KidLit Left Out in the Elements
It was dark and stormy night… —A Wrinkle in Time Preschoolers must learn their seasons, but as they grow they will find storms and changes in the weather an ever increasing metaphor for change in their lives and the outside world. From Madeleine L’Engle’s famous and cliché opening to A Wrinkle in Time, we remember the great storm of adolescence. If you are a fan of said metaphors, here is handy list of weather metaphors! Listen to the podcast chatter about atmospheric kidlit on Green Mountain Morning! The Carnival at Bray By Jessie Ann Foley Publisher: Elephant...
Read MoreFractured Fairy Tales, Shattered Slippers
Children’s literature has been feverishly fracturing fairy tales since Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith released the The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales in 1992. Do the princess fairy tales featuring girls only made powerful by their beauty (and sometimes kindness) need to be especially fractured? Do we need to smash the glass slippers for girls and women to smash the glass ceiling? Is it time to encourage your child to leave behind the Disney Princess Halloween costume? Look to A Mighty Girl for a “Girl Empowerment Costume Guide.” Curious City joined Chris...
Read MoreLost (and Found) at Sea
Curious City has an ocean view. Or at least, if we walk out our doors and down a steep hill we found ourselves on a sheltered bay of the Atlantic. From the beach these last weeks, you can watch people squeezing the last sails of the season before high winds and cold settle in. As the refugee crisis continues to play out on the beaches of the Middle East, Northern Africa and Europe, those images screen in over my idyllic Maine view. And, of course, the image of 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi washed ashore is there. That is an image of lost childhood that we can never unsee. Kevin...
Read MoreNew Orleans Still Needs Us
Author Tamara Ellis Smith, the creator of the acclaimed middle grade novel Another Kind of Hurricane (Schwartz & Wade Books) is giving New Orleans more than one gift. In addition to her deeply compelling story of two boys affected by Katrina, a percentage of her royalties will go to help the recovery of the Lower Ninth Ward. Every book sold helps lowernine.org. Buy the book and/or share this image and you too could help New Orleans. This image and marketing message was created by your friends at Curious City. Share...
Read MoreWho Made You King of the Beasts?
World Lion Day 2015 comes in with a roar and a continued uproar about Zimbabwe’s Cecil the Lion being illegally killed by an American. Like all such things, America’s reaction (by animal rights activists, conservationists, hunters, cat lovers, children, and the mighty media) says more about our culture than it says about one dentist (with too much money and too little respect). And like all such things, it reveals the cultural isolation that is America – living apart from countries like Zimbabwe where lions are a complicated and dangerous affair. And who made the lion...
Read MoreScavenge Some Summer Reads
Curious City joined Chris Lenois on Green Mountain Mornings for this discussion of Summer Reading. Listen to the podcast here. __________________________________________________________________ Book Scavenger By Jennifer Chambliss Bertman Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) Age range: 9 – 14 Years Locate at a Indie Bookstore For twelve-year-old Emily, the best thing about moving to San Francisco is that it’s the home city of her literary idol: Garrison Griswold, book publisher and creator of the online sensation Book Scavenger (a game where books are hidden in cities all...
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