Monica Edinger's Blog, page 89

The 90 Second Newbery Film Festival — A Review

From the start I thought the idea of asking kids to come up with 90 Second Newbery films was a brilliant one. Originator James Kennedy kept the energy going by posting submissions on his blog so I'd seen a few before I arrived at the packed auditorium yesterday at the New York Public Library's 42nd Street building. James and fellow MC Jon Scieszka kept up lively banter* throughout and further entertainment was provided by others who did skits about certain Newbery winners, musicals about the ...

A Child Friend's Story

A few weeks back Maria Tatar had a piece in the New York Times, "No More Adventures in Wonderland" in which she noted that Alice's Adventures in Wonderland  and Peter Pan were books based on stories created for real children. I have absolutely no wish to reopen the conversation that was the result of this piece, but I do want to point out some recent pieces related to the Alice exhibit opening tomorrow at the Tate Liverpool that do reinforce Tatar's (and my) point about Alice being created...

90-Second Newbery Film Festival this Saturday in NYC

I've loved the idea of this from the start although I admit I never was able to get any of my kids to make a film. The timing just wasn't right for us. Still, I hope to be at the NYPL festival itself this Saturday, 3-5, at the NYPL's main 42nd Street branch.  I've met James Kennedy who concocted this idea and, having seen many a wild video of him in action and having seen in person his cohost Jon Scieszka in action I'm anticipating a very entertaining couple of hours. Both because of them...

In the Classroom: What She Said

Ms. Rief worries that a new generation of teachers has been raised on standardized testing and thinks that is the norm. Ms. Rief fears that public schools where teachers are trusted to make learning fun are on the way out. Ms. Rief understands that packaged curriculums and standardized assessments offer schools an economy of scale that she and her kind cannot compete with.

I've been a huge admirer of 8th grade New Hampshire English teacher Linda Reif forever. In her books and articles and...

Thank You, Ms. Pink

I read the first 50 requisite pages of Tyra Banks' Modelland and even kept it on the shelf, thinking that I'd give it another shot if anyone gave me a reason to. No one has so far, I'm afraid.  Not even Paula Willey of Pink Me who took the time (and that would have had to be a lotta time given the heft of the thing) to properly read and review the book.  It is a very thoughtful, fair, (if damning) review and I'm very, very grateful to her for doing it.

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Secrets of The Secret Garden

Because one of my favorite children's books, Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden, was published 100 years ago, it is getting some much deserved attention this year. And so I very much enjoyed this delightful and informative post by Miriam Halahmy describing her experience at a Secret Garden study day in the U.K.

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Happy 50th Birthday, Phantom Tollbooth!

Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth with illustrations by Jules Feiffer, is celebrating its 50th birthday this year. To honor this grand classic of children's literature, Random House has come out with a new edition annotated by children's literature historian Leonard S. Marcus who was kind enough to answer a few questions about the project.

I love that you keep the creators up front and center throughout, but now I want to know —what is your own relationship with The Phantom Tollbooth...

All My Schools

Since I've spent my adult life in New York City people assume I grew up here. Not so.  Very much not so. I'm a faculty brat (my dad was an academic) and we moved often — my longest time in any one school was three years until college.

Just for fun, here's what I know and can find about all my pre-college schools:

1. I was born in Greensboro, North Carolina and, after a few rough patches we moved to Montgomery, Alabama where I went to my first nursery school of which I only remember that it was ...

A Few Spooky Suggestions for Neil Gaiman's All Hallow's Read

Betsy Bird and I had so much fun making our Last Gasp Summer Reading Video we decided to do another one — this time to promote Neil Gaiman's fantastic All Hallow's Read initiative. So it is now done (with another contribution by our sometimes silent partner) and you can see it for yourself at All Hallows Read: A Few Spooky Suggestions.

 

 

 

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Three Books I Like Reviewed in the NYTBR

Krystyna Poray Goddu thinks Maile Meloy's The Apothecary  "…with its intricately constructed plot, well-paced suspense, credibly rendered fantastical elements, thoughtfully drawn characters and authentically detailed settings, satisfies on all levels."

"There's no denying it: this is one profoundly sad story. But it's also wise, darkly funny and brave, told in spare sentences, punctuated with fantastic images …. " writes Jessica Bruder about Patrick Ness's A Monster Calls.

And Chelsey Philpot t...