Image via WikipediaNow that I'm at an age where friends are beginning to have children, I've decided that I'm going to be that family friend -- for good or ill -- and try to give the gift of a love of reading.

I'm collecting a list of beloved children's books, from board books through first readers into YA and teen-friendly adult books.  The current list spans from Where's Spot through East of Eden, if you're looking for a range.  I'm especially hoping for books I remember loving as a kid, but have forgotten (but there's a handful of people whom I'll let vouch for a book, if I've never read it).

So your mission is to let me know which books you read until the covers fell off when you were a kid.

Note: if it's a series, no problem, but ideally I'll just pass along the first book unless/until the child expresses an interest in it. See: The Baby-Sitters Club (#1 Kristy's Great Idea); Animorphs (#1 The Invasion); Goosebumps (#1 Welcome to Dead House).

And don't worry -- if I give your child a book she already owns, I encourage you to pass it along to a friend or a charity.  Spread the words!

The Situation

The headers on this blog under the H1 html tag are too big. I'd like to shrink them a little, but I don't know how.

Your Mission

Folks, I'm looking for help with tweaking the HTML in my template so that my primary headings are a bit smaller and less cluttered-looking.

When the situation is fixed, I'll be thrilled to promote the blog of my successful helper! So leave a suggestion in the comments, please.

Thanks!

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Cover of The Simpsons Movie (Widescreen Edition)Updated 1/2/10

I've reviewed quite a few things along the way, and most of the stuff I've encountered has been largely positive, but with qualifiers: you should see this movie if you like mindless summer flicks; you should read this book if you like historical biography, and so on.

There are a few things, though, that I recommend across the board; I may not expect you to completely agree with me, but I think you should -- no, must -- at least check them out.

Must read

Maus Parts One and Two.
The Gift of Fear.
The Commitment.
Kockroach.
Lonesome Dove.
The World of Jeeves.

Must watch

clerks. and clerks ii.
The Prestige.
The Simpsons Movie.
Prince Caspian.
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.
John Adams.
Up.

Must...eat?

Tasca (MA)
Tio Pepe (NY).
Five Guys Burgers and Fries.

Must.... other, I guess

Rondout Inn (NY).

Image by Craig Grobler via Flickr

Intense. Dark and suspenseful and just intense.

Gotham is starting to get used to the idea of Batman. Street gangs imitate him and attack petty thieves. Organized crime struggles to stay out of his sight. The city is inspired to elect a "white knight" of a District Attorney in Harvey Dent. And a new villain, calling himself the Joker, relishes the elevation that Batman has brought to the battle between order and chaos. Joker loves chaos.

Dealing with these three larger-than-life characters are Jim Gordon, one of the last noble cops left in Gotham; Rachel Dawes, Bruce Wayne's childhood best friend and recent ex-girlfriend, who left Bruce when he chose Batman over her and has since started dating Dent; and Lucius Fox, one of the geniuses of Wayne Industries and the man responsible for the Batmobile. Oh, yeah, and Alfred the Butler.

Have I got this right when I say that Joker is Chaotic Evil, Batman is Lawful Good (at least, according to his own moral code), and Dent is Lawful Neutral? My Geek-fu is not strong.

But I may up it through this: Two-Face was appropriately grotesque, but I couldn't help thinking he looked like Jonah Hex.

Rating

See it...
Assuming, of course, that you haven't already, and that you can handle some very intense, violent, and occasionally heartbreaking scenes. It does its job very well, but it has a completely different job than anything involving Adam West ever did.

The rest of the Internet

Beware of spoilers...
Andy at Selections From the Scrolls of the PlatinumWarlock deems Iron Man the superior superhero movie, but The Dark Knight the better movie.
Michael Clayton and moviejohn at BlogCritics wax enthusiastic, while Craig Lyndall warns against overhype.
The IMDb and Wikipedia pages.

Image via Wikipedia
The Barnes Foundation
300 N. Latch's Lane
Merion, PA 19066-1729

You should know
Chris and I did our undergrad right by the Barnes, and various professors had raved about it, but we had never gone. The city is trying to move the collection, and I wanted to visit before this happens. We didn't think we'd get tickets ($10) -- it was a bit more last minute than the website recommends (30-60 days in advance is recommended). Still, Chris made the call and we got the tickets. Also, Chris and I both really like impressionism and many of its offshoots, like pointillism, early cubism, and certain examples of abstract expressionism.


So?
The tickets are timed -- we had an appointment for 11:00 AM. I thought this would be perfect, as guided tours of the grounds are scheduled for 11:15. Unfortunately, these tours don't start until late April, and I can see why. We roamed the grounds a bit ourselves, and while the gardens were well-manicured and the trees were in full bloom, not much else was. It was somewhat underwhelming, though I can tell it will be amazing this summer.

So instead we began wandering through the collection. Unlike a typical art museum, the collection is not organized by artist or movement, and there are no plaques on the wall to give you the relevant details. We went through a few rooms utterly lost, then tracked back when we discovered the laminated room maps that describe the works on each wall. It still only gave us titles and artists, but it helped.

We made it through about two-thirds of the museum this way before our 1:00 PM tour of the collection. It was intriguing; what appears at first glance to be a pretty haphazard setup it actually very deliberate. Dr. Albert C. Barnes was very interested in art education, going as far as to hold art appreciation lessons for his employees, paid, on company time. He spent millions on his collection, and in retrospect got some phenomenal bargains to boot. He didn't even necessarily like everything in his collection, but he wasn't selecting it for aesthetic purposes, but rather for education purposes, so if it had a place in the lesson, he acquired it. Even if you don't understand exactly what Barnes was going for in a particular room, there is a lot of really impressive symmetry: a matched set of two paintings may flank a center work, or you may see an early and late work by the same artist across the room from each other.

Our docent was very knowledgeable, and while I don't think I retained as much as I might have liked, we still learned quite a lot (for instance, I didn't know that El Greco is sort of the patron saint of modern art).

After the tour, though, we were pretty tired. We tried to revisit the rooms we hadn't made it to on our first walk-through, but we were just beat. After a quick stroll around the grounds, we headed out.


Rating
Go while you can.
I'm not saying the new location won't be amazing. I'm not even saying the new location will actually happen. But definitely go soon, just to be on the safe side.

Also, try to go in late spring. And if you do, take some pictures of the gardens for me?


A bit of advice
Bring a sweater. No, really. It says to on the website, but I forgot -- and I was freezing the entire time I was there.


The rest of the Internet
Some of these sites include pictures from the collection, which may include nudes.
The Friends of the Barnes Foundation are working to prevent the relocation.
Check out the collection of New York Times articles on the Barnes.
Kate Strathmann at Off Center reflects on the collection and the relocation.
Miscellany Inc. has a three part series about the Barnes.
NPR tours the Barnes and discusses the move.
KT at The Finer Things Club discusses the setup of the displays.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1
By Alan Moore, 2002, from the library

You should know
I’ve never actually seen the movie; I’ve heard it wasn’t very good and don’t have a lot of interest in seeing it, though I am willing to check it out if someone were to recommend it highly enough.

I had heard very good things about the graphic novel, though, so I thought I’d check it out.

So?
In the universe of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, every character worth noticing is either an established literary character (typically from the public domain), or is strongly hinted to be related to one, as in the case of Campion Bond, who is suggested to be the grandfather of the still-very-much-copyrighted James Bond.

Our heroes (or antiheroes, or villains working with heroes, as you like) are Wilhelmina Murray, from Bram Stoker’s Dracula; Allan Quatermain from King Solomon's Mines and its sequels; Captain Nemo from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea; Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; and Hawley Griffin], the Invisible Man. They are gathered by Bond and Mycroft Holmes to stop the unnamed-due-to-copyright Fu Manchu from using a war machine to strike against the British Empire.

This volume seems to be designed primarily to introduce the main cast to the readers; some may not be familiar with all the characters, and others may not expect the twists the authors give to their old favorites.

The back of the book is filled with ads, puzzles, and serial stories designed to evoke the Victorian setting in which the graphic novel proper takes place. They’re definitely worth a look, but are by no means the main attraction.

Rating
Good… for grown-ups
I suspect the more familiar you are with the many, many sources of material, the more you’ll enjoy the story. I went in knowing a bit about most of the characters and nothing at all about a few, and there were none with which I was familiar in any kind of depth. I still enjoyed it, but I’m somewhat tempted to read some of the source material and then come back to the series (and read the sequels while I’m at it).

It’s definitely not appropriate for children, though. In fact…

A bit of advice
So. In case you missed the memo, comic books aren’t necessarily for kids anymore. I’d say this one absolutely is not for kids, in fact. Gory, graphic violence, including rape… parents, if your child has any interest in reading this book, please read it first so that you can decide if it’s appropriate, and so you can be prepared for any fallout.

Graphic novels are books. They are books with pictures, they are comic books, but they are, in fact, books. You wouldn’t let your child read every single book he or she picked up, and you probably shouldn’t. Don’t assume that graphic novels are any different just because there are pictures.

The rest of the Internet
Wikipedia Pages.
The Wold Newton Universe is another case where pretty much any work of fiction you can think of in interrelated.
Jess Nevins et al collect notes and annotations on the comic. A good resource if you're reading the comic and just can't place that one guy...
Charles Prepolec at Baker Street Dozen gears his review of the comic to fans of Sherlock Holmes.

Awesome site of the week
Every morning, I read the comics. Some days, it's the only part of the newspaper I have time to read. I follow the serials and in some cases can recognize some pretty obscure characters; I smirk at the one-shots. There's about a half-doze Get Fuzzy strips on my computer that I fully intend to print out one of these days.

But that early in the morning, I just don't have the energy for snark; later, I don't feel like revisiting the same strips I read earlier that day. And let's face it: not every paper carries every strip.

That's where Josh, the Comics Curmudgeon, comes in. He, as the tagline puts it, reads the comics so you don't have to.

The comics may not always make you laugh, but Josh will. After all, this is the man who brought you Aldomania!

Cloverfield
2008, in theaters

You should know
My instinct is to say that I’m a big fan of J. J. Abrams, but the truth is, I never really watched Felicity or Alias, and I’m still a fan of Lost, though Abrams has long since moved on to other projects. I’ll dabble in his viral marketing, but I never lose the sense that it’s just a commercial – and if I’m going to take the time to go Online and watch commercials, the Mac vs PC series tends to be more entertaining.

Dan had seen Cloverfield and loved it; Chris saw it and wasn’t especially impressed – and some of his friends absolutely hated it. Since my taste in movies doesn’t precisely match either of theirs, I had no idea with whom I’d agree.

I’m a member of AMC’s MovieWatcher program, and I had received a free movie pass that expired the day I saw this movie. Dan was eager to see it again, so he joined me.

By the way, I’ve been very disappointed with the bathrooms at this particular theater lately. They can do better; I’ve seen it.

So?
So… it’s a monster movie. What did you really expect?

All right, so it’s a monster movie told from a fairly interesting perspective. Normally, you see the monster from the monster’s eye-level, or from the perspective of the scientists who accidentally created it and must stop it, or from the government/military figures who must stop it without killing more people, or from the one environmentalist who wants to save and protect the monster until it eats his girlfriend.

I think. I’m not exactly a monster movie aficionado, and it’s been a few years since I’ve watched Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Anyway. This movie is literally from the perspective of the man on the street. Hud is tasked with documenting his friend Rob’s going-away party, and takes the camera with him as he and his fellow party-goers run for their lives – the video, he reasons correctly, will be part of the historical record of the monster attack.

The dynamics of the film constantly shift as the varying personalities work their way through assorted stages of grief. Shock, anger, denial, and really terrible jokes all make an appearance. There’s also a love story that seems pretty tacked on – OK, sure, Beth provides Rob with motivation and a reason to stay alive, but I don’t believe she’s that good a person. After all, she brings a date to Rob’s party just to make him jealous (it works), but once the monster attacks, she doesn’t even seem to care if her escort is dead or alive. You’d think maybe a tiny bit of guilt would rise up…

Yes, I know, of all the places to have trouble suspending disbelief, it’s a strange choice. I don’t care.

Now, the camerawork. It did not nauseate me as it did some moviegoers (one of Chris's friends was hit with a migraine), but then I usually only suffer motion sickness when something else bothered my health first, and motion aggravated it. As if you wanted to know that.

The movie did, however, bother my eyes. It had been a long day, my contact lenses were on the dry side, and any time the screen went out of focus, my horribly myopic eyes tried to compensate the way they do every other waking moment. But you can’t bring out-of-focus film into focus with your eyes alone, so I walked out with tired eyes.

A bit of advice
If you’re going with people who’ve seen the film, particularly those who then proceed to get really enthusiastic with the viral marketing, make sure they know when to keep their mouths shut.

And if you’re the enthusiastic fan, note well: saying that a favorite review mentions that:

“Just about the time you start wishing that a monster would attack the city and start killing these people, a monster attacks the city and starts killing these people.”

...is funny. Saying it right before the monster attacks ruins the suspense and takes away from the effect – that is, it steals from your companions the very joy you felt when you first saw it. That’s not fair to them, and it’s not fair to you, either, because now they won’t be nearly as enthusiastic as you are.

Rating
Avoid it if…
…You have young kids with you (there’s quite a bit of gore and a lot of cursing), you’re prone to motion-sickness, or you just plain don’t like monster movies. Otherwise, check it out. Although if you decided to wait for the DVD, I wouldn’t blame you.

Maybe the special features will reveal secrets otherwise found only in the viral marketing.

The rest of the Internet
Beware of spoilers.

The IMDb page.
Decent, though not incredible, reviews at Rotten Tomatoes.
The Wikipedia page.
1-18-08 Project Cloverfield follows Cloverfield and other Abrams-related news.
Ty Burr at the Boston Globe rates the film highly: the shallowness makes the plot holes go down more easily, he reasons.
Robin Rowe at SciFiMovie.com rates the film highly.
Stephanie Zacharik at Salon, by contrast, rates the movie very poorly.
Russell Goldman at ABC News reports on Cloverfield-related motion sickness (and, along with his editors, gets extra credit for using "Nauseated" instead of "Nauseous.")
Alex Billington at FirstShowing.net enthusiastically predicts that Cloverfield will be remembered as a classic.
Roger Ebert ejoyed the film but had some trouble suspending disbelief.
Manohla Dargis at the New York Times was not impressed.
A Cloverfield sequel seems inevitable.
According to Gabriel Mckee at Religion Dispatches, Cloverfield's monster provides cosmic punishment for the sin of self-absorption.

Awesome link of the week
Television Without Pity has been around for some years now, but ever since it was bought by Bravo, the good folks at TWoP have had more resources and have been branching in new directions. Whereas the site used to only do full recaps of a certain number of dramas and reality shows, they've added "Weecaps" of shows they might not otherwise have done: sitcoms, for instance, or shows they used to recap, dropped, and then decided to pick back up in abbreviated form.

In the last few weeks, they've also added a few great video series. I'm loving The Week Without Pity, which outlines the week's highs and lows. No Prior Knowlege also has potential, but the whole premise is that the host hasn't seen the shows he's describing -- and yet he admits to having seen the first three seasons of Lost, the show he's currently describing in a multi-episode arc. It's only the third week!

The fora are actually very well-kept and intelligent as well, which we all know is something of a rarity on the Internet. So go, check it out, read some recaps, and enjoy!

TMNT: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
2007, on the big screen

You should know
Ah, generational kids’ shows. I was a tiny bit too young to appreciate Transformers. I loved Ghostbusters, though I barely remember any of the episodes. And I’ll even admit to a mild fondness for the glory days of both Power Rangers and Pokemon.

But the first show I was really into, the one that got me buying videos and action figures, was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

So when the movie came out, Brian and I made plans to catch it opening weekend.

So?
The movie takes place later in the timeline than the other well-known continuities. The Shredder is out of the picture, and the Turtles are all doing their own things: IT, catering, and two different flavors of vigilantism, to be precise. Before long, the brothers are reunited, and the eternal power struggle between Leonardo and Raphael emerges.

Now, I’m going to try to avoid spoilers by discussing this in the context of my memories of the franchise as a whole. It seems to me that in every incarnation, Raphael has problems with authority in general, and hypocritical authority in specific. Unfortunately, Leonardo as the leader has to deal with the former struggle, and as a perfectionist has to deal with the latter. In the conflict of the current film, Raphael is his typical, less-than-sympathetic self, but ultimately I side with him; the things Leonardo criticizes the most are the very same things that Leonardo himself did, causing the rift in the first place. And if you haven’t yet seen the movie, I’ve probably just confused you.

Now, every review I’ve read has deemed this movie darker than the first of the live-action films. It’s rated PG. There’s violence, references to killing, and a mild implication of sex: the unmarried romantic leads live together – hardly unheard of, but surprising in a kids’ movie. And that’s just it: I was not surprised to see that most of the audience was under 10, but I’m not convinced it was a movie for little kids.

All in all, it was an entertaining film, and stayed faithful enough to my memories of the Turtles. Yes, it was a bit darker and not quite as cartoonish, but I’m not 5 anymore, so that works for me. Maybe the youngest audience members should have been shown video of the old cartoon instead, but those of us who saw that incarnation the first time around will be pleased.

A bit of advice
It’s tough to bring kids to the movies. Can your kid handle sitting still? Can he or she keep quiet for an hour or two at a time? How does he or she handle the dark, or loud noises? You know your kid, and I’m going to trust your judgment on this stuff: 90% of the kids at the theater were very well behaved (though I would submit that just because a character onscreen yells something, that isn’t license for a kids to yell it back three or four times – but then, I’m fairly anti-catchphrase).

All that said, here is a bit of unsolicited advice.

If you know your child is going to play with things at duller moments, don’t give her hard candy in a plastic or cardboard box. It makes a lovely maraca, which is a terrible movie-time toy.

If he’s going to be distraught that the whole family can’t sit together, show up extra-early and make sure you all get seats together.

Try for the end of the row, if you think your kid is going to have to get up during the film.

Once your seats have been claimed, take turns going to the bathroom while the commercials are running; you don’t need to see another Sprite ad anyway.

And while soda is a fun treat, adult bladders can’t handle the giant gallon cups, and most of us can’t quite tolerate all that sugar and caffeine. You know what drinking a 2-liter of Coke would do to you. Why do the same to your child? Especially when she’s going to have to pee, run around, climb over all the other people in the row, and burn off energy by playing with her candy.

Now, you don’t have to take any of my advice; I don’t have kids, so I wouldn’t suggest that I know better than someone who does. These are just some ideas on how the movie-going experience might go smoothly for you, your children, and the folks sitting next to, behind, or in front of you.

And I do want to express my appreciation to that 90% of kids who were well-behaved, and to their parents, who taught them well and prepared wisely for the trip.

Rating
More for older fans
It’s not a bad film for older kids, but as I noted, younger ones might not be able to handle the more intense movie. Then again, older kids are probably in that in-between area – too young to have seen it in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s, but too old to have watched the 2003 cartoon.

The rest of the Internet
Beware of spoilers
The turtles have their own MySpace pages.
The film's Wikipedia page.
Fans liked it more than critics at Rotten Tomatoes.
The video game.
Variety's review.
And one from The Village Voice.
Ryan at Reel Opinions weighs in, as does Scott at Cinematical.
Check out the original comic books.

Bronx Zoo
2300 Southern Boulevard
Bronx, New York 10460

You should know
I’ve been meaning to go here ever since I started school in New York and realized that the Zoo has pay-what-you-will Wednesdays. I was visiting Chris for a few days, and since we are both trying to save some money (and since it was absolutely gorgeous out), this was an excellent option.

So?
We got there after lunch, giving us a good three to four hours to roam the grounds. Since it was still technically winter, most of the good stuff was indoors, so we hit the monkey house (neat, but smelly – and featuring a few babies!), the aquatic bird house, JungleWorld (more baby monkeys, and a turtle trying to get some action from his disinterested girlfriend), and the World of Birds. Why yes, we did see a lot of birds. Outside, we went to find bears, birds of prey, sea birds (including penguins!), tigers, and the Himalayan Highlands. We just missed a Tiger Enrichment Session, but stumbled upon the Bee-Eater Buffet just in time.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable day.

Still, I have some recommendations.

A bit of advice
First, bring a camera – either a digital camera, or an old-school camera with a ton of film. There were a lot of scenes Chris and I wanted to capture, but since he forgot his camera, and I only had 10 shots left on mine, our options were limited.

Second, do not feed the animals. Not only is it stupid, inhumane, cruel, possibly dangerous, and possibly illegal (or at the very least against the rules of the zoo), it ruins things for the other visitors. I wanted to take a picture of swimming penguins – not of terns and cormorants fighting over your leftover Doritos. Disgusting on multiple levels. Just don’t do it.

Third, and I am a bit more sympathetic on this one, please follow the rules about strollers. I know your kid is little, and is asleep/stubborn/apt to run off, or whatever, and I do understand that the stroller parking lots are “leave at your own risk,” and you’re probably using the handy pockets and storage compartments instead of a purse. I get that. Even so, if an exhibit clearly states “no strollers,” please consider that there is, in fact, a reason. There are plenty of places in these exhibits where maybe – if you wiggle and squeeze – one stroller can fit. One stroller and no people. Which is fine if there’s only one stroller. But when you have eight strollers and thirty people all trying to take their turn in that space, well, it’s just not going to work. And it really hurts to get hit by a moving stroller.

Rating
Go on a Wednesday
I really did enjoy my time there. I grew up with the Philadelphia Zoo, and the Bronx Zoo easily competes (I can’t tell you who wins until I see both zoos post-construction). And even at full price, the Bronx Zoo is less expensive than its counterpart. Even so, any time you go to a zoo, you risk crowds, rain, sunburn, idiots with Doritos, and all sorts of fun things like that – and maybe you’ll bring your kids, and they’ll cry or fall asleep. You’ll feel better about leaving if you paid $4 than if you paid $14.

The rest of the Internet
The Wikipedia page.
Little Alexander visited the zoo, so you can see its kid-friendly-ness.
Some animal pictures from the zoo.
An interview with the zoo's curator.
Learn about the compost toilets at the zoo.
Apparently, in the '80s there was a tv show called The Bronx Zoo.

American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West and 79th St.
New York, NY

You should know
I was one of those kids. You know the type. Books about dinosaurs, toy dinosaurs, TV shows about dinosaurs… About the only thing I know how to draw with any competence (at least, in non-stick-figure form) is a dinosaur. And to this day, I am completely enthralled by the fossilized skeletons in museums.

I also like museums in general. Whether it’s history, art, nature, or the combination of any of the above, I want to see and learn as much as possible. I’m strange like that.

So when Chris came to visit me in New York, I insisted we check The Museum of Natural History out.

So?
We accidentally went through the big skeletons section of the museum backwards. This actually worked out really well, because we consistently went in the opposite directions as the crowds. Sure, it was still packed, but this helped in a strange way.

The Big Bang and Scales of the Universe sections were neat because the people around us (strangers all) were making comments and commenting on our comments. It was fun.

Not all the visitors were that canny. A true exchange:

Sign next to skeleton: This is why it’s not true that Stegosaurus had two brains.
Little kid: Daddy, what does that say?
Dad: It says Stegosaurus had two brains.
Me (sotto): Kill me…

Now, I was a bit disappointed that all the temporary exhibits cost extra. I know that’s typical, but most museums I’d been to have had maybe one exhibit that costs extra, but the others – even the temporary ones – are included in the price of admission. Still, we didn’t have a ton of time, so this worked out all right.

Overall, it was an enjoyable experience. You should definitely consider going during the week, and if you can get any kind of discount (student, coupon, whatever), you should use it; general admission is $14.

A bit of advice
I have a special request for all museum-goers. If you are bringing your child/ren to a museum filled priceless fossils and artifacts, please, please don’t let your children run around in their wheeled sneakers. There is no way it can end well.

Rating
Check it out
There are two factors that led to me attending in the first place: the museum’s place in New York culture, and the dinosaurs. I’m a complex person; what can I say? But the culture and the dinosaurs both lived up to the hype, so if you’re interested in either, you should put this on your list of New York attractions to visit.

The rest of the Internet
The Wikipedia page.