Uh-Oh! Proof Miley Cyrus may just be growing up...a bit too fast?

Okay. I wasn't sure I wanted to post this because parents and some kids want to think of Miley Cyrus and have visions of the wholesome Hannah Montana...but I just came across it yesterday and it's a bit racy for Ms. Cyrus but then again, hasn't she slowly been losing her good-girl image and searching for an older audience?

I also hate to say I think the song is kind of catchy and as a concept video I think it's kind of cool with the bird wings...what do you think?

Check out my mini-collection on bullying!

I just finished my final project for the Materials for Tweens class I took this semester. Feel free to check out the website I created here.

The Boys of Baraka/ PBS POV Documentary

Synopsis:

Devon, Montrey, Richard, and Romesh are just at that age — 12 and 13 years old — when boys start to become men. But in their hometown of Baltimore, one of the country’s most poverty-stricken cities for inner-city residents, African-American boys have a very high chance of being incarcerated or killed before they reach adulthood. The boys are offered an amazing opportunity in the form of the Baraka school, a project founded to break the cycle of violence through an innovative education program that literally removed young boys from low-performing public schools and unstable home environments. They travel with their classmates to rural Kenya in East Africa, where a teacher-student ratio of one to five, a strict disciplinary program and a comprehensive curriculum form the core of their new educational program.

I called Baltimore my home for 4 years back in the late 1990s. I was always aware of the overwhelming poverty and crime but as a lot of people say, the city has "charm." What I wasn't aware of was that a few blocks away from me lived boys that were slowly losing their chances to do something productive with their lives. Most of them were destined to end up in prison, homeless, on drugs, or killed. This is where the Baraka School stepped in to help some of these boys see that there is hope for the future. I seriously can't describe in words how powerful this documentary is. You get to see these boys get handpicked from some of the most violent and poor schools to attend the Baraka School in Africa where they learn how to deal with their anger and emotions. They get to receive an education without all the distractions of street violence, gangs, domestic violence, and drugs. You can tell that they are excited and scared to go and they have very difficult times adjusting. They go from living in a frightening concrete jungle to living on the plains of Africa; a chance that not a lot of people get especially boys like these. Watch them struggle and fail and pick themselves up and succeed...in the last half of the documentary watch with great pain when all that is given to them is suddenly taken away. Heartbreaking.

The Library Card by Jerry Spinelli

Newbery Award-winning author, Jerry Spinelli's book contains four stories about a mysterious, small blue library card that magically appears in the lives of the kids and changes them forever.

Meet Mongoose and his best friend, Weasel. They are social misfits who go around town and vandalize and steal things. One day the library card appears and although they try to throw it out it keeps coming back. Slowly Mongoose realizes its powers and discovers the power and fun of learning things through books, but that power is lost to Weasel and their friendship begins to change in ways neither of them see coming.

Meet Brenda who must endure the Great TV Turn-Off, a plan implemented by her parents to shut the television off for a week. It's the worst possible thing to ever happen to Brenda. She's obsessed with all the tv shows and doesn't think she'll survive! Then the blue library card appears and she starts to see life in all kinds of new ways. Can you believe she doesn't know her favorite color because the tv had shut her brain off.

Meet Sonseray who lives in a car with his dad. His mom left them when he was young and he's angry at the world and wants to forget and remember his mother all at the same time. He has no need for libraries but he knows that on a scorching summer day he can go into a library and cool off. Enter the library card. Soon Sonseray finds a book that he recalls his mother reading to him. Soon he is able to remember and forgive.

Meet April Mendez who, after discovering the library card, takes a crazy ride on a hijacked bookmobile where she meets a sad and angry girl who starts off being an enemy and by the end of the ride becomes a friend.

These are all great and easy to read stories about how a bit of knowledge can change a kids life. i recommend it for kids 8 and older.

Eat Your Vegetables! / Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

In this television series, British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver goes to Huntington, W.Va., to help people eat better. The city was recently singled out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as the nation's unhealthiest. Oliver starts his "revolution" by attempting to change the menus at grade school and high school cafeterias which are serving mostly processed foods. These foods "meet" regulations, but Oliver knows they are unhealthy choices for the kids.

I don't think it's the best show. Oliver is a bit annoying and self-centered...sometimes it seems like he is just playing to the camera with fake tears, but his message is a positive one. The health of our children should be a concern. If you can get over Oliver's hard-to-like personality it is with total confusion that you'll watch a group of kindergartners try to figure out which fruits and vegetables Oliver is holding up...they have no clue what the strange objects are...oh it's round so it must be an orange! Just watch to see how wrong they are.

This series is a definite eye opener to the problem of obesity and how starts with what parents and schools are feeding the children.

Go here for more info about the Food Revolution

The Last Invisible Boy by Evan Kuhlman

Summary:

MY NAME IS FINN GARRETT AND THIS IS MY STORY.

I don't want to give anything away, so I'll tell you what you could probably guess from looking at the cover and flipping through the book.

1. It's about an invisible boy. Obviously. That's me. Actually, I'm not totally invisible. Yet. But I'm getting there.

2. There are a bunch of my drawings.

3. There are some really funny, really happy moments.

4. Just so you know, there are also some sad moments.

5. Everything in here is the truth. So if you like stories about true things, you might like this book.

That's all I'm going to tell you. All the stuff about my dad and my mom and my brother Derek and my friend Meli and whether or not I actually turn invisible or become completely visible again or figure out how to use my invisibility for the good of all mankind or just disappear altogether, you're going to have to read to find out.

So, let's get started. Just remember: This is my story, and anything can happen.

The Last Invisible Boy is one those books that actually made me "bust a feeling" as my friends and I would say. The touching work of fiction is told by 12-year old Finn Garrett who tells his story through this book...his book. Finn believes he is turning invisible and decides to write this book in order to share his thoughts. After a short introduction he tells the reader that his is "a story about losing something. No, it's a story about sudden change." Soon after we find out that he somehow lost his father. Finn's "invisibility" has to do with the fact that soon after the loss of his father his skin has grown extremely pale and his once black hair has slowly turned white leaving him looking ghostly. Finn believes that soon he'll disappear. Finn's story reads like a diary (think Diary of a Wimpy Kid) and is written in such a way using words and pictures. Evan Kuhlman uses the voice of Finn to tell wonderful and sad stories through Finn's young eyes. Finn questions the reasons why he's turning invisible as he struggles with keeping it together for his emotionally-wrecked mother and younger brother. The story is so touching because as a reader I realize that Finn knows his condition has to do with the death of his father, but Finn doesn't want to talk about what he calls "The Terrible Day that Changed Everything." The book deals with Finn's emotions through how he deals with everyday life. Through his words he unknowingly showed me denial, betrayal, grief, acceptance, and growth.

What I found really cool about this book is that Finn constantly questions the reader to think about things that might be a bit "deep" but he also understands that if it gets to deep you can always take a time out. Another cool thing he does throughout the book is to question what the names of the people he knows and meets mean. Finn means "fair hero."

When Finn finally comes to an understanding of how his father's death is directly related to his invisibility it is a moment that makes it clear that kids can process heavy emotions and situations even though it may be hard. Wow.

I think this is a great book for kids 8 and older...and by older I mean adults too!

Oh and by the way my name means "Healer"...what does yours mean?

Author Website:

http://www.evankuhlman.com/

How to Eat Fried Worms...Book versus Movie

I came across How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell while shelving books the other day. It brought back such great memories of all the old-school books I used to read. I told myself that I should read it again, but made up a million excuses as to why I couldn't. A few days later I was shelving movies and came across a movie version of the book. "Oh boy, another movie version of a beloved children's book," I thought to myself. "These are hit or miss. Usually miss." I didn't even realize a movie was made of How to Eat Fried Worms. 2006 to be exact. I remembered what I had told myself a few days earlier so with movie in hand I grabbed the book off the shelf. I just had to re-read the book and compare it to the movie...so here it goes.

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Summary of the book:

By way of bet, Billy gets into the uncomfortable position of having to eat fifteen worms. The worms are readily supplied by his opponent, and Billy has a free choice of condiments, from peanut butter to horseradish. With his wavering courage bolstered by the moral support of his friends and family, Billy munches away courageously. But there is many a slip twixt the worm and the lip, and the outcome of the bet is continually in doubt.






Summary of the movie:

The new kid at school faces up to the school bully by taking on a challenge no one has the guts to try in this family-oriented comedy. Billy (Luke Benward) is an 11-year-old boy whose folks have just moved to a new town and is facing the terror of his first day at a new school. It doesn't take long for Billy to run afoul of Joe (Adam Hicks), the school bully, who finds the live bait Billy brought with him and throws it in his face, asking Billy if he eats worms for lunch. Billy tries to gross out Joe by saying yes, he eats worms on a regular basis, and Joe calls his bluff by challenging him to eat ten worms in front of the student body. Billy takes the bet, and suddenly becomes something of a celebrity at school as the first kid to stand up to Joe. Billy also discovers he's caught the eye of Erika (Hallie Kate Eisenberg), a cute girl in his class, but can he actually eat the worms without losing his lunch? With the help of a handful of new friends, Billy preps for the big contest by learning how to eat as much gross stuff as he can, and he gains an unexpected ally in hot-headed Principal Burdock (James Rebhorn). Based on the popular children's book by Thomas Rockwell, How to Eat Fried Worms also features Tom Cavanagh, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, and Clint Howard. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The book, How to Eat Fried Worms, is an quick and easy to read classic. I think kids as young as 7 or 8 would like this story of four boys hanging out in the country during summer and one of the boys, Billy, finds himself at the tail end of a bet between his friends. The bet requires him to eat fifteen worms in fifteen days. The storyline is simple yet the characters come alive in situations like how to prepare the worms so they don't taste horrible. Sometimes the creations seem grosser than the actual worm. I really think young boys would appreciate the gross out humor of the story. The story also touches on the brief falling out the boys have over the competitive nature of the bet. There is cheating, fighting, and a few dangerous situations that Billy and his friends must deal with throughout the story. Reading it again after probably over 25 years brought back so many memories. The book still holds up today as one of the best books for kids!

The movie is a whole other story. I don't even know where to begin without sounding like I totally hated the movie but....I totally hated the movie. Hollywood stuck its claws into the laid-back, summertime in the country feeling of the book and tore it apart. It was put back together somewhere in the suburbs with a bunch of wacky and crazy child actor kids. The movie kept the names of the original four boys from the book. Movie Billy is the new kid in at school. He also has a weak stomach as we learn from the opening montage which involves his father pulling the car over every few miles so Billy can throw up. It's not made much better by Billy's little brother sloppily devouring a bean burrito in the back seat. Gross out factor. Check.

The movie had too many differences from the book to count which is why I probably disliked it so much. Let's just say their were more characters, a love interest, 10 worms instead of 15, and a ring that a bully wore that was rumoured to cause sudden death. Ugh. The only similarity I really saw was the fact Billy had to eat worms because of a bet. The director and producers of this movie really took the term "based on the book" to a whole different level.

One good thing I can say is that the movie would probably be enjoyable if I didn't love the book so much and that would be if I was watching it with my 6 year old nephew.

Reviews and such:
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/how-eat-fried-worms

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/how_to_eat_fried_worms/