Media Darlings

Apps We Love: NxtApp 4 Kids and Kids Switcheroo

noreply@blogger.com (Maggie Hames) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Once your pre-schooler has learned to count, how do you encourage real numeracy? How do you help kids understand that numbers aren’t just sounds but have values? That the number two can be understood as one plus one; and for that matter, the number three is two plus one, and so on? How can we encourage and support this “click” moment in our kids’ understanding? Well, there’s an app for that. (What are the chances?)

NxtApp 4 Kids by Icon, LLC asks users to name the next number in a series. Level one asks you to “add one,” so a sequence would ask for the next number in the sequence 4, 5, 6. There are single digit and double-digit numbers in the sequences. In each case, you arrive at the correct answer by adding one. Then you move onto sequences of numbers where you must subtract one to arrive at the answer.

By the time you get to level 5, users are asked to add or subtract both single and double-digit positive and negative numbers, though I think that by the time your kids can do this, they may be too old for this app. But they may be interested in using the app as a timed contest, either competing against their own “personal best” or challenging their pals to a math contest. My personal best at stage one? A respectable 19 seconds. Catch me if you can!

It’s a great learning app and—at the lower stages—very pre-school friendly with illustrations of barnyard animals that will moo and bleat and oink when you tap them. Icon LLC mentions this as if it were an important feature, but I’m figuring if your kids are ready to approach numeracy, they probably already know the sound a cow makes. Overall, the graphics are cute; the “music” is a loss leader, just a basic little snippet that plays over and over. Personally, I turned it off. What this app does well—teaches basic numeracy—it does very well. It hardly needs the bells, whistles, “music” or oinks.

If you download this app, you’ll be invited to download Icon, LLC’s DressApp. In fact, you can download this app for free whether or not you purchase NxtApp 4 Kids. It’s basically a paper doll app where you choose clothes and accessories for a model and dress her by tapping on a top, skirt, shoes, etc. You get the picture. There are many combinations to be created. I personally like the “pattern of fashion” function where users fill in a blank to complete a pattern created by pictures of the doll’s fashions. Identifying the next logical item in a pattern is an important skill. The only issue here is the graphic of the model herself. She’s sexy in the same way a Barbie doll is sexy. If you don’t have a problem with that, you’ll like this app; and the price is right.

Honorable mention goes to Kids Switcheroo by Raleigh Green. It’s a driving game of sorts, where beautifully illustrated cars sail by as users drag them across the screen. The user is invited to customize the environment’s foreground, background, and sky. You can go city, country, desert, even outer space. Developer Green wanted to create an app that embraced the Montessori philosophy that respects a child’s desire to control their environment. I find the app is a great memory challenge. My little girl knows just how many cars she has to go past to get to her favorite novelty banana car. And she knows what a monster truck is now. Phew! Another milestone achieved!

We're giving away NxtApp 4 Kids and Kids Switcheroo. Click here for details.

Review Summary:
App Name: NxtApp 4 Kids
Category: Education
Age Level: 4+
Updated: February 4, 2012
Requirements: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, requires iOS 4.2 or later.
Price: $1.99
Bottom Line: Very good at what it does best, which is teaching basic numeracy.

App Name: DressApp
Category: Games
Age Level: 4+
Updated: February 4, 2012
Requirements: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, requires iOS 4.2 or later.
Price: Free
Bottom Line: Make sure you’re comfortable with the “Barbie doll” sexiness level.

App Name: Kids Switcheroo
Category: Games
Age Level: 4+
Updated: December 3, 2011
Requirements: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, requires iOS 3.2 or later.
Price: $1.99
Bottom Line: More fun than educational, but fun has its place, too.

In Praise of Picture Books: Books We (and Caldecott) Love

noreply@blogger.com (Maggie Hames) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 13:00:00 +0000

I’ve always loved picture books. My earliest childhood memory is a picture book on puffins. Picture books encourage creativity as illustrations inspire the reader/viewer to write a story in their own imagination. It’s a different type of literacy, entirely compatible and complementary to young readers’ early attempts at phonics and reading.

The Caldecott Medal, awarded annually by the Association for Library Services to Children, is the most coveted prize for creators of picture books. Named for nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott, it honors books that encourage visual literacy. You’re sure to find something intriguing in this year’s winner and runner-up honor books. They’re food for your child’s imagination.

This year’s Caldecott Medal winner is A Ball for Daisy, (cover seen above) written and illustrated by Chris Raschka, published by Schwartz & Wade Books. The illustrations of doggie Daisy as she goes through a day are reminiscent of medieval Asian illustrations. You can see the artist’s mastery in how few actual brushstrokes each illustration took. They’re deceptively simple, yet wonderfully expressive. This wordless book by Chris Raschka tells us the story of an irrepressible little dog whose most prized possession is accidently destroyed. It’s described as a “buoyant tale of loss, recovery and friendship.” I like the way the illustrations invite such personal interpretation. Your imagination (and your child’s) will be sparked.

Caldecott Honors go to Blackout, written and illustrated by John Rocco, published by Disney-Hyperion Books. This is an urban tale of a family (and a neighborhood) that makes the best of a summer power outage. I love the book’s notion that a blackout is a perfect time for roof-top star-gazing, absent of urban light pollution. And it reminds us all of the non-electronic pleasures in life, like spending time with family and neighbors. And don’t forget to eat your ice cream before it melts! I love the use of light and shadow in Rocco’s illustrations, reminiscent of a magic lantern show. We connect with an earlier time, a pre-electric city. When the lights go back on, we better appreciate the simpler joys.

I’m pleased to find a book by Lane Smith in the honor roll. He’s been a star in the world of children’s books for years, and his new book, Grandpa Green by Roaring Brook Press is a lovely, gentle story of a fanciful topiary garden tended to by a boy and his great-grandfather. Lane has a wonderful understanding of a child’s world and seems to have retained the ability to see the world through a child’s eyes, often the better part of the appeal of his books. Just between you and me, I’d like to see him take on bigger, more universal (and profound) themes. He’s more than up to the challenge; and we could have the next Dr. Seuss in our midst.

Primatologist Jane Goodall has always been a heroine of mine, so I was thrilled that Caldecott chose to honor Me … Jane, written and illustrated by Patrick McDonnell and published by Little, Brown and Company. I’ve always loved McDonnell’s whimsical, deceptively simple, but emotional style. It’s fascinating to see how much expression McDonnell manages to get out what are essentially simply drawn figures. Like all true greats, he makes it look easy. And it’s fun to see the world of the child who is the mother to the woman we know as Jane Goodall. Jane’s beloved stuffed monkey, Jubilee, makes a ton of sense. There’s jubilance on every page.

I’m Here to Speak for “The Lorax”

noreply@blogger.com (Maggie Hames) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 22:27:00 +0000

I’m such a fan of the stories of Ted Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, that I’ve lost patience with the stream of film directors who profess to love Geisel’s work as they dance on his grave. The Ron Howard-directed How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the Bo Welch-directed Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat, and the Jimmy Hayward-directed Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! were pretty awful, adding bizarre backstories, characters, and storylines that often negated Geisel’s original work. I’m figuring Welch and Hayward added “Dr. Seuss” to their titles because nobody would associate their films with the wonderful little books otherwise.

This new film is officially called Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, to me, not a good sign. You probably already know Danny DeVito voices the character of the Lorax. It’s directed by Chris Renaud, who also directed the largely charmless Despicable Me. But I go into the theater fingers crossed. There’s got to be a way to do this, to expand a Dr. Seuss book while retaining the charm, essence, and bravery of the book. My question is: HOW will Hollywood create a happy, uplifting ending for The Lorax, not WILL Hollywood do this. How far away from the original text will this film venture?

Answer? Renaud’s Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax is generally faithful to the original story, updating it in a thought-provoking fashion. Geisel’s 1971 book was written in an era when society was first becoming acutely aware of harmful environmental practices. Add forty years of pollution without much progress in environmentalism and you have the birth of Thneedville, a plastic-fantastic town where people are willfully ignorant of environmental issues and pay to breathe clean air. When did you last pay for a drink of water? An hour ago? We have men running for president who deny global warming. We’re living in Thneedville.

And while I thought the creation of the Grinch’s backstory in Ron Howard’s Grinch was—what’s the word I’m looking for—inane, adding the Once-ler’s (voiced by Ed Helms) backstory here is sharp. Corporate polluters always have a bag-full of reasons why their actions are actually good for society; and it’s interesting to watch the Once-ler apologize to the Lorax for cutting down that first tree, vowing never to destroy another, then go back on every promise once his thneeds become popular.

There’s more distracting, pointless filler than the film needs, like the puppy love story between Ted (Zac Efron) and Audrey (Taylor Swift); or the dumb, unoriginal chase scene involving the corporate baddie Mr. O’Hare (Rob Riggles) and Ted. It’s nice to see Betty White getting even more work (in what has been a great few years for her) as Ted’s grandmother. And guess what—she’s really feisty. Ted Geisel would never use such tired clichés. But I’ll refrain from any more snarkiness. I think Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax is worth seeing. And nobody’s more surprised to hear me say that than me.

OR you can stay home and watch The Lorax right now. The Lorax was produced for television back in 1972. Ted Geisel himself was one of the producers. It’s 25 minutes long, very faithful to the original book, and is available in two parts on YouTube. As you watch, consider this: how much did Geisel have to RESPECT his young viewers to figure they could handle the down ending in The Lorax? I’m figuring A LOT. It’s easy to slap a happy ending on just about any story, including this latest incarnation of The Lorax, except environmental issues don’t work that way. They’re not about quick fixes. They’re about behavioral shifts. Geisel knew that and he respected kids too much to mislead them. And let me speak for the book version, as well. It remains a small gem.

Books We Love: “Plunked” by Michael Northrop

noreply@blogger.com (Maggie Hames) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 05:19:00 +0000

Book Review by Jack Silbert
Super Bowl, NBA All-Star Game, blah blah blah. A serious subset of us sports fans spend the entire winter counting down to the only day that matters: When pitchers and catchers report. Baseball fans are a special breed—a bit more obsessive, a bit more nostalgic, a bit more introspective. And if you’ve noticed that the baseball fans in your life have been smiling a bit more recently, have a bit more “spring” in their steps, that’s because spring training is underway.

This year, 8-to-12-year-old baseball fans have even more reason to be happy, with the release of Michael Northrop’s winning novel Plunked. And even though it’s a sports book, it generally avoids the clichés of the genre, and in many ways is a gentle exploration of psyche and emotion.

Which shouldn’t scare anyone off. Baseball is the thinking-person’s game, after all. Fans spend a lot of time inside their own heads, imagining trades, replaying crucial at-bats, contemplating statistics. So it’s only fitting that things really get started here when our protagonist gets hit in the head with a pitched ball.

Now, that’s not a spoiler, don’t worry. You know going in that sixth-grader Jack Mogens is going to take one to the noggin. (The title is Plunked, after all.) As a result, I wonder if kids reading this will be as nervous as I was in the early going. Jack Mogens is such a sweet, friendly kid—we don’t want him to get hit. But we know he will. Is it going to happen at Little League practice? In the batting cage? During the first game? I was antsy each time Jack picked up a bat. (The book seems to follow the Syd Field screenwriting paradigm, so that errant fastball—a.k.a. plot point 1—doesn’t arrive until a third of the way in.)

Before that, Northrop has established Jack’s fear of getting hit. So then the rest of the book delves into a scenario that you don’t need to be a baseball fan to relate to: What happens if the thing you’re afraid of actually takes place? And how do you summon the strength to put yourself in that same situation again?

As for the baseball talk (and there’s a lot of it): The lingo of the game and descriptions of plays all ring true. Northrop obviously isn’t someone who just looked up “baseball” on Wikipedia 20 minutes before starting the book. In fact, he was a baseball editor at Sports Illustrated Kids for five years. Northrop is clearly a fan, writing about fans, for fans. And yet it never gets too wonky—you don’t have to be a seasoned Little Leaguer to appreciate Plunked.

This is Northrop’s first middle-grades offering. His first two books, Gentlemenand Trapped,were well-received young-adult titles. But here, Northrop is clearly at ease with the language and feelings of the sixth-grade set. Importantly, Jack is in an elementary school, where sixth graders rule the roost. They behave like little adults, but are still so young in so many ways. Northrop perfectly captures that dichotomy.

In-between all the baseball, we get nice little glimpses of Jack’s world. School-bus and cafeteria politics. The deep loyalty and easy crumbling of young friendships. There’s the requisite super-talented girl on the team, who makes Jack feel kind of funny inside even if he can’t really understand it. There are parents who don’t get along all the time. (Jack knows how they’re doing by how far apart they sit on the couch when watching TV.) And there’s that pervasive sense that every event is super-important and charged with drama.

Should I say something less than glowing about Plunked? OK, if you’re twisting my arm. I’m not sure how I feel about having a mean-kid character nicknamed “Malfoy.” Sure, it’s a nice tip of the (baseball) cap to the still-reigning champ of kids’ literature. But saying that he acts and even looks like Malfoy—with a mean father to boot—it’s too easy to picture him, and that feels a bit like shorthand.

A minor complaint, though, about what is really a very nice piece of work. And now is the perfect time to read it. Opening Day is still more than a month away, after all.

Jack Silbert is a writer of children's books, restaurant reviews, witty essays, and the like. He lives in Hoboken, N.J.

There’s No “Me” in “Melody Time” … Oh, Wait …

noreply@blogger.com (Maggie Hames) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 13:22:00 +0000

Disney’s Tenth Animated Feature – 1948
Melody Time is a package film in the style of Make Mine Music: seven different shorts that rely on songs and rhyme to tell their tales. Like the package films before it, the shorts of Melody Time vary in appeal. It’s fair to say that the Disney name brings with it a level of quality, even excellence that’s undeniable. Any complaints or criticisms are more a reflection of changing tastes, attitudes, and cultural shifts. And like other older package films, Melody Time inspires its share of smiles, adoring glances, and quizzical, sidelong looks.

Once Upon A Wintertime is described in its narration as the story of love’s young dream. A cute couple goes for a snowy sleigh ride and ice skating, inscribing hearts into the ice with their skates. This leads to a thin ice rescue of the gal (and her female bunny counterpart) by the men folk (both human and rabbit). It’s slightly sexist, but in the way most media created in 1948 was. I’d savor this one for the beautiful Mary Blair-directed imagery.

Two of the shorts, Trees and Johnny Appleseed invoke God about as much as all previous Disney films put together. Most of today’s media is very secular by comparison, but Disney’s work up to 1948 (and after) leaned toward the secular as well. Trees is the Joyce Kilmer poem of the same name set to music. The poem mentions God and as if to underscore its point, ends on an image of a tree that fades to a silhouette, and in so doing assumes a striking resemblance to the old rugged cross. The segment “Night on Bald Mountain” from Disney’s 1940 film Fantasia has a similar reference to religion in its suggestion that goodness and God comes with the light of the dawn, even suggesting people in the distance marching toward church. The sound of what could easily be taken for a church choir in both pieces underscores the reference. The lush animation style suggests both Fantasia and the “April Showers” scene in Bambi.

Johnny Appleseed tells the story of pioneer and apple tree planter John Chapman. This story is narrated and sung by the then-popular tenor Dennis Day who sings, “The lord is good to me, and so I thank the lord.” Johnny Appleseed grows to be a very old man, passes away, and his spirit goes on to plant apple trees in heaven. It seems curious to have God virtually absent from Disney’s work to date, then to see it figure prominently in two pieces, but it seems more coincidence than trend. There’s an obvious comfort level here amounting to a taking for granted that nobody would ever take offence at these references. But that’s one difference between then and now: in the past, there’s an assumption that the consumer is most likely associated with a Christian religious tradition; today, a media creator would make no such assumption.

Bumble Boogie sets a boogie-woogie version of “Flight of the Bumble Bee” to animation starring—you guessed it—a bee. It’s clever and imaginative, very much in the same vein as the short piece “After You’ve Gone” from Make Mine Music, with the little bee escaping “attacks” by flowers, piano keys, and piano hammers. It’s a fanciful non-narrative bit of fun for its own sake.

The story of Little Toot the “baby” tugboat is sung by the Andrews Sisters, whose lively close harmonies do an admirable job of selling this story. Little Toot is the mischievous son of the serious, grownup tugboat, Big Toot. Even when Little Toot tries to help, he causes disasters, such as beaching an ocean liner on a New York City avenue. Disgraced, Little Toot is abandoned outside 12-mile markers in the ocean. Before you can wonder if this seems a harsh punishment for a “child,” Little Toot saves an ocean liner in distress and pulls it safely into New York Harbor, but didn’t you just figure he might?

Blame it on the Samba, starring Donald Duck, Joe Carioca, Ethel Smith and the Dinning Sisters is an obvious leftover from The Three Caballeros, but so what? It’s charming and wonderfully bizarre, featuring the very real organist Ethel Smith who plays one mean samba organ, and how many of us can claim that? The scene begins as a cocktail, a concoction created in a snifter, so the scene is (rather absurdly) set underwater. Ethel Smith just plays away, as a few animated bubbles float by. Joe Carioca and Donald Duck dance, then are spirited away to a painted jungle for more surreal imagery as Ethel plays animated congas. It’s a wonderful and wacky interlude, but honestly, nothing you haven’t seen already in The Three Caballeros. In its own way, it’s as politically incorrect by today’s standards as the references to religion in Trees and Johnny Appleseed. Can you imagine Pixar creating a cartoon where characters get drunk and hallucinate? Me neither.

Pecos Bill is narrated by Roy Rogers (and his horse Trigger!) accompanied by the tuneful Sons of the Pioneers. It’s a charming campfire story, creating an all-encompassing origin story that “explains” the old west, from the Painted Desert to the Rio Grande (Pecos Bill is responsible for both, of course!).

At the end of the day, Melody Time is a better time capsule of 1948 than transferable, modern entertainment. There’s nothing particularly wrong with it, but it’s not especially inspired, either. Those moments that soar—like Bumble Boogie and Blame it on the Samba—were better handled in earlier films. Not everything can be a home run. But cheer up. The 1950’s are almost here. They’ll begin with Cinderella, end with Sleeping Beauty, and feature a slate of winners in between; and not a moment too soon.

And the Winner Is … !

noreply@blogger.com (Maggie Hames) — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 01:04:00 +0000

This is Media Darlings’ first Academy Award season and we’ve begun what we hope will become a yearly tradition. In honor of the Awards, we’ll choose a different theme and bring you the best of that category. This is the year of the piglet, so put on your top hat, grab your silk purse, and join me on the red carpet for the Piglet Hall of Fame Awards. The envelope, please!

Best Picture: Babe, directed in 1995 by Chris Noonan, adapted from the 1983 novel The Sheep-Pig written by Dick King-Smith. Babe is one of the best family films of the late 20th century. The character of Babe was possessed of an “unprejudiced heart” and was encouraged to develop his talents for sheep herding to awe-inspiring results. The animal performances are a clever combination of real animals with very realistic puppets. Actress Christine Cavanaugh hits just the right child-like note in Babe’s voice. Oh, and real-life actor James Cromwell is no slouch as Farmer Hoggett. He sings and dances a jig to cheer up young Babe in a scene that may well move you to tears. This film belongs on every family’s dvd shelf.

Best Adaptation from Book to Small Screen: Olivia. Both the books by Ian Falconer and the Nickelodeon television series based on his characters are a delight. Olivia is a piglet/role model for any kid, spunky, funny, a great student, and a wonderful big sister to William and Ian. Her flights of imagination form the anchor for Falconer’s books and the television series, and those are some fancy flights!
Runner Up: Toot & Puddle. This book series created in 1964 by Holly Hobbie and the Nickelodeon television series are sweet and adorably gentle; great reading and great television.

Best Chapter Book Series: The Mercy Watson series created by Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by Chris Van Dusen. These charming books feature the character Mercy, a piglet who is adopted by a human family and raised as their daughter. Any book from this series—including Mercy Watson to the Rescue and Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride—would make a wonderful choice for your early reader. The chapters are short and it can give young readers a real sense of accomplishment to tackle a real chapter book.

Best Foreign Piglet: Peppa Pig from the British Television Series of the same name. I’ve written on the many joys of this series and continue to recommend this ongoing series that appears in this country on Nick Jr.

Hammiest (By Which We Mean Best) Performance: Porky Pig’s iconic ending to Warner Brother’s cartoons, “That’s all, folks!” Porky first appeared in the 1935 cartoon, “I Haven’t Got a Hat,” and continues to be seen to this day on The Loony Tunes Show.

Best Performance in a Supporting Role: Wilbur from E. B. White’s classic book Charlotte's Web. This book may be about spider Charlotte, but that Wilbur is some pig. This is a beautifully written book, a favorite since its 1952 debut, enjoyed by adults and children alike. The description of the experience of swinging on a rope swing at the farm is an often-cited example of rhythm in writing, as the pace of the sentences reflects the motion of the swing. This is a book to treasure.

Best Musical Score: 1973’s animated film, Charlotte's Web,music and lyrics by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman, better knows as the Sherman Brothers. I’ve never been a fan of the animation of this 1973 adaptation, but the music does soar. The Sherman Brothers created the music for 1964’s Mary Poppins, 1967’s The Jungle Book, and 1968’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Songs for Charlotte’s Web include, “We’ve Got Lots in Common,” “There Must Be Something More,” and “A Veritable Smorgasbord.” My favorite? “Chin Up.”

Best Piglet-Related Individual Episode of a Television Series: Sesame Street episode 4225, which first aired on November 5, 2010. A pair of piglets will not stop playing “Rock-Paper-Scissors,” annoying Oscar the Grouch. (You can see the piglets to the right of Oscar.) The “A-Team” featuring Ryan Reynolds tries to distract the piglets with words beginning with the letter “A.”

Best Live Action Short Subject: Arnold Ziffel from the CBS television series Green Acres, 1965 to 1971. Arnold is a true cultural icon. In Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 film Pulp Fiction, the character Jules (played by Samuel L. Jackson) refers to Arnold, saying a pig would have to be “ten times more charming” than Arnold for him to eat it. And the 1995 theatrical film Gordy was originally conceived in the early 1970s by Green Acres creator Jay Sommers and writer Dick Chevillat as a vehicle for the Arnold Ziffel character, though Sommers died some ten years before the release of Gordy.

Best Costume Design: Miss Piggy as Liz Taylor in Cleopatra, from Piggy’s 1980 calendar. Eat your heart out, Madonna. You may have wowed at this year’s Super Bowl in your homage to Liz Taylor/Cleopatra, but Miss Piggy created her homage to Taylor’s iconic depiction decades ago. Runner up? All of Miss Piggy’s other costumes.

Lifetime Achievement Award: Piglet from the Winnie-the-Pooh series of stories by A. A. Milne. Since 1926, Piglet has stood as Winnie-the-Pooh’s closest friend, first appearing in the book Winnie-the-Pooh and then in all ten chapters of the follow up book, The House At Pooh Corner.

Service Award: to the supermarket chain Piggly Wiggly for years of service to consumers and for appearing repeatedly in the dialogue of the 1989 Brue Beresford-directed film Driving Miss Daisy.

Permanently Banned from the Piglet Hall of Fame: The Porky’s Movies (Porky’s, Porky’s II, and Porky’s Revenge.) Bob Clark’s trio of Dan Monahan-starring films ran from 1982 to 1985. So inane, they give pigs a bad name.

The Complex Issue of Homework – Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Maggie Hames) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:22:00 +0000

In The Complex Issue of Homework Part 1, I wrote about strategies you can try at home to help make homework go more smoothly. Often, one or more of these strategies will do the trick. However, they might not and then you need to work with your child’s teacher(s) to come up with better solutions.

Teachers almost always want to hear the concerns of their students’ parents. Don’t assume they already know that there’s an issue. Keeping track of a class full of students and their homework performance can be challenging.

Ways to communicate
The first thing you need to do is communicate your concerns with school. Here are some options for doing this:

Email is good because often you can more clearly communicate your concerns. Plus, it’s easy to keep track of your communications because your computer will do it for you.
A written note works as well but is sometimes a victim of a child’s forgetfulness.
A telephone call is another way to communicate concerns. I suggest that you make a short list of your concerns so you can bring up each one. It’s sometimes best to start the call with, “I have 3 concerns about my son’s homework.” That way, if the discussion gets off track, you can say something like, “This brings me to my second concern…”
Set up a meeting if you think a face-to-face discussion would be the best way. Again, a list is a good way to clarify your concerns.
Be sure to attend all parent-teacher conferences. If you can’t make it during conference hours, reschedule. But if a problem comes up before then, don’t wait; communicate your concerns when they happen.

Ways you can help communicate your concerns

Be respectful – assume the teacher wants to help.
Keep track of the time that your child spends on homework for several nights and what issues arise.
Keep track of things you’ve tried and the outcomes.

Ways teachers can help
There are many strategies teachers can use to support a student and his family around homework issues. Here are a few:

Monitor recording of assignments and your child’s understanding of them
Help him organize his papers.
Send home assignments early so he can work on them ahead of time when possible.
Reduce/adjust assignments. Some students get quite overwhelmed by a whole sheet of problems. Would it be possible to do just the even-numbered problems?
Clearly say how parents can best support a particular assignment. Read a chapter aloud? Let the student dictate his answers? Help make flashcards?
Prioritize assignments – What assignments are absolutely essential? Are there any that could be given less attention?
Break down longer assignments – When those dreaded long-term assignments come up, could the teacher break down the work into manageable pieces?
Give an answer sheet if homework is something that’s unfamiliar. You won’t use it to supply answers but you can check whether you are on the right track.

Reinforcing positive homework behavior
In an ideal world, kids would do their homework out of joy of learning. But joy of learning comes from many things – sports, dramatics, play, reading, video games (to name a few). Homework often comes in last place. This is when it doesn’t hurt to sweeten the pot. Consider setting up a list of reinforcements that your child is willing to work for. A simple cumulative plan is best. My suggested procedure:

Ask your child to list 5-10 things she is willing to work toward by completing homework. These can be things, activities, lack of chores…
Determine what these things are worth. They may be worth all the same, but some may warrant more work to earn.
Write a simple cumulative plan. For example: For each completed homework assignment, I get 1 point (or sticker). When I get __ points, I get (thing) / can do (activity) / don’t have to do (chore).
Strong suggestion: avoid plans that expect certain performance in a certain time. For example, avoid plans such as If I do all my homework this week, I get ____. Such plans have a built-in punishment system. In a cumulative plan, like above, the child gets to keep on working towards a reward. It’s much more motivating.

Other people
Occasionally, teachers just don’t get your child’s homework struggles. If this is the case, consider enlisting the support of others, such as

principal
school counselor
guidance counselor
pediatrician
social worker

As I researched this topic, I came across several books that had tips and strategies for helping out with homework challenges.

Same Homework, New Plan by Sally G. Hoyle, PhD
Home Sweet Homework by Sharon Marshall Lockett
Research Ate My Brain: The Panic-Proof Guide to Surviving Homework by Toronto Public Library
Homework Talk: the art of effective communication about your child's homework by Cheli Serra, M.Ed. and Ruth Jacoby Ed.D.
Homework Heroes by Drew and Cynthia Johnson
This series has 3 books, each covering a different grade span.
Volume 1: Grades K-2
Volume 2: Grades 3-5
Volume 3: Grades 6-8

If homework is a problem at your house, please know that you are not alone! However, some simple changes may improve the situation considerably. Good luck! —Gail Terp

Gail Terp is the creator of the blog Best Blog for Kids Who Hate to Read, a family blog for reluctant readers and their parents. She is a retired elementary teacher. She writes kids’ books; and connecting kids to books they love is her passion. Her blog is a 3-day-a-week blog:
Monday - Books
Wednesday - Parent Post
Friday - Fun Stuff

For Your Consideration: The “Best Pictures” for Families

noreply@blogger.com (Maggie Hames) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 19:16:00 +0000

I’m sure you’ve noticed it’s Academy Awards season. Offered for your consideration: the greatest family films to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Easy? Not really. You probably won’t be surprised to hear that not many family films have won Best Picture. But every so often, a family picture slips through. This is my personal top five, incidentally an honor roll of great directors, and appropriate for every family’s dvd shelf or digital video queue:

Number 5: My Fair Lady, 1964
Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Rex Harrison), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography (Color), Best Costume Design (Color), Best Music (Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment), Best Sound.
This 1964 musical directed by George Cukor is tuneful and has over-the-top costumes that are the stuff of any kid’s fantasy. It stars the always appealing Audrey Hepburn as Eliza with Hollywood go-to gal Marni Nixon providing Eliza’s singing voice. The entire film was shot inside a sound stage that adds to its magical, child-like feeling. And the story is simple to understand: Higgins is a mean, strict teacher who comes to like and even respect his pupil.

Number 4: How Green Was My Valley, 1941
Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Acting in a Supporting Role (Donald Crisp), Best Art Direction (Interior Decoration, Black-and-White), Best Cinematography (Black-and-White).
This is an atypical John Ford film, telling the sentimental tale of a close-knit Welsh mining family. It’s told through the eyes of the youngest son, Huw, played by a 12-year-old Roddy McDowall, anchoring the story in a child’s world. Huw’s personal drama, like his slow recovery from an injury that cost him the use of his legs, creates an interesting parallel to the grown-up issues of his siblings and parents. They triumph over their woes by loving and supporting each other. It’s a quiet stunner.

Number 3: An American in Paris, 1951
Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Music (Scoring of a Musical Picture), Best Writing (Story and Screenplay).
This Vincente Minnelli directed musical stars the immensely likable Gene Kelly as Jerry Mulligan, who tries to succeed as a painter in post-war Paris. This really is a kid’s version of a love story, wholesome and chaste by today’s standards. I half expect Jerry to ask Leslie Caron’s Lise Bouvier to share an ice cream soda. Gene Kelly/Jerry Mulligan even sings and dances to “I Got Rhythm” with a group of children, his natural fans. The musical numbers are ambitious and impressive, the greatest high school musical you’ll ever see.

Number 2: The Sound of Music, 1965
Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Music (Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment), and Best Sound.
Robert Wise created a truly special film for the entire family, starring the spunky Julie Andrews as Maria. Maria brings music as well as laughter and fun back into the lives of the seven Von Trapp children, beguiling their father (and us) in the bargain. The music of Rogers and Hammerstein soars to the mountaintops, with songs like “Do Re Mi,” “Edelweiss,” and the title theme, “The Sound of Music,” capturing a more wholesome, by-gone era. And the encroaching Nazi threat is filtered through a child’s understanding. And Andrews carries the film with talent and charisma. She was always able to find the humor and sass within the schmaltz of this project, turning the sentiment into an asset. She asserts the values of love, of family closeness, and the importance of fun. Her sincerity—both Julie’s and Maria’s—is infectious. On her, it all looks good.

Number 1: Oliver! 1968
Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Art Direction (Set Decoration), Best Music (Score of a Musical Picture, Original or Adaptation), and Best Sound, as well as an honorary award for Best Choreography.
This movie really is for, by, and about kids. Young Oliver suffers, but triumphs in the end. Director Carol Reed has brought indelible children’s performances to the screen, including Mark Lester as Oliver, but even more spectacularly, the late Jack Wild as the Artful Dodger, one of the great kid’s performances on film ever, full stop. And the rest of Fagin’s boys are more talented and better singers and dancers than they have the right to be at their tender ages. The production numbers featuring these kids including “I’d Do Anything” and “Consider Yourself” are particular gems, but the entire film is a feast, with Dickens’ London brought to life in all its teeming, glorious richness from the most gleaming upper-crust address to the most treacherous back-alley hide-out. As Dr. Johnson said, “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.”

Get Your Irish Up!

noreply@blogger.com (Maggie Hames) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 20:31:00 +0000

e-Books We Love: Tales from the Glades of Ballymore by Bob Brooks with Illustrations by Karen Ross Ohlinger
The great thing about blogging is you can run across a wonderful little self-published book and give it the “shout out” it deserves. Tales From The Glades Of Ballymore by Bob Brooks is a joyous, heart-warming, completely lovable e-book. Set in a fictional Ballymore (as opposed to the many actual places called Ballymore), this book is part Wind in the Willows and part Tales of Beatrix Potter with a modern sensibility. As a first-generation American and the child of Irish immigrants, this book conjures up the “old country.” I can’t wait to share this with my own little girl so she can better understand her roots.

The tales are ostensibly set in1891, but the sensibility feels very today, as all of the animals are equals, each with their own marvelous talents. And it focuses on the types of issues kids will find fun, like kite making and playing Halloween pranks. I personally love the characters of Wilde and Wilder Weasel, two brothers who love playing practical jokes and yelling, “You’ve been weaseled!” In fact, I hope this becomes a new catch phrase. Note to Ashton Kutcher: how about a kid’s version of Punk’d?

The book opens with a poem by the nineteenth century poet Sara Coleridge (daughter of Samuel Taylor Coleridge) called The Months that sets the tone for the book:

January brings the snow,
Makes our feet and fingers glow.

February brings the rain,
Thaws the frozen lake again.

And so on, through the months. Bob Brooks follows with a list of his characters, like Bartholomew Owl, or Brigit Badger who specializes in herbal medicine (even in the glades, it pays to specialize!) and Petunia Porcupine who grows fruit and vegetables. Everyone has a job to do, everyone is kind and helpful, and even a weather predicting Groundhog with few friends is still a valued member of the community. He flies weather-predicting flags for the residents of Ballymore, so a day may be described as blue-red-black, or in Ballymore-ese, a nice day that changes to rain, developing into heavy rain.

There are puzzles and mysteries, even a secret cipher to translate a coded message from Ballymore’s past. It’s an entirely engaging read and Brooks’ powers of description mixed with whimsy are extraordinary. For example, the doctor, Badger Briget asks her patient, “Have you been losing any fur recently?” As for Branna Bluebird, “Before speaking, she smoothed her feathers and stood straight up. She was very professional.” I like that in a bluebird.

One of the characters finds a letter dated 1801 to the residents of Ballymore. In it is the philosophy of the book, as the letter reads, “There is an ancient Biblical Law that, if followed, ensures a more worthwhile life for each of us. ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’ That is the essence of Ballymore.” And not a bad essence at that.

And I like the way this book is structured. The book has twelve chapters, each broken down into three or four short sections, so even the youngest readers can have the satisfaction of tackling a chapter book. Kids won’t burn through this book any time soon.

Want another reason to download this book? On Friday, February 17, the book is FREE on Amazon. And let’s face it, free’s a good price. So pounce.

The Complex Issue of Homework – Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Maggie Hames) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:41:00 +0000

I have very mixed feelings about homework. As a parent, I hated it. It caused all kinds of problems for my son with attention difficulties and I often felt like the heavy. In fact, I thought the best part of summer vacation was the lack of homework.

I wasn’t all that fond of homework as a teacher, either. I knew it had some value but I also knew how stressful it was for my students and their families.

In this two-part post, I’ve gathered several tips to help make homework go a little easier. I hope you find them helpful.

Good Homework:

Encourages the development of organizational skills
Encourages the development of time management skills
Encourages the development of independent work habits
Is at the student’s independent level — not too hard and not too easy
Has a purpose that students understand
Reinforces what was learned in class
Gives practice to strengthen new skills
Informs teachers as to whether their teaching is effective
Informs parents as to what their children are learning

As a teacher, I can tell you that assigning homework that meets these criteria is not easy – especially if the students in the class represent a range of skills and abilities. And every class has students that represent a range of skills and abilities.

Issues that make homework challenging:

The work is too hard.
The reading level is too hard.
The work seems too easy or lame.
The child dislikes school and doesn’t want to continue the misery at home.
The child doesn't understand what is expected.
The child sees no point in the assignment.
Attention issues interfere with listening during the lesson(s) when the skill/information was presented.
Attention issues make settling down and attending to homework close to impossible.

Kids often have very little power over what happens in their lives, especially school. They have to go to school for 6 hours a day. They have to do homework. However, it’s possible to give kids some control over how they go about doing their homework. Consider these variables:

Supervision
Ideally, your child will just sit down and do his homework independently, with little or no prompting from you. However, as most parents will confirm, this is seldom the case.

If there is more than one person available to give homework supervision, choose the person who is most likely to remain encouraging. Someone who can see the positive in your child’s homework efforts and not get easily frustrated.

Organization
Developing organizational skills is one of the top ways homework can be beneficial. Some people are just born organized. Not me and not most people I know. You can really help your child by helping her learn how to approach homework in an organized way. Encourage her to consider these questions:

What would be the best order to do this homework?

Start with the hardest to get it over with?
Start with the easiest to get the ball rolling?
Arrange assignments to match the availability of adult help?

Do I have everything I need to complete each assignment?

pens
sharpened pencils
notebooks
textbooks
a good place to work (see next section)
dictionary
Also helpful: a calendar and/or dry-erase board to keep track of homework assignments and due dates.

Most important question: Do I understand each assignment? If I don’t, is there someone I can ask?

Work Space
The place where homework is most effectively done can be quite individual. Some factors to consider:

Close to other people/work alone
Closely supervised/loosely supervised/independent
Quiet/noisy/background music

A good study space is important. It needs:

Enough room to be comfortable
Proper supplies
Good lighting
Controlled distractions

Timing

Right after school?
After a break?
After dinner?
First thing in the morning?
A combination of these?

Consider letting your child choose when he works on his homework and then expect him to stick with what he says.

I hope these ideas will help your child’s homework time become more productive and less stressful. If problems continue, you may need to turn to your child’s teacher(s) for support. Part 2 will have ideas for enlisting school help for homework issues. —Gail Terp

Gail Terp is the creator of the blog Best Blog for Kids Who Hate to Read, a family blog for reluctant readers and their parents. She is a retired elementary teacher. She writes kids’ books; and connecting kids to books they love is her passion. Her blog is a 3-day-a-week blog:
Monday - Books
Wednesday - Parent Post
Friday - Fun Stuff

Short But Very Sweet: “Daffy’s Rhapsody”

noreply@blogger.com (Maggie Hames) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:01:00 +0000

Cartoon Review by Jack Silbert
I wasn’t planning on seeing Journey 2: The Mysterious Island right away. I hadn’t seen Journey 1, and, you know, didn’t want to get thrown off by the undoubtedly multi-layered plot. So what a wonderful surprise it was to get a sneak peek of the all-new Warner Brothers cartoon Daffy’s Rhapsody, which will be screened in 3-D prior to Journey 2 showings. Simply put, this is a delightful 4 minutes and 19 seconds of animation.

That I knew nothing about it prior to watching the cartoon definitely added to my sense of wonder. So if you want to stop reading right here and buy a ticket to Journey 2, I respect your decision. (And I’m sure Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will give his all to entertain you.)

I will admit to being a little nervous as the cartoon started. I am a huge aficionado of the classic Warner Brothers cartoons. I own all six volumes of the Golden Collection DVD box sets. And re-boots of any sort frighten me. I like things the way they were, dangnabbit! New voices or new looks on my favorite old characters? Color me skeptical. The Muppets recently pulled it off, but that’s the exception, not the rule.

So it was with relief, amazement, and confusion that I greeted the words “Starring Mel Blanc” at the 15-second mark. Confusion because he’s … not alive. I would have to Google this in 4 minutes and 4 seconds.

It turns out that Mel Blanc recorded the song “Daffy’s Rhapsody” back in 1950. It was on a Capitol Records album and was even released as a single. Lyrics were by Looney Tunes’ writers Warren Foster and Michael Maltese, with music by the great arranger/composer Billy May. So this 2012 cartoon is, in effect, a music video starring Daffy.

In it, a tuxedo-clad Elmer Fudd arrives at the theater to see the musical Requiem for a Hunt. (Elmer is voiced by the terrific Billy West, of Futurama, Ren & Stimpy, and Howard Stern fame.) Unbeknownst to him but beknownst to us, it is a one-man … er, one-duck show featuring you-know-who. Elmer consults the Playbill-esque Pwogwam (nice touch), the curtain opens, and … it soon becomes a two-man show. Elmer dons his hunting duds and loads his shotgun, security obviously a bit flimsy at this auditorium. The chase is on.

The 3-D animation is absolutely brilliant. I saw the cartoon in 2-D and the images still leapt off the screen. It is so much fun—Daffy and Elmer manically cavorting all around the stage—that I really don’t want to give away any more. Except to say there are nods to the rest of the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies family, and even a bit of that early darn-fool screwy Daffy that I love so much. And I am so very glad to learn that that’s not all, folks: More of these theatrical shorts are on the way.

Jack Silbert is a writer of children's books, restaurant reviews, witty essays, and the like. He lives in Hoboken, N.J.

My Funny Valentine: Disney’s “Fun and Fancy Free”

noreply@blogger.com (Maggie Hames) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:13:00 +0000

Disney’s Ninth Animated Feature – 1947
Fun and Fancy Free is another post-war package film, made up of two short narrative films—Bongo and Mickey and the Beanstalk—that were originally planned as separate feature films. Bongo, based on an original short story by Sinclair Lewis (of all people) follows a circus bear who wants to live free in the wild. Mickey and the Beanstalk is (big surprise) based on Jack and the Beanstalk, and stars Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy as peasants who discover temperamental Willie the Giant’s castle in the sky through the use of some magic beans. This Mickey represents the last time Walt Disney would voice the character. He was getting a little busy, what with being Walt Disney and all.

Not to gush, but this film is wonderful. Both segments are filled with many adorable and thought-provoking moments and most importantly, virtually nothing that a modern parent needs to qualify, excuse, or explain before sharing it with their child. I even love the bouncy theme song to the film that transitions nicely to Jiminy Cricket singing the adorable, “I’m a Happy-Go-Lucky Fellow,” the framing device used for the Bongo sequence. (I want to learn that song by heart.) Yes, this film brings back the supporting cast of Pinocchio: Jiminy, Cleo the goldfish, and Figaro the cat. Jiminy is always a welcome sight. You can hear the opening theme and Jiminy's song in this clip:

Jiminy strolls across a bookshelf, looking for a story to share with the viewer. I like the way he pauses for a moment at a book titled, “Misery for the Masses,” and takes a pass, rubbing his forehead at the very idea. Jiminy happens upon a doll, a teddy bear, a record player, and a set of records titled, “Bongo, a musical story sung by Dinah Shore.” (Guess it sure beats the “boring” music of Beethoven and Bach seen on the shelf, as Disney realized after the failure of Fantasia.) Jiminy puts on the record and we’re off.

Bongo the circus bear is the star of the circus. Bongo performs amazing stunts of acrobatics, high wire, juggling, and even high dive, only to have a locked collar clicked around his neck the moment he steps offstage. Fate takes a hand in the form of a faulty lock on his circus train cage, enabling Bongo’s escape. But hilariously, he’s an urban bear who rides his unicycle to freedom, still wearing his circus uniform.

He experiments with growling and tree climbing, causing hilarity among the woodland creatures. He makes friends with the animals, much like Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. As he hunkers down to sleep for the night, he can’t believe how noisy nature can be. He’s menaced by mosquitoes, bats, and a thunderstorm. He wakes up discouraged and realizes he can’t fish, either.

But then he meets a cute girl bear and is immediately smitten. As Dinah Shore sings, “Is This a Dream,” we see a Valentine of a film within the film, as little bear cherubs put a pair of rose-tinted glasses on Bongo, and he and Lulabelle dance in the sky. But not unlike Bambi, where Bambi had to fight for the right to be with Faline, Bongo’s dream is soon shattered by the appearance of the enormous, tough bear Lockjaw who wants Lulabelle for himself.

Bongo takes out his press clippings as way of introduction as Lockjaw stomps him. At this key moment, Lulabelle slaps Bongo, who doesn’t seem to understand that this is wild bears’ love ritual. When she accidentally slaps Lockjaw when Bongo ducks, it’s too late. Lockjaw readily accepts her proposal. A very funny song and dance number among the bears, “A Bear Likes To Say It With a Slap,” is surreal and hilarious. You can see it here:

The male bears give their ladies a gentle tap on the cheek and the ladies counter with a full-on slug to the jaw. Eventually, Bongo catches on and he’s able to use his circus skills to defeat Lockjaw and wins the gal and the respect of his bear peers, and that’s a great little story.

Part two, Mickey and the Beanstalk has its own clever framing device: a birthday party invitation for child actress Luana Patten featuring (then) huge star Edgar Berger and his even more famous ventriloquist dummies, Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd. (That's Luana, Edgar, and Mortimer at left.) In this live-action sequence, Charlie and Mortimer have been propped up on a couch and speak as if they’re real people. Edgar tells the story of Mickey and the Beanstalk accompanied by Charlie and Mortimer’s sarcastic asides.

A lot of the jokes still hold up. It’s easy to understand why Bergen/McCarthy/Snerd were such huge stars. Bergen’s talent—that of ventriloquism—seems quaint, but that man was a mega-talent and this footage testifies to that. But unless you’re a fan of vintage radio and cinema, you might not appreciate the significance of Edgar Bergen and his creations. And Bergen was an “old school” ventriloquist. When he passed away, his puppets did as well.

The Beanstalk story begins as a golden harp sings a merry tune,“My What a Happy Day,” and at this point I’m thinking that this score contains the most “up,” singable, chirpy tunes of any Disney film. The giant steals the harp, and desolation covers the land. Three poor farmers you’ll surely recognize suffer through it all: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy.

They decide to sell their cow but Mickey comes home with magic beans. The beanstalk grows, the lads climb up, and they’re happy to find food on the giant’s table. This giant is magic, but Mickey fails at trying to trick him into turning himself into a fly (so the lads can swat him). They’re captured but are set free with the harp’s help. They scurry down the beanstalk with her, restoring happiness and prosperity to the Valley.

In a return to the framing device, Mortimer Snerd gets upset when he thinks the nice giant’s been killed, and Edgar consoles Mortimer that the giant is just a figment of their imaginations. At that moment, the animated giant rips the roof off of their home, pre-supposing any number of modern animation techniques combining live action and animation.

This film doesn’t exactly pass for a modern piece of cinema, but it doesn’t have whiskers, either. It would fit very nicely on your dvd shelf.

Valentine e-Books With Heart

noreply@blogger.com (Maggie Hames) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:12:00 +0000

If your child knows what Valentine’s Day is, you’ll probably find yourself helping them get a stack of cards ready for their friends at school (or pre-school!). But what about a special Valentine’s surprise from you to your child? Why not save a tree with these e-books for Valentine’s Day that will encourage literacy AND loving kindness.

That’s what I love about Valentine’s Day (no pun intended): it’s all about love. It never hurts to remember that love’s the greatest power in our lives with limitless potential to improve the world every day. (Not overselling it, am I?) These books put love at the center of everything, which seems like a great choice to me. If you’re a Kindle Prime member, you’ll really love the prices (usually zero), but even if you’re not, these e-books fit every budget.

Be Mine (A Valentine for Kids Ages 2-102) by Brenda Ponnay (seen above). This is a sweet picture book of animals, each with a different way to say “You are special to me!” I also love this style of illustration: nice bright colors with animals composed of simple shapes that encourage copying, which is a great way to learn to draw.

My Funny Valentine (Phineas and Ferb Series) by Jonathan Colton Barry. It’s Valentine’s Day, and the evil Dr. Doofenshmirtz has stolen all of the candy, flowers, and stuffed animals in Danville. Will Phineas and Ferb be able to save Valentine’s Day for big sister Candace? Very funny early reader book with heart: the boys don’t care about Valentine’s Day for themselves, but will go that extra mile to save Candace’s favorite holiday.

10 Valentine Friends by Janet Schulman. This is part of the sweet “10 Friends” series, perfect for young readers or pre-readers. Encourages counting and crafts. Valentine’s Day can be about home-made cards and this book also functions as an idea book for your own child’s Valentine making.

Zombie in Love by Scott Campbell and Kelly DiPucchio. You’ve got to love a book that’s advertised as “a picture book for the youngest zombie fans.” Truth is, you and your kids will love young Mortimer the Zombie, not fear him. Your kids will be on Mortimer’s side during his hapless love adventure. This book’s got plenty of jokes and sight gags with just the right degree of ick factor. Your over-sevens will get a good laugh.

Bonus Book: Though it’s not a Valentine Book, I highly recommend The Golden Acorn by Catherine Cooper. It’s stunningly beautiful and makes good use of e-book technology with maps and line drawings that take advantage of zoom features. The e-book opens at the start of the story, so be sure and visit the menu to select the maps. Your over-sevens to middle-schoolers will love this e-book. It’s got enough magic and fantasy with talking animals, talking trees, and time travel to fill any Potter-esque void. And even though it stands alone, this is book one of a series that will encourage you to move on to the next book. And that’s a good thing. As the candy heart said, you’ll love it.

Not In Front of the Kids!

noreply@blogger.com (Maggie Hames) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:26:00 +0000

With the success of Martin Scorsese’s Hugo—winning a Golden Globe for Best Director and now several Oscar nominations—Scorsese conquered a genre nobody suspected was on his “to do” list: the family picture. And he is now poised to win an arm-load of Academy Awards for a movie for and about kids. As Jimmy exclaimed in GoodFellas when Tommy was sassed by Spider, “What’s this world coming to?”

Well, Hugo certainly isn’t Martin Scorsese’s first film to feature children in important roles—not by a long shot. Hugo is simply the first Scorsese picture featuring kids where kids are welcome in the audience. Our slide show takes a look at Scorsese’s unflinching look at families and childhood through the decades. Like Scorsese’s films themselves, you should be thirteen or older to view this show.

Washington Did More Than Just Sleep Here

noreply@blogger.com (Maggie Hames) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:36:00 +0000

The American Revolution in New York City
I read that the word of the year should be “occupy,” as in “Occupy Wall Street,” the popular protest in New York City that inspired similar protests around the country and around the world. But New York City has always been a revolutionary city, a place where ideas come to percolate, a city where the only constant is the constant change.

If your child is studying the American Revolution in school, you can make that history come alive with a visit to an actual piece of revolutionary New York City. A good place to start your adventure is the same place where people gathered to debate the merits of independence: The Fraunces Tavern and Museum. All ages are welcome to walk in the footsteps of George Washington at the Fraunces Tavern and Museum located at 54 Pearl Street.

Originally a private residence built in 1719 by Etienne DeLancey (Delancey Street is named for him), the building was sold to Sam Fraunces in 1762 who established a tavern that’s still in operation. Hoist an ale (your child can get a soft drink) and toast George Washington, because upstairs, a museum space preserves the site used by Washington for his farewell address to his generals at the end of the revolution. There are other wonderful permanent and changing exhibits as well. The building is owned and managed by the Sons of the Revolution and their site is a great starting point for a lower Manhattan walking tour.

Be sure and stroll by Federal Hall at 26 Wall Street. This “new” Federal Hall was built on the site of the original building that housed the earliest continental congress, served as the nation’s first capital and saw the enactment of the Bill of Rights.

And at the corner of Wall Street and Broadway is the “new” Trinity Church, as the original was burned down during the Revolutionary War. But the churchyard cemetery is the resting place of notables of the revolution, including Alexander Hamilton.

All ages are also welcome at the Morris-Jumel Mansion (also known as the Roger and Mary Philipse Morris House). Seen at the top of this story, the house was built in 1765 and located in Washington Heights. It served as a headquarters for both sides in the American Revolution. Washington seized this mansion of tory Roger Morris because of its commanding views. General Washington used Morris-Jumel Mansion as his headquarters during the fall of 1776. You’ll truly step back in time in this house, an exquisitely restored antiques-filled beauty.

Yes, George Washington slept here. You can visit his bedchamber and study (seen at right) as well as the bedchamber of Aaron Burr, who famously dueled with and killed Alexander Hamilton. According to New York Freedom Trail research, the house must have had some special meaning to Washington. Twenty years earlier, when he had visited New York for the first time as a young militia colonel, he had fallen in love with the beautiful Polly Philipse. Instead of Washington, she married his friend and fellow soldier Roger Morris. Morris, a loyalist, and his wife fled the New York area as the revolution began. During his stay at the house, he wrote to Polly’s aunt, saying, “I beg the favor of having my compliments presented to Mrs. Morris.” No reason to display bad manners, after all!

You’ll need to make an appointment to see the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum, the oldest remaining farmhouse on Manhattan Island (at left). The farmhouse was built by Dutch farmer William Dyckman sometime around 1784. The site includes an adjacent garden that includes a small reproduction smokehouse built as part of its 1916 restoration as well as a Military Hut (seen below, left). The remains of huts used as shelter by British and Hessian soldiers during the Revolutionary War were discovered and one hut was reconstructed within the park of the Dyckman Farmhouse. New York Freedom Trail relates that nearly 30,000 Germans were shipped to America and they made up about one-third of the King’s army. They were bitterly resented by the colonists, who felt their king had turned foreign enemies loose on his own people.

The Dyckman Farmhouse Museum is the other side of the story that’s told by the Morris-Jumel Mansion: this is where ordinary folks—farm people and soldiers—lived before, during, and after the revolution.

To walk these structures and sites is truly to walk in the footsteps of history. They’re quiet little pockets of the past in a noisy modern world.

Books (and Authors) We Love: “Honest Abe’s Funny Money Book” by Jack Silbert

noreply@blogger.com (Maggie Hames) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:32:00 +0000

Book Review and Author Interview by Maggie Hames
Our frequent contributor Jack Silbert (reviewer of Joyful Noise, War Horse, and many other pieces) has just written a new book, Honest Abe’s Funny Money Book, and if you’re already a fan of Silbert’s work, you won’t be surprised to hear that it’s very funny and very informative. Jack’s one of those rare birds who really makes learning fun.

Honest Abe’s Funny Money Book explains—through the voice of Abe Lincoln himself—the why and how of each piece of currency, from the penny to the hundred-dollar bill. Each page features money jokes, such as “What did the dollar bill say to the four quarters? I can change!” Readers get history and practical ideas for money management. For instance, you can keep track of how much your lemonade stand makes, just remember to deduct for expenses! And Jim Paillot’s witty illustrations hit just the right humorous tone, modern and light-hearted, in synch with Silbert’s prose.

Your kids seven and up will love this book. It’s fun, readable, and while we’re on the subject of fun and readable, take a look at Jack’s other children’s titles. Your kids will have so much fun reading these books, they won’t notice they’re learning.

As the former editor of Scholastic’s Math Magazine, Jack’s book, Math Mysteries for grades 3-5 is top-drawer. It presents math problems as engaging stories with activity pages that teach and reinforce key problem-solving strategies, like estimating and working backwards. I think parents would enjoy using these books with their kids. Kids will look forward to homework time.

American History Comic Books for grades 4-6 presents time traveler Scooter McGinty as he meets the Pilgrims of Plymouth, Benjamin Franklin, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Henry Ford (among others). With twelve reproducible comic books with activities, this is sure to get kids excited about key events and people in American History. Short quizzes at the end of each comic reinforce important facts. Jack co-wrote this title with Joseph D’Agnese, who you’ll remember from our review of his own wonderful children’s title, Blockhead: The Story of Fibonacci.

I have a real soft spot for Jack’s Golden Book, Santa in Space. Santa visits the children of planet Krelb, where kids decorate a giant Christmas ornament with tiny trees, leave Santa motor oil instead of milk, and love getting chickens as Christmas presents. You won’t find a funnier Christmas book and the jokes are just right for younger kids who love Santa.

I asked Jack a few questions about writing for kids:

Media Darlings: Which came first, a love of math or your work at Math Magazine?
Jack Silbert: I excelled in math almost all the way through high school, but it was never a favorite. In college, my major (creative writing) was one of very few that didn’t require a math class. Then when I got a summer internship at Scholastic after my junior year, I was assigned to the math magazines and realized that the math magazines were a lot more fun than the magazines for other subjects. They had to be, because so many kids turn away from math during middle school. I was pleased that there was so much humor in the math magazines, because that’s what I’ve always enjoyed writing.

MD: Did Scholastic help you hone your comic voice?
JS: It did make me a stronger writer and editor. It provided me genuine experience with a philosophy I was already considering: the challenge of shorter formats. Could you say as much in a short story as you could in a novel? Could you say as much in a poem? I used to joke that I just wanted to write the perfect sentence. Though perhaps I was having premonitions of the Twitter era!

MD: What’s the best way for parents and teachers to make learning fun?
JS: I’m a committed believer in real-life connections—show where the topic turns up in an area the child is already interested in. It could be a news story, technology, sports, music, movies, shopping, careers—anything. Answer that eternal “When will I ever use this again?” question. And of course humor always helps. It’s that spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down—though, now that I think of it, that’s not really very sound medical advice.

MD: What was your favorite t.v. show when you were a kid?
JS: Repeats of The Monkees really captured my imagination. Those guys were silly, they’d break the fourth wall, and were a bit rebellious. I think the show really prepped me for later absurd comedy I’d enjoy, like Monty Python.

MD: What fictional character would you like to be?
JS: Holden Caulfield. I remember reading Catcher in the Rye on a train, coming back from college for winter break. And he was just the coolest guy ever. Well, after the Fonz.

MD: What was the first book you remember really loving?
JS: When books were really becoming a big part of my life, I liked protagonists who were clever boys solving problems. And usually in series form. I think The Hardy Boys gave way to the somewhat edgier Encyclopedia Brown and The Great Brain.

MD: Do you remember being read to as a child? Do you have a favorite book from that era?
JS: I have vague memories of being read to and also of my dad smoking, but I don’t think they were simultaneous. Cat in the Hat and other Dr. Seuss titles were early faves.

MD: Who’s your favorite character from a t.v. show or cartoon?
JS: From a cartoon, the early, black-and-white, genuinely insane Daffy Duck (much more than his angry, flustered, world-is-against-me later incarnation); from live action, The Fonz.

MD: What’s your favorite smart phone/iPad app?
JS: MLB At-Bat. For $15 you can listen to home or away radio broadcasts of every baseball game all season long. How cool is that?

MD: Which famous fictional character’s motto or iconic line do you wish you came up with?
JS: Tom Joad’s big Grapes of Wrath speech: “Wherever there’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever there’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there ....” I actually carry those first couple of lines around with me in my wallet.

Museums That Visit YOU

noreply@blogger.com (Maggie Hames) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 23:27:00 +0000

Virtual Museums That Bring Home the Fun
Not to complain, but it was 17° here last week. This weekend, it’s snowing. I don’t want to go to the grocery store much less out for fun. On blustery days, why not take advantage of that window to the world we call the Internet? I think older kids and teens will get a kick out of these sites, the quirky little museums often started by an individual or small group. Hint: great ideas for school essays here! And maybe teens will be inspired to create their own online museums. Do you have a collection of just about anything? That’s a start.

I begin, appropriately enough, with The Museum of Online Museums or MoOm. The MoOM was created by the Chicago Design Firm Coudal Partners. Their museum will link you to museum sites around the globe.

The Virtual Typewriter Museum contains photographs, descriptions, and even short animations of early typewriters, including the “holy grail” of typewriters, the Hansen writing ball from 1870. You’ve got to see it to believe it.

For teens who love fashion, The Valentino Garavani Virtual Museum is a stunner. Known simply as Valentino by many, his fashion archive is yours to sift through. To visit the museum, users must first download an app, but then visitors can create their own individualized route through the galleries. Over 5,000 documents including spectacular fashion photographs and clothing details are among the collection.

Younger kids will enjoy the Canadian Toy Collector’s Society Virtual Museum. Toys of every description are cross-referenced by type and year. The emphasis here is on collectability, so kids will see rare and unusual toys. Grandparents can be a big help putting these toys into context.

I find something irresistible about The Museum of Bags (pictured above). Their mission is to showcase the bag in all its forms as an icon illustrating the history and culture of society. I love this museum’s focus and simplicity. Our “stuff” reveals who we are as a culture. This museum can inspire kids to begin their own virtual collections. All you need is a scanner and a dream.

A collection that invites your additions is the Gallery of Bento Box Photography on Flickr. If you ever create (or consume) these imaginative lunch boxes, snap a photo and upload it to this collection. The power of this collection is the sheer numbers representing many meals enjoyed by many different folks. You and your kids can be part of it.

The Titanic Museum invites teens to dream about this tragic, “unsinkable” ship. See recently salvaged artifacts along with a trove of information about the ship, its era, and the great era of the Atlantic crossings. For that matter, find out the difference between a “cruise” and a “crossing.”

I’ve only scratched the surface of the world of virtual museums. What’s your favorite? We’d love to know and we'd love for you to share it here.

All You Cats Join In and “Make Mine Music”

noreply@blogger.com (Maggie Hames) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:15:00 +0000

Disney’s Eighth Animated Feature – 1946
Make Mine Music was Disney’s fourth “package” film, a feature-length film made up of a series of shorts. World War II had just come to an end, but during the war, much of Disney’s staff had been drafted or called upon by the U.S. government to make training and propaganda films. It was difficult for Disney to get anything in the pipeline except short films. And these reasonably popular package films were also a way for Disney to experiment with new techniques and talent.

But Make Mine Music hasn’t aged well. The Fantasia-like “Blue Bayou” sequence is lovely, but an experimental piece combining rotoscoped images of ballet stars Tatiana Riabouchinska and David Lichine seems more than a bit odd, pushed to kitsch with its animated hearts and cupids. The “comic” “Casey at the Bat” sequence is anything but. And the sequence, “Johnny Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet” is a love story between a couple of hats. One of the hats is purchased, breaking up the romance. You can pretty much figure it out from there.

Prokovieff’s “Peter and the Wolf” starts as an enjoyable lesson in music appreciation, but is over-explained with way too much narration. The sequence, “The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met” is a bit more Nelson Eddy than anybody needs. He sings all the parts and provides the narration. It has its charming moments, but the whale is discovered in the ocean delighting his pals by singing (wait for it) “Short’nin’ Bread.” Ummm, check, please.

The only piece that was a flat-out delight without inducing any cringes was Benny Goodman’s “After You’ve Gone,” with dancing musical instruments, a sweet little music video.

I also like the sequence “All the Cats Join In.” It’s got another bouncy Benny Goodman tune, unmistakable styling by Mary Blair, and a peek into teen culture of 1946. The kids gather in a jalopy and head to the malt shop to Lindy hop (How 1946 can you get?). Though I wince at the unnecessary moment when a bespectacled girl with the stack of books at the bus stop gets summarily passed over by the teens as they drive by. But if you’re going to look at work from this era, be prepared to wince.

What WON’T make you wince is the sequence “The Martins and Coys,” because it’s been excised from modern dvd’s, though it’s easily seen on Youtube. Seems this spoof of a hillbilly feud with its gunplay and drinking was a bit embarrassing to Disney, though I admit I thought it was pretty funny the way the hillbillies—both sides of the feud—virtually erased each other only to continue their feud in heaven. Cheap stereotypes aside, it made a profound statement on human nature.

Make Mine Music is an interesting time capsule of 1946. You get a smattering of that era’s style, humor, pop culture, foibles, and of course, music. It’s interesting to see how the “tops of the pops” of 1946 fare today. Benny Goodman? Still a lively presence, respected in today’s pop culture. The music of Nelson Eddy and Andy Russell or the comedy of Jerry Colonna? Not so much. This film holds more fascination for grown-up students of history and culture than today’s kids. Just as the out-of-date, 1920’s style “sheik” teen was escorted to the door by the cool kids in “All the Cats Join In,” I can’t see today’s kids having much interest in this film. Wait until you grow up. Then you might appreciate this kid’s movie.

Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King

noreply@blogger.com (Maggie Hames) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:42:00 +0000

We honor Dr. Martin Luther King as we honor our exceptional Presidents—with a federal holiday. King never held elective office, but giving him an official federal holiday properly honors his vital, irreplaceable life’s work and acknowledges and underscores an important aspect of his struggle: that even though he was a man of vision with extraordinary leadership abilities, as a man of color, Martin Luther King could never have hoped to make a successful run for the American Presidency in his era.

There are any number of wonderful children’s books and videos that honor Dr. King, but here are a few of my favorites:

Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., written by Doreen Rappaport and illustrated by Bryan Collier (cover seen above). This is a wonderful book for children four and older, and uses Kings immortal words to tell the story of his life. From his youth, when he admired his minister father and was inspired to follow in his footsteps and vowed one day to “get big words, too,” to his death, Rappaport is reverential and delivers an age-appropriate portrait of one of the world’s greatest civil rights leaders.

I’m also very fond of My Brother Martin: A Sister Remembers Growing Up with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., by Christine King Farris and Chris Soentpiet. This is a very touching, personal account of Martin as a little boy, as somebody’s brother who joked around, practiced piano, and made friends. We see the affects of growing up in a segregated society from a kid’s perspective and get to know the child who was the father to the man.

For kids ten and older, a wonderful way to celebrate the life of Dr. King would be a family viewing of this excerpted version of the acclaimed television documentary series, Eyes on The Prize: America's Civil Rights Years 1954-1965, narrated by Julian Bond. It took years for this series to make it to dvd owing to complicated rights issues, but it was worth the wait. This disc is available as an affordable “one-off,” but if money isn’t an issue, the entire fourteen-hour series is also available in Eyes on the Prize Official PBS DVD Release, though its price tag of $363.41 puts it out of my range. If your local library or your children’s school library doesn’t have it, suggest it! It’s one of the true greats in television documentaries, rich in rare photographs and footage, and a fitting tribute to the work of Dr. King and all who risked their lives to make a better America. It’s humbling, but many great works are.

I Give It Five Hurrahs and Twelve Hip-Hips! Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast in 3-D”

noreply@blogger.com (Maggie Hames) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:38:00 +0000

Disney’s Thirtieth Animated Feature – 1991 (Original Release) 2012 (3-D Release)
As a woman, a feminist, and as the mother of a little girl, I must say I’ve always loved Beauty and the Beast. Belle (the Beauty) is a heroine girls can relate to. She’s lovely and smart, but so intellectually curious she feels she doesn’t fit into her small-town life. She wants to see the greater world and yearns to meet someone who will understand her and love her just as she is.

The plot reverses the classic fairy tale/Disney “prince saves the princess” formula, as it’s the formidable Beast who is the prisoner and needs saving. He’s the victim of a magic spell, trapped in his half man/half animal form. He must wait for someone with the ability (and the will) to save him.

Beauty and the Beast boasts one of the wittiest musical scores of any musical ever, animated or not. The musical team of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, fresh off their success with The Little Mermaid, wrote a wry, knowing, tuneful collection here, from the sublime love theme “Beauty and the Beast,” to “Be Our Guest,” to the biographical “Gaston.” And the character of Gaston is the perfect romantic rival to the Beast; a wonderfully egomaniacal and insensitive dufus who woos Belle by belittling her love of books, and can’t stop himself from grabbing admiring glances in mirrors. As the song says, “No one’s slick as Gaston. No one’s quick as Gaston. No one’s neck’s as incredibly thick as Gaston.”

Lyricist Howard Ashman died following complications from AIDS at the age of 40 in New York City after completing work on Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. And it was his trio of musicals—including The Little Mermaid—that amounted to a second “golden era” of Disney animated features.

The cast is a surprising mix. Robby Benson as the Beast—who knew? He’s gruff. He’s tender. He’s a dreamboat of a … uh, Beast. A top-notch supporting cast features the late, great Jerry Orbach as candlestick Lumiere. He introduces the song “Be Our Guest” with style, just as he introduced “September Song” a generation earlier as El Gallo in the original cast of The Fantasticks. David Ogden Stiers does a witty job as the tightly wound clock/major domo, Cogsworth; and the divine Angela Lansbury as housekeeper Mrs. Potts gives just the right balance of sentiment and humor to the love theme, “Beauty and the Beast.”

But how does this feature fare in 3-D? Does this film need any help finding a new audience? Will Disney harm this film with “improvements”? The 3-D animation is very effective in spots, less so at other moments. It hardly spoils anything, but there are scenes where characters seem like 2-D cutouts in a 3-D world. And a few moments, spaces seem distorted owing to the immense depth that 3-D creates. It didn’t help matters to sit though a string of 3-D previews of new films created specifically to take advantage of 3-D technology.

There’s an awful lot of “saving” done in this film. Belle saves her father, first by switching places with him at the castle of the Beast; then by saving him from freezing to death in the forest. The Beast saves Belle from a wolf attack. Belle saves the Beast by grabbing his shirt, stopping him from falling off a castle ledge into a ravine. And one of my favorites, Lumiere saves the Feather Duster when angry townsfolk attack the castle. But much more importantly, Belle saves the Beast from a lifetime of loneliness and despair … by loving him. It’s the same way we’re all saved from the grip of solitude. If we’re lucky.

1959's Sleeping Beauty (above)

I love just about everything in this film. I even love the way the final dance between Belle and the transformed Beast/Prince pays homage to the final dance from 1959’s Sleeping Beauty. Notice the matching floor patterns and the placement of the figures in the lower left of each frame; Sleeping Beauty’s King and Beauty and the Beast’s Cogsworth even have their hands clasped behind their backs in identical gestures.

So be my guest: buy the dvd, the t-shirt, and the lunchbox. This one’s a keeper. You won’t mind when your kids watch it over and over. Few films—for kids or grown-ups—succeed like Beauty and the Beast.

Joyful Noise

noreply@blogger.com (Maggie Hames) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:02:00 +0000

Film Review by Jack Silbert
It would be entirely too easy to refer to this movie as the “gospel Glee” And it wouldn’t be fair, either. Writer/director Todd Graff was totally pre-Glee with the whole singing/dancing kids thing, back with his charming 2003 debut Camp. And once again, he’s created an upbeat, warm-hearted, music-filled tale that is perfect for families. And yes, I’d say that even if Graff—as a young actor—didn’t share a few seconds of screen time with my parents in 1987’s Sweet Lorraine. (But that’s a story for another time.)

Going in, I was a little worried that this movie would try too hard to please everybody. You’ve got urban (Queen Latifah), country (Dolly Parton), kids (Keke Palmer, a.k.a. Nickelodeon’s True Jackson), and the Glee factor: spirited, choreographed renditions of popular tunes. And was Graff going to the well once too often? For the third time in a row (after Camp and Bandslam), his plot revolves around a gang of musical misfits reaching for that brass ring.

Thankfully, the movie does not feel calculated or recycled, and that’s a testament to Graff’s sunny outlook and a terrific, enthusiastic cast. Queen Latifah proves that no one will be taking her crown anytime soon. She plays Vi Rose Hill, church choir leader and (ostensibly) single mom, giving her all to maintain her two “families.” Latifah delivers a couple of truly powerful speeches, though I’d expect no less from a Jersey girl. Dolly Parton provides many laughs, wrote three wonderful new songs for the movie, and shares a beautiful, understated scene with Kris Kristofferson. And much credit to Dolly for poking fun at herself, cracking jokes about aging and plastic surgery. (She looks great, by the way.) A hilarious verbal and physical fight between Latifah and Parton is one of the film’s best moments.

Keke Palmer gives a strong performance as Latifah’s daughter, nearing womanhood but not quite there yet. And I was impressed with newcomer Jeremy Jordan as Parton’s grandson. There are so many faceless young talents around, but Jordan exudes a bit of substance. Looks-wise, he first called to mind a young McNulty from The Wire. Then it hit me: He looks kind of like, yes, Glee’s Matthew Morrison. Fans of middle-initialed Law & Order franchise cast members will be happy to see both Jesse L. Martin and Criminal Intent’s Courtney B. Vance.

It’s not a perfect movie—plot points are glossed over, conflicts are resolved too easily, some characters are broadly drawn, etc. But the flaws almost become part of the charm, and help make this a great family film. There’s an innocent, “aw shucks, let’s put on a show!” feel to the proceedings. (The Muppets had similar appeal.) A lot of topics are touched on that you can discuss later with the kids: balancing religion and secular life; single-parent households (and disputes that arise); the economy; the war; even Asperger’s syndrome. As for the PG-13 rating, it’s a pretty soft PG-13: just a little bit of cussing (the second time around, it’s in a convincing denunciation of swear words) and a couple of conversations refer to, you know, “doing it” (though only between consenting adults).

And then there’s the music. I don’t watch Glee, American Idol, etc. etc., but if they are anything like this movie, then I guess I see the attraction. From Keke Palmer leading a dynamic version of “Man in the Mirror,” to a fiery performance from gospel superstar Kirk Franklin, to a no-holds-barred grand finale, I was tapping my foot throughout and even choked back a tear or two. One thing is certain: Joyful Noise is aptly named.

Jack Silbert is a writer of children's books, restaurant reviews, witty essays, and the like. He lives in Hoboken, N.J.

Character Education Is a Hot Topic. And You Can Quote Me!

noreply@blogger.com (Maggie Hames) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 02:20:00 +0000

Book Review: Changing Kids’ Lives One Quote at a Time by Steve Reifman
Santa Monica grammar school teacher Steve Reifman is ahead of the curve on the topic of character education. While some educators are increasingly obsessed with standardized test scores, Reifman champions a more holistic educational approach, “I have always wanted kids to become great students, but it’s more important to me that they become great people.”

Fifteen years in the making, his book, Changing Kids' Lives One Quote at a Time: 121 Inspirational Sayings to Build Character in Children is part conversation starter, part class project, and part writing prompt. He utilizes a system that is very familiar to anyone who uses Twitter: he employs inspirational quotations to open discussions on any number of ethical and philosophical issues including the concepts of courage, fairness, honesty, and perseverance.

In his own way, Reifman addresses issues like bullying, cheating, and self-esteem by opening up important conversations about how we choose to live our lives. In our success-at-any-price culture, Reifman nudges students to confront the basic question of their lives: what kind of person do you want to be?

This book offers separate strategies for parents and teachers, and includes prompts to get students journaling as well as strategies on how to incorporate song lyrics into a character education curriculum. For example, this quotation from Ben Ames Williams, “Life is the acceptance of responsibilities or their evasion; it is a business of meeting obligations or avoiding them. To every man the choice is continually being offered,” is followed by three different conversation starters on the topic of responsibility.

He’s obviously been around kids in an educational environment for a long time and the book is a concise, usable manual that speaks to kids, tweens, and teens. We often forget that students are people. Granted, they are young people, and we’re still wholly responsible for them, yet they make their own ethical choices every day. Reifman’s book adds thought and profundity to that equation.

His website is a terrific resource for teachers, filled with tips and strategies.

Apps We Love: Counting Bees, Memory Train, and Interactive Alphabet by Pi’ikea Street

noreply@blogger.com (Maggie Hames) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 03:35:00 +0000

My daughter and I have been playing Counting Bees, Memory Train, and Interactive Alphabet all week and I don’t know who loves these apps more, her or me. Hats off to the developers at Pi’ikea Street. These apps are highly educational, fun, easy to use, and did I mention fun? There are layers of interactivity here that will keep your preschoolers to grammar schoolers entertained for months, possibly years.

Pi’ikea Street’s developers take their inspiration from none other than Fred Rogers of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood and mention at their site, “We want everything we do to be infused with a meaningful expression of care and to be a healthy part of a child’s interactions.” (emphasis theirs). But honestly, emphasis mine, too. I found their apps to be great teachers of the basic skills that will lead to literacy and numeracy, delivered in highly entertaining and engaging formats. Many people seek to make learning fun. These guys succeed. Big time. And you’ll love the way all their games are optimized for kids. There’s no way to “lose” these games.

Counting Bees teaches kids to count to twenty by fives. Children will develop their fine motor skills as they trace a path with their finger from bees to the center of a flower. It’s a simple but tricky task, and as the bees hit the targets, the app counts aloud. Want a greater challenge? Try playing/counting in Spanish, French, Italian, German, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese Chinese, and Japanese.

Interactive Alphabet presents each letter of the alphabet as an interactive flashcard. The app will pronounce the letter and word, such as “A” for “apple,” showing both upper and lower case letters. Each illustration has several fun actions. Users can “chomp” on the apple (with sound effects!) by tapping it with their finger. “B” for “beach” is complete with the sounds of the ocean and seagulls. Users can make the sun rise and set on the water, (with additional night sounds) and build a sand castle by tapping. The app will even sing the alphabet song for you, complete with a little show featuring dancing characters from the individual letters.

Memory Train challenges users to remember a shape (or number of shapes) or illustrations, which move across the screen as if on a train track. Kids are challenged to remember things like, “What color was the shape?” or “Which one was green?” The better kids perform, the faster the shapes move across the screen, making this a truly challenging game. Kids earn points, badges, and peanut trophies. This app can be adapted for various levels of play, making it appropriate for ages 4 to 7, but can be adjusted for ages 8 to 10. Players can select nine different avatars, and four players can play independently.

And here’s a little gift from me to you (okay, it’s actually free from Pi’ikea Street). You can download a great little Xylophone app that’s actually the letter “X” from their Interactive Alphabet. And there’s additional functionality in the freebie and will lead you through nine simple tunes. Love it. And the price is right.

But honestly, $1.99 for Memory Train? $2.99 for Interactive Alphabet? 99 cents for Counting Bees? This is the best just-under-five bucks you’ll ever spend. I even love their website, as it has a great little crafts department. Love the “Flying Kraken” sea creature. Seriously, can I buy stock in this company?

When I asked my daughter which app was her favorite, she said, “All of them!” and you know what? She’s right.

REVIEW SUMMARY:

App Name: Counting Bees
Category: Education
Age Level: 4+
Updated: December 9, 2011
Requirements: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad. Requires iOS 3.1 or later
Price: $.99
Bottom Line: So engaging, kids won’t notice they’re learning to count.

App Name: Interactive Alphabet
Category: Education
Age Level: 4+
Updated: December 12, 2011
Requirements: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad. Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later
Price: $2.99
Bottom Line: Much functionality for each letter of the alphabet; the entertainment factor will keep your kids glued to this.

App Name: Memory Train
Category: Education
Age Level: 4+
Updated: July 11, 2011
Requirements: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later
Price: $1.99
Bottom Line: Challenging yet fun. It will take a long time for your kids to get to the bottom of this app.

App Name: Xylophone from Interactive Alphabet
Category: Education
Age Level: 4+
Released: December 14, 2011
Requirements: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad. Requires iOS 3.1 or later
Price: Free.
Bottom Line: A sweet little introduction to the musical scale.

Music We Love: “Strange Dees, Indeed” by the Deedle Deedle Dees

noreply@blogger.com (Maggie Hames) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:17:00 +0000

Music Review by Jack Silbert
I hadn’t even popped the CD into the player, and the group’s name had already brought to mind Fiddler on the Roof, Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night,” and of course Rick Dees, who gave us that masterwork “Disco Duck.” Meanwhile, the album title was making me think of the John Lennon song “Nobody Told Me.” Most peculiar, mama!

None of these disparate elements actually appear on the album, and yet, I suppose the spirit of each one is here: the Old World, New York City, silliness, character development. And that just skims the surface of Strange Dees, Indeed. You see, the Deedle Deedle Dees could be classified as “edutainment.” Each song teaches a topic. And while They Might Be Giants’ last couple of kids’ albums have focused on individual subjects (the alphabet and science), Strange Dees, Indeed zig-zags all across the curriculum with often joyous results.

We get songs about John Adams and wife Abigail, Cool Papa Bell of baseball’s Negro Leagues, Jewish folklore, Marie Curie, Sojourner Truth, British coins, trees, birds, Moby Dick, poet William Cullen Bryant, Henry Hudson, and just for good measure, a Hindu philosophy of conflict resolution. I even learned a different, and likely more correct way to pronounce Sacagawea (“suh-CAH-guh-WEE-uh”).

That’s all admirable, but it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing, right? Thankfully, the Deedle Deedle Dees know how to write and perform a catchy song. The majority of the lyrics and music were composed by frontman Lloyd Miller, seen at right, a.k.a. Ulysses S. Dee. (I’m going to deduct a quarter point for the band members revealing their actual names on the album packaging. Several Ramones are rolling in their graves.) At times, a carnival-esque musical style and talky singing delivery reminded me of Oingo Boingo. Musically, we also get a bit of education, with the genres sometimes matching the content. The Gandhi-mentioning “Ah Ahimsa” employs eastern rhythms. “The Golem” is presented in klezmer style. “Marie Curie” (whose ghostly image graces the album’s cover) brings us an accordion and some French lyrics.

Kids will be singing along, assisted by Miller’s ve-ry clear e-nun-ci-a-tion. Full lyrics are available online (along with background info on songs, and reading suggestions). Of course, the ease of remembering song lyrics is what makes them such a great teaching tool. For example, on “River of Blood,” kids will be laughing and a tad grossed out as they learn the circulatory system. (Though for those of us of a certain age, the song will never touch Potsie Weber’s classic “Pump Your Blood” from Happy Days.)

If I had one bit of advice for the Brooklyn-based Deedle Deedle Dees, it’s that this album is a bit too New York-centric. In separate songs, we learn about Mayor LaGuardia, and Bryant Park, and Dead Horse Bay, and the Hudson River, and the 7 Train. That’s all fine and good for local kids and sing-alongs at NYC school visits, but as the rest of the songs strive to tell us, there’s a whole wide world out there. So look beyond the Camperdown Elm in Prospect Park and “branch” out a little, fellas. (Okay, okay, if I had two pieces of advice, regarding “Phineas Gage Has Something to Tell These People”: A real cool slice of history, but let’s call a permanent moratorium on white-guy educational raps, shall we? It truly would make the planet a better place.)

Strange Dees, Indeed is perfect for mid-to-upper elementary school kids, who may then be inspired to do further research. For teachers covering any of the included topics, playing a song would be an ideal way to kick off a class discussion. At home, parents may find themselves tapping their feet and humming the melodies. My favorite tune here, “a song for Abigail Adams,” is a dreamy, mid-tempo, indie-rock ballad that would work even without the history lesson.

I was in such a kid-friendly mood after listening to this album, I secretly hoped that its producer, Dean Jones, was the same guy who starred in all those awesome ’60s and ’70s live-action Disney flicks. No such luck, but just imagine it: A music-video cameo from Herbie the Love Bug and The Shaggy D.A. ….

Jack Silbert is a writer of children's books, restaurant reviews, witty essays, and the like. He lives in Hoboken, N.J.

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Books We Love: “Keep Our Secrets” by Jordan Crane

noreply@blogger.com (Maggie Hames) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 16:26:00 +0000

Book Review by Maggie Hames

Keep Our Secrets is both a high- and a low-tech wonder. Utilizing the new technology of thermographics, the book’s illustrations are heat-sensitive. Black portions, when rubbed with your fingers or warmed with a blowdryer, reveal full-color illustrations underneath. As a child would see it, the book can conceal and reveal secrets. On the low end of the techno-scale, this book demands to be held (warmly) by the reader. There is no e-book equivalent to this. I’d even call it the anti-e-book. It’s a precious object that needs to be handled to be appreciated. It’s a magical book of wonders.

McMullen’s, a relatively new imprint of the McSweeney’s publishing house, publishes it. McSweeney’s has always been associated with beautifully, even lavishly produced books and periodicals. It would seem that McMullen’s will continue this tradition.

Comics artist Jordan Crane has created an adorable book. You may know him from his previous children’s book, The Clouds Above. In Keep Our Secrets, two children investigate various noises in their house. Big sister instructs little brother that some noises have reasonable explanations; others less so. Crane’s illustrations are cleverly detailed and his witty writing possesses a deep understanding of a child’s world. Crane demonstrates the color-changing ink in this video:

Kids are sure to enjoy sharing this book with their grown-ups, if for no other reason then they need us to run the blowdryers. This book’s for them, not us, the secrets revealed by rubbing Aladdin’s lamp. The world is an amazing place, after all. The book is available for pre-order at Amazon. Jump on it.