Born out of the minds of two musicians with a penchant for wacked-out comedic stories, Abraham Levitan of the band Baby Teeth and Chicago Reader writer Brian Costello created a game show like no other: Shame That Tune. Hosted by Levitan and Costello and co-hosted by "The Coach," a.k.a. Time Out Chicago Books Editor Jonathan Messinger and "The Intern," a.k.a. Jeanine O'Tolle of the Chicago chamber-pop collective, The 1900s. more ›

Last fall, Claire Zulkey published a book that was 10 years in the making. An Off Year is a young adult novel about Claire Zulkey herself and not about Claire Zulkey herself. She started writing it her freshman year of college when she was the exact same age as Cecily, her book's main character. At the time, Zulkey was facing a lot of the same challenges she gives to Cecily's character. As Zulkey developed this character, a story eventually evolved. Now it is a shiny real live book about a young high school graduate who has every reason to continue along an ambitious and successful path to college. But she is not so sure she feels like being ambitious and successful. And so her "off year" follows. Time Out Chicago describes Cecily's year unfolding "in a haze of television, professional help and vague guilt, as she tries to locate the core of her ambivalence." more ›

It's no secret we're fans of James Kennedy fantastic young adult novel The Order of Odd Fish. As we said last year, the novel is "a rollicking tale in the fashion of Roald Dahl and Douglas Adams," using a surreal sense of humor that appeals to adults as well as younger readers. But we're also fans of the way Kennedy has engaged with his fans. Rather than politely accepting fan letters and moving on, Kennedy has used his blog as a means to not only communicate with fans of the book, but to share their love of the book as well, including fan art. In a time when it's so easy to be cynical about things, Kennedy's attitude and enthusiasm has been refreshing. Check out this great interview he did with WBEZ's . more ›

Forget those Twilight vampires. The real joy of Young Adult novels can be found in local writer James Kennedy's delightfully surreal The Order of Odd Fish. And now Kennedy is asking for readers' help in further celebrating the uniqueness of this fantastic book. more ›

• Two Chicago Police officers were shot today while trying to execute a warrant on the Southeast Side. Each officer was shot in a leg and both were reported in good condition.
• The police shooting followed last night's violent six hour window which saw four killed and eight wounded in shootings.
• Gov. Quinn has joined the fray over Burr Oak Cemetery, appointing a task force to look at cemetery operations state-wide.

Local writer James Kennedy has created a fantastical universe in his Young Adult novel, The Order of Odd-Fish. Thirteen-year-old Jo Larouche has been living a rather mundane life with her unique Aunt Lily. But that all changes in a flash upon the appearance of a talking cockroach, a Russian Colonel who converses with his digestion, and a box that falls out of the sky addressed to Jo from a group known as The Order of Odd-Fish. more ›

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