Thanks for Sharing!

Voting has closed on the first official thebookbench poll. Thanks to the six of you who voted! Four of you are more likely to read a book based on a recommendation from a friend and two of you base your book selections more on a written review. We need to work on voter turnout here. Speaking of opinions, several of my friends have responded to my American Girl Doll post of October 2 (alas, only verbally and not in the comments of the blog.) Their responses fall into two basic types: a) I agree. Don't you just love American Girl? and b) What in the name of Gloria Steinem are you doing pushing more dolls on girls? Thanks to all who have shared their opinions with me this week!

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

For several weeks now I've been seeing movie trailers for Nick&Norah's Infinite Playlist opening October 3. It stars Michael Cera as Nick and looks like a movie I would have loved as a teenager but probably don't have the patience for now. That is how I felt about the book it is based on as well. I decided to read the book before the film's release. In the young adult novel with the same title, Nick is a teenage bass player in a queercore punk band and Norah is a Manhattan-music scene loving teenager from a wealthy New Jersey suburb. Nick is still mooning over his ex-girlfriend and Norah over an ex boyfriend. The two are thrown together on a first date of sorts that lasts all night and wanders all over Manhattan. The book, coauthored by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, captures Nick and Norah's love of hard, fast, angry punk music as well as their obsession with and dissection of their own emotions. How is this for post-breakup teen angst, "I think Tris will like this band, and the fact that I know this stabs me again, because all the knowledge of what she likes is perfectly useless now." I think many teen readers can relate. I would caution that the book is more for high school juniors and seniors as it hits the ground running with foul language and sexually explicit topics and never slows down. I'm curious to see the movie's reviews. At least from the trailers I've seen, it appears to be going more for laughs than heartstrings. I imagine Michael Cera will be a big draw as well. Didn't you just want to bring him home after Superbad and Juno?

Michael Cera's sweetness aside, my recommendation for a more grownup movie about relationships and music (in this case mix tapes, remember those?) would be High Fidelity starring John Cusack. Or even better, read the Nick Hornby novel from which it was adapted. I take that back, read the book and see the movie. Jack Black is not to be missed in it. Speaking of mix tapes and books, I also really enjoyed the very poignant Love is a Mix Tape:Life and Loss, One Song at a Time by Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield.

Christine's Money Saving American Girl Doll Tips

1. Check the books out from your library.

2. Individual and boxed sets of the books can be found at amazon.com.

3. Hit garage sales for clothes and accessories.

4. If you decide to go to the American Girl Doll Place and share a meal with the girl in your life and the doll in hers, go for afternoon tea. It's the most budget-friendly and so fancy!

American Girl Dolls: Not Just Tea Parties and Hairdos

Several weeks ago, my husband Bill went into my daughter's room to tuck her in at bedtime and was alarmed to find her weeping. It turns out she was reading Meet Addy, one of the American Girl Doll Collection books. The main character is Addy Walker, an African American girl living in 1864, whose family has been separated by slavery. Hayden loved the book and was moved to tears by it. Bill does not get that; I totally do. Maybe it's a girl thing. The next day I downloaded a picture of Addy and knew I would blog about the incident sometime soon, but then we had a more intriguing American Girl Doll book moment that has been buzzing in my head ever since.

Bill and I have been trying to explain the economic situation our country is currently in to our children. It's no easy task. I'm finding it extremely challenging explaining the bailout plan. They listen to the news from time to time. The older kids have asked about the banks going under and the devastating hits the stock market has taken. At some point, either Bill or I mentioned people losing confidence in financial institutions. A light bulb turned on. Eight year old Hayden said it's like the Great Depression when people tried to buy things on credit and many lost their homes. She also understood how stock and other investments lost their value. Yes!, but how did she know about that? "From my Kit Kittredge American Girl Doll books."

American Girl is a line of dolls, accessories, and books based on pre-teen girl characters from various periods in American history. They were first sold in 1986, and according to Wikipedia (I know, I know), 14 million American Girl dolls and 123 million books about them have been sold since. I have some experience with these dolls. My daughter owns Samantha Parkington (1904) and Bill's cousin brought Kirsten Larson (1854) as a guest to our wedding back in 1997. We have read many of the books that feature the American Girls. Each book includes a few pages of historical background about its heroine's time period. Hayden all but devours these books.My sons have no interest in the fiction part, but enjoy those back pages. They especially want to know were there cars at that time, and if so, what did they look like. The Molly Mc Intire (1944) books gave them a much better understanding of World War II and what life was like for their great grandparents during that time.

Back to Kit Kittredge (1934). While Hayden does not have this doll, she has the boxed set of six books about her (Thanks for giving it to her for Christmas, Mom!), and has apparently paid attention while reading them. As I said, she has some basic knowledge of the Depression. She was able to tell me that during that time, people recycled even though they didn't call it recycling. They used flour sacks and animal feed bags to make clothes and turned old clothes into quilts. She had also learned that many people lost their jobs and often went hungry. The entire Kit series, along with Molly, Felicity, and Josefina, was authored by Valerie Tripp who holds a Masters in Education degree from Harvard University. In an excellent article called "The Thinking Girl's Barbie?" (July 3, 2008) four women writers from Slate discuss American Girl Dolls and books. While they do worry some about the "training in consumerism" the dolls provide, they generally come down in favor of them. One goes so far as to describe the American Girl collection as "a history gateway drug." Hey, I'm all for getting girls hooked on history.

Here's my only big fear: That Republicans are going to mail Joe Biden Kit doll and book sets. Meet Kit makes it clear that Herbert Hoover was President of the United States until 1932 when FDR beat him by a landslide. However, Joe Biden seems like such a nice guy, I'm sure he'd pass them on to his grandkids or maybe Sasha and Malia Obama who I've read are American Girl doll fans themselves.

Here's A Little Trick I Picked Up At The Doctor's Office

One morning last week I had to pick my daughter up from school and bring her to the doctor's office. Her teacher had accidentally poked her in the eye. Normally, a long stretch of time in the waiting room sees Hayden reading a book or Highlights magazine and me furiously catching up on what's happening with Brad, Angelina, Britney and the rest of the gang in People magazine. However, since Hayden's eye was hurting from the poke and swelling from the subsequent crying, she asked me to read to her. The Hollywood scuttlebutt didn't seem appropriate, so I read to her from a parenting magazine, the kind with lots of ideas for crafts that I could never complete and healthy recipes my kids would laugh (or cry) at. Hayden is much craftier in the pipecleaner and glue sense than I am, so she loved it. We read the coolest article with camera tricks- easy but impressive ones. Our favorite recommends putting colored Post It notes in front of the flash of your camera and snapping for cool colored effects. We only have yellow Post Its at our house, but we have tons of flyers sent home from school printed on obnoxiously bright paper. Once home from the doctor and pharmacy, we cut a bunch of those flyers into little squares to tape in front of my camera's flash and got down to experimenting. My five year old, as you can see from the pictures, loved being our model. It helped us happily pass what could have been a miserable afternoon. We've got big plans to take some spooky Halloween pictures with our new trick.

The Polls Are Open

No, not those polls. I wanted to try adding a poll to the blog. If you look to the right, you will see one. I am curious if you are more likely to read a book based on a written review or recommendation from someone you know. Vote early and vote often. Actually, I don't think you can vote often. Hopefully I'll know by the time the polls close on October 5.

The Scholastic Book Order!

My kids came home from school this week with their first Scholastic book order forms of the year. Can there be any more satisfying retail experience than poring over the choices, filling out the order form, and having a brand new book come home in your backpack a few weeks later? And for parents, it's a win-win. Placing an order gets a book in their children's hands and helps the school or classroom earn books.We looked over the forms, no one has made any final decisions about purchases, but we agree that the best bargain on offer is Barbara Robinson's The Best Halloween Ever for only one dollar! It is a funny chapter book featuring the trouble making Herdman family from Robinson's stellar The Best Christmas Ever. If you haven't read that one, no matter what your age, don't worry; I'll be recommending it again in December, I'm sure. Hopefully Scholastic will have that on offer for a dollar then because it makes a great little gift.