Miramax | Ella Enchanted
After watching the trailer online at the site above, the movie doesn’t seem to bear much resemblance to the book I liked so much. Ah well, it’s exactly what I have come to expect. But the cast looks wonderful with Anne Hathaway (star of The Princess Diaries), Joanna Lumley and Eric Idle.
Month: January 2004
His Dark Materials Production
National Theatre: His Dark Materials
Information and images from this new production based on Philip Pullman’s books.
Mars Rover for Kids
Mars Exploration: Fun Zone!
NASA presents this site on the Mars Rover with online games, activities, and educational information.
ALA Announces Awards
ALA | American Library Association Announces Award Winners
Drum roll, please!
Newbery to Kate DiCamillo for The Tale of Despereaux
Caldecott to Mordicai Gerstein for The Man Who Walked Between the Towers
Coretta Scott King to Angela Johnson for The First Part Last and to Ashley Bryan for Beautiful Blackbird
Printz to Angela Johnson for The First Part Last
Vist the ALA site to see the Honor Books in each category!
The Polar Express
New Photo of Hanks from The Polar Express
This new image from the upcoming movie starring Tom Hanks and directed and co-written by Robert Zemeckis shows the incredible motion-capture technology they are using to recreate the beloved picture book. To see more, visit the official site.
Mark Buehner, Illustrator
The Salt Lake Tribune — Utah couple receive acclaim with flying colors for children’s books
Mark Buehner has illustrated fourteen children’s books, six of which have been written by his wife Caralyn. He is most famous for his first book, The Adventures of Taxi Dog. His illustrations are filled with hidden elements and lots of character.
This article on him and his wife captures the joy they have found in working on children’s books.
No More Mindstorms
Yahoo! News – Lego Fires Two Executives, Mulls Layoffs
Lego will stop making the Mindstorms series of toys that many schools use to participate in regional and state competitions for robot building. I imagine that this will end those competitions, which is too bad for our scientifically-gifted kids.
Time to bid on some extra sets on EBay!
How Do You Say This Author's Name?
dict.html
It’s a question we get asked all the time, especially for authors like Jon Scieszka. Now there is a webpage to answer that, so that when you are presenting a program, a booktalk, a book discussion, you can actually feel free to mention the author by name! Oh, and Scieszka is SHESS-ka (rhymes with Fresca). Who’d have thunk?
Blackwater Ben
Blackwater Ben by William Durbin (0-385-72928-6)
13-year-old Ben spends the winter of 1898 with his father cooking at a lumberjack camp in the northern Minnesota woods. The book is filled with incredible characters like the man who sharpens saws and hasn’t bathed in over 15 years. It also contains facts that bring the hardship of camp to life, like the amazing temperature of -50 degrees below zero, when the horses couldn’t work because they would die from the cold.
Ben is a wonderful narrator, he sees the logging camp from the vantage point of the kitchen, where all the loggers come every day. The story is funny, factual, and colorful.
I would recommend this book to any boy looking for a great read. It would also be a fun book to choose for a kid looking for a historical novel for an assignment. The colorful characters keep the story moving almost as fast as a a team of sawyers can eat 200 scones.
Waking Brain Cells 