Monica Edinger's Blog, page 33

In the Classroom: Teaching on the Screen

I find it fascinating to see how classrooms and schools are represented on the screen. Too often they look little like my own reality — the desks are in rows (I have them in table groups), the teacher sits at her desk at the front of the room (I’ve a rug and rocking chair at the center of my room), and the walls are full of commercial stuff (mine are full of children’s work). As for the interactions between children and teacher — they tend to be pretty limited.

And so may I just mentioned the...

Tales of a San Francisco ALA on an Historic Pride Weekend

June 2014. Las Vegas.Evening. A gaggle of ALA-attending librarians trudge along the Strip past feathered showgirls, dodging happy folks with very largedrinks, and loud hen parties full of girls in very high heels.“Next year it is San Francisco.” mutters one librarian. “On Pride Weekend.” she goes on, stone-faced. “I heard that meant that they will be running around with their thingies out.” says another. “Oh jeez.” they all moanas they slip past a sort-of-naked person, enter ahotel, and stoli...

Coming Soon: Steve Sheinkin’s Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War

This is an outstanding presentation of a very difficult time in US history. Sheinkin has managed to distill some very complex stuff into a compelling and, at times, compulsive read. Even for me who has a vivid recollection of much that is in the book*, seeing those bumbling Plumbers at work at the Watergate, reading Nixon’s comments, and being reminded of the horror of what we saw on the nightly news and newspapers as to what was going on in Southeast Asia made for a riveting reading experien...

The Championship Season

A few days ago Travis Jonker asked,Where Do You Fall On The Book Critic/Book Champion Continuum? Travis suggested that at one end of the continuum were those who were purely critics and at the other those who were purely book champions.I commented:

I define myself as both as a critic and as a book champion. I love reviewing for Horn Book, the Times, and my blogs and rarely write negative reviews. Like you I prefer to focus on what I like rather than what I don’t. And when I really love someth...

Alice And The True Story Behind A Popular Fantasy

I highly recommend Tom Ashbrook’s On Point podcast, “Alice and the True Story behind a Popular Fantasy” featuringRobert Douglas-Fairhurst, author ofThe Story of Alice: Lewis Carroll and the Secret History of Wonderland, andCarolyn Vega,curator of the opening-next-week Morgan Library exhibit,Alice: 150 years of Wonderland.

The New Forthcoming Peanuts Movie

Somehow I missed that there was a new CGI Peanuts movie in the works. But now I’m up-to-date having just seen the belowtrailer. While I think the idea of Charlie Brown attempting to reinvent himself fits the character nicely, I’m having to get past my own aged preferences for the original (and by “original” I mean Schultz’s comics not the television shows) to recognize that this sort of CGI rendering will probably go over best for today’s kids. Also, while I knew and remembered the overwhelmi...

Should I Take Up the Banjo? or The Question of Charisma

I’d already been thinking about the issue of teacher charisma when I saw Paula Willey’s terrificBEA write-up in which she, after seeing some especially entertaining authors, wondered:

What do you do if you’re not a natural speaker? Or if you freeze up on stage? In fact, I imagine that most authors are more the cave-dwelling cheeseater type than the camp counselor type. (Literally – a lot of authors honed their public speaking skills as camp counselors or teachers.) It’s not fair, and all I ca...

In the Classroom: The Pushcart War Project

I’m a big fan of whole class creative projects celebratingworks of literature. Some have come about duetomypassionfor a particular book,notablyAlice’s Adventures in Wonderland, whileothers are due to the kids’ excitement, say the murals we did forThe Graveyard Book and When You Reach Me. The latest of these is a digital storytelling project ofJean Merrill’s The Pushcart War.

It wasupon learning of the death of its author, Jean Merrill, a couple of years ago that I was reminded of her fabulou...

Of Hatters and Haikus

At my godchild’s wedding this weekend guests receivedhighly original gifts,haikus. You went to one of the two haiku writers, told them something about yourself, they thought for a moment, and then typed one out.

Here’s mine:

Coming Soon: Brian Selznick’s The Marvels

Brian Selznick is one of the great artists of our time. In what is now atrilogy (The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Wonderstruck, and now The Marvels) he hascreated a unique storytelling style, one that blends illustration and text in anengrossinglyoriginalway. It is anaesthetic and emotiveexperience not like that of agraphic novel, but onecloserto a cinematic viewing experience or a theatrical one; the three books are rich with scenes of powerful beauty createdwithpaper, page turns,close-ups,and...