Monica Edinger's Blog, page 82

Marc Aronson’s Master of Deceit

I’m old enough to remember J. Edgar Hoover and also old enough to want to forget all about him. However, young people are not me and so with a sigh I dutifully opened up Master of Deceit: J. Edgar Hoover and America in the Age of Lies — and was immediately gobsmacked by the start of the prologue:

FACT: In November 1964, William Sullivan, an assistant director of the FBI, set out to blackmail Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. into killing himself.

With that Aronson had me and kept me until the end. Beg...

Marc Aronson's Master of Deceit

I'm old enough to remember J. Edgar Hoover and also old enough to want to forget all about him. However, young people are not me and so with a sigh I dutifully opened up Master of Deceit: J. Edgar Hoover and America in the Age of Lies — and was immediately gobsmacked by the start of the prologue:

FACT: In November 1964, William Sullivan, an assistant director of the FBI, set out to blackmail Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. into killing himself.

With that Aronson had me and kept me until the end...

Book Trailer Project: Making My Own First

After reading several articles about making book trailers with kids I figured the best way for me to figure out how to proceed was to make one of my own. Now it so happens I have a book coming out next year, Africa is My Home: The Memory Book of Sarah Margru Kinson and some years ago I put a version of it on a private blog for my students to read during their study of forced immigration. Since we all knew it well I figured it would be a good subject for my model book trailer.

I began by doing ...

Cynthia Levinson’s We’ve Got a Job

For years one of my favorite teaching materials for the Civil Rights Movement has been the documentaryEyes on the Prize,in particular the section focusing on the 1963 Birmingham Children’s March and so I was delighted to come acrossCynthia Levinson’sWe’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March.She beginswitha prologue:

On Thursday morning, May 2, 1963, nine-year-old Audrey Faye Hendricks woke up with freedom on her mind. But, before she could be free, she knew she had to go to jail.

“I...

Cynthia Levinson's We've Got a Job

For years one of my favorite teaching materials for the Civil Rights Movement has been the documentary Eyes on the Prize, in particular the section focusing on the 1963 Birmingham Children's March and so I was delighted to come across Cynthia Levinson's We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March. She begins with a prologue:

On Thursday morning, May 2, 1963, nine-year-old Audrey Faye Hendricks woke up with freedom on her mind. But, before she could be free, she knew she had to go to...

Book Trailer Project: Before We Started

This is the first in series of posts about a book trailer project I'm doing with my fourth graders.

Having my students do their own book trailers is something I've been thinking about for a while.  That said, I have had reservations, say that so many of the kid-created trailers I've seen seem to be more witty parodies rather than presentations of the actual sensibilities of the books themselves. Live action I find particularly dicey, say some of the 90 second Newbery offerings.  As delightful ...

A Muslim Reader's Take on Narnia

Decades later, I still find it hard to reconcile the fact that the Narnia books are immensely enjoyable and gripping children's stories, with the theological undercurrents which Lewis has woven into them. Which is why I think they are a great read when you are nine years old, but more troubling later on.

From  Imran Ahmad's "Narnia in the Eyes of a Young Muslim Reader."

Alice in Wonderland: With Artwork by Yayoi Kusama

Yayoi Kusama is a fascinating artist who has done what looks like a unique and delightful illustrated version of Alice. I ordered it ages ago and was excited to learn today that I should be getting my copy in a few weeks. Here is a video that gives a taste of the book.

Grand Finale for SLJ's 2012 Battle of the Kids' Books

Today for the BoB's final round Big Kahuna Jonathan Stroud decides between Ruta Sepetys's Between Shades of Gray, Mal Peet's Life: An Exploded Diagram, and Gary D. Schmidt's Okay for Now (the Undead Poll winner).  It has been a grand battle this year — the judges were uniformly brilliant as was our stalwart commentator Jonathan Hunt. This year we added on two kid commentators, 6th grader GI and 7th grader RGN.  They were amazing and I hope we can develop this aspect of the commentary further ...

Maryrose Wood's The Unseen Guest

I am a big fan of the third person omniscient narrator, the sort that floats around, above, and within telling everything that is going on, sometimes even commenting directly to the reader. That said, I'm very picky — many recent attempts haven't worked for me, the narrators were just too snarky, overbearing, derivative, or forced. Happily that is not the case with the narrator of Maryrose Wood's The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series of which the most recent The Unseen Guest has...