Round-Up: Court-Mandated Reading, Lyons Press, and ANNE OF GREEN GABLES

From an unusual court sentence to Anne of Green Gables, here’s the latest literary news:

• Five Virginia teenagers who vandalized a historic black schoolhouse with racially and sexually charged graffiti have been given an unusual sentence: to read and report on one book a month for the next year. The list of books includes titles such as Elie Wiesel’s Night, Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner. Alejandra Rueda, the attorney who first conceived of the sentence, said, “I just thought that maybe if they read these books, it will make an impression on them, and they will stand up for people who are being oppressed.”
• Lyons Press, an imprint of Globe Pequot Press, has teamed up with A+E Networks to produce a series of books based on the History Channel’s Breaking History series. Jim Childs, a Globe Pequot publisher, said that the series will be “a great way to bring History’s programming to the printed page.” The first installment, due October 2017, will be written by History.com’s Sarah Pruitt.
• Streaming service Netflix is planning to launch a serialized adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s classic novel Anne of Green Gables. First published in 1908, the novel recounts the story of Anne Shirley, an orphan mistakenly sent to live with two middle-aged siblings on Prince Edward Island. On February 8, Netflix released a brief trailer for the series, which is set to premiere on May 12.