I Remember Better When I Paint
Posted on April 15, 2010 at 8:00 am
I Remember Better When I Paint: Treating Alzheimer’s through the Creative Arts
Happy Birthday, Beverly Cleary
Posted on April 13, 2010 at 11:27 am
I loved Beverly Cleary’s books even more when we read them to our children than I did when I read them as a child. It’s because she has a unique ability to capture the way a child sees the world, filtered through the sympathetic understanding of an insightful adult who also happens to be an exceptional writer. I am especially fond of The Ramona Collection
Happy 94th birthday, Ms. Cleary!
List: Librarians in Movies
Posted on April 12, 2010 at 8:00 am
Celebrate National Library Week! This year’s chairman is “Coraline” author Neil Gaiman. Visit your public library to take a look at what’s available in books, DVDs, and audio — and to thank your librarian. A special thank you shout-out from me to my favorite librarian, my sister Mary.
And check out some of these movies about libraries and librarians. Here’s my favorite:
Yom Hashoah, Day of Remembrance
Posted on April 11, 2010 at 2:14 pm
Today, all over the world, people of all faiths and cultures are observing Yom Hashoah, the annual Day of Remembrance for those who perished in the Holocaust. Yom is Hebrew for “Day” and Hashoah means “of Catasrophe” or “of Destruction.” At the United States Holocaust Museum people sign up to read aloud the names of those who were killed.
All families should pass on to the children an understanding of the Holocaust and the painful realization that our hopes that the sickening inhumanity of what transpired, the systemic effort to exterminate groups based on religion, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, would itself be enough to prevent future genocide, have not been realized. Good films to begin these discussions include Defiance, the story of a partisan and resistance movement led by three brothers; Conspiracy
The Brat Packers Are In Their 40’s
Posted on April 10, 2010 at 12:54 pm
A new book by Susannah Gora takes a look at the group of young actors who appeared in the John Hughes films that seemed to define a generation — and certainly changed the way teenagers were portrayed on screen. You Couldn’t Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, and Their Impact on a Generation
Gora quotes Roger Ebert’s description of writer-director Hughes as “the philosopher of adolescence” and talks about the impact the movies and their music had on the culture and on the teenagers who appeared in them. The highlight of this year’s Oscar ceremony was the tribute to Hughes from his favorite performers, concluding with Matthew Broderick’s just-right thank you: “Danke Schoen.”
You can listen to Scott Simon’s interview with Gora and the brat pack actors she covers in the book on NPR.