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)

None of us do. I can’t think about it. Literally. This is going to be the world’s shortest post because I can’t stand the topic.

But, here we are literally pummeled with news of Michael Jackson’s death and the news that he left his kids to his mother, with Diana Ross as the backup. And I got reminded that we (not the world, but my wife and I) still haven’t dealt with this issue at all.

I don’t want to leave my kids ‘to’ anyone. They aren’t antique dishes. I can’t think of anyone that could do it right like we could. It kills me. Every time we try to talk about it, I end up in tears. And I’m not a crier.

Thinking about Madonna helps, and Rosie O’Donnell - because they’re okay (says someone who has NO earthly idea, but they seem to be doing well).

I always thought it would be my mom - and it still probably is, but she’s here with us for the summer and she’s 66 and she’s vocalized her overwhelment more than once. It’s their energy and the whining and the nakedness and the peeing outside (um, lady, you’re the one that bought them that cute little french book about a little boy that pees in the grass) and the food allergies and the laundry and the…

I can think of some friends who fit the bill - but they have busloads of their own kids. My brothers? Nah. My in-laws? No thanks.

I hate this. Just thought I’d say that out loud.

So? I just won’t die - until they’re old enough not to need their mother anymore - which is about 35 as far as I can tell. I’ll be 68. Seems reasonable. Okay universe???

If anyone wants to leaves me a comment saying that I have to just choose and be responsible, please don’t. I know. I really, really do. I just don’t wanna leave my kids, like I said before, period. They’re cute, they smell good and they say things like, “Please bring me a book and close the door, I need to poop in my own privacy.”

And I love them more than the world.

Update: The first friend that read this reamed me out so hard on Skype that I thought my computer would burst. We’re picking a guardian, the lawyer is drawing up the papers. As this ‘friend’ said - ‘just hold your nose and pick someone.’ Well, if you put it that way…

As wonderful as technology can be, it’s important to include a bit of offline fun in your children’s summer.

Pack a snack or a picnic lunch and head outdoors. If there are no nearby parks, visit a local school playground.

Borrow a few nature guides from your public library and identify some of the flowers, trees, birds and bugs in your neighborhood.

Have a backyard camp out, complete with tent, sleeping bags, and flashlights. Watch the fireflies dance, identify the constellations, and sing silly songs. If the weather won’t cooperate, construct tents from chairs draped with blankets and improvise indoors.

On a hot day, make squirt gun designs on the sidewalk or walls. When rain keeps children inside, hold an impromptu cooking class, then get out the card deck and board games, just like you would in a Northwoods cabin.

Don’t just preach exercise and fitness - make it interesting, make it fun and maybe your kids will start requesting unplugged days!

Diane Cordell is the mother of two adult, married children. In her position as a K-12 teacher/librarian, she interacts with students of all ages on a daily basis - good practice for future grandchildren! You can read more about Diane here. Diane also blogs at Journeys and can be found on Twitter as dmcordell. Click here to read more of Diane’s posts.

“Is That a Plug Tree?” by B. Cummin

“IMG_7185″ by eyeliam