reviews on books and Movies
During the summer a friend of mine told me about this book and the blog. I have been reading some of it and I found it really useful, great tips to improve communication with your kids.
Take a look: http://tenpowerfulthingstosaytoyourkids.tumblr.com/
Parents often ask us to suggest good books for their kids — ones that will engage, entertain, and maybe even enlighten them. So we’ve scoured our recommendation lists and consulted with teachers, librarians, and book critics to assemble what we consider essential titles for your home bookshelves or to download to your ereader, smartphone, or tablet. From the classics to more recent must-reads, fantasy to funny, we have more than 150 great book suggestions for your kids and teens, from bedtime stories to chapter books to true literature, and more. Just search our themed categories, and you’ll find all of our picks arranged by age groups.
Our goal in creating this guide was to choose books that are proven to click with all kinds of kids — and can encourage them to become lifelong readers. The list is mainly fiction, because stories really grab kids. And we didn’t shy away from controversial books, trusting that our age ratings and detailed reviews will help parents decide what’s appropriate for their kids.
Our expert editors are completely independent; we’ve provided buy links for many books, but they’re simply for your convenience.
By Ruth D.
Vaccines – parents beware!
My husband and I were watching a documentary one evening regarding the quantity of vaccines that are being administered at the same time on children in the US. One of the cases involved a fatality. I was pretty horrified by what I saw and it motivated me to do more research.
Not enough research and testing has been done to date regarding the safety of vaccines and the effect on babies.
Also stopped using kids toothpaste that contained sodium saccharine.
Suzanne Collins, the author of the Hunger Games trilogy, is writing a new book called Year of the Jungle. Scheduled to publish next fall, it will be an autobiographical children’s picture book about coping with her father’s military service in Vietnam.
Continue reading: ‘Hunger Games’ Author Suzanne Collins’ Next Book Is Called ‘Year Of The Jungle’.
What is it about?
McEwan’s most autobiographical novel to date tells the story of Serena, a young book lover and math scholar who is assigned to an exciting mission by the British security service during the early 70s. She is asked to coerce a modernist writer into penning anti-Marxist articles, but, predictably, falls in love with him instead. As the story unfolds, the reader becomes aware that Serena, clearly capricious enough to dismiss her duties as an agent, may not be a very reliable narrator.
continue reading: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/19/sweet-tooth-ian-mcewan_n_2159436.html?utm_hp_ref=books&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009
Barnes & Noble has just introduced a special back-to-school promotion which offers $100 in e-books, study guides, and apps if you buy a NOOK e-reader by September 12, 2011. While at first glance the offer seems generous enough, a more detailed look at the 12 books that B&N has included in the offer suggests otherwise.
All the listed books – from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities to James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – are “in the public domain,” which means they are copyright free and available elsewhere on the Internet free-of-charge. That’s not to say B&N’s offer is worthless – there is certainly some value to be attached to the study guides – but it could definitely be considered a little misleading.
However, the offer had the unintended consequence of drawing our attention to the huge number of free books that are available via the Internet. From the classics to first-time works from undiscovered authors, there are now well over a million titles that can be downloaded without cost.
And we’re not just talking about downloading to e-readers. These free e-books can be accessed through almost any Internet-enabled device, including laptop computers, smartphones, tablets, and even the iPod touch.
If you’re interested in sampling this literary treasure trove, here’s where to look:
Google Books
It’s been estimated that there are around 130 million unique books in the world…and Google intends to scan all of them! By the end of 2010 it was well on its way, with over 15 million books already digitized and thousands more added every week.
Not all of these books are available to read online. Google has been bogged down by numerous individual and class-action copyright claims from authors and publishers, and it appears that its goal to create the world’s first complete digital library has been stalled, at least for now.
However, the books that Google can make available – all 3 million of them – are accessible through its Google eBookstore, where users can download reading apps and peruse the huge catalog of both free and for-sale titles. The eBookstore includes a “Best of the Free” section, but don’t feel restricted to the 50 or so titles that are featured here. There are over a million more free titles, so search away until you find one – or several – that you like.
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg offers over 36,000 free e-books for download to a PC, Kindle, iPad, Android or other portable device, and over 100,000 additional free titles through its partners and affiliates. The site has useful sections highlighting recent additions, and a Top 100 section, which features the most popular downloads and authors.
Although Project Gutenberg is much smaller that Google Books, it’s often easier to navigate and there isn’t the distraction of having to scroll through thousands of for-sale books to find the free ones that you are looking for.
Open Library
Open Library is a off-shoot of the non-profit Internet Archive, which was established with the lofty goal of creating a publically-available digital record of every book ever published. In the same way that Wikipedia relies on user contributions to build its online encyclopedia, Open Library invites users to add books, fix typos, or do whatever else they can to preserve this public record of the world’s literary offerings.
The free e-book section has a lending library, which allows registered users to “borrow” up to 5 books at a time from a collection of over 10,000 titles. Books can be downloaded as a PDF, read in plain text form, or even sent to a Kindle.
Many Books
Many Books contains over 29,000 free titles organized into various helpful categories, including authors, genres, languages, new titles, and Books of the Week. Most of the titles are sourced from Project Gutenberg but the emphasis is on the more popular works.
E-books can be downloaded in a variety of different formats (including PDF) and can be read on multiple devices. Many titles are also available as audio books.
Do you have a favorite source for free e-books? Share it with The Online Mom!
http://www.theonlinemom.com/secondary.asp?id=1949&t=how-to-get-free-books-online&__hstc=134027921.06fabb570a7a1eb6db86c5c7174aed7d.1350058710581.1350058710581.1350527873498.2&__hssc=134027921.3.1350527873498
You hardly have to have seen a James Bond movie to know a little bit about 007: one of the most famous fictional spies in the world, his presence in global pop culture is overwhelming. The way he says “Bond, James Bond.” The way he takes his martini. The way he rides off into the sunset, usually in a boat, with a different girl every adventure. These Bondian elements are stuck in our pop-culture brains.
It doesn’t hurt that he’s been around so long. Oct. 5, 2012, marks the 50th anniversary of James Bond’s first on-screen appearance, at the London premiere of Dr. No. (The character had existed in Ian Fleming’s stories for almost a decade before that.) For five decades now, moviegoers have flocked to see the suave secret agent at the rate of one movie almost every other year; the 23rd official James Bond movie, Skyfall, will be released in the U.S. on Nov. 9.
Despite all that fame, a good spy must have some secrets. Not every element of Bondian lore is general knowledge—so we’ve compiled 50 facts to get you ahead of the game.
Whether you consider them as familiar (and curious) relics of a bygone age—or as annoying wastes of time—the studio logos that run before every film you see at the multiplex have long been a part of the whole movie-going experience.
In this gallery we’ll take reveal the stories behind some of these symbols—from the snow-capped peak of Paramount’s iconic “Mount Majestic” to the young lunar fisherman that lets you know you’re watching a DreamWorks film.
So dim the lights, raise the curtains, and let the show begin…
Cayman Moms 