Things to Read - Four Children's Books Written By DC High School Students

(A photo of some of the books' teenage authors.)

Lately, I've been getting lots of "junk" blog-related email, asking (approximately) "could you please write a free exclusive blog post for our for-profit organization? For your time, you will get nothing whatsover." Ugh.

Luckily, every once in awhile, a wonderful reader email appears in my inbox.

A few weeks ago, a reader reached out to me about a program called Reach Incorporated that launched in 2010 to combat DC's literacy crisis (85% of DC public school students enter 9th grade below grade level). Through the Reach program teachers train high school students to become paid tutors for grade school kids. Sounds pretty great, right?

Even better, through its summer program, Reach works with DC high school students to author children's books. (Did you know that only 3% of children’s books feature characters of color, and only 1.8% of children’s books are written by authors of color? Pretty sad statistic.). For the book program, Reach split teens into groups of 3-4 students and paired each team with a Reach staff member and an illustrator to help craft and write the story. Four wonderful children's books resulted from their efforts.

Reach Incorporated sent us review copies of all four books (which are available for purchase here) and both the kids and I were pretty impressed, especially since each book involves some sort of lesson or moral that works great for the 2nd/3rd grade crowd (though T loved them too, so the age range is pretty flexible). Our reviews are below:



The Airplane Effect
This was probably my favorite of the books, it involves a boy going through chemo meeting a new friend. And I really like how the authors tackled a hard to talk about topic, while still creating a story that was upbeat enough for young children.

T [age 4.5] - It was good, the story made me think about watching TV all the time, but that TV must get boring at the hospital. Maybe they don't have Rescue Bots? I also really liked the dances! Can you read it again please?

me - Um, we have three more to review, how about another book?

T [age 4.5] - But this one is SO GOOD!



The Gloomy Light
This was the most bizarre of the books as it involved a llama/frog friendship, aliens, and a new baby. Truthfully, it seemed somewhat random, but the kids really liked it. So these high school authors obviously "get" what 2nd graders want.

P [age 7] - I liked it, lots of my stories have aliens too. I wish I could have read more about the llama's adventures in space.



Trio+1
This book involves a boy who feels like an outsider, so he comes up with a plan to break up a trio of three popular best friends by creating contests that have them all compete against each other. Luckily, his plan fails. And in the end everyone becomes friends.

F [age 8] - It was really good. It begins with a guy who is lonely, which everyone is sometimes, but then he realizes he has friends, he just didn't know it.

T [age 4.5] - I think it was good.

P [age 7] - I liked it. The cool boys were actually good guys.

T [age 4.5] - How did they get to have contests without asking grown-ups for permission?

P [age 7] - I liked the end when they all discover the truth at the end and all become friends.



One Lonely Camel
So this book involved a "rapping" camel trying to make friends at his new home, a zoo. It's pretty funny, in a good way.

P [age 7] - I liked how all the zoo animals had a story, but I wondered where the zookeepers were.

F [age 8] - I wish we had learned more about what happened to the camel's family, but all in all I liked it.

T [age 4.5] - I'm glad everyone became the camel's friend.

Things to Do - BEST OF 2013

(The picture is P with her great grandmother, who visited us over Xmas break).

As you may or may not have realized by now, I LOVE a list.

This year a group of us bloggers got together to post some of our favorites from 2013 on the same day. So after you peruse my list, click on over to Julia's Book Bag to see what she loved in 2013, then keep linking and following the chain til you arrive back here. And while you're at it please comment with your own best of lists, I'm always interested in new reads/places to go/music, etc.

BEST BOOKS I READ IN 2013

FICTION
* Tolstoy's The Cossacks - a wonderful portrait of life in a foreign land.
* Rachel Kushner's The Flamethrowers - 1970s art, feminism, rebellion, and discontent.
* Alice Munro's Dear Life: Stories - there's a reason she won the Nobel.
* Alix Ohlin's Signs and Wonders - wonderful short stories about loss/change, some of the best I've ever read.
* Lauren Groff's Arcadia - growing up in a hippie commune.
* Aminatta Forna's The Hired Man - a Croatian village after the war.
* James Salter's All That Is - one life, summarized.

NON-FICTION
* Katherine Boo's Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity - life in an Indian slum.
* Emily Matchar's Homeward Bound: Why Women Are Embracing the New Domesticity - back to the earth, well, sort of.
* Ian Frazier's Travels in Siberia - the book that convinced me not to travel to Russia.
* Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs - the book that made me want to throw my Apple products out the window.
* Stephen Grosz's The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves - we're all so complicated.

BEST MOVIES AND TV I WATCHED IN 2013

* The final season of Breaking Bad (drug dealing is complicated)
* Baz Luhrmann's the Great Gatsby (F** the critics, I loved it)
* Frances Ha (becoming an adult is complicated)
* The Stories We Tell (family secrets are complicated)
* The Gatekeepers (Israel is complicated)
* Looper (time travel is complicated)
* House of Cards, Season 1 (Washington DC is complicated)
* Before Midnight (marriage is complicated)
* No! (politics and advertising are complicated)
* The League, Seasons 1-4 (funniest show on tv, hands down)
* The Beautiful Now (high school is complicated)
* Drinking Buddies (relationships & fidelity are complicated)
Honorable mentions - This Is Not a Film, & the Place Beyond the Pines

BEST KIDS' MOVIES AND TV WE WATCHED IN 2013

* Wreck it Ralph
* Despicable Me 2
* Master Chef Junior
* family viewings of old Project Runway seasons

BEST NEW-TO-ME MUSIC I LISTENED TO IN 2013

* Josh Ritter's The Beast In Its Tracks
* Izabo
* Vampire Weekend's Obvious Bicycle
* Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero's self-titled album
* The Cups song (so much family entertainment)
* Alabama Shakes' Boys & Girls
* Bahama's Bar Chords
* Gregory Isakov
* Grouplove's Never Trust A Happy Song
* The Lumineer's cover of This Must Be the Place
* The Virgins' Strike Gently
* Local Natives' Hummingbird

BEST KIDS' BOOKS WE READ IN 2013 (Click on the image to enter Amazon)

























Honorable mentions - Bear Has a Story to Tell and Where Children Sleep


BEST NEW-TO-ME LOCAL PLACES TO GO WITH KIDS IN 2013

* Winkler Botanical Preserve (Alexandria, VA).
* Baltimore Museum of Industry (Baltimore, MD) (previously posted here).
* Hiking the Turkey Run loop trail (McLean, VA) (previously posted here).
* Hains Point Cherry Blossoms (Washington DC) (previously posted here).
* The National Arboretum's Nature Playspace in the Washington Youth Garden (Washington DC) (previously posted here).
* Adventure Park USA (New Market, MD) (so so cheesy, but the kids loved it and the Living Social Deal kept prices low) (previously posted here).
* Dumbarton Oaks (Washington DC) (previously posted here).
* Peter Coffin's Here & There exhibit at the Hirshhorn (Washington DC) (previously posted here).
* Medieval Times (Hanover, MD) (previously posted here).
* Halloween at the White House (Washington DC) (previously posted here).
* The World's Fair Train Exhibit at the US Botanic Gardens (Washington DC) (previously posted here).
* The Smithsonian American Art Museum's Farm to Table Kids' Event (Washington DC) (previously posted here).

BEST NEW-TO-ME VACATION PLACES OF 2013

* The world's longest (and coolest) model railroad (Flemington, NJ) (previously posted here).
* Coe Hall (Long Island, NY) (previously posted here).
* Middleton Place (Charleston, SC) (previously posted here).
* The Magic Gardens (Philadelphia, PA) (previously posted here).
* A week at the beach in Corolla, NC (previously posted here).
* The Indianapolis Museum of Art and Nature Park(Indianapolis, IN) (previously posted here).
* Smith Mountain Lake (Moneta, VA) (previously posted here).
* Dinner on the deck at Trader's Point Creamery (Indianapolis, IN) (previously posted here).
* Hiking the Ravello Circuit (Italy) (previously posted here).
* Walking on the beach on Kiawah Island and dinner at Husk (Charleston, WV) (previously posted here).
* Times Square & MOMA on a snowy weekend (NYC, NY) (previously posted here).
* Hiking the Path of the Gods (Italy) (previously posted here).

Places to Go - Bumper Bowling at Fort Myer (Arlington, VA)

We had the most chill/lazy/relaxing holidays ever. My mom visited, so I planned all sorts of fun activities. But most days we ended up playing boardgames and watching movies, which really felt sort of wonderful. And we did manage to go bowling one afternoon.

Up until now, I'd never taken the kids bowling, as I always thought of it as more of a big kid activity (little toes, heavy balls, you get the picture). But a few weeks ago, T's friend hosted a bowling birthday party. On the way there, he asked me, "mom, are you sure there will be enough wii remotes for everyone?" Apparently, my 4.5 year old had no idea that bowling could be "real", it sort of blew his mind.

At the birthday party I discovered how bowling has been modified for the preschool crowd. First of all, when you enter a player's name, you can now check whether or not to add bumpers. So bumper rails rise from out of nowhere whenever needed. Further, they also have ramps available for the younger bowlers (you can see one in the background of the vertical pictures of T above). In order to bowl, all T needed to do was carry his ball to the ramp and push it - more like pinball than bowling. But he was elated. And he spent the next week, telling everyone "bowling is real! really it's real!"

So when my mom visited, we decided to take all the kids. Things were all fun and good until F started scoring much higher than P. Oh the drama. Lately it's impossible to make all three happy. By the end of the game, P was in tears, begging us to never bowl again. How is a parent supposed to deal with such things? I have no idea what the proper course of action is. And trying to figure it out is exhausting the hell out of me, whatever we do (from breakfast food through books we read) someone claims I'm acting unfairly. Now I see how parents take pride in being mean, there often isn't another course of action available, so you might as well make the mean work for you.

Anyways, on the upside, Fort Myer has a wonderful, cheap bowling alley. You have to show a government ID and submit to a vehicle search in order to enter the grounds, but after that, it's all fun and games. Click here for more info. On Friday and Saturday nights, they host glow in the dark bowling for only $3 a game.

Things to Do - Cherish This Day & Random Links

Cherish This Day put together a compilation of some of our favorite photos from 2013, one of mine is above, now click on over here to see everyone else's.

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

RANDOM LINKS:

* Paper City. This is so beautiful, I watched it over and over.

* I really like the jewelry on this site, plus the prices are reasonable.

* Art you can print yourself. Nice ideas for last minute gifts (even after the holidays).

* The New Yorker's Best of Photojournalism 2013, wonderful photos.

* Not that I can afford it, but I still sort of want a Hush chair.

* Great list for a snowy day - The Artful Parent's 89 Indoor Activities to Keep Kids Busy

Things to Do - Summarize a Year (2013)

Oh 2013, this year we: hiked the Italian coastline, had our basement redecorated by Land of Nod, swam in an ocean, joined a pool, floated on a lake, adopted a puppy, put Coco on Prozac (I kid you not), hired a dog trainer, visited the world's largest model train, caught snowflakes in Times Square, "survived" a Civil War attack (not a real one, obviously), threw our biggest solstice party to date (130 people is a lot of people).

F received her first "ring" from a boy and memorized the names of all the One Direction band members. P cartwheeled her way through the year, sometimes with a Diary of A Wimpy Kid book in tow. T learned more about the alphabet (sort of) and asked about 5 million questions. Dan caught a REALLY big fish. I Bikramed. So things were good.

Well, sort of.

Dan had cancer and two surgeries, three good friends lost a parent, one good friend lost a spouse.

Honestly, 2013 was sort of a roller coaster of a year. Hopefully 2014 will bring the calm, more like a Disney ride then a carnival ride.

I'm putting together a BEST OF LIST for next week with book recommendations and other such stuff. So keep reading.

HAPPY WEDNESDAY EVERYONE!