CALDECOTT MEDAL WINNER – 1951
Katherine Milhous
New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1950
29 pp.
Age: 3 +
Interests: Easter, crafts, country life, traditions
Talking about children's books and films. Useful information for parents.
17 May 2011 Leave a comment
in Books, books 3+ Tags: country life, crafts, Easter
CALDECOTT MEDAL WINNER – 1951
Katherine Milhous
New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1950
29 pp.
Age: 3 +
Interests: Easter, crafts, country life, traditions
17 May 2011 Leave a comment
in Books, books 4+, Classics Tags: fairies, Fairy Tale, Magic, Princess, siblings, strong girls
subtitle: “A Holiday Romance from the Pen of Miss Alice Rainbird, Aged Seven”
by Charles Dickens
originally published 1868
this edition: illustrated by Louis Slobodkin, Vanguard Press, New York, 1953
36 pp.
Age: 4 +
Interests: magic, fairies, princesses
Also by this author (for children): The Cricket on the Hearth, A Christmas Carol
17 May 2011 Leave a comment
in Books, books 3+ Tags: cities, clowns, toys
by Quentin Blake
London: Jonathan Cape, 1995
29 pp.
Age: 3 +
Interests: toys, clowns, city
Also by this author: All Join In, Mister Magnolia
17 May 2011 Leave a comment
in Books, books 2+ Tags: birds, boats, China, ducks, river
Marjorie Flack, author
Kurt Wiese, illustrator
New York: Viking, 1933
31 pp.
Age: 2 +
Interests: birds, duck, river, China, boats
16 May 2011 Leave a comment
in Movies, movies 5+ Tags: adoption, American history, dogs, history, New York, song and dance, strong girls
Rated: PG (language)
Length: 126 min.
Age: 5 and up. Commonsense Media sez: 6 +
Scary Factor: Annie is kidnapped, shoved into a car and taken away; she is also chased by Rooster (shouting “I’ll kill ya!”), climbs to a great height on a bridge, dangles over the edge before being rescued
Violence: the orphans are very rough with each other; Annie punches out a bigger boy, knocking him down; much slapsticky shoving about, pratfalls, foot-stomping; less amusing is moment at climax when Miss Hannigan tries to stop Rooster and he punches her, knocking her out; also, a ‘bolshevik’ tries to kill Warbucks with a bomb (a brief and rather lighthearted event)
Also: lots of verbal threats, between orphans and from Miss Hannigan (who likes to holler “kill kill kill!”), most used for humour
Language: “shut up”, several “damn”s, “hell”
Bad Behavior: Miss Hannigan is drunk most of the time (makes her own bathtub gin); grownups smoke quite a lot
Sex: Miss Hannigan throws herself at every man she encounters, in a manner, shall we say, unusual for a children’s film; Miss Hannigan lounges about in her lingerie; Rooster and his girlfriend paw one another, fully clothed
Interests: musicals, song and dance, New York, history
Next: OTHER MOVIE MUSICALS: Singin’ in the Rain (all ages), Mary Poppins (3), Meet Me in St. Louis (4), The Music Man, The Wizard of Oz (4), The Sound of Music (6), STAGE: see Annie the musical live if you can
16 May 2011 Leave a comment
in Books, books 5+, Gender Differences Tags: adventure, Fairy Tale, folktales, pirates, Princess, strong girls
retold by Katrin Tchana
illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman
Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 2000
109 pp. – each individual story averages about 6 pages
Age: 5 + (some stories suitable for 4)
Interests: folk tales, princesses, pirates, fairy tales, magic, other cultures
Other books by this illustrator: St. George and the Dragon, Rapunzel
13 May 2011 Leave a comment
in Books, books 3+ Tags: bad behavior, manners
by John Burmingham
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006
30 pp.
Age: 3 +
Interests: ‘bad behavior’, manners
Also by this author: Mr. Gumpy’s Outing, Borka, Come Away from the Water Shirley , Avocado Baby
13 May 2011 Leave a comment
in Books, books 4+ Tags: adventure, dogs, theatre
by Maurice Sendak
New York: Harper Collins, 1967
69 pp.
Age: 4 +
Interests: dogs, adventure, theatre
13 May 2011 Leave a comment
in Books, books 3+ Tags: flowers, gardening, strong girls, travel
by Barbara Cooney
New York: Viking Press, 1982
28 pp
Ages: 3 +
Interests: flowers, single life, strong girls, travel
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Picking Movies for Young Children
13 May 2011 Leave a comment
by Kim in Commentary, Movies
I don’t want this blog to just be reviews, so I am going to try to write a weekly commentary of sorts, posting every Friday. Well, we’ll see how it goes… Here’s the first.
Here’s a blogger’s humble confession. Rating movies for a particular age group is really hard.
I used to be so annoyed with reviews of kids’ movies that weren’t specific, that didn’t give me what I needed to know in a nutshell. “Not suitable for young viewers” just didn’t help me. (What is ‘young’?!)
So when I began this blog I was determined to stamp an age recommendation on every review. And I soon found out why those other reviewers choose to be so vague. As much as a frazzled parent may want concise advice with a minimum of fuss, the First Commandment of parenthood always holds:
EVERY CHILD IS DIFFERENT!
I will do my best to give my recommendations, but the precise age rating must always be regarded as a sliding scale – after reading my reviews you will know if your child tends to be above, below or right smack on my estimates and can proceed accordingly. And please double-check with any other books, websites or blogs that you trust. (I include the Commonsense Media age ratings, which are often a year higher than mine.)
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