BuzzSugar

Cool Children's Book: It's Just a Plant

BuzzSugar — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 08:40:55 PST

Most anti-drug education aimed at kids is woefully bad, offering "just say no" messages with very few details about what, exactly, these evil drugs do. That's why I'm intrigued by this new picture book about marijuana called It's Just a Plant.

When I first saw it written up on Cool Hunting, I thought it was a joke, but actually, it's a pretty smart little book. Rather than treat pot like a dangerous drug to be avoided at all costs, the book presents pot more like alcohol - something that's not meant for kids but that they shouldn't be afraid of. Even if you don't agree, the book is worth a look, so

The It's Just a Plant web site, where you can purchase the book and read it online, makes some good points. According to the book's creators:

"Many parents have tried marijuana, some still use it. Neither feel great about disclosing such histories (many duck the question), for fear that telling their kids might encourage them to experiment on their own. ...

It's Just a Plant is a book for parents who want to educate their children about the complexities of pot in a thoughtful, fact-oriented manner."

What do you guys think?

Movie Preview: Bridge to Terabithia

BuzzSugar — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 09:16:20 PST

The young adolescent novel Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson is a wondrous and poignant tale of friendship, loyalty, and imagination. I read it several times over as a kid, and it still has a place in my heart. So it was exciting to see that there is a film version of the book coming out in February, though I'm not sure how I feel about the special effects-heavy trailer.

As cool as computer animation and special effects are these days, there is also much to enjoy in the story of the two friends, how close they become, the lessons they learn, how much they come to cherish one another. Paterson's novel is a subtle and tender work, and it's good to bring the title into everyone's awareness. I just hope the film is respectful to the work and avoids simply capitalizing on the surge of interest in recent years in children's fantasy worlds coming to life through fancy technical effects (a la Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia). Regardless, I'll probably still go see it. What do you guys think? Did you read this book as a kid?

Meeting My Sperm Donor

The Good Men Project — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 10:00:50 PDT

We're happy to present this story from one of our favorite sites, The Good Men Project. Ben Sommer, conceived through alternative insemination, is a young man now and tells the story of deciding to meet his donor.

I grew up in a middle-class home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with two loving parents, both of whom are women. My conception was perhaps the most organized and scientific miracle of the modern American family - my architecture, the dream of dozens of individuals conducting their work across thousands of miles.

Objectifying Ryan Gosling

I was conceived through alternative insemination. A donor submitted his sperm to the Sperm Bank of California in Oakland (TSBC). Later, it was sent to the Fenway Community Health Center in Boston. Since opening its doors in 1982, TSBC has helped families without the ability to conceive on their own to birth over 2,000 children. Two thirds of those have ended up, like me, being raised in a lesbian household. TSBC is also the first sperm bank to offer a donor-identity-release program, which allows children of alternative insemination access to their donors' information when they turn 18.

I am not as much an oddity as you might think. As of 2005, some 270,000 children in the United States had same sex-parents. We are a generation that is just now beginning to come of age and able to share our stories. This is mine.

Growing up in a lesbian household was much like growing up in any other family unit, I imagine: vacations to Cape Cod, parents working late and sometimes not, play dates with a diverse group of friends.

I never gave much thought to that mysterious figure across the country. I never questioned the fact that I didn't have a father. As far as I was concerned I didn't need one. Is having two moms really all that different than having a mom and a dad? Parents are parents, right? I didn't see a difference at the time. My parents didn't either - at least at first.

They decided to conceive through a donor, in part, to avoid the complications that a third parent would bring. Asking a close male friend to donate, like some couples have done, can create unforeseen consequences. In the past, there have been custody battles between the donor and the parents raising the child. This was the case with a friend of mine, whose parents arranged donation from a male family friend. With a semi-anonymous donor like the man my parents chose, it would be clear who my parents were. And it was.

That's not to say that it was smooth sailing. "When we first learned you were going to be a boy, we really panicked," my mother told me recently. "Who's going to teach him to throw a ball? We didn't have many male friends. There was even basic stuff, like who's going to teach him to pee standing up. That doesn't come naturally."

Read the rest of the story below.

The Benefits of Homeschooling Your Kids

LearnVest — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 03:05:49 PST

We're thrilled to present this smart LearnVest story here on Savvy!

In the past, LearnVest spoke to parents who chose not to use diapers with their children and dove into the stay-at-home parent debate. This time, one mother shares why she has decided to homeschool her children.

In 2002, we had our third child, 10 years after our second was born. Our eldest two boys were in a private school, but we began to consider the best way to educate our newest addition. Although we loved the school our boys attended, each year cost us about $10,000. We questioned how feasible it would be to put additional kids through there, too.

We had three more children in the following years for a total of six, and with each new baby came further confirmation that putting our four youngest through private school was out of the question financially. Our two eldest were approaching college age, which put even more pressure on us.

The decision was simple. We elected to educate our four youngest at home.

Why Public School Wasn’t an Option

We always knew that we wouldn’t send our children to public school. Parents who opt out of public school do so for many reasons: safety, quality of education, religious conviction, and many others. My husband and I both went to public school, but that was a long time ago, and I don’t know what schools are like today. For us, religion was the main reason. We believe that God gave parents the responsibility to raise, train, and educate their own children. Many parts of the Bible talk about training your children - to us, that includes education.

For more, read after the jump.

The Night Circus Author Erin Morgenstern Talks Twilight and Harry Potter Comparisons and Her Casting Wish List

Tara Block — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 04:00:33 PDT

As a huge Harry Potter fan, I must admit my interest was piqued when I heard about a new book last month being compared to the magical series, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. To add fuel to the buzzy fire, the film rights for the book have already been picked up by Twilight's entertainment company Summit. After reading the enchanting, sensory love story (targeted for adults, I should add) about dueling magicians who fall in love while competing in a mysterious circus that runs from nightfall to dawn, I believe it stands on its own. We chatted with Erin, who has a background in theater and studio art, about her first novel and whom she could picture playing protagonists and star-crossed lovers Celia and Marco on the big screen. Read her thoughts below.

TrèsSugar: What do you think of the comparisons being made to Harry Potter and Twilight?

Erin Morgenstern: It has some aspects in common with Harry Potter. I'm still not sure where the Twilight comparisons come from, maybe the fact that Summit is involved with the film rights. There are plenty of books that I think would be a little more apt, like Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell by Susanna Clarke, but not enough people have read that. I hope that it ends up being the kind of book that people don't have to compare it to anything. A lot of people tell me that they have trouble describing it. It's a complicated work because it's about the circus, but it's about the love story, but it's about so much more than that at the same time.

TS: What's your favorite love story in literature? Did it influence Celia and Marco's love story?

EM: I'm not really big on love stories. I'm not that classic romance sort of girl. Although I can't say it's my favorite love story, there's definitely a Romeo and Juliet aspect to it. I do kind of love a star-crossed romance. It makes everything so much more interesting and complicated, and sometimes angsty. I think that makes for a really good story.

TS: You say in your website's "about me" section that you were reading Stephen King at age 12 and J.K. Rowling at age 21. How did that affect you as a writer?

EM: I grew up in that time frame where there wasn't a YA section yet. There was a children's section and an adult's section. So when I hit around 11 or 12, I just started looking through the adult section. And for some reason I just got stuck on Stephen King and read practically the entire Stephen King shelf. And then when I was in college, I took a children's literature class, and we read the first Harry Potter. That influenced my lack of sense of what's an adult book and what's a children's book, because I had a very backwards reading life at certain stages. I like adult books that capture that child-like whimsy and children's books that don't hide the adult side of things. And I think there's more room for overlap between adult books and children's books.

TS: What are you reading right now?

EM: I'm in the middle of Lev Grossman's The Magician King. I finished The Magicians a couple weeks ago, and I have a couple events coming up that I'm doing with Lev Grossman. But I'm enjoying it very much, partially because I've read Harry Potter, I've read the Narnia books, and it has an interesting spin on those tales that I know really well. And before that I just recently finished the new Haruki Murakami book (1Q84) that comes out next week, and it's really just epic and wonderful. It's so, so good. It doesn't feel like it's 1,000 pages when you're reading it. I didn't want it to end.

TS: You've mentioned you could see Geoffrey Rush as Prospero in the film adaption, but who could you see playing Celia and Marco?

EM: I don't really picture actors when I write. Geoffrey Rush was sort of the one exception, because when I was coming up with him as the character he had a Geoffrey Rush vibe in my mind. For Celia and Marco, they look very particular in my head, and I don't have actors who really capture it. Celia was kind of inspired by Clara Bow. I found this old picture of her that wasn't that sort of classic short hair, her hair was all wispy and a little more Victorian-looking. She has very dark eyes, and that's sort of what Celia looks like. If we could find a modern-day Clara Bow type. And the actor who has a little of the Marco feel to me is Lee Pace, but he's going to be too old by the time we get around to the filming, which is unfortunate.

TS: Is there a sequel in the works. How long do we have to wait for the film?

EM: There's no plans for a proper sequel. I don't think it's the kind of story that lends itself well to "this is what happens next." And it was never intended to be a series. I do think at some point I wouldn't be opposed to do something like a collection of short pieces of side stories or people's back stories or a few of those things that happened afterwards.

The film is at least a couple of years away. It's in the stage of negotiations with producers, trying to find someone to head the ship.

TS: What did you learn about relationships as you wrote The Night Circus?

EM: I think that the essential thing I kept coming back to is that a relationship is about more than just two people. There's so many more factors in the equation, whether they're other people or circumstances. Relationships are never simple, there's always so much more going on.

If you read the book and want to find out more insights from Erin on the plot and process of writing, keep reading!

A Classical Return: 3 Children's Author Superstars Are Back!

Rebecca M Gruber — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 10:01:50 PDT

To some, they are the trifecta of children's literature - Shel Silverstein, Maurice Sendak, and Dr. Seuss. Between them, they have written more than 70 children's books including such classics as Where the Sidewalk Ends, Where the Wild Things Are, and The Lorax. While both Silverstein and Seuss are no longer alive, they join Sendak this month in introducing new books that are sure to end up on lil ones' bookshelves to complete their collections.

Every Thing On It by Shel Silverstein ($20) features 145 previously unpublished poems by the master of children's dark humor. Curated by his family, it is the result of a year's work, culling through the 1,500 poems the author and illustrator left behind.
Bumble-Ardy by Maurice Sendak ($15) is the author's first book in more than 30 years, and it is already making waves. The story of a 9-year-old pig that's never celebrated a birthday, he decides to throw a party for himself. Many parents are already up in arms over the seemingly scary characters that attend the party, but Sendak (who also once defended his Where the Wild Things Are characters) has said that parents underestimate children's desire for real characters.
The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories by Dr. Seuss ($12) features seven Seuss stories that were previously published in magazines in the 1950s but never found their way into actual books. Using the author's celebrated rhymes, the "lost" stories tell various tales that tots will enjoy for years to come.

Read Between the Lines: 10 Classic Kids' Books With Delightfully Subversive Subtext

LilSugar — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:05:50 PDT

Lewis Carroll, beloved author of Alice in Wonderland once wrote that, "words mean more than we mean to express when we use them; so a whole book ought to mean a great deal more than the writer means." A highly appropriate quote from a man whose work has been interpreted as everything from an LSD-laden parable to an homage to mathematical logic. Like beauty, meaning is often found in the eye of the beholder, and this is certainly true when it comes to deciphering the hidden meanings - if any - found in some of the most wildly popular kids' books. Morality tales have always been a major cannon in children's literature, but plenty of tomes for tots take a more subtle approach to tackling the social and political issues of the day, leaving them wide open to interpretation. Keep reading for the real stories lurking between the lines of some of your favorite bedtime classics.

Victoria Beckham's Love of Harper Lee Drives Sales of To Kill a Mockingbird - Who's Your Favorite Female Author?

Annie Scudder — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 13:00:47 PDT

Victoria Beckham can sell pop records and high fashion, but did you know she also influences the market for classic literature? After Victoria named her baby daughter after her favorite author, Harper Lee, sales of To Kill a Mockingbird have jumped by more than 120 percent on Amazon.co.uk.

Shortly after Harper Beckham's birth on July 10, proud dad David explained how she got her name. He wrote on his Facebook page: "Victoria's favourite book is To Kill A Mockingbird, it's a very strong, passionate book and the author was Harper Lee, and that is where Harper came from." The little one is already setting trends, as the book that inspired her name is now number 38 on Britain's bestseller list.

I wouldn't be surprised if mothers follow in Victoria's posh footsteps by naming their children after authors. If you had to choose your favorite female author, who would it be?

Violent Video Games For All?

GeekSugar — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 11:39:24 PDT

The US Supreme Court ruled today that it is unconstitutional and a violation of the First Amendment to ban children from buying violent video games. In a 7-2 vote, the court overturned a California law banning the sale and rental of violent video games to anyone underage. Video games like Mortal Kombat and Grand Theft Auto were singled out during the trial for the violent first-person perspectives that have become commonplace in many games.

In the court's majority opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia referred specifically to the dark folk tales children have read for generations as a precedent for First Amendment protection of sometimes questionable media:

Certainly the books we give children to read-or read to them when they are younger-contain no shortage of gore. Grimm’s Fairy Tales, for example, are grim in- deed. As her just deserts for trying to poison Snow White, the wicked queen is made to dance in red hot slippers “till she fell dead on the floor, a sad example of envy and jeal-ousy.”

The other side of this issue will point out that video games are a very different and immersive medium from literature, one in which the player experiences police chases and shoot-outs in a lifelike environment. What's your take on this heated issue, should the government put an age ban on violent media?

Texts and Tunes: This Is San Francisco

babysugar — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:00:00 PDT

Of all the classic children's books, Miroslav Sasek's ($12) hardcover treats are my favorite.

The practically antique texts have vintage illustrations adding some art deco to baby's library.

Aside from teaching your lil one about the ABC's, these books actually divulge loads of rich information about each locale.

This is San Francisco tells the tale of the earthquake ravaged city and its touristy charm while This is New York rattles on about the architecture of the immigrant city. Copious artwork and advanced literature make these books the kind tots can be entertained by for ages.

To see what other cities are featured in his line,

You can also read up on Paris, Rome, Dublin, London, Venice, Hong Kong, Ireland, Texas and others. Since the originals were penned so long ago, part of the asterisked text is updated to reflect current events.

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