The author, Ian Halperin, thinks he has the inside scoop of how Angelina nabbed Brad from Jennifer Aniston. Sigh.

Called Brangelina: The Untold Story of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Halperin reveals that Jolie began a “mean-spirited but effective campaign” against Jennifer at the time of the divorce.

US Weekly has the cover story which talks about Angelina and her entourage planting press stories in 2005 about Jennifer being the one who prioritised career over family, leaving poor Brad pining for babies.

The book also details how Brad and Angelina fight like cat and dog. A source said, “They fight all the time about the kids — where to put toys, saying the wrong thing to a nanny, not cleaning up.”

I’m a little surprised US Weekly is still going with the whole Angelina versus Jennifer thing. It’s been a few years now since the divorce. Are you still interested?

Source | Photo

Lauren Myracle has written a number of books for teens and tweens, including TTYL: Talk To You Later and TTFN: Ta-Ta For Now. Her latest book, Luv Ya Bunches, is the story of four girls whose only commonality is that they all are named after flowers.  So what does this have to do with Scholastic Books, other than that it seems natural that the company would offer the tale to their teenage customers? Well, that’s just it — Scholastic isn’t including the book in their book fairs.

Scholastic refused to carry the book unless the author made some changes, including removing a few words—“geez”, “crap”, “sucks” and “God” (as in, “oh my God”)—and changing the family dynamics of one of the characters. You see, one of the characters in the book, Milla, has two mums.  Myracle was okay with taking out the supposed obscenities (”with the goal—as always—of making the book as available to as many readers as possible”), but refused to change Milla’s mums.

And why should she? “A child having same-sex parents is not offensive, in my mind, and shouldn’t be ‘cleaned up,’” said Myracle. Not only is it not offensive, it’s a fact of life for many kids.

In his amazing and reasoned response to a challenge to the book Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, librarian Jamie LaRue referred to the work of psychologist Bruno Bettelheim who believed “that both the purpose and power of children’s literature is to help young people begin to make sense of the world”. LaRue goes on to explain that “there is a lot out there that is confusing, or faintly threatening, and even dangerous in the world. Stories help children name their fears, understand them, work out strategies for dealing with life.”

While LaRue was discussing a book aimed at a younger audience, these ideas apply equally well to the teenagers. From Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary to Roald Dahl and Marilyn Sachs, authors have—probably as far back as there have been books—been offering awkward teens and tweens guidance and support in the form of novels. Even Harry Potter offers lessons that can apply to real life. So what’s up with the censorship, Scholastic?

Photo: Amulet Books

Maurice Sendak was sitting in on a panel discussion with Newsweek plus the film’s director, Spike Jonze, and screenwriter Dave Eggers when the subject turned to parental concerns.

The book itself, now a classic, was dubbed “too scary and weird for children” when it debuted in 1963, and last year there was talk that the film version was being re-shot to make for a more kid-friendly flick.

But fear is supposed to be part of this movie. Just check out the tagline: “Inside all of us is hope. Inside all of us is fear.” And let’s not forget the book that started it all — a story of facing monsters only to end up safe and sound in our own bedroom with supper waiting for us. Teaching kids to befriend their monsters in a literal sense, it’s more figurative interpretation is (to borrow a phrase from an old president) that there is nothing to fear…except fear itself.

In honour of fears faced and fears overcome, we’re with Sendak: “I would tell them to go to hell. That’s a question I will not tolerate … If they can’t handle it, go home … Do whatever you like, but it’s not a question that can be answered.”

Image: videogum

Via Page Six

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Honestly, it seems like anything with Kate’s name on it would be a hot commodity these days…even a cookbook that she has probably never read, much less wrote.

However, the Christian book pushers at Zondervan—the publisher that released her last two books “Multiple Bles8ings” and “Eight Little Faces”—seems to be worried about a divorce backlash.

Seriously though, who wants to learn about making meals into memories from Katezilla? We’ve seen her and her parenting skills in action and the results are…well, just this side of catastrophic.

It looks like the Gosselins’ latest biggest enemies these days are the media moguls who gave them their 15 minutes in the first place. First, US cable channel, TLC, tries to appear to take the moral high ground by ditching Jon. Now, Zondervan is flip flopping on Kate’s cookbook.

What’s next?

Source/Photo

Like many people—dare I say most people?—one of my favourite books as a child was Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are. And, like most people, I would hate to see it cheapened by Hollywood trying to make it into some sort of blockbuster action-comedy-love story. Such a powerful, extraordinary book would need an exceptional filmmaker who would put Sendak’s stunning imagery and timeless story ahead of box office returns.

Apparently, Sendak himself felt he found such a filmmaker in Spike Jonze, whose big screen rendition is set to open in theatres next month.  Jonze is very aware of the responsibility that goes with making a book like this into a movie.  He’s loved the book since he was a child and says the book is a part of who he is.  “When you love something from that age,” he explains, “you end up loving it really deeply because the images are there way down inside you. As you’ve grown, you’ve grown around them and they’ve just gotten deeper into you.” Totally.

If you’re curious about his take on the movie or what it took to make it, check out this interview at the Vice Magazine website.  I have to say that after reading this interview, I’m optimistic about the film. So who wants to go see it with me?

Image: Amazon

To find out more or to purchase Play All Day ($130 AUD), visit Published Art.

Sometimes words are not enough. A picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words. Which makes the Pictorial Webster’s Dictionary -  A Visual Dictionary of Curiosities (By John M. Carrera – Chronicle Books) a windfall of wordless wonder.

Now I should say now that this is not really a children’s book, but it’s a fun activity to grab the book off the shelf, thumb through the pages and introduce your kid to what a ‘Luna Moth’, ‘Fish Joint’ or some good old fashioned ‘Foliations’ look like. The book includes over 1,500 engravings that were originally included in volumes of 19th century Webster’s Dictionaries.

Intended for a audience of art lovers and designers, it’s a great illustrated way to educate your kid to the visuals of “acorns to zebras, bell jars to velocipedes.” You can pick up your own handsomely bound book here for $US35.

But I’ve got to say that the number of stories in which a carnivorous animal that is just filling its ecological niche is made into a evil (or somehow, even worse, greedy) villain of the story is starting to bug me.

Guess what? The Tawny Scrawny Lion would actually not be able to survive on carrot soup, no matter how delicious. T-Rex wouldn’t get by on water weeds. And for goodness sakes, let the poor frog in a bog eat as many ticks and flies and slugs as he wants. Are you crazy?

Bug-eating at least (though certainly the easiest form of carnivory for us to handle) gets a nice treatment in Janet Perlman’s upcoming The Delicious Bug (which is also a good sharing story), as well as in the classic Be Nice to Spiders. Otherwise, sympathetic portrayals of the full food chain come mostly from non-fiction.

Now, it’s not like I’m seeking gory nature-red-in-tooth-and-claw books for my toddler. I guess I’d just like the “natural order of the world is bad” theme to take a break.

1. Shrek

Didn’t know this was based on a book, did you? You’re not missing much. The 1990 version written by William Steig is crudely drawn, and its ogre is missing the sweet inner onion layers of everyone’s favorite curmudgeon. Shrek onscreen makes a good show of being a beast, his gruffness aided and abetted by Mike Myers’ spot-on Scottish brogue. Shrek on the page is simply beastly, and proud of it. Stuck in the palace hall of mirrors, Steig’s ogre is shocked by the hideous creatures all around him — until he realizes they’re all him. “He faced himself, full of rabid self-esteem, happier than ever to be exactly what he was,” Steig writes. Bring back our self-effacing swamp settler and give us a double dose of donkey.

2. Bambi

If you thought mama deer getting blown away in the movie was harsh, try reading Bambi as told by Felix Salten. While Mom’s busy dying, Bambi is scrambling to get away and meets “a dying pheasant, with its neck twisted,” as well as Friend Hare’s wife, whose “hind leg dangled lifelessly in the snow, dyeing it red and melting it with warm, oozing blood. . . In the middle of her words, she rolled over on her side and died.” True to nature? Yes. Child appropriate? If you’re a fan of the “give my kids nightmares for a month” canon, then yes. Something stinks about this book, and it isn’t Flower.

3. Cinderella

The poor little orphan girl in the Disney movie has it rough there for awhile, but try being the Cinderella in the original Grimm’s Fairy Tale. Her dad was very much alive and totally blind to his witch of a second wife. When dad asks his daughter and stepdaughters what they want from one of his trips, he takes Cinderella’s wishes at face value and brings the stepmonsters pearls and jewels while the little cinder girl gets the branch from a hazel bush. Gee, thanks Dad, but the mice made better benefactors.

4. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966 version)

Now before you get your Dr. Seuss-loving panties in a bunch, it’s not that the book was bad. But we’re hard-pressed to imagine a time when the mean one wasn’t voiced by Boris Karloff. The animated flick redefined one of our Seussian favorites, and helped our heart grow two sizes. The Jim Carrey version, however — and we quote — “stink, stank, stunk.”

5. The Little Mermaid

Ursula the sea witch was a kind-hearted old soul next to the enchantress in Hans Christian Anderson’s original tale. He cut the tongue out of the mouth of the Mer-King’s youngest daughter and treated her with a potion that would let her retain her “graceful movements,” but make “every step [she took] cause [her] pain all but unbearable.” That Ariel of the Disney tale let go of her precious voice for the love of a boy is hard enough for parents of little girls to bear, but the lengths the original mermaid went to hook herself a man are best left in the 1800s, when the Anderson tale was written.

6. How to Eat Fried Worms

The 1973 book is a goofy send-up of little-boy antics, but Billy Forrester’s tender tummy and worm-eating quest finds real meaning in the 2006 flick about a new kid at school faced with an impossible quest: He has to eat ten worms by seven p.m. on Saturday — or end up wearing worms in his pants to school on Monday. Instead of noshing on nightcrawlers for a measley $50 like his written counterpart (who ate fifteen, and ended up being “the first person who’s ever been hooked on worms”), the live action Billy is a hero for new kids everywhere. He shows up the bully, realises girls can be good friends, and starts getting along with his little brother.

7. The Neverending Story

A movie based on a book about a book that takes a kid on an adventure worthy of the movies? If you can follow that, you can follow the story of Bastian’s journey to Fantasia and back. This is another case of a book that isn’t exactly bad (it has its own cult following), but for kids who grew up fantasizing about their own fluffy, puppy-headed Luck Dragon in the ’80s, the movie is still the best option for sharing the story with their kids. The book is just too long, made for reading in installments to younger kids, and its twists and turns are — while fantastical — sometimes hard to follow on the page. The original was written in German, and the English translation can be awkward going. It’s also plagued by a moral that does not translate to younger kids; Bastian turns from the fat kid with no friends to a powerful one, but in the book all his changes and all his abilities cannot completely conquer unhappiness. The author (Michael Ende) was so angry at the film that he sued for the production of the movie to be changed, but he lost. Rumour has it another film adaptation is in the works. And that, folks, is why they call it neverending.

8. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Ian Fleming has had his fair share of books loosely adapted for the silver screen (”James Bond” ring any bells?) — the word “loosely” being the operative word when it comes to his children’s tale of that marvelous flying machine. Hollywood threw in a love story that’s Truly Scrumptious, exing out old Mimsie (the mum, who was very much alive on the page). In doing so, they gave Professor Caracatus Potts, the kooky widower trying to do right for his kids, a higher purpose.

9. Mary Poppins

Julie Andrews made her sweet, but the real Mary was anything but. Strict, vain and kind of cranky, P.L. Travers’ carpetbagging nanny was not going to sing out explanations about the world around Jane and Michael Banks (and their twin siblings in the book). This excerpt from the original Poppins book sums her up quite well: “Michael sighed happily. He loved the story and was never tired of hearing it. ‘And it’s all quite true, isn’t it?” he said, just as he always did. ‘No,’ said Mary Poppins, who always said ‘No.’” Sounds like someone could have used a spoonful of sugar. Author Travers, by the way, hated the movie.

10. Old Yeller

A Newberry Award winner, it’s been reprinted and branded as a “perennial classic.” In other words, another book that isn’t bad… Still, we find the heart-wrenching loss of Travis’ dog more moving onscreen. Is it the baby face of Kevin Corcoran (the little boy who played the youngest Coates boy in the 1957 Disney film) or the sweet disposition of Tommy Kirk (who played Yeller’s bonded-for-life best boy, Travis)? More likely it’s Spike, the canine actor who brought to life the joyful friendship of a boy and his dog. He made you believe a mutt could fend off a bear and a bunch of wild hogs to save his family. Spike made us sob hysterical tears when we were kids, and then brought on another gushing river when we sat down as adults to watch it with our own kids.

Everyone Poops author Taro Gomi has a fantastic series of coloring and doodling books. My kid got this one, Scribbles, for his birthday, and I think we’re equally in love with it. Much like Gomi’s other coloring book, Squiggles, Scribbles features playful drawings, funny scenarios and fun-to-follow instructions. This book is not just for colouring– it’s for doodling, drawing, imagining and thinking. I bring it to your attention today because Scribbles is on sale at Ollibollen.com for $US16.95 as part of their big summer sale.