What's the Rumpus? has moved

Dear Constant Reader,

In an effort to better serve you, What's the Rumpus? has combined forces with our sister blog (or, perhaps better said, our "wife blog") Hip to Be Square. The new, improved, Frankenblog is entitled Gratz Industries, and will focus on the collective creative pursuits of me, my wife Wendi, and our daughter Jo.

Come over and see what we're cooking! Those of you who subscribe to this blog's feed will want to subscribe instead to Gratz Industries, and delete this blog from your reader, as it will no longer be updated.

See you on the other side!

More love from The Washington Post

That venerable bastion of journalism The Washington Post, home of Woodward and Bernstein (or Kornheiser and Wilbon, if you prefer) has just named Samurai Shortstop one of its 2006 Top Ten Novels for Children! Here's what reviewer Elizabeth Ward had to say:

Samurai Shortstop, by Alan Gratz (Dial, $15.99; ages 12-up). In an elite Tokyo boarding school at the turn of the 20th century, a samurai's son tries to square his father's warrior code with the brash new game of "beseboru." Sad, bloody, but funny, too.

Thanks Elizabeth, and thanks Washington Post! I think I need to get a subscription.