The Tales of Beedle the Bard

Ok, so I'm a 33 year old Harry Potter fan. Sue me. If you're a fan, you probably read about Amazon.com's purchase of a hand written original work of J.K. Rowling's called "The Tales of Beedle the Bard." This fictional book played heavily in the final novel of the series, The Deathly Hallows. Amazon.com payed $3.98 million for it, with the proceeds going to one of Rowling's favorite charities, The Children's Voice Campaign. This is an organization that fights for the rights of children living in institutions.

Well, Potter fans will finally have their chance to read these wizard "fairy tales" on December 4th. Proceeds from the book will also go to The Children's Voice Campaign. It comes in a standard hardcover version and a Amazon.com exclusive deluxe version, featuring a recreation of the handwritten version owned by Amazon.com, for a mere $100!

A 800 word "prequel" to the series was also recently auctioned for charity. The auction raised $48,910 for English PEN and Dyslexia Action. You can read it here.

Classic Marvel Cartoon Theme Songs fom the 1960s

After seeing Iron Man and all the recent hype about future Marvel movies, it's made me nostalgic for the old Marvel Comics characters. I just started reading "Tales to Astonish" a book about Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and the characters and industry they created.

Here's a couple of fun YouTube clips of 1960s era Marvel character based cartoon theme songs. Parker loves the Spider-man theme song and can sing all of the first verse. Apparently, the Iron Man theme song made an appearance in the Iron Man movie, but I had never heard it before. These are all really cheesy, but fun.

















Bonus: A classic from my childhood, Spider-man and His Amazing Friends from 1981:


Bonus 2: A non-marvel character. This is the theme from "The Batman" from 2004, written by U2's The Edge.

Free Comic Book Day!

I've always missed "Free Comic Book Day" since it was started in 2002. Well, this year, Parker and I as going! What is Free Comic Book Day? According to the web site: "Free Comic Book Day is a single day when participating comic book shops across North America and around the world give away comic books absolutely free to anyone who comes into their stores." It's really a way to introduce comics to a new generation, like Parker, and reintroduce them to old fans, like me. Parker loves Spider-man. We're not really sure how or why. When I got back from New Orleans last year, he could pick out Spider-man in Kohls and now he goes around webbing people and singing the 1960s Spider-man cartoon theme song. Ok, I'm to blame for the theme song, I admit it. He's been begging to watch my Spider-man DVDs. We tell him he can't because they're for "Big boys." That's just backfired on us. Whenever he accomplishes something and we tell him how big he is, he says "I watch Spider-man now?!"

So, Free Comic Book Day, May 3rd, 2008. Be there. Parker and I will be going to Vintage Phoenix Comics in Bloomington. You can find a participating comic shop near you by clicking here.

Armageddon in Retrospect

The first posthumous book by Kurt Vonnegut is about to come out. "Armageddon in Retrospect" is scheduled to be published on April 1st. It's a collection 10 previously unpublished short stories, a letter home to his family at the end of WWII, a personal account of the Dresden firebombing during WWII, and a copy of a speech he wrote but died before being able to deliver (Possibly the speech he was scheduled to give at Butler University on April 27, 2007. His son Mark gave the speech instead.) It's nice to see more writing from this American literary genius come to the surface.

A couple of good reading lists

Lately I've been trying to read classic kids books that I've never before. I wanted to read them before Parker is ready for me to read them to him! So far, I've read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, all for the first time. I've been using three different lists as starting points to picking books to read. I thought I'd share it here and see if any faithful Roach Family Blog readers have any other suggestions.

The first list is the American Library Association's list of The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000. This is a list of books that someone in the country has attempted to remove from or restrict within public and school libraries. A successful challenge often results in a banning of the book from the library. The top three reasons listed for challenging a book is that it is “sexually explicit,” contains “offensive language,” and is not “unsuited to age group.” There are some great, edgy, fantasy filled works on this list, that someone, somewhere found offensive. Listed below are the top 15. I just finished #14, The Giver by Lois Lowry. It was phenomenal and was awarded the Newbery Medal in 1994, see below. Other books of interest include Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five at #69, Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time at #22 (Newbery Medal Winner, see below), Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird at #41, Shel Silverstein's A Light in the Attic at #51, Ronald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach at #56, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer at #84 and five books by Judy Blume.

1. Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
2. Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
4. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
7. Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
8. Forever by Judy Blume
9. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (Newbery Medal winner, see below)
   
10. Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
11. Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
12. My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
13. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
14. The Giver by Lois Lowry (Newbery Medal winner, see below)
15. It's Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris

The second is the list of "Books Every Boy Should Read" as published in Conn and Hal Iggelden's The Dangerous Book for Boys. If you haven't seen this book, be sure to check it out. It's a reference book of sorts for "boyhood." Amazon.com describes it as "a reminder of lore and technique that have not yet been completely lost to the digital age."

1. The Twits, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, George's Marvelous Medicine, The BFG and James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
2. The Winnie-the-Pooh books by A.A. Milne
3. The "Adventure" series by Willard Price
4. The "Famous Five" and "Secret Seven" series by Enid Blyton
5. Fungus and the Bogeyman by Raymond Briggs
6. Famous fairy tales, including Grimm's Fairy Tales, Hans Christian Anderson , and Greek and Roman legends
7. "The Belgraiad" series by David Eddings
8. Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household
9. The Lion , the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
10. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
11. Kim, Just So Stories, and The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
12. Mr. Standfast and The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan
13. The "James Bond" series by Ian Fleming
14. The "Harry Potter" series by J.K. Rowling
15. The Outsiders, Tex, and Rumble Fish by S.E. Hinton
16. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
17. The science fiction works of Isaac Asimov
    
18. The "Discword" series by Terry Pratchett
19. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
20. The "Seafort Saga" series by David Feintuch
21. The Hichhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams
22. The fantasy works of David Gremmell, especially Waylander and the "Drenai" Series
23. Magician by Raymond E. Fiest
24. The Lords of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkein
25. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
26. The "Flashman" series by Geoge MacDonald Fraser
27. Animal Farm and 1984 by George Orwell
28. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
29. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
30. The Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
31. The "Sherlock Holmes" series by Aurthur Conan Doyle
32. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
33. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
34. The horror and fiction works of Stephen King, starting with The Bachman Books.
    

The third is the list of Newbery Medal Winners. According to the Association for Library Services to Children, "The Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children." Here's a selected few that you might recognize from the past.

• 2007: The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron
• 2001: A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck
  
• 1999: Holes by Louis Sachar
• 1994: The Giver by Lois Lowry
• 1979: The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
• 1978: Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
• 1975: M. C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton
• 1972: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien
• 1963: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
• 1944: Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
• 1923: The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting

Any other suggestions? I'd love to hear your comments!

Dumbledore gay?

OK, I didn't see that one coming. Apparently, this past Friday, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling reveled to an audience at Carnegie Hall that former Hogwarts headmaster, and Harry's mentor, Albus Dumbledore was gay. She told that audience that he had once been in love with the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald. This will likely just give even more ammunition to those wishing to see these amazing books banned.

From the AP:

"Neither Dumbledore nor Grindelwald ever seems to have referred to this brief boyhood friendship in later life,'" Rowling writes. "However, there can be no doubt that Dumbledore delayed, for some five years of turmoil, fatalities, and disappearances, his attack upon Gellert Grindelwald. Was it lingering affection for the man or fear of exposure as his once best friend that caused Dumbledore to hesitate?"

As a young man, Dumbledore, brilliant and powerful, had been forced to return home to look after his mentally ill younger sister and younger brother. It was a task he admits to Harry that he resented, because it derailed the bright future he had been looking forward to.

Then Grindelwald, described by Rowling as "golden-haired, merry-faced," arrived after having been expelled from his own school. Grindelwald's aunt, Bathilda Bagshot, says of their meeting: "The boys took to each other at once." In a letter to Grindelwald, Dumbledore discusses their plans for gaining wizard dominance: "'(I)f you had not been expelled we would never have met.'"

Here's a transcript from The Leaky Cauldron:

QUESTION: Did Dumbledore, who believed in the prevailing power of love, ever fall in love himself?

JKR: My truthful answer to you... I always thought of Dumbledore as gay. [ovation.] ... Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald, and that that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was. To an extent, do we say it excused Dumbledore a little more because falling in love can blind us to an extent? But, he met someone as brilliant as he was, and rather like Bellatrix he was very drawn to this brilliant person, and horribly, terribly let down by him. Yeah, that's how I always saw Dumbledore. In fact, recently I was in a script read through for the sixth film, and they had Dumbledore saying a line to Harry early in the script saying I knew a girl once, whose hair... [laughter]. I had to write a little note in the margin and slide it along to the scriptwriter, "Dumbledore's gay!" [laughter] "If I'd known it would make you so happy, I would have announced it years ago!"

So it goes (Kurt Vonnegut: 1922-2007)

One of my favorite authors died yesterday. Indianapolis born satirist Kurt Vonnegut Jr. died Wednesday in New York as a result of brain injuries sustained in a fall several weeks ago. He was 84 years old. Vonnegut was best known for his book "Slaughterhouse-Five" which drew inspiration from his experience as a prisoner of war during World War II and his witnessing of the firebombing of Dresden Germany.

I never did get to hear Vonnegut speak. It'll rank up there with some of my biggest missed opportunities, like not seeing Johnny Cash perform before his death. One of my prized possessions is an autographed 3rd edition of "Slaughterhouse-Five" that my lovely wife gave me as a present.

Vonnegut's writing was full of wit, irony, humor, religious skepticism, humanism and compassion. He was a modern day Mark Twain. I wonder if his tombstone will echo that of his character Billy Pilgrim's with it's epitaph: "Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt"?

Here's a Vonnegut poem called "Requim" from 2005

When the last living thing
has died on account of us,
how poetical it would be
if Earth could say,
in a voice floating up
perhaps
from the floor
of the Grand Canyon,
“It is done.”
People did not like it here.

Indy Star article
New York Time article

Spider-Man coming to your mail box...

...as well as other favorite Marvel Comics superheroes; Captain America, Elektra, Iron Man, Silver Surfer, Spider-Woman, Sub-Mariner, The Incredible Hulk, The Thing and Wolverine. This is part of the 2007 Commemorative US Stamp Program and follows on the heels of DC Comics Superheroes stamps in 2006. These are some of my favorite characters form when I was a kid. Ok, fine, they still are some of my favorite characters. Some of the choices do seem odd to me. Why Elektra and not Daredevil? And why Spider-Woman and not a more well known female character? Why The Thing and not the rest of the Fantastic 4? It is a little disturbing to see commercial characters on stamps. It seems like thinly veiled advertising to me. Is it a coincidence that four of these characters (Spider-Man, Thing, Silver Surfer and Iron Man) are featured in upcoming movies? Regardless, this set is pretty cool. So are the new Hasbro Marvel Super Hero Squad toys for the 3" crowd and so is the fact that Marvel's own Stan Lee will be on NBC's Heroes tonight. Excelsior!

Boynton books/CDs for a good cause

If you have a toddler like we do, they you can't get away from Sandra Boynton's infectiously silly board books. Ms. Boynton has also released a few book and CD combos. Kohls department stores currently have all three of Ms. Boynon's book/CD combos available for only $5 each! This includes Dog Train, Philadelphia Chickens, and Rhinoceros Tap. These are part of the Kohls Cares for Kids program. Kohls offers books, CDs and plush animals from famous artists and authors for low prices and all proceeds go to benefit health and educational opportunities for children. In the past we've bought Christmas CDs and books by Dr. Seuss, Doreen Cronin and Eric Carle through the Kohls Care for Kids offers. Check it out at a Kohls near you!

On Newstands Now: Vonnegut's Apocalypse

Check out the latest issue of Rolling Stone, the one with Christina Aguilera on the cover. In it there's an article about and interview with Indiana's favorite son, Kurt Vonnegut titled "Kurt Vonnegut Says This Is the End of the World" Here's an except from RollingStone.com who didn't have the decency to print the whole thing:

"I'm Jeremiah, and I'm not talking about God being mad at us. I'm talking about us killing the planet as a life-support system with gasoline. What's going to happen is, very soon, we're going to run out of petroleum, and everything depends on petroleum. And there go the school buses. There go the fire engines. The food trucks will come to a halt. This is the end of the world. We've become far too dependent on hydrocarbons, and it's going to suddenly dry up. You talk about the gluttonous Roaring Twenties. That was nothing. We're crazy, going crazy, about petroleum. It's a drug like crack cocaine. Of course, the lunatic fringe of Christianity is welcoming the end of the world as the rapture. So I'm Jeremiah. It's going to have to stop. I'm sorry."

Guess I'll have to read the rest at the library. Still the best place for free literature.

U2 BY U2

I just saw this listed on Amazon.com, "U2 BY U2" is 352 pages, in large format, schedule for publication in September of 2006. From the Harper Collins web site: "U2 by U2 is the definitive history of the world's biggest and best rock band, in their own words. For the first time, the band themselves provide the inside track on the U2 story so far." and "U2 by U2, in the words of Bono, Adam, Larry and Edge promises to be the ultimate personal behind-the-scenes narrative on the life and times of their legendary band." Will we see Bono and the Edge on book signing tours at the local Borders? Wait and see!

The High Cost of Free Parking

Bloomington was host today to Dr. Donald Shoup, professor of Urban Planning at UCLA. He spoke mostly about his book, The High Cost of Free Parking.His main argument is that "The cost of parking is hidden in higher prices for everything else. In addition to the monetary cost, which is enormous, free parking imposes many other hidden costs on cities, the economy, and the environment." Parking is only free to the driver. The cost is passed on to homeowners and renters and consumers in higher land costs, rent and product costs. He also argued that modern minimum parking requirements in our Zoning Ordinances help to subsidize the costs of owning and driving a car. His solution? Do away with mandatory minimum parking requirements and price public parking to meet the demand. Then use the revenue from public parking to pay for targeted infrastructure improvements in the neighborhoods that generate the revenue.

The Happiest Baby on the Block

This past week Cathy and I received two great presents. The first was a copy of Dr. Harvey Karp's book The Happiest Baby on the Block. In the book, Dr. Karp describes ways to "Calm Crying and Help Your Newborn Baby Sleep Longer." His basic theory is that the first 3 months of a baby's life can be looked at like the 4th trimester of pregnancy. The baby's body is not totally formed, he hasn't quite learned how to use all of his parts and is longing for the comfort and security of the womb. He suggests 5 "S"s to help calm newborns.

1. Swaddle: wrapping the baby tightly in blankets so he can't move his arms and legs much
2. Swing: rocking motions
3. Side/Stomach: his favorite way to lay
4. Shhhhh: white noise
5. Suck: use of pacifiers the sucking need

Read more about Dr. Karp's books at thehappiestbaby.com

The second gift was the SwaddleMe blanket from Kiddopotamus. I had seen this product in the stores but hadn't thought anything about it. SwaddleMe is great! It helped me calm Parker like never before. The SwaddleMe and the new swing that we recently bought are quickly helping Parker become the happiest baby on the block!

Vonnegut, on politics, presidents and librarians

Here's a great story about Kurt Vonnegut from USA Today.

Vonnegegut starts off the interview with this quote:

"What do you want to talk about? Politics? Our president is a complete twit. I'll talk about the death of the novel. I'll talk about anything you want."

Great stuff.

A Man without a Country

Where the heck have I been? Oh, yeah, getting ready for a baby. Well, apparently, my favorite author, Kurt Vonnegut, has written a new book. "A Man without a Country" is set to be published by Seven Stories Press on September 15th. This is his first book since 1999. It's a collection of article Vonnegut wrote for "In These Times" magazine over the last five years.

"Thank God, Kurt Vonnegut has broken his promise that he will never write another book. In this wondrous assemblage of mini-memoirs, we discover his family's legacy and his obstinate, unfashionable humanism. What makes this all the more remarkable is that most of it happens in Indiana." - Studs Terkel

Vonnegut will be the guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart tonight. Don't miss it! If you do, you can catch this audio article from NPR.

Harry Potter

Ok, I admit it, I love reading the Harry Potter books. I just finished the latest book, the 6th in a series of 7 books, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. It took me about a week and a half to read through the 672 pages. I was 107th on the Monroe County Public Library waiting list. The library bought 50+ copies, so they made it through the waiting list fairly quickly.

Yes, I'm a 30 year old that like to read books written for kids between 9 and 15. It's a great distraction from my normal reading of zoning codes and lawn care manuals. I rarely ever read novels anymore. And I find it amazing that kids will sit down to voluntarily read a 600 page book! At least all the hysteria has died down about Harry Potter promoting witchcraft and the occult to kids.

I now know which main character dies, who the half blood prince truly is and what Harry has to do to finally stop Lord Voldemort. Now I just have to wait till book seven is published.........

Love you Forever: Creepy or Sweet?

My family and I have an ongoing debate about the book "Love You Forever" by Robert Munsch. This book has been extremely successful, with more than 15 million copies sold. I remember first hearing of this book when we discussed it in my "Sociology of the Family" class at DePauw. I started thinking about this book again while shopping for books for Baby Roach

People either love it or hate it. I happen to fall into the "hate it" category. I personally believe this book is creepy and twisted. It's a bizarre tale of a mother that apparently can only tell her son that she loves him when she sneaks into his room when he's asleep and sings him this sappy little song. The story gets twisted when she continues this after he leave home and starts his own family. She breaks into his house, crawls into his room and rocks her grown son and sings the same sappy song. The table is turned when mom gets sick and the son breaks into her nursing home and rocks the mom and sings the same sappy song. The story ends with the mother dying and the son rocking his child and singing the same sappy song.

Now, I've been told that this book will mean a lot more when I have kids (In about 2 weeks!) but I doubt it. In this book we never see the mother expressing her love to her son when he's awake. We never see the son's father. We never see the mother acting as a grandmother.

People who like this book say it's about unconditional love. To me, this is a story of a kind of unhealthy co-dependence continuing through generations. And it end with a death. What kind of kid's book is that? Apparently this is a common debate. Just read some of the 316 reviews at epinions.com of the 511 reviews at amazon.com. Some of the posts do recommend alternative books about unconditional love that look much less creepy, includingGuess How Much I Love You and Owl Babies.

And the debate continues.

More banned books

Cathy informed me that there was a book banning discussion in our hometown of Lebanon toward the end of last year, very similar to Jennifer's situation. According to The Lebanon Reporter, some parents were upset about a book called The Rumor of War by Philip Caputo. It is a personal memoir of a Marine lieutenant of the Vietnam War, published in 1977, and is taught in many high school social studies classes. Parents were upset about its strong language, violence and even the objectivity of the author. Unfortunately The Report did not publish a follow-up story so I do not know if this book is still part of the curriculum at Lebanon High School.

Read a banned book!

Our friend Jennifer Yoder is an english teacher at Westfield High School. She's currently fighting a challange of a book she's been teaching in her classroom. The book is The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. Parents are concerned with the language in this book about the Vietnam War. We wish her luck as she defends the book in front of the Westfield School Board Tuesday night.

If you're aware of censorship and book challenges in your community you can contact the American Library Association, Office for Intellectual Freedom. Protect your liberty and your library, read a banned book! Below is a list of the top 10 most often challaenged books in 2004, according to the ALA. How many have you read?

• The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier for sexual content, offensive language, religious viewpoint, being unsuited to age group and violence
• Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers, for racism, offensive language and violence
• Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture by Michael A. Bellesiles, for inaccuracy and political viewpoint
• Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey, for offensive language and modeling bad behavior
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, for homosexuality, sexual content and offensive language
• What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones, for sexual content and offensive language
• In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak, for nudity and offensive language
• King & King by Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland, for homosexuality
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, for racism, homosexuality, sexual content, offensive language and unsuited to age group
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, for racism, offensive language and violence

Upcoming releases

It's going to be a big spring and summer for music and movies! Here's some upcoming releasing I'm looking forward to:

• Ben Folds, Songs for Silverman, in stores April 26th.
• The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, in theaters April 29th.
• Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, Cold Roses, in stores May 3rd.
• Star Wars - Episode III, Revenge of the Sith, in theaters May 19th.
• Son Volt, A Retrospective: 1995-2000, in stores May 24th.
• Batman Begins, in theaters June 17th.
• Fantastic Four, in theaters July 8th.
• Son Volt, Okemah and the Melody of Riot in stores July 12th
• Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling, in stores July 16th.