This Blog Post Was Brought to You by the Makers of the Venn Diagram

My mom and I took the kids to see The Tale of Despereaux on Monday afternoon. Altogether we had four kids with us. They all enjoyed the popcorn. Apologies to the movie theater staff for the copious amounts left on the floor! All four kids enjoyed the movie, although they found it sad and scary at parts. Of the six of us, only my daughter and I had read the book. On the drive home, Hayden spent a good deal of time listing the differences between the book and movie. In her opinion, the book was better. She felt the movie was less frightening than the book. Roscuro gets too sympathetic a treatment in the film according to my pint sized critic. The council meeting was different in the film. The circumstances of how Miggory Sow ended up at the castle are different. Her list went on and on. At the same time, there were many similarities. Hayden was emphatic that it was a good thing Despereaux kept his extremely large ears for the film version. She was so strong on this point I imagine she might have stalked out of the theater had a small eared mouse appeared on the screen. The best part of the comparison Hayden made is that it piqued my sons' curiosity about the book. Perhaps they will want to read it. It also got my older son to comment how amazing it is that Kate DiCamillo could write two books so different as Because of Winn Dixie, which he has read, and The Tale of Despereaux.

By the way, did you know there was an actual John Venn? He introduced his diagrams back in 1880, or so my friends at Wikipedia tell me.

A Plea for Help

Dear Internet,

I am in desperate need of your assistance! Please help me find a book that will convince my nine year old son of the importance of nicely written thank you notes. It would be perfect if the book illustrates how writing such notes will make a boy taller, faster, better at video games, or something similar. He has not been convinced by arguments about good manners and writing practice. It need not be long. In fact, brevity would be welcomed so said boy can get back to doing the "millions of other better things" he could be doing in lieu of writing thank you notes. It would be helpful, but not necessary, if the book could stress the importance of good penmanship. No one expects the flourishes and sketches produced joyfully on thank you notes by a certain eight year old girl we know, but legibility is always appreciated.

If you know of such a volume, please alert The Book Bench ASAP.

Gratefully (and desperately),

Christine Burt

Slumdog Millionaire

This blog is intended to be about the things my family is reading. Sometimes my posts are only tenuously linked to our reading. This one isn't about our reading at all. Well, how about this? Let me say I am glad my husband and I didn't stay home and read last night. We went to see Slumdog Millionaire, and we both loved it. It is visually stunning, breath taking at times. It is, by turns, exhilarating, painfully sad, raw, and wonderful. I can honestly say it is the best movie I have seen in at least eleven years. (We were out for our eleventh wedding anniversary.) Wait, I can connect this a little closer to reading. Slumdog Millionaire is based on a book, Q & A, but I don't think I want to read it. I want the story to stay in my brain exactly as it is.

A Warm Little Tree to Share

This small book, Little Tree, written by e.e. cummings and illustrated by Deborah Kogan Ray, is so sweet and warm that I actually expect the pages to be warm to the touch like a mug of cocoa or a slice of buttery toast. The text is e. e. cummings' lovely poem in which a child addresses a Christmas tree. It begins, "little tree, little silent Christmas tree, you are so little, you are more like a flower." The boy goes on to wonder if the tree was sorry to leave the green forest, and comforts it with offers of a hug and a kiss and decorations. He says "look the spangles, that sleep all the year in a dark box, dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine." He tells the tree to put up its arms to be dressed and he and his sister will sing Noel.

The gentle words are matched with soft illustrations which depict a young boy and girl bundled up against the cold bringing a little tree home from the lot, decorating it, and setting it in their front window for passersby to admire.

I've had my copy of this book for nine or ten years, and I've read it over the years to students and my own children. I've never focused on the setting. A recent visit to my son's suburban kindergarten class gave me another way to discuss it. The teacher was talking to the students at circle time about books that are set in cities and apartments. Apartment living seemed so glamorous to that group of five year olds. They mentioned two of my favorites, Knufflebunny and Corduroy. When we took Little Tree out this year, we talked about the setting. My kids think it is set either in Hoboken, NJ or my brother's Brooklyn neighborhood. It started us wondering how people in different parts of our country and world might decorate for the holidays. Isn't it great when an old favorite can inspire new conversations?

Pop Go the Holidays

The ultimate Christmas book to me is a pop up book. We've all seen pop up versions of The Night Before Christmas and The Twelve Days of Christmas and the like. Pop up books make great gifts as well. Robert Sabuda is, of course, the master of the holiday pop up book. My daughter has his version of Alice in Wonderland, a gift from her aunt and uncle, that is a source of endless wonder and fascination to her. He has a great segment floating around the internet from Martha Stewart's show where he teaches Martha to make a pop up Christmas card. Although you kind of always get the sense that Martha is not being taught anything new by anyone and could have figured it out on her own. It was educational to me though. Anyway, since pop up books say Christmas to me and I love all of you for stopping by at this busy time of year, but I don't know where you all live to send you gifts, this video is my little Christmas present to you. I've picked up this book ABC3D at the bookstore and played with it. It's addictive, I warn you. Happy viewing!

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Six or seven inches of snow fell in my neck of the woods yesterday. And I do mean woods. We are incredibly blessed to live in a house in the woods. Those woods are especially beautiful to me in fog and snow. My kids are more interested in the snow. They spent hours yesterday sledding, making snow angels, and clomping through the woods in their snowboots. I did some shoveling and took a few pictures, but spent most of the day indoors, enjoying looking out the window at flying flakes and laughing children. When I was outside though, the kids and I recited bits of Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." We keep a magical picture book version of it in our living room. The illustrations by Susan Jeffers really capture the peaceful quiet of the poem. When I went looking for a picture of the book's cover to post, I found this page from the book first. It should give you a good idea of how excellent the illustrations are, and it contains my favorite bit from the poem, "The woods are lovely, dark and deep." Here's wishing you a snow day soon!

What The World Eats for Foodie Friday

This is a long post, but I cannot restrain myself. This book is too amazing to be brief.

Back when I was teaching high school English literature, creative writing, and journalism, a social studies teaching friend of mine and I used to say we could easily use The New York Times in place of textbooks to teach our courses. I don't think this was a lack of humility on our parts; rather we felt the Times provided such a daily wealth of material that we'd have more than enough from which to lesson plan. Sometimes at lunch we'd point out articles or features that would be great to use in other disciplines as well, let's say an article from the Science Times section for a health class. It was a fun mental exercise.

Recently, I've come across a book that I am convinced every school teacher in America, from kindergarten through high school could make use of. It wouldn't substitute for a textbook, but it would be a wonderful supplementary material. What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Alusio could easily be used to help teach biology, chemistry, math, nutrition, geography, sociology, writing, public speaking, art, music, economics, world languages, health, and much more.

What the World Eats is a child friendly version of 2005's Hungry Planet: What the World Eats. Peter Menzel took stunning photographs and Faith D'Alusio wrote the informative text for this gorgeous book in which they visit 25 families in 21 countries to document what each family eats in a typical week. Each chapter begins with a photograph of a family surrounded by their groceries for a week. To look at those 25 portraits alone is fascinating. My children and their friends who have picked up this book immediately begin comparing the diets of these families to their own. They quickly notice that families from countries with lower incomes rely heavily on grains, fruits and vegetables. They easily see that families from wealthier countries consume more meats, dairy products, packaged foods and beverages.

Each chapter includes interviews with the families and detailed grocery lists, broken down by type, cost, and quantity. Each chapter places the featured country on a world map and presents facts such as population, average income, and life expectancy. There are also photos of the families obtaining the food (whether at a supermarket, open air market, or on a seal hunt), preparing it, and eating it. This too is quite enlightening to young readers.

As I've said, What the World Eats would make a great addition to any classroom library, but it would be equally at home on a coffee table or older child's bookshelf. Its information about nutrition and the global economy are timely and valuable, and the photographs are truly captivating.

My son happened to read the author blurb on the book's jacket and is very excited to check out another book by Menzel and D'Alusio, winner of the 1999 James Beard Award for References and Writings on Food. It's called Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects. Talk about a catchy title!