Monica Edinger's Blog, page 72
October 27, 2012
Something About Frank Cotrell Boyce
“Being read to at school changed my life. I really became aware of that during the Olympics because we were all of us in that room drawing on stuff we’d read as children and none of it was stuff we were examined on, it wasn’t anything measurable. It was stuff that people had shared with us that we went on to share. If you look at that ceremony and what was in it, it was a sense of wonderment in storytelling. We found we had this common heritage – Mary Poppins and so on.”
Lovely Guardian profil...
October 25, 2012
Zusak’s THE BOOK THIEF on stage
The novel, which follows a poor German girl, the thief of the title, whose family hides a Jewish man in its basement, is also getting a life off the page. Brian Percival, who has directed several episodes of “Downton Abbey,” has been chosen to direct a film version. And last week a stage adaptation, written by Heidi Stillman, made its debut as a young-adult production here at the venerableSteppenwolf Theater, where it runs through Nov. 11.
Read more about the stage productionin thisNew York Ti...
October 22, 2012
Celebrating Joan Aiken’s The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
It was dusk — winter dusk. Snow lay white and shining over the pleated hills, and icicles hung from the forest trees. Snow lay piled on the dark road across Willoughby Wold, but from dawn men had been clearing it with brooms and shovels. There were hundreds of them at work, wrapped in sacking because of the bitter cold, and keeping together in groups for fear of the wolves, grown savage and reckless from hunger.
So begins Joan Aiken‘s wonderful The Wolves of Willoughby Chase which is celebrati...
October 20, 2012
Middle Grade Science Fiction
Someone on facebook asked for middle grade sci-fi titles and so I went through my goodreads list and came up with the following. These are only those I’ve read and enjoyed. There are certainly many other titles out there and I do hope you will add your favorites in the comments. I stayed with titles that see to me to be clearly science fiction asopposed to books that mix sci-fi with fantasy (e.g. Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl series). I also decided not to include YA books that my 4th graders re...
October 19, 2012
Philip Pullman’s Once Upon a Time
From Philip Pullman’s Tales from the Brothers Grimm.
Paper illustrations by Cheong-ah Hwang:http://www.papernoodle.com/
Animation by Matthew Young:http://www.mymymy.co.uk/
October 17, 2012
Adam Gidwitz on Spooky Spooky Fairy Tales
Halloween’s just around the corner which meansAll Hallows Readis too.When Neil Gaiman firstproposed this idea of giving books for HalloweenI offered some suggestions,among them Adam Gidwitz’s fairy tale debut,A Tale Dark and Grimm. Now Adam is back with In a Glass Grimmly, asmacabre and entertaining as his first book, and I thought it would be fun to see what he had to say about fairy tales, their reputation, and other related topics.
For those readers unfamiliar with your two books, how about...
October 16, 2012
Eliot Schrefer’s ENDANGERED
I absolutely did not want to read this book. The advance reader copy sat on my shelf for months untouched as I assumed it was yet another book offering a simplistic view of Africa, one that focused on the plight of an exotic animal while barely acknowledging the complications of the people who lived around it. Having lived in Sierra Leone for two years in the 70s, I’m techy about how the continent is represented, especially by well-intentioned outsiders who focus on its animals at the expense...
October 15, 2012
Felix Baumgartner’s Next Stunt
AfterFelix Baumgartner has a snooze, a bite to eat, and some mingling with family and friends he will, no doubt, want to think about what he can do to top his 24 mile fall to Earth. Well, I’ve got a suggestion — how about biking to the Moon? Mordicai Gerstein‘sHow to Bicycle to the Moon to Plant Sunflowersisn’t out till April, and I normally wouldn’t mention a book so far before its publication date, but I just read an ARC of this comic-like book for young readers and am unable to resist poin...
October 10, 2012
Jacqueline Woodson’s EACH KINDNESS
Bully Prevention Month has me reflecting as a veteran classroom teacher on the variations of meanness, cruelty, and hurt that children find to inflect emotional pain on each other. Not only have I observed it, but recollect well my own firsthand experiences with it as a child. Sometimes the meanness is temporary and due to hurt feelings, lack of knowing, or something where the children being mean truly don’t realize what is happening. In such cases, once they are made aware, they easily chang...
October 8, 2012
30 Rocks’ Homonym Game Show
“It’s always the other one!”
English is such an annoying language when it comes to spelling. The rules are so inconsistent and unfair (says this spelling-challenged person). Ghoti for fish is the exemplar of how impossible it all is. And then there are homonyms/homophones. I actually think I’m more prone to them the more I see errors of this sort done by my students. And so I just adored this past week’s 30 Rock episode with a few quick takes of their fake game show Homonyms. I think my favori...
