The Secret of Kells

I may not have seen any of the movies nominated for Best Picture (despite there being ten of them this year), but I have seen one of the five nominees for Best Animated Feature:  The Secret of Kells.  Apparently, I'm one of the few people in the US (outside of the Academy) who has; it doesn't open here until March 6.  But the National Gallery of Art showed it last fall as part of their Film Program for Children and Teens, and the kids and I (not surprisingly) loved it.  According to Variety, "[The Secret of Kells] may be the perfect film for children whose parents are art historians specializing in pre-Renaissance periods."  Close enough!  

Before the screening, the museum educator in charge of the film program asked the kids in the audience to pay attention to the use of color in the movie.  I wish I could remember her exact words (she may have mentioned specific colors and emotions, or not), but her question was short and simple and helped focus the kids' attention, especially when things got a little slow or, conversely, a little scary.  There's an art, I'm learning, to asking just the right question.  What's yours?

Operation Yes

Congratulations to Sara Lewis Holmes, whose middle grade novel Operation Yes (Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine) is one of Booklist's Top Ten Arts Books for Youth.  For local folk, Sara will be talking about and signing copies of Operation Yes at Hooray For Books! in Old Town Alexandria from 1-3 tomorrow (that's Sunday, November 8).

And from Booklist's list (November 1, 2009):  Miss Loupe, a new teacher at a school on a North Carolina military base, wins over her sixth-grade class with improv theater techniques in this heartfelt story about the power of theatrical collaboration and creativity to inspire and heal.

So should you read this book?  Yes!

Half Magic at the library sale

I had to return some books before the library opened on Sunday morning and (I swear I didn't plan this) got there just in time for the big Friends of the Library book sale.  I managed to limit myself to a handful of middle grade paperbacks and a hardcover copy of Anno's Journey by Mitsumasa Anno, but I really shouldn't have:  apparently everything is half price on the last day of the book sale.  Do you think that was good news (I only spent half as much as I thought I would) or bad (I could have bought twice as much as I did)?  Me, too.

I did pick up a copy of Edward Eager's Half Magic to read with the kids, although sadly not the glorious 50th anniversary edition (Harcourt, 2004) shown here.  I'm beginning to think I picked up the magic charm in the book (it grants you half of whatever you wish for) somewhere along the way, too.

Hobbit houses

Leo's dad is reading him The Hobbit; both of them are enjoying it immensely.  There is something special about reading a favorite childbood book with your own child.  I'm not a Tolkien fan myself (I'll be reading the Narnia books to the kids, thank you), but I'll make an exception for The Hobbit:  I would love to live in a hobbit house.  This one, built to house someone's collection of Tolkien manuscripts and artifacts, is my favorite.  Check out the interior shots of the round door, the "butterfly" window, the fireplace, and the library.

While googling "hobbit house" I turned up a reference to a hobbit house practically in our own background.  The kids and I went looking for it at the Winkler Botanical Preserve in Alexandria, VA this morning.  I had never even heard of the place, but I'm so glad we stumbled on it.  There was a network of wooded trails; a stream, waterfalls, and a lake; a Craftsman-style building called the Catherine Lodge; and a mysterious series of book-boxes at strategic points along the trail, each inscribed with a single letter.  Our real-life adventure seems to have criss-crossed with someone else's!  What could be going on at the Winkler Botanical Preserve?

Oh, we also found an abandoned hobbit house, just Milly's size (she went in).  It was nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.