"The Endless First Chapter" in The New York Times-
Have You Lost Your Reading Attention Span?
Get it Back!
But I do believe this: I need books.
"Without books, I am starting to feel mentally flabby,” I complained to Dr. Maryanne Wolf, the author of “Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain,' after I phoned her to ask for help.
“There’s a good reason for that,” she said.
Deep reading — the kind that you engage in when you get lost in the syntax and imagery and the long, convoluted sentences of a really meaty book — is a special sort of exercise that creates a new part of the brain that did not exist at birth."
Michelle Slatalla
Ms. Slatalla's essay addresses how quick-fix reading and the increasingly audio/visual interpreted world can effect your attention span. Have your reading habits changed over the years with electronic venues reaching into every crevice of our lives? Have your children's reading habits changed?
“It’s semi-miraculous, really,” said Dr. Wolf, the director of the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University. “We don’t have genes for reading. It’s an activity we invented, and by doing it, we show that our brain has the capacity to go beyond itself, to take all these circuits that were created for oral language or vision, and do something entirely different with them — deduction, critical analysis, imagination, contemplation.”
Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/fashion/10SPY.html?ref=style
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
Holiday Gift Suggestion!
Looking for a Great Gift for the Whole Family?
Ask for . . .
Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out
at Your Neighborhood Bookstore or Online Book Outlet!
Publisher’s Weekly Starred Review!
“Eight years in the making, this anthology of White House history convenes an all-star roster of 108 children's authors and illustrators, as well as a few scholars and former White House employees and residents and it is a blue-ribbon choice for family sharing during an election year. Chronologically ordered, the entries range from poems to presidential speeches, satirical cartoons to stately portraits. . . . The volume makes the invaluable point that history does not have to be remote or abstract, but a personal and ongoing engagement.”
The Horn Book Starred Review!
“With something for adults and children alike is the sumptuous new anthology Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out. . . . The contributors are all luminaries of the children’s book field. A fascinating, eminently browsable, and accessible entrance into the People’s House.”
School Library Journal Starred Review!
“This handsome compendium is rich with excerpts, poems, and other writings about the historic residence, many of them personal in tone and subject. With artwork as eclectic as the text, the book offers glimpses into the presidents, their concerns, their families, and the mansion itself.”
Featured on the “Martha Stewart Show” as One of The New York Times “Eight Great Books for the Holidays”
On the December 15, 2008 “Martha Stewart Show,” Martha advised procrastinating audience members and viewers to “Think books! I do!” as ideal holiday gifts. With that in mind New York Times book review editor Sam Tanenhaus shared recommendations of eight great books. Our White House was one of those books—the only children’s book on his list!
L.A. Parent Recommendation!
Awards
Find out more about
Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out at the Our White House companion educational website: WWW.OURWHITEHOUSE.ORG
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Episode Six of the Exquisite Corpse Adventure Revealed on Friday!!!
Who is this Pig?
What does he want?
Where is he going?
Authors
Pat and Fred McKissack
say he is
"no ordinary pig!"
Will Joe and Nancy hide out in the Sick and Tired Circus?
Will the roller-skating Baby every change his foot-wear?
And where in the world is Professor Alastair Sloppy trapped!?
All will be revealed in the next episode of . . .
The Exquisite Corpse Adventure!
Read Episode Six of The Exquisite Corpse Adventure this Friday on the Library of Congress Read.gov website!
Episode Six is written by that dynamic writing duo--Pat and Fred McKissack! Illustrated by none other than the extraordinarily talented James Ransome!
(The pig above is a crop from his illustration-- tantalized aren't you!?)
To read all The Exquisite Corpse Adventure Episodes, go to:
http://www.read.gov/exquisite-corpse/Book/#page/2/mode/2uphttp://www.read.gov/exquisite-corpse/
To find out what The Exquisite Corpse Adventure is all about, and to find educational support materials to help you expand your child’s literacy and literary experience, go to:
http://www.thencbla.org/Exquisite_Corpse/exquisite_home.html
Museum Family Field Trip!
Visit the Harry Potter Exhibit at
Boston's Museum of Science
Boston's Museum of Science is a great place to take kids of all ages on your next visit to New England. Recently, I took in the new Harry Potter exhibit with my two daughters, Elizabeth age 26 and Emily who is 24. I was quite happy they accompanied me to this special exhibit that features props and costumes from the various Harry Potter movies. Liz is studying costume and set design at Yale's Graduate School of Drama, and Emily is a former production assistant for PBS's great kids' program Fetch with Ruff Ruffman, both have a much broader knowledge base of costume and prop production than I, and their comments, observations, and explanations greatly enriched my experience.
It's wonderful that this exhibit is drawing attention to Boston's Museum of Science, pulling people in, and I assume benefiting the museum financially. But I do wish that the young people visiting the exhibit could have experienced the exhibit as I did, their interaction greatly enhanced by more knowledgeable observations and insights, so that they could have gained a stronger concept of the craftsmanship and technology that went into creating the props and costumes. I wish the exhibitors, or the museum, had done a better j0b of linking the art and creativity of the movie world with the art and creativity of the scientific technological world, giving attendees a behind-the- scenes view of how screen magic is really made. After all, it is science museums across the country that are hosting this exhibit.
If you or your young people are a Harry Potter fans and/or a movie buffs, you will enjoy the exhibit; the props are interesting, the costumes in some cases are exquisite. My suggestion would be to make a day of it, spending an hour in the Potter movie exhibit, then spending most of the day exploring the fabulous Museum of Science!
And if your kids have not yet read the Harry Potter books, cap the day when you return home by reading aloud a chapter in one of J.K. Rowling's wonderfully entertaining books. Use the exhibit experience as a catalyst to hours of family reading pleasure sampling the delights of Harry Potter adventures!-- Mary Brigid Barrett, President, NCBLA
For more information about the Harry Potter exhibit, go to:
http://www.mos.org/exhibits_shows/current_exhibits&d=3834
About the Museum of Science, Boston
The Museum takes a hands-on approach to science, engineering and technology, attracting about 1.5 million visitors a year via its programs and 700 interactive exhibits. Founded in 1830, the Museum was first to embrace all the sciences under one roof. Highlights include the Thomson Theater of Electricity, Charles Hayden Planetarium, Mugar Omni Theater, Gordon Current Science & Technology Center, 3-D Digital Cinema and Butterfly Garden. The Museum is the first science and technology center to be approved as a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). Reaching 25,000 teens a year worldwide via the Intel Computer Clubhouse Network, the Museum also leads a multi-museum, $20 million National Science Foundation-funded nanotechnology education initiative. The Museum's "Science Is an Activity" exhibit plan has been awarded many NSF grants and influenced science centers worldwide. Its National Center for Technological Literacy® aims to enhance knowledge of engineering and technology for people of all ages and inspire the next generation of engineers, inventors, and scientists. The Museum is ranked #3 by Parents Magazine in its list of the country's "Ten Best Science Centers."
Museum of Science, Boston website:
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