting on the script and phenomenal casting, Shadow and Bone is absolutely remarkable.

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Hard NOC Life 212: Mandy Gonzalez is ‘Fearless’

In the first of two episodes of Hard NOC Life releasing this week, Keith sits down with Broadway superstar and now, children’s book author, Mandy Gonzalez to talk about her new middle grade novel, Fearless. They also talk about her career — from originating the role of Nina for In the Heights to replacing Renee Elise Goldsberry as Angelica in Hamilton — and why being fearless has helped her cope while Broadway is shut down.

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Netflix’s ‘Shadow and Bone’ Cast and Creatives Giving the Fans What They Want

The anticipated Netflix fantasy series Shadow and Bone, based on the bestselling books by Leigh Bardugo, is set to release next week! With the trailers and images slowly being released by Netflix, fans get a closer look at what to expect from their favorite stories and characters. With both the Shadow and Bone trilogy and the Six of Crows duology being blended together, fans are wondering just how this might work.

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‘Shadow and Bone’ Official Trailer Expands the Grishaverse and Crow Storylines

Adapted from the successful award-winning fantasy novels by Leigh Bardugo, fans have been wondering just how Netflix was going to mesh the Grishaverse trilogy with the Six of Crows duology for Shadow and Bone. With the release of the official trailer, we get a glimpse of how the beloved Crows play into Alina Starkov’s story.

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Things You Need to Know Before Watching Netflix’s ‘Shadow and Bone’

In about a month on April 23, Netflix will premiere Shadow and Bone to the world. Based on Leigh Bardugo’s worldwide bestselling Grishaverse novels, Shadow and Bone have not released much information about the series, but for those who have not read the books, don’t fret. We have some information you should know before watching the series. 

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Hard NOC Life 207: A ‘Justice League’ of His Own

Keith and Britney share their favorite moments from Disney+’s WandaVision making-of special before revealing what’s Nerd Poppin’ this week. For Britney, she’s reading all the books in the Star Wars: The High Republic publishing initiative. Meanwhile, Keith has seen The Snyder Cut and gives his semi-spoilery opinion of Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

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Netflix’s ‘Moxie’ Should Have Been a TV Series

There is nothing wrong with a good ole’ fashion teen feminism story. It seems the appropriate time to show off the power of angry women at a time when men, who behave badly, still seem to get away with it, especially one targeted towards teenagers. Directed by Amy Poehler, who is known for her funny, tough characters, Moxie is a cute story about girl power that’s been done before but, this time, written to fit this generation’s wokeness.

Based on the 2015 YA book of the same name by Jennifer Mathieu, Moxie follows a shy and very sheltered high school junior named Vivian (Hadley Robinson) who lays low to avoid any attention. She has lived in the shadows of high school with her childhood best friend Claudia (Lauren Tsai of Terrace House fame). It’s not until the arrival of a new student, Lucy (Alycia Pascual-Peña) who quickly becomes a target for speaking up against popular jock, Mitchell (Patrick Schwarzenegger), that Vivian realizes how sexist her school is. Inspired by her mother’s (Poehler) teenage rebellion stage and a Bikini Kill song her mother used to play for her, Vivian creates her own anonymous feminist zine — ‘Moxie’ — calling out the toxic behavior from classmates and the school, led by Principal Shelly (Marcia Gay Harden). The zine is a hit among the girls in school sparking a Moxie Club created to topple the patriarchy — or at least in the school.

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‘To All the Boys: Always and Forever’ is a Love Letter to the Fans

There is a lot of responsibility when it comes to the final installment of a trilogy. With The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, fans are expected to see the fairytale conclusion for the characters that they learned to love from the first two films. The YA romantic comedy To All the Boys series is no exception to this rule. After falling in love with idyllic dreamer Lara Jean Covey (Lana Condor) and her dreamy boyfriend Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo), there was a lot riding on To All the Boys: Always and Forever.

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‘To All the Boys I Loved Before’ and Asian American Girl Club Team Up to Celebrate Film Release

Celebrating the upcoming release of the final installment of the To All the Boys series, To All the Boys: Always and Forever, Asian American Girl Club has teamed up with Netflix for a week filled with fun events!

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Netflix Releases First Look and Character Posters of ‘Shadow and Bone’

Netflix has just released the first look images and character posters for their new anticipated series Shadow and Bone.

Based on Leigh Bardugo’s best-selling Grishaverse novels, Shadow and Bone is set in a war-torn world where lowly soldier and orphan Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li) has just unleashed an extraordinary power that could be the key to setting her country free. With the monstrous threat of the Shadow Fold looming, Alina is torn from everything she knows to train as part of an elite army of magical soldiers known as Grisha. But as she struggles to hone her power, she finds that allies and enemies can be one and the same and that nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. There are dangerous forces at play, including a crew of charismatic criminals, and it will take more than magic to survive.

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Auli’i Cravalho’s Experience in Timely Coming-of-Age Drama, ‘All Together Now’

In Netflix’s new film, All Together Now, Amber Appleton is a musically gifted high schooler with a heart of gold, as she spends her days giving all she can to others, while working towards realizing her potential. However, what her friends and peers don’t know is that she is homeless and is living on a bus with her mother. When the circumstances surrounding her hidden life take a turn for the worst, Amber must learn to accept help from others.

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Shawn Speaks with Claribel Ortega, Author of ‘Ghost Squad’

Ghost Squad is a middle grade/young audiences (depending on their tolerance for the spooky) novel that does so many things right: remixes the “kids on bikes” trope, prioritizes adventuring for black and brown girls, and how adventuring doesn’t end when you get older.

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Hard NOC Life: Welcome to the Cassandra Cain-aissance

With Birds of Prey ready to break box office records, and a brand new YA graphic novel from DC Comics, the shadow of Cassandra Cain descends upon a brand new episode of Hard NOC Life!

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Southern Fried Asian: Marie Lu

Southern Fried Asian is back! This time, Keith is joined by New York Times-bestselling YA science-fiction author Marie Lu. Her new novel, Rebel, the follow-up to her epic Legend series of books, will be available in bookstores October 1 — as will the graphic novel adaptation of her DC Icons story, Batman: Nightwalker.

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Southern Fried Asian: Soman Chainani

Southern Fried Asian returns with a brand new episode! Keith is joined by Soman Chainani, the New York Times-bestselling author of the hit children’s fantasy series, the School For Good and Evil. The fifth book in the series, A Crystal of Time, is available now wherever books are sold.

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“Melton” Hearts with Charles Melton of ‘The Sun is Also a Star’

What two things do the sun and Charles Melton have in common? They both melt things (the sun melts ice cream, Melton melts teenage hearts), and they’re both stars, since according to this film, The Sun is Also a Star!

The film, based on the best selling book by Nicola Yoon, chronicles a single day between a top-student Korean American poet, named Daniel Bae (Melton), and a spirited African American social justice warrior Natasha Kingsley (Yara Shadidi of Black-ish and Grown-ish fame), who cross paths just one day before Natasha’s family is scheduled to be deported to Jamaica

Corny dad jokes aside, recently The Nerds of Color had the fortunate opportunity to speak with Melton about The Sun is Also a Star, the chemistry between him and his co-star Shahidi, and even got a mini-scoop about his role in Bad Boys For Life. Here’s what he had to say:

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The Stars of ‘The Sun is Also a Star’ Answer Your Questions, Plus, a Chance to Attend the LA Premiere

The Sun is Also a Star is set to release next month! So, we got to know the stars from the romantic teen drama, Yara Shahidi and Charles Melton as they answer some questions fans have for them. From their guilty pleasures to their love for their parents, Shahidi and Melton reveal it all just for The Nerds Of Color! 

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‘The Sun is Also a Star’ Trailer: A Timely Love Story

Based on the acclaimed bestseller by Everything, Everything author Nicola Yoon, The Sun is Also a Star has finally revealed their first one-sheet and trailer.

Starring Yara Shahidi (Grown-ish) as Natasha and Charles Melton (Riverdale) as Daniel, The Sun is Also a Star has college-bound Korean American Daniel Bae and Jamaica-born pragmatist Natasha Kingsley fall in love with each other over 24 hours on the streets of New York. With just a few hours until her deportation back to Jamaica, Natasha is fighting against her family’s deportation as fiercely as she’s fighting her budding feelings for Daniel, who is working just as hard to convince her they are destined to be together. In this modern-day love story about finding love against all odds, The Sun Is Also a Starexplores whether our lives are determined by fate or the random events of the universe.” 

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Southern Fried Asian: Jenny Han

On this week’s Southern Fried Asian, Keith sits down with fellow Virginian  Jenny Han, the New York Times-bestselling author of The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy as well as To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before soon to be a movie on Netflix — and its subsequent sequels!

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Witch Eyes: A Novel Review

Author Scott Tracey recently announced on social media that he is re-releasing his popular Witch Eyes trilogy.

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Here’s To You Bonnie Bennett

Last night The Vampire Diaries came to an end after eight seasons. In saying farewell to the gang from Mystic Falls, it seemed only right to take this opportunity and give the spotlight to the series’ most valuable player.

You guessed it, Bonnie Bennett, played flawlessly by the beautiful and immensely talented Kat Graham.

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KidLit: Recommended Reading on Justice and Understanding

Originally posted at The Writer’s Block

At a time of great unease and injustice, those of us who are parents of children have a challenge ahead of us. Most of our kids will be exposed to the happenings of the world, and well they should. At the same time, what books can we read to them that will help them understand, and provide tools they will need to survive, thrive, and engage? We reached out to several Minnesota writers with children to compile this list of suggestions. This is by no means definitive, nor complete.

This list was compiled by Kurtis Scaletta, Shannon Gibney, Lana Barkawi, Kathryn Savage, Molly Beth Griffin, Sarah Park Dahlen, Bao Phi, and Lorena Duarte Armstrong.

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Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children: Another Tim Burton Borefest

Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children is the YA/action adventure film directed by the master of macabre, Tim Burton. This is the live-action adaptation of the book by author Ransom Riggs. Rumor has it that the books have potential and are engaging. That’s too bad because the movie isn’t any of those things. This painfully slow adaptation isn’t a return to form for Burton. It’s the same old hokey filmmaking, but time actress Eva Green is the victim! He really wants to show the audience that he still has that Beetlejuice, Mars Attacks charm. He wants you to know that his version of what is weird is acceptable. In a time where weirdness, geekiness, is the new norm, his message, and Miss Peregrine seem 10-years too late.

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