Strollerderby : Twilight

Children's Choice Book Award Winners

Amy Kuras — Thu, 14 May 2009 20:04:00 GMT

Tuesday we told you it was Children’s Book Week this week. Well, today we’ll tell you the winners of their annual Children’s Choice Book Awards, voted on by young readers nationwide.

The envelope, please?

Kindergarten to Second Grade: The Pigeon Wants a Puppy, by Mo Willems

Third Grade to Fourth Grade: Spooky Cemeteries, by Dinah Williams

Fifth Grade to Sixth Grade: Thirteen, by Lauren Myracle

Teen Choice Book of the Year: Breaking Dawn, by Stephenie Meyer

Author of The Year: Stephenie Meyer, for Breaking Dawn

Illustrator of the Year: Jon J Muth, for Zen Ties

I admit I haven’t read any of them , but if The Pigeon Wants a Puppy is as funny as the original Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive the Bus, it ought to be book of the year for the little-kid set. As far as Breaking Dawn? There’s a sudden outbreak among women I know who are getting hooked on the Twilight series, even though many of them admit the writing s crap. What do you think? Worth picking up for someone who loved the Harry Potter series?

Celebrate Children's Book Week

Win a Signed Copy of Little Oink!

Children's Books You Will Never Read

Morning News -- Layoffs and Vampires Edition

Brett Singer — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:00:00 GMT

Friday, Friday, Friday! Let's get to it, people.

"Obama to Set Benchmarks in Fight Against Militants." So sayeth the New York Times. What's that conversation like? "Have we found Osama Bin Laden? No? Okay, what else you got?" Another headline from the Times: "Pakistani and Afghan Taliban Unify in Face of U.S. Influx." Oh goody. Sounds fun. Not.

Here in North America, it's layoffs, layoffs and more layoffs -- Google (200 people laid off), the New York Times (100 people laid off and most remaining employees taking a 5 percent pay cut), and the Canadian Broadcasting Company (800 jobs cut, hoping to sell some assets). Google? Really? That's not good.

Speaking of Canada ("C'mon, say 'about' one more time. Please?"), Garth Drabinsky was finally found guilty. Drabinsky was the head of Livent, the producer of the Broadway shows 'Ragtime' and 'Kiss of the Spider Woman.' I admit that I was somewhat giddy to read news of Drabinsky's legal demise; I used to work in theater and was fascinated by the brazen way he left the United States to avoid prosecution. Apparently Garth and his co-hort Myron Gottlieb pulled a Max Bialystock and kept two sets of books -- one fiction, one non. What I've never completely understood about schemes like this is why they keep them both. Wouldn't it make more sense to only keep the fake books? I don't want to give anyone ideas or anything. No word on whether or not Garth is wearing a cardboard belt. (I hope someone gets that reference.) Amazingly, Garth has been appearing on a Canadian reality show called "Triple Sensation" where he and some other people "look for young stars who can sing, act and dance." But not add. That's not needed. Despite Garth's conviction, there will be a season 2. I might need to find that show. (If you want to know the whole saga of Garth, click here.)

If you live in New York and ride public transportation, prepare to pay more. The MTA voted for a big fare increase and cuts in service. Hey, at least it's green.

Speaking of New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has resorted to quoting Popeye the Sailor. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

By the way, if anyone didn't know what I meant when I referred to funny car radio ads, here's an example. Except that this ad is for church. "Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!" Seriously. Check it out. Consider this your "Moment of Zen", Daily Show style.

And speaking of Comedy Central: I like Stephen Colbert, but naming a space station after him is stupid. The faux-conservative's fans "stuffed the virtual ballot box with 230,539 write-in votes, overriding the four official choices NASA offered," according to Wired.com. NASA can change their mind, but why did they put themselves in this position? Not exactly rocket scientists over there, are they? Oh. Oh! Never mind.

Finally, a fun little item from Gawker. Students at the Boston Latin School have been spreading rumors that the prestigious institute of pre-higher learning is infested with vampires. According to MTV.com, "The headmaster [had become] concerned that some students' safety might be jeopardized, particularly if they were accused of being members of the undead." (Maybe private school doesn't always offer the best education.) Police were called. Parents were alarmed. But school officials promised that it's not true. Then they turned into bats and flew away. (Note: They didn't really turn into bats. Although the rest of the story, as far as I know, is true.)

Thanks for joining me on Morning News the past two weeks. I'll be handing things back over to Madeline, but will continue to do a daily round-up of newsy goodness at DaddyTips.com. Have a great weekend, don't take any wooden nickels.

Image: SXC

Husband Loses Job, Wife Loses Respect For Him

UPDATE - Josef Fritzl Sentenced To Life In Psychiatric Institution

Oprah Gets It Right On Chris Brown

Soldier Gives Birth At Army Barracks

Heath Ledger's Daughter Gets His Oscar

The Dr. Phil And OctoMom Show

Best of FameCrawler: Week of January 30th

Whit Honea — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:00:00 GMT

RIP, John Updike

Jessica Simpson Weight Gain: Are Her Mom Jeans Trying to Tell Us Something?

Kate Gosselin To Octuplets Mom: "Trust God's plan - He knows best!"

Reese and Jake- Bored Together?

Britney Spears' Tight Bod, But Can She Get Over Sucking at Dancing?

Michael Jai White and Daughter

Where Did the Baby Bump Go?

Dakota Fanning Raves About "Twilight" Sequel Role

Eddy Curry's Ex-Girlfriend Murdered in Front of His Son

Bachelor Spoiler Alert! Find Out Who Jason Mesnick Chooses (Photos)!

Michelle Obama is Pregnant!

A Twilight Tutorial for Moms (and Dads)

JeanneSager — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:33:00 GMT

If you see teenage girls running crazed through the mall today, step aside. If you're between them and their Twilight fix, they just might bite. I can't say I'd blame them.

Until recently, I thought I was all alone in the uber-dorky world of the over-16 Twilight obsession. Thankfully, our own Jen Chaney set me straight. There's a whole group of us out there - the Twilight Moms.

Most of us picked up the first vampire book as a means of escape. In today's economy, who doesn't need one of those? In my case, I hit up the "also recommended" list over at Amazon, then plugged Twilight into my library's inter-library loan system. I had no idea what was in store.

The short story? A girl gets sent to live with her dad in a small town in the rainy northwest. Bella Swan is cranky (wouldn't you be?) until she walks into school and sees Edward Cullen, the dreamboat she'll later learn is a vampire who has vowed off human blood. Along with the rest of his family, he sates himself on animal flesh so he can peaceably coexist with humankind. But coexisting with humans, attending high school with them, is not dating them. And that's what Edward Cullen wants with every inch of his being.

It is total schlock. It's sappy. It's ridiculous. And it is absolutely intoxicating.

I can't tell you one single reason why I am obsessed with Twilight. In my sane mom brain, I find the idea of a teenage girl dropping everything in her world for a sexy guy absolute abhorrent. I hate the idea of a girl putting herself in danger for a guy. But I'm all for a little mindless entertainment, and Stephenie Meyer is a talented author. She makes a teenage love story entertaining to the romantic in all of us. She weaves a story that makes moms forget the lock they'd put on their daughter's bedroom door AND windows if she was Bella Swan. She makes us wish our partners/husbands could glitter (sorry, you'll have to watch the movie - or better yet, read the books - for that one).

A mom herself, and a Mormon to boot, Meyer walks a careful line in the books. She's managed to land a loyal teen fan base without pre-marital sex or gratuitous cursing. Besides the taste for blood and a lead foot in the family Volvo, the vampires are veritable pillars of society.They're books a moms can feel comfortable buying for her daughter - if only because they can sneak it of her room for a late night read.

Image: StephenieMeyer.com

Babywearing Moms New Pain in Motrin's Side

The Shape of a Mother: The Real Us In All Our Unglorious Glory

When Moms Collide: Breastfeeder Kicked Out of Pool

Ten Songs You Never Want to Hear A Little Kid Singing

Teenage Trend Haters and Mass Girl Hysteria

Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:31:00 GMT

It looks like I'm not the only one to get caught up in the Twilight/girl fad craze lately.

Sadie Stein over at Jezebel has a wonderful essay on teenage trends and their teenage trend haters:

"But I don't think it's often said that mass hysteria and anti-establishment posing are two sides of the same coin, and to a teen it can sometimes feel like there is not much of an alternative. It can be hard to enjoy something without joining in, hard to reject it without making a self-conscious statement."

Check it out -- it's well worth a look at what we can expect as our young girls grow older and, hopefully, wiser.

Yet Another Generation of Young Girl Popfatuations

Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:09:00 GMT

Like a lot of teenage boys, I had a poster of a professional male racquetball player next to my bed. At the time, my friends were adorning their walls with posters of Cindy Crawford drinking from that Pepsi can or some vestige from their older brother's Jane Fonda fixation.

But I went to sleep each night staring at the visage of some nobody I can't even remember nowadays, thinking that if I practiced really hard, every day, for hours on end, I'd still never fill out eye protection goggles like that dude.

At the time, however, I knew that if he had ever visited our local mall -- maybe for some spiffy new Ocean Pacific corduroy PE coach shorts -- I'm positive I would have talked my mom into driving me over to see him, and we probably would have ended our day in jail, arrested for either harassment or stalking. Or if I was really lucky, both.

What I like to call my Humiliating Racquetball Period came back in full, embarrassing waves the other day when I was reading a New York Times story about these young girls' obsession with the new vampire movie Twilight and one of its stars: sweet, sweet Jawbone Pattinson.

Pattinson was making an appearance at a mall in Pennsylvania, and a thousand young girls lined up to see him, if only for a fleeting, passing moment. Many drove long distances. Many more screamed. A few appeared to almost pass out with glee.

A surprising number seemingly confused the actor with his character, wondering whether if they got too close, would he bite them on the neck -- just like his character in the movie.

From the story: “It is bizarre,” Pattinson said. “People come from three states away and walk up to you trembling. I feel that I am at a disadvantage here because I can’t provide this mystical thing that they came for in the two seconds we have.”

Having once obsessed over everything from middle aged, short-court tennis pros to the Guess jeans triangle, it never surprises me to read these stories -- the pandemonium of the Beatles at Shea Stadium was referenced. Or the 400-mile treks through the snow to see Tiffany at the Mall of Middle America or wherever. I swear I can recall kids passing out and needing medical attention on Michael Jackson's Japan tour.

And didn't Don Johnson cause riots in Germany? Over Heartbeat?

Ouch.

Now, you hear similar stories about Avril Lavigne, Miley Cyrus or, far, far worse on the future humiliation scale, the Jonas Brothers.

What, exactly, is wrong with our girls?

Why do they go bat-shit crazy over these passing pop infatuations and how can we stop them?

Or ... do we?

I'm reminded of that girl who said during the New Kids on the Block craze that she'd take a bullet for the Cute One, Joey McIntyre. Later, probably on some VH1 then-and-now documentary, they caught up with the same girl 10 years later and she was all, like, Joey who?

My depth of concern doesn't go deeper than a desire to avoid someday driving my daughter and her shrieking friends to see Britney Spears's child perform at the Warfield, while I stand in the back with all the other dads pretending not to actually enjoy the music. I survived my infatuations with remarkably few official charges and incarcerations and I'm sure she'll survive hers.

But I frequently wonder what I'm going to say to my daughter when these obsessions begin and she cries behind locked doors while I knock gently, apparently not understanding "what true love is!"

Oy.

I can wait for this.

Sure, part of me will want to impart the wisdom of age and break out YouTube videos on the evolution of a NKOTB groupie to perform something akin to an anti-cult re-education program, proving to her that time will cure all.

But part of me, I'm sure, will remember that nameless racquetball player and the way he always seemed ready, poised with his graphite Pro-Kennex, to knock my heart right out of my chest. In the end, I hope I'll remember these are innocent, adolescent thrills and do what parents have done for generations: just shut up, drive and keep that smirk to myself.

-- Mike at Cry It Out!

Five Reasons Why You Might Wish You Were Stephenie Meyer

Jen Chaney — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:20:00 GMT

She is the author of the enormously popular "Twilight" series, those books about teen vampires that all the young girls are screaming about at your local Borders. The final installment in the saga, "Breaking Dawn," sold 1.3 million copies last Saturday alone. (It's not just tween girls screaming either; check out the Twilight Moms site if you don't believe me.)

In other words, Stephenie Meyer is enormously successful, and she's achieving major publishing success while being a mother to three young boys. If you're a mom, you may find yourself wishing you had this woman's life. If you don't envy her yet, here are five reasons why you might:

1. While acting as a stay-at-home mom to her three sons, Meyer wrote her first book, "Twilight," in three months. Three months after that, she snagged $750,000 for a three-book deal. Personally, it takes me three months to get up the gumption to clean the bathroom sink.

2. Meyer had no writing experience when she sat down to pen that novel. Her inspiration? A detailed dream about two young lovers she had one night. See, I never dream stuff that can turn into a book deal. I just dream about offending Matt Damon by accident. (Long story, but let's just say that now I can't watch any of the Jason Bourne movies without feeling irrationally embarrassed.)

3. The millionaire author didn't have to relocate because of her newfound glory. She still lives in Cave Creek, Ariz., and -- wait for this gem -- her husband has now become a stay-at-home dad. They clearly don't need two incomes since mama brings home the bacon, fries it up in a pan and serves it with a tall glass of vampire blood.

4. Since the first "Twilight" book is hitting the big screen this December, Meyer gets to hang out with movie stars. For that matter, she's treated like a star herself. Some fans of the novels are foaming-at-the-mouth rabid and go bazonkers at the sight of her. Still, I assume she doesn't get accosted on the way to, say, Whole Foods because her face isn't recognizable on a Brangelina level. That's fame at its most ideal, really.

5. If Meyer has any pressing problems right now, one would assume that fear of a potential career downfall is one of them. But she's not even concerned about that. She told a reporter for CBS Sunday Morning: "My life wasn't bad to begin with. It was already good. So if everything goes away tomorrow and no one ever picks up another one of my books and no other movies are made and I just stay in my house, I'm gonna be OK with that." Whatever you might think of Meyer's writing or success or vampires, you have to admire that kind of attitude.