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Credit: KMJ, Published under the GNU Free Documentation License The history of writing and symbolic communication is a fascinating and rich topic — but not a simple one. Different groups of people have developed a wide range of communication methods depending on where and how they lived. Furthermore, it’s not exactly fair to judge prehistoric art against a modern SSD in terms of information density. For this reason, we’ve looked for mediums that were objectively bad at doing what they did — not to insult the people who invented them, but to illustrate that ancient peoples left these approaches behind...

s Camp, be it the sleepaway or daytime-only variety, is one of those quintessential kid adventures that deserves its own special packing list. Because it’s so much more than just singing songs around the fire or making friendship bracelets and macaroni art. That first taste of independence (and maybe first taste of s’mores) is a big deal. It’s paramount childhood memory making in the works! Below, the Domino edit for your little ones—from a Wes Anderson–worthy Morse code light to the cutest letter correspondence set—that has us wishing we were heading off to camp this summer (but also happy to say goodbye...

Black LGBTQ books got a bump in June of 2020. With the George Floyd protests at their peak and Pride month still happening, lists of queer Black books to buy or preorder built up steam on social media. You Should See Me in a Crown, a Black YA F/F novel, was sold out everywhere. Unfortunately, this follows a pattern that Black and LGBTQ books often see: a peak during Black History Month or Pride month, but forgotten in between. Or, a hateful act will make the news, whether it’s police brutality or violent transphobia or a worrying new law, book...

Let’s dive in! These are arranged roughly in order of target audience age. Fitz and Cleo by Jonathan Stutzman and Heather Fox Fitz and Cleo are siblings who also happen to be ghosts; this book is a chapter-book comic, divided up into 11 short stories, as they have silly adventures and play with their cat, Mister Boo. (Cleo loves Mister Boo and gets along well; Fitz is a bit more skeptical and Mister Boo responds accordingly.) The stories are cute and have funny endings; most are fairly short at just a couple of pages long. I’ll note that although the...

Black LGBTQ books got a bump in June of 2020. With the George Floyd protests at their peak and Pride month still happening, lists of queer Black books to buy or preorder built up steam on social media. You Should See Me in a Crown, a Black YA F/F novel, was sold out everywhere. Unfortunately, this follows a pattern that Black and LGBTQ books often see: a peak during Black History Month or Pride month, but forgotten in between. Or, a hateful act will make the news, whether it’s police brutality or violent transphobia or a worrying new law, book...