Saw author/blogger/kool kid Cory Doctorow mentioned this over at Boing Boing this morning. He recounted a purchase he made during a recent trip to Disney, Disney’s Looking at Paintings: An Introduction to Fine Art for Young People, and as both a Disney fan and original art (though not high-brow as I think he may be speaking of) collectors it drew my interest.

Doctorow said this:

Having read the book, I feel like I learned rather a lot. The beautiful art, combined with the simple, intelligent accompanying text, has me looking at artists from Pollack to Chagal to Rembrandt in new ways. I only wish someone had handed me a book like this when I was about seven

The amazon listing suggests an age range from 9-12, while Doctorow considers it appropriate for 6-12.

What’s it about?

This unique introduction to the techniques and history of painting takes the young reader through more than 15,000 years of art, from cave paintings to Picasso.

With paintings from London’s National Gallery, one of the world’s richest collections, an authoritative text written by experts and historical adventures and scenarios by Disney graphic artists, ‘Looking at Paintings’ is a family reference book to be treasured by children from 8 to 88 years old.

Saw this via the twitter stream of lit agent Colleen Lindsay yesterday. Matt Phelan’s The Storm in the Barn recently won the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical fiction. This is the first time that a graphic novel has won the award, so congrats to Matt Phelan who both wrote and illustrated it! I’ve never read this, but often times when I hear or see award winning work in comics (or graphic novels), I often take a gander and see what I think is uneventful art (that’s always somehow called ‘brave’). This actually looks kind of cool:

I just wanted to note that the publisher, Candlewick Press, does suggest that The Storm in the Barn is for ages 10 and older.

What’s it about? (from the publisher’s website)

In Kansas in the year 1937, eleven-year-old Jack Clark faces his share of ordinary challenges: local bullies, his father’s failed expectations, a little sister with an eye for trouble. But he also has to deal with the effects of the Dust Bowl, including rising tensions in his small town and the spread of a shadowy illness. Certainly a case of “dust dementia” would explain who (or what) Jack has glimpsed in the Talbot’s abandoned barn — a sinister figure with a face like rain. In a land where it never rains, it’s hard to trust what you see with your own eyes — and harder still to take heart and be a hero when the time comes. With phenomenal pacing, sensitivity, and a sure command of suspense, Matt Phelan ushers us into a world where desperation is transformed by unexpected courage.

Tall tale. Thriller. Gripping historical fiction. This artful, sparely told graphic novel — a tale of a boy in Dust Bowl America — will resonate with young readers today.

I found this super interesting.  There was a texting competition in New York recently called the LG Mobile World Cup that challenged texters on both speed and accuracy.  The winning team would take home a $100,000 prize with second place getting $20,000.

Bae Yeong Ho and Ha Mok Min, a 17 and 18 year old team from South Korea, won the title with Kate Moore and Morgan Dynda coming in second.  A team from Argentina made third with a team of Brazilians taking fourth.

The drill of the third annual Mobile World Cup was simple: Copying words and phrases in one’s native language off a monitor correctly, with no typos or abbreviations, and as fast as possible with the required capitalization and punctuation. Some words were intentionally misspelled to test alertness.

It seems that Moore is the 2009 U.S. National Texting Champion and averages around 3.5 characters per second.  I love the fact that this was a real competition with real money involved.  See now when your child is texting and you try and give them grief they can just say they are practicing for the championship!

Back in December we told you that Pixar’s Up was nominated for some Golden Globe award this year, and last night they took home two of them! They beat out a terrific field in the Best Animated Feature Film category, the nod over Coraline, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and Disney’s The Princess and the Frog . They also took home the award for Best Original Score, which means Up mirrored their wins that we told you about at the Critics’ Choice Awards from last week.

Up is out DVD and Blu Ray now!

We have now officially made Thursday night family game night in my household.  Well, we actually did it before the holidays so that we could buy a bunch of games for the children to play on those Thursday nights.  After playing a few weeks, I have decided to let you know which is my favorite game to play with the family.

Feed the Kitty by Gamewright is that game and for many different reasons.  The first one being that the current family is a 6 year old, a 4 year old, and a baby on the way along with Momma and Daddy.  So for now we are playing with 4 people and the games goes by quickly.  I would say we are averaging about 10 minutes per game, which is perfect for the 4 year old.  The second reason is that the game is fun.  You role two dice and you can either pass some of your mice to the left, put them in the kitty bowl, take a mice from the bowl (I guess a mouse rescue ala Tom and Jerry), or you roll a sleeping kitty which means that you skip your turn.  That is a good thing as the person with mice left after everyone else has none is the winner.  If you lose all you mice and more than 1 person is still left in the game you do not get to roll anymore, but someone could pass you a mouse if they roll a pass to the left dice.  The boys love it, I love the fact that it is quick and fun.  It does not have any educational value other than maybe counting the number of mice that you have.  What has been really cool for us is that they must have changed the look of the mice around the time we got the game, so we have a mouse has a bit more of a square look than the other mice in the set.  We call him Mr. Chunky and have a blast trying to not be the one that ends up with Mr. Chunky Mouse.  As we continue family game night, I will keep you up to date on the games we are playing.

This is really just a demo to something new I wanted to do each week. I want my posts to be more organic and I believe things like this will help me achieve that goal. I am looking at the Hot New Releases in Toys and Games over at Amazon once a week. Yes I know that they update this hourly but can you image what it would be like if I tried to do it each hour? Well anyway these are my thoughts on some of the top 100 Hot New Releases in Toys and Games at Amazon for today.  Please shop Toys using the BSCkid account to give something back, I am not going to direct link these items as they may change.

LEGO Star Wars Snow Trooper Army Pack 8084 by LEGO – The fact that LEGO has helped me relive my love of the original Star Wars trilogy says something.  The only problem I have with the LEGOs is that if they come apart you do not have the instructions it becomes tough love.  Plus sometimes I do not feel like putting these things together.  My six year old LOVES these.  Sometimes a little more money than I want to spend at the store as well though.

Zhu Zhu Pets Hamster Toy Jilly by Cepia – Ok all I have to say is that they are kinda cool.  My mother bought one for my boys, but they have not gotten them yet so I can not really say too much.

Spin Master Mighty Beanz 2009 NEW Series 1 Starter Pack Set 6 Beans by Moose – I remember something like this when I was growing up and I do not mean Weebles.  I think these beans existed in some form in the 80s and 90s as well.  Seems like they might be fun.

Barbie Twilight Edward Doll by Mattel – everyone has to make some money off these movies.

AMAZON EXCLUSIVE! The Twilight Saga “New Moon” Cullen Crest Prop Replica Jewelry Set by NECA – same as above, it is all about the money.  The thing with Replica Jewelry is that your skin may not recover.

Aqua Sand Creation Kit Ocean Adventure by Spin Master – I love this and remember doing these as a child, the only problem is clean up and what do you do after you finish something really cool.

Webkinz Strawberry Cloud Leopard – Limited Edition by Ganz – I think web play toys are really cool, it allows a toy to actually be fun for a longer period of time.  The problems though can be having that computer and if you want your children to have a web play toy.  I feel like for me, it would work.

Air Hogs R/C Havoc Heli – Orange and Grey by Spin Master – I think all Air Hogs toys are cool, but hard to control.  I also think that once you get them the frustration of the control will outweigh the fun and they will either break or be put on the shelf.

Richard Scarry Busy Town by The Wonder Forge – Nice to see a classic still hanging around

Shaped Rubber Bands Silly Bandz Car Shapes NEW by Toysmith - maybe someone can explain to me what these are about

Lots of other Twilight Dolls, Zhu Zhu pet accessories, and LEGOs that I did not get to mention.  Stay tuned.

Movieline is reporting that the two major stars are in line to lend their voices to Happy Feet 2! The sequel to the 2006 film from Warner Bros, Pitt and Damon would join a returning cast of stars that already includes Robin Williams and Elijah Wood. Happy Feet 2, which returns George Miller to the directing chair, has a November 2011 release date attached to it and will filmed in 3-D.

The first film made almost $400 million dollars.

Disney/Pixar’s Up took home three awards at Friday’s 2010 Critics’ Choice Awards. Yesterday we told you that Nick Jonas and the Administration served as the house band for the event, and to those tunes, Pixar too home the gold for Best Score (by Michael Giacchino), and for Best Animated Feature. Up was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture, but some mix-up occurred and they didn’t win!

Congrats to my favorite movie studio!

The recipients, nominees and spectators of last night’s 15th Annual Critics’ Choice Awards were treated to Nick Jonas and The Administration as the in-house band. Jonas has been making the rounds lately, as we’ve recently told you he covered Taylor Swift in Phili and performed “Stay” in Washington D.C. before that.

Jonas performed his “Who I Am” and also covered songs like The Cars’ “Just What I Needed”, “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” by Stevie Wonder, Steve Miller Band’s “Abracadabra” & Maroon 5′s “Makes Me Wonder”.

Remember to go get Nick’s album, Who I Am, on February 2nd!

More from Boom Kids!, this time a preview of Walt Disney’s Uncle Scrooge#387. This issue hits stores on January 20th.

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What’s it About?

Continuing BOOM Kids!’ all-new ongoing with everyone’s favorite-feathered penny pincher, Uncle Scrooge! The hunt for the Old Number One continues, as Magica DeSpell and the Beagle Boys pull out all the stops in their attempts to beat Uncle Scrooge to his prize!

Written by Erik Hedman – Drawn by Wanda Gattino – COVER A: Wanda Gattino – COVER B: Scott Gross