Jan Berenstain Has Died

Jan Berenstain obituary: Co-creator of the Berenstain Bears empire dies at 88 - latimes.com - "Jan Berenstain, who with her husband, Stan, made up one of the most successful husband-wife teams in children's literature, guiding an empire of books, videos and TV shows about the everyday problems of a family of bears, has died. She was 88.

Berenstain Bears books have offered parents and their young children guidance, comfort and old-fashioned humor about perennial issues such as fear of the dentist, dealing with bullies and resolving sibling rivalries since the first book was published 50 years ago."

As some of you may recall I highlighted the Berenstain Bears books, some of my own childhood favorites, in a blog post a while back. If you have never checked them out before, I heartily recommend them. Thank you, Jan for the memories and life lessons wrapped in the package of your charming books, may you rest in peace.

Page to Screen - Blockbuster Books

The Oscars will air this Sunday night, celebrating the best in film for the past year and two of the nominees for Best Picture are based on children's literature!

With the most nominations this year, with 11, is Hugo directed by Martin Scorsese, and based on the Caldecott Award winner The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brain Selznick. The film's many nominations include:

• Best Picture
• Cinematography
• Art Direction (Not surprising when you have Caldecott winning illustrations to pull your inspiration from!)
• Costume Design
• Directing
• Original Score
• Adapted Screenplay

The other Best Picture nominee based on a wonderful children's book is War Horse. The film is based on the stage play based on Michael Morpurgo's book War Horse. The film adaptation is also nominated for original score, cinematography and art direction.

Other literary nominees include Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Help, The Descendants, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Jane Eyre.

Though not up for any nominations this year, a film with good potential for best animated film nomination in next year's awards is The Lorax, based on the beloved book by Dr. Seuss which comes out next weekend. Check out the trailer below, along with The Hunger Games, which also comes out in March.

Site Update

It has been entirely too long since my last post, hasn't it? I must admit I have not posted since I started a new part-time paralibrarian job at an elementary school library. I am loving the school I am at. The kiddos I work with go from 4 to 11 years old and include children who are deaf and hard of hearing as well as highly gifted. The downside has been that while the position has introduced me to some great new books it has limited the amount of time I've had to blog about all those books I've been discovering along with all the fun crafts and ways to expand on those printed word gems!

Though I do have a whole board on Pinterest now that you can follow chock full of great ideas for kids from birth through high school (with a lot in the pre-school and elementary range). Check it out here "Kid Stuff"

I do plan to get back into updating this blog at least once a week as well. Starting this weekend with the Oscars and highlights from this year's book to film adaptations from the children's and YA lit world, so keep an eye out for that! Thanks for taking the time to visit!