Back in August, I saw a note on Twitter Moms about the opportunity to review a new book titled “The BlackBerry Diaries: Adventures in Modern Motherhood.”

Being a BlackBerry-toting mom myself, it sounded like a great opportunity to read something fun - for free - and, who can resist free? (Yes, FTC, I got a free copy of the book to review in this blog.)

The humor book is written like a blog, complete with tags at the end of each short, dated entry. This style turned out to be both a good thing and a bad thing for me. It’s good because the brief entries let you easily pop in and out of the book (you know, like when you have to step away to deal with something that just came in on your BlackBerry). But, it’s also bad because it can be a little too easy to set it aside.

I received my copy in early September and have yet to finish it. But, rather than wait any longer, I figured I should go ahead and earn my free book by writing about it now.

The premise of the book is that toddlers and technology are not so different. “If they’re quiet, you’re constantly checking them to make sure everything is okay. If they’re loud and interrrupting, you just want them to shut up and go away. When they do, the cycle starts all over again.”

There were some observations to which I could relate: “… many BB-using employees will burn out quicker and resign faster as they continue to jam two years’ worth of work into seven and a half months.” But, others that I could not: “The bottom line is this: children and BBSPs [one of the author's acronyms for BlackBerry Smartphone] are all about ownership, one upmanship and petty jealousies.”

And, according to an article in CIO, the author says “she’s sharing lessons learned from her experience using a BlackBerry over the past year to enhance her and her childrens’ lives;” and, quite frankly, I didn’t see any of that in the book. Tips like don’t share your BlackBerry with someone or theyll see your BrickBreaker score, don’t use your BlackBerry at fondue parties and BlackBerries are good for keeping up with neighborhood gossip, yes. But, life enhancements? I’m afraid not.

It’s a nice, light, sometimes funny read; but, maybe because my girl is no longer a toddler or maybe because I’ve added an iPhone (personal) to my BlackBerry (work), I just never could really get into it. Not every book has to be a page-turner, I guess. But, since this one didn’t turn out to be for me, it remains unfinished. And apparently, I’m not the only one who hasn’t turned all its pages.

If anyone out there made it to the end and feels I missed something, please let me know!

Have you been so bad as to read “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” or “To Kill a Mockingbird“? Harbor a secret copy of Judy Blume’s “Forever” in your closet? Let your impressionable children read a Harry Potter book? Or, heaven forbid, read a picture book about two male penguins who adopt an egg to your poor preschooler?!

You, my friend, are in serious trouble. You have been the unwitting participant or enabler of reading a book that has been banned.

And this week you are encouraged to celebrate it!

Yes, this is Banned Books Week - a national celebration of the freedom to read.

According to BannedBooksWeek.org, “It was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. More than a thousand books have been challenged since 1982. The challenges have occurred in every state and in hundreds of communities. Click here to see a map of book bans and challenges in the US from 2007 to 2009.”

That penguin book for preschoolers? “And Tango Makes Three,” by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell is once again one of the 10 most-challenged titles over the past year. Why? Reasons cited are: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group.

The 2009 celebration of Banned Books Week is being held from September 26 through October 3, but you can be a rebel all year round - now go read something someone doesn’t want you to read!

(And if you really want to cause trouble, check out these other ideas for marking the week.)

Last year I read “Bridge to Terabithia” and loved it. Haven’t decided what to read this year yet, but open to suggestions…

Related articles by Zemanta

• Banned Books Week (huffingtonpost.com)
• Read, Speak, Know: Banned Books Week 2009 (califmom.com)
• Mapping Banned Books in the U.S. (mediabistro.com)
• Celebrate Banned Books! (bilerico.com)

Two coming attractions at the movie theater are based on books that both my girl and I have enjoyed reading - “Where the Wild Things Are” and “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.”

“Where the Wild Things Are” was a book that I read in my own childhood and a fellow bibliophile I used to work with (thanks Leslie) made sure my child got the chance to read it, too, by including it in a baby shower gift. The “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” book came a little late for me, but my librarian mother introduced it to my girl and she and I both enjoyed it.

Now, bringing a book to the movie screen has always been fraught with danger. Everyone who has read a book has their own ideas about how the characters look, so casting can get a lot of fan input or backlash (Tom Cruise as Lestat anyone?). Storylines often get changed to meet a perceived desire of audiences to always have happy endings (think “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and “The Scarlet Letter“). Sometimes entire characters are dropped or added, which frustrated me in “Angels and Demons,” despite the fact that I can understand things need to be edited sometimes to squeeze an entire book into a couple of hours of screen time.

That difficulty of making the in-depth short is probably the most common cause of changes that frustrate book lovers who see the movies based on them. But what of short childrens’ books that need to be expanded to make them long enough for a movie? Does that make it any easier for adaptation? I’m thinking not based strictly on my own mixed feelings about these two new movies.

It appears that they have expanded Cloudy primarily by adding a story in front of the story - giving the audience a tale of how the food first came to fall from the sky in the town of Chewandswallow - and I think this will work nicely.

But, from what I can tell from the fantastic Wild Things trailers, the 10 sentences of the original story are getting a lot of filler in between them - thus potentially changing the story a bit more. The live-action attempt at The Grinch Who Stole Christmas tried doing both and I don’t think the results were very spectacular there.

Obviously aware that I’m not the only one a bit leery of this, the studio has made a point to include original Wild Things author Maurice Sendak in many publicity events and he has been reporting saying the “Wild Things Movie Will Be Okay” as well as promising the “Wild Things Movie Will Be Dark and Controversial.”

Hmm…

Either way, I will probably see both movies. Not needing an excuse to watch kids’ movies, after all, is one of the perks of this mommy gig, right? And, while I will definitely enter the Wild Things theater with trepidation and concern that the book will never read the same for me again, I bet this trailer makes you want to see more, too.

(The Arcade Fire song on this Wild Things trailer really helps inspire a sense of wonder and the desire to see it - too bad word is it won’t be in the actual movie.)

Related articles by Zemanta

• Childhood Memories Coming to a Theater Near You (firstbook.org)
• Watch This: Maurice Sendak Talks ‘Wild Things’ (cinematical.com)
• Dave Eggers’ 300-Page Storybook Adaptation (mediabistro.com)
• Jonze And Sendak Meeting Like Something From A Spike Jonze Movie (cinemablend.com)

When I recently saw this list of worst mothers in literature, it got me wondering who are the good mothers I’ve read about? And the first thing I realized as I let that roll around in my head a bit was that I really needed to get back to reading more “grown-up” books!

Seriously, almost all of the moms that popped into my mind were from childrens literature. Nice mothers like one of my favorites from “I Love You Stinky Face” (and the traveling mommy’s friend “I Miss You Stinky Face“) by Lisa Mccourt.

Then I thought of the heroic Mrs. Frisby from “Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.” But, that was a bit of a cheat since I haven’t actually read the book - just took my daughter to the local cinema that was doing a free showing of the movie “Secrets of NIMH” last month.

Then, in more young adult literature, I thought of Sally Jackson the self-sacrificing and loving mother of the title character in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. They’re a little advanced for my girl, but as a big Greek/Roman mythology fan, I found them a great read - in preparation for when she’s older, you know, so I’ll know if they’re ok for her to read. <wink>

The closest I could come to a good mother in a book that’s probably not in an elementary school library was August Boatwright from The Secret Life of Bees. She’s not a biological mother, but certainly filled that role for young Lily Owens in a way no one could top. I haven’t actually seen how Queen Latifah did playing her in the movie because I didn’t want to compare it to the book.

But after that, I started drawing a blank! A quick Google search for “mothers” and “literature” seemed to turn up more lists of bad mothers than good, so maybe I’m not the only one wracking my brain.  Do you guys have some favorite “good mothers” in the books you’ve read?

I just scored a gift-giving home run with a friend of mine who recently became a father (to a beautiful baby girl - I can’t cuddle that kiddo enough, I swear). What could possibly be more exciting to him than the set of purple and brown onesies? Well, I lent him my review copy of Jenna McCarthy’s brand-spankin’-new book, “Cheers to the New Dad!” and his wife  just told me he finished it within a day of getting home from the hospital and LOVED it………..

Do you realized the magnitude of what I just wrote? A parenting book. For Dads. And the dad actually found it useful……and relevant………and READ IT! Not knocking men at all, but from my experience, most guys like to go in and just DO parenting and skip most of the nonstop-parenting-book-reading stuff that women find addicting when newly pregnant and then again when the baby actually arrives.

Whoops, forgot to mention the other half of the book that my friend is dying to start now that her husband is finished with his half - the book flips over and is……….voila……..”Cheers to the New Mom!”

How cool is that? 2 books in one!

This book would be perfect as a gift for new parents or to buy for yourself when you’re getting ready to head to the hospital………I think all parents would agree that we can use all the help we can get!

Check out my review of Jenna’s first book, “The Parent Trip” - another great parenting read!

Read on to win one of 2 copies of Alexis Martin Neely’s Wear Clean Underwear book!

As I wrote earlier this summer, my husband and I went on our first trip sans children in June. We’ve had to do some hard thinking this year while planning for all of the serious and practical things related to leaving our children for 4 days and I’d like to share a few parts my experience with you. Our journey included making our wills, choosing guardians, creating Medical Authorization forms, and a Kids Protection Plan.

First of all, I fully admit that we should have taken care of all of this approximately 2.5 years ago when our daughter was born. If not then, than sometime earlier than NOW, when we were finally being forced into making these decisions because we were leaving on a trip. How naive ARE we to think that something horrible could happen to us only when going on a trip far from home? Anyway, at least we did it now, right? Better than never.

We decided we finally had to ACT on creating our wills less than a week before we left for vacation. The main thing we were worried about was assigning someone as legal guardian of our children should we for some reason not make it home from the trip - or, as I mentioned earlier, should anything bad happen to us EVER.

Because we were so delinquent, we went the route of using an online service called LegalZoom to fulfill this need. I have to say that the process was very simple and got the job done for what we were trying to accomplish. However, when I mentioned on Twitter that we had used LegalZoom for this, I received a reply from Alexis Martin Neely who pointed me toward her book about family legal planning - what. an. eye. opener. Alexis’ main point in that message was that while LegalZoom might be appropriate for some legal needs, it might not cover everything.

I honestly spent the next hour or so poring over all of the materials and information Alexis provides for parents who are planning for their family’s future, and really wanted to bring these resources to the readers on This Mommy Gig. I actually contacted Alexis and mentioned this to her and she was so great about it! She immediately sent me a copy of her book, “Wear Clean Underwear” for review and is offering 2 books for our readers!

My mention of LegalZoom on Twitter actually inspired Alexis to write this article titled “Is LegalZoom a Good Idea? Do the Legal Documents Work?” in which she outlines the issues people might have when relying strictly on these documents - her main advice is to make sure to have them reviewed by a family lawyer if you do decide to go ahead with LegalZoom.

What really struck me about Alexis’ work is her advice to parents about planning for the future of their children in the event of a tragedy. Her book “Wear Clean Underwear! A Fast, Fun, Friendly - and Essential - Guide to Legal Planning for Busy Parents” includes some majorly eye-opening scenarios for parents, all set in a “choose your own adventure” type of format, where you choose your path and see what the outcome would be like. Of course, you should read all the possible outcomes for each scenario, but the stories are set in a very realistic way and really showed me how valuable it is to fully plan for my children. The legal documents we prepared through LegalZoom simply aren’t enough.

The other main thing that I took away from Alexis is that we need a Kids Protection Plan in which we lay out much more than just a guardian for our children. We need to think through many more scenarios and be much more aware of the legal issues that are part of custody arrangements and in the event of an emergency if our kids are at home with a sitter and the sitter doesn’t know whom to contact.

For all parents, I’d highly suggest reading “Wear Clean Underwear” and checking out the Kids Protection Plan site where you can create free legal documents for your family. I’m not at all qualified to offer any of the advice that Alexis is able to, so rather than me passing it on, it would be much more beneficial to check out Alexis’ materials. You’ll have a chance to win the book here, but if you’re not one of the lucky winners, you should know that when you purchase the book through the official site, you receive over $3,000 in bonus materials!

Win a Copy!

All you need to do to be entered for a chance to win one of the two copies available for our readers is leave a comment on this post - I’d love to hear whether or not you’ve created legal documents for your family, but this information isn’t required. You just need to leave a comment - that’s it!

The contest will close on August 11th and the winners will be notified by email shortly after.