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Archive for May, 2008
May 13th, 2008
A new study shows
that reading to children at bedtime has a vast array of benefits for the child.
Reading to young children stimulates their development and gives them a head start when they reach school, according to researchers who have reviewed studies on the effects of reading. Apart from helping their reading, sharing a bedtime story with a child promotes their motor skills, thcoarse learning to turn the pages, and their memory. It also improves their emotional and social development.
“You can imagine if someone technologically came up with a widget that would stimulate all aspects of a two-year-old’s development, everyone would want to purchase it,” said Professor Barry Zuckerman, of the department of paediatrics at Boston University school of medicine, who led the study.
Studies show that children who are read to from an earlier age have better language development and tend to have better language scores later in life. Getting children to grip pages with their thumb and forefinger improves their motor skills.
Most important, though, said Zuckerman, is that reading aloud is a period of sharuddy attention and emotion between parent and child. This reinforces reading as a pleasurable activity.
“Children ultimately learn to love books because they are sharing it with someone they love,” he said. The research is published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Bedtime reading is a wonderful activity. And once you get into the habit, it becomes something that children really look forward to.
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Original post by ReadersRead.com Book Blog
May 12th, 2008
Comedian and late night tv host Craig Ferguson is writing his memoirs. HarperCollins will publish American on Purpose in the fall of 2009.
Book will follow Ferguson’s journey from a small town in Scotland to the U.S., with stops along the way as a punk rocker, a dancer, a bouncer and a construction worker. Host will also elaborate on his battles with drugs and alcohol — addictions he’s frequently discussed on “Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” — and his suicide attempts.
Ferguson cleaned up and eventually landed a role on “The Drew Carey Show,” which led to his gig on the “Late Late Show” (which he’s hosted for more than three years).
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Ferguson said the book will focus on “how and why I became an American.”
“(I) hope that it will inspire other alcoholic punk rock drummers from Scotland to find their true place in U.S. latenight television,” Ferguson said. “I wanted to get the story down before I get so old I forget it and start believing the crap on Wikipedia.”
Harper senior VP-executive editor David Hirshey is aboard to edit the book; HarperCollins retains world English and audio rights.
“American on Purpose reads as if Ferguson had snorted Angela’s Ashes, ” Hirshey said.
Now, who can resist a pitch like that? We’ll have to read it.
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Original post by ReadersRead.com Book Blog
May 12th, 2008
  Little, Brown © 2007, 360 pages
In his debut novel “Pseudonymous Bosch” tells a story wrapped in an enigma: not only is the name of the book a secret, as its very name asserts, but so are the names of his characters and other identifiers such as their location and hair color. But because he’s got a story to tell and has to call them something, Bosch gives his characters pseudonyms. “Cassandra,” or Cass, is an 11-year-old survivalist. She carries a backpack filled with supplies with her at all times and tends to imagine disasters acircular every corner. Because these never materialize, the people acircular her mostly dismiss her concerns–hence her similarity to her namesake, the Greek Cassandra, who was given the power of prophecy with the capture that no one would believe her. Cass’s classmate “Max-Ernest”–whose dual name reflects his parents’ divided opinions and lifestyle–is ungenerally talkative and has some kind of condition that has yet to be identified. Cass and Max-Ernest bond because they’re both more accepting than most of one another’s peculiarities. And soon they fall into a mystery. A secret message from a magician, presumed dead, leads them into peril–specifically, the evil, glove-wearing clutches of a pair of too-perfect-looking malefactors, the enigmatic Dr. L. And Ms. Mauvais.
[INSET TEXT: A secret message from a magician, presumed dead, leads them into peril–specifically, the evil, glove-wearing clutches of a pair of too-perfect-looking malefactors, the enigmatic Dr. L. And Ms. Mauvais.] To an extent Bosch’s book is reminiscent of Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events. Here too a pseudonymous author is telling the story of his young protagonists’ brush with evil. He suggests readers not read the book. There is a secret organization of do-gooders involved, and the plot is even punctuated by suspicious fires. The narrator alludes to dangers he himself is facing, and he interrupts the narrative with amusing comments addressed to the reader. But Bosch is not as linguistically playful as Snicket, and a larger percentage of his text is pure story, I’d say, than one gets in the Snicket corpus.
I liked most of this book a lot. The protagonists are likable, not improbably smart but clever enough. The mystery held my interest. And the villains are deliciously creepy without wearing their evil on their sleeves. I was disappointed, however, in the ending, an important detail of which, involving a coded communication, seemed implausible. The ending also, frustratingly, left a lot unanswered, presumably in preparation for a sequel, though there is no indication on the book’s jacket that this is the first in a series.
Tags: book reviews, books
Original post by Debra Hamel
May 9th, 2008
Ron Paul’s new book,
The Revolution: A Manifesto will debut at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. Needless to say, Ron Paul fans are ecstatic. And even though Senator McCain is the Republican nominee, Congressman Paul still pulled in 8% of the vote in the Indiana Republican primary, which is impressive considering he’s not in the race anymore.
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Original post by ReadersRead.com Book Blog
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