Archive for July, 2007
July 31st, 2007 by Progressive Wednesday
Problem:
You can only read Newsweek, Cat Fancy, Martha Stewart Living, and Playboy so much.
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Make Progress:
We could go on and on and on (and on and on and on and– ¦) about magazines, but we'll just list some of our faves. This isn't an all-encompassing word-for-typeset-word endorsement of each magazine, each article published, and each author. We just dig reading what they have to say, learning some new things, disagreeing with others. So, without further ado, here goes:
To make good use of a baseball metaphor, this sucker is the clean-up hitter of magazines. The Utne Reader is like Reader's Digest for progressives in that it reprints articles (many of them quite uplifting in an empowering and honest way) from various print media that most of us have never heard of let alone subscribe to. If we could only subscribe to one progressive print source, we'd pick this one, hands down, feet down, eyes down (you get the idea). What are you waiting for: subscribe already.
Progressive politics at its best — that's what you'll find here. With The Nation, you'll get multiple points of view on one subject, well-informed letters to the editor that disagree with articles, and pieces that suggest unlikely progressive points of view. A great way to filter your knowledge of contemporary politics. They also publish similarly engaging work on their website. (And did we mention that at under a buck an issue for a subscription, you really can't go wrong.)
With each issues, you get a CD sampler of indie and a handful of well-known artists. For example, the September 2006 issue (which we happen to have in front of us at the moment) contains tunes by The Detholz! (who Matt saw open for Wilco), Elvis Costello, Beth Orton, and Buckwheat Zydeco (who we have to dig for having neurotransmitters capable of coming up with that name). These CDs tend to have 20 tracks, give or take.
In addition to the sampler, you'll read editorials, letters to the editor, feature articles on musicians to watch for, under-the-radar movies, cultural commentary, and reviews of albums, books, games, films, and DVDs. Basically, it's an independent Rolling Stone, only interesting.
Let us preface our endorsement of Discover with this: our belief in science is just that — a kind of faith, albeit a strong one. Science has its limitations, its variations over time, its new discoveries and theories. And the best place we've been able to find that is in Discover, an accessible, independent mag about “science, technology, and the future.– Basically, they make superstring theory, synthetic organs, dark matter, and exhaustive studies of cow's milk understandable and, frankly, interesting as all hell. We give it big, no, big-bang ups (sorry, we had to), and not just because Discover was a nominee for the 18th Annual Utne Independent Press Awards.
Wired makes us whoop. Its pages are filled with mainly pithy pieces about pop- and not-so-pop-culture technology, oddball science, this thing called the Internet, and topics that fall under the category of “General Geekdom.– As geeks, we admire Wired. We'd admire you that much more if you read it too.
You don't have to be a vegetarian or a vegan to appreciate this magazine, which is concerned, not just about our diets (please note that Matt, once a vegan, is now a born-again omnivore, though likely not for long), but the environment, politics, activism, exercise, and overall healthy living. If you are a vegetarian or vegan, this is magazine seems all-but mandatory reading; you'll feel more educated, find excellent recipes, and probably feel more a part of the vegetarian community.
Okay, come closer, here's a confession: we buy things, and some times we accidentally buy absolute crap. And we want to make sure we get stuff that's not going to break right away and won't send us cursing back to the store where we bought it demanding a refund, or worse and more useless, running over it in our driveway. Consumer Reports accepts no advertising, so they're beholden to no one. Sure, we think they have bad taste in beer (they once ranked Milwaukee’s Best the best domestic brew), but, because we like to think of ourselves as relatively mature, we can get past that. They helped Matt buy a great car, and Eric a TV that he all-but kowtows to during hockey games broadcast in HD. CR also has an online subscription, so you can access their info wherever you are.
For the purposes of full-discloser, we're going to reveal that both Eric and Matt consider themselves Christians, and, at times, their faiths have ebbed and flowed from first fervor to agnosticism and back again. At the same time, we respect, admire, and draw wisdom and strength from many other faiths.
But because of our personal religious interests, we're life-size fans of Sojourners, edited by Jim Wallis, whom you may have caught on Meet the Press. Sojo's mission goes a little something like this: “to articulate the biblical call to social justice, inspiring hope and building a movement to transform individuals, communities, the church, and the world.– Whew — that's a pretty lofty goal, eh? Well, why aim low? The thing is, this sucker practices what it preaches, and includes a gaggle of engaging cultural, spiritual and political commentary, feature articles, pithy news briefs, humor, reviews, poetry and conversations. It's a rather complete magazine for progressive Christians.
Other solid (and by solid we mean “sah-lid,– circa 1957) choices — for their interesting and engaging content and not necessarily for their politics — include:
July 30th, 2007 by Matt
I subscribe to more magazines than my eyes, noggin, and free time can handle, but subscribe to them I do. Often, this leads to a lot of skimming, looking for articles about topics I’m hungry to learn more about, looking for articles that might be pertinent to Progressive Wednesday.
A piece in an issue of Business 2.0 couldn’t be ignored. According to an article by Carleen Hawn, close to a billion people in the world live hungry. And then I read this:
Malnutrition kills more people annually than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined, [and] the United Nations says a child dies from the complications of malnutrition every five seconds.
The average person reads 250-350 words per minute, which means that by the time you read the end of this post, approximately 30 children will have died from a lack of food.
All hope ain’t lost, though. There are many fantastic organizations out there battling this exact problem: World Food Programme, Unicef, America’s Second Harvest, Meds & Food For Kids, and Oxfam, amongst several others (all of which would graciously accept your donations).
But, once again, there’s a way to make money and make the lives of those suffering better. Nutriset, a French business that describes itself as a “company fully dedicated to humanitarian and social programs,” has developed a new product called “Plumpy’nut” (I gotta say, I would have come up with a less, I don’t know, goofy name). They doled out 500,000 of these über-nutritious bars last year. Each bar contains 500 calories, ground peanuts, whey protein, vitamins, and minerals. One of the most important features of this product is that it isn’t perishable.
Plumpy’nut succeeds where powdered milk fails because it doesn’t require clean drinking water. In Darfur alone, this product has cut malnutrition in half. And according a piece in the N.Y. Times, Plumpy’nut can even be fed to babies to help jump-start growth.
Here’s the amazing part for the company: they sold $25 million last year alone by saving people’s lives. And what do they do with that money? They reinvest 80 percent of their profits into research and development.
So here’s a business with a heart the size of a home, making money while helping to end malnutrition. I believe this drives home the point (without making a quick pit stop at 7-Eleven for a Big Gulp) we’re always trying to make at Progressive Wednesday: Baby, the end of big problems starts with small solutions.
July 29th, 2007 by Charles Lamb
In two previous columns (here and here) I have written have dealt more with personal misbehavior than with the grave actions that happen in society. Some people would scoff at the idea of spending time with language or dress codes in light of war, poverty, greed, disease, corruption and bribery, pollution, global warming, and society's complacency and lack of action to address these needs.
When we think of ethics, do we think just of personal behavior such as telling the truth, giving correct weights, not overcharging a customer, etc., or do we think about skirting our responsibility by refusing to deal with situations that threaten to bring about destruction of our planet or extermination of whole groups of people?
Some may not agree with the following comment, but during the Monica Lewinski scandal during the Clinton administration, I heard one talk show commentator say something like this: “Clinton is a scum bag but he really does care about people. Many of his critics would never misbehave sexually but they care nothing about anyone but themselves!–
Which is more important? I think we make a major mistake if we don't address the social issues. Too many churches, and religious groups, confine themselves to personal morality and shy away from social or political action out of fear that it will be controversial, or cause the church to lose members. If you stand for justice there is a cost. Jesus went to a cross for taking stands; and Christians are supposed to be his disciples. He told us to count the cost before we begin to follow him. So let's decide whether we're his followers or not!
One of the Ten Commandments says that we should not take the name of the Lord in vain. What does that mean? Just not to swear? Or do we take his name in vain when politicians say “And God bless the United States of America!– as part of a political speech while they have no intention of following God's guidance. Rios Montt was president of Guatemala, and supposedly also a minister, but under his administration Indian villages were massacred. That's a little more serious than saying a swear word. Think about the larger implications of the commandments.
If we really want to be a moral people, we have no choice but to get involved in working for mercy and justice in the world. We are supposed to be “ambassadors for Christ.– An ambassador is one who works for and represents the interests of his country. We are to represent the Kingdom of God.
But as we do that, we can easily burn out with discouragement unless we have an underlying personal spiritual life. To me, a key verse appears in James 1:27. It says, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.–
Caring for the needy indicates action in the world to help those in need. Keeping oneself unstained means keeping your own life correct in the eyes of God. They go together like the two sides of a coin.
If we stay in touch with the Creative Spirit and open our lives to God's guidance, we'll live lives that reflect that by decency and honesty. Then we can go into each day ready to stand up for what is right and struggle mightily to make this world a better place.
So don't think just avoiding swearing or immodest clothing is what Christianity is all about. That would be like the person who came home and said, “I am really a good person. I went to the zoo today and I did not stick my hand in the tiger's cage!–
Well, good for you. That's what you didn't do. But what did you do to stand up for the needy, to work for peace and justice, to demand accountability from those in power? The challenge to each of us is to do that, and the challenge to churches and religious groups is to start teaching that. Then we can say we did something good.
July 28th, 2007 by Eric
With the problems in Iraq, the imminent threat of global warming, the Attorney General scandal, the… well, I could go on for pages, the debate about what to do with Social Security seems to have taken a relative backseat. But the reality is that two-thirds of retired Americans rely on FDR’s plan for at least half of their income, while twenty-two percent, that’s 1 out of 5 retirees, rely on it exclusively. To put it differently the vast majority of retirees would be living in poverty without Social Security.
I don�t have to tell you how many ideas have been floated that would make the program permanently solvent: raising the retirement age; lifting the $90,000 tax base; and cutting some of the benefits are just a few. All of the options that have been presented on how to fix Social Security will anger someone, and those “someones” vote. But none of these proposals are as unpopular as the President’s “private account” proposal. Me? I’m all for it.
Before you go flooding my inbox with angry letters calling me a fascist (we have limited bandwidth), please, let me qualify. I’m 100% dead-set against privatizing Social Security, but I’m 100% for creating a universal retirement system separate from Social Security.
Only 41 percent of those age 65 and up are currently receiving employer-sponsored pensions. That means that roughly 41% of retirees have more than a moderate amount of disposable income (I love that term). They can be expensive, both for the employer and employee, and they are almost never offered for low-income jobs. The poor must continue to be poor in the twilight of their lives.
So who stands to benefit? Workers, especially those in the low-income bracket, would be encouraged to save, bringing them the investment benefits that only those with a larger income enjoy today, not to mention the comfort of knowing that more than a Social Security check waits for them on the other side of retirement. Businesses, both small and large, would be relieved of the financial burden of providing employer-sponsored pension plans. Social Security and Medicare would have much of the burden lifted off of them. It’s win-win-win in my book.
Of course, there would be many nuances that would need to be debated and ironed out. And there are those who are skeptical of government programs. To them I point out that the administrative cost of government-run Medicare is less than 2% of total cost compared to almost 30% at private healthcare companies.
There are a couple of very good articles written about this topic from the New York Times and The Center for American Progress. Thomas Friedman also gives a detailed analysis of the plan in his bestseller, The World is Flat. Give them a read, then tell your Congressperson that you support universal retirement accounts in addition to, not instead of, Social Security.
July 27th, 2007 by Matt
SherryBaby is an authentic, raw, and powerfully realistic portrayal of a woman released from jail, left to face a world with looser rules, but also more stringent responsibilities. Maggie Gyllenhaal capital-”S” Stars as Sherry Swanson, a single mom, busted for stealing a car to help pay for heroin. (At one point, Sherry refers to the drug as “the love of [her] life”.) The movie opens with her release from prison, and takes us into a world of beautiful heartache, dysfunctional family, and, finally, hope.
Through the title character, we see pathetic, and yet understandable, attempts at being a parent after a three-year absence. We see someone pining desperately for her child. And we see her trying–sometimes successfully, sometimes horrifically–to make up for all she did and didn’t do. We also learn, as the film progresses, bits of Sherry’s past that lead to us better understanding her downfall (I’ll spare them here as the details are subtle and superb).
Gyllenhaal is ridiculously fantastic (you ache for her character), and this film–which reminded me of the stellar flick, You Can Count on Me–is a must see. See a glimpse for yourself:
July 26th, 2007 by Progressive Wednesday
Problem:
How should we put this? How about an SAT-style analogy: Internet Explorer is to a monkey a screech monkey as all other web browsers are to humans. We still use IE on occasion, the same way when we go to zoos we look at the primates, caged and nearly useless.
So, we admit it: we’re exaggerating a bit. And please know that we don’t mean to offend the IE users out there in Internet land, though PC World did dub IE the 8th worst tech product of all time. But there are at least four better options out there, flying under the web radar. Since about 30% of folks still use IE, we’ve got a lot of minds to change, but change them we will.
Make Progress:
To put it directly: download and use Firefox. This here’s a browser designed and maintained by the friendly-neighborhood folks over at Mozilla. Since making the switch from the vulnerable IE to Firefox, I’ve experienced far, far fewer problems with spyware and adware. I still run Spybot, Ad-Aware, and Venus Spy Trap frequently, but they find hardly any malicious cookies as compared to my days when I relied on Microsoft to do my browsing. Pop-up windows are also something of the past now that I’m a Firefox-er. Another perk of Firefox is that it’s open source software, which means any individual can create extensions for the browser, enabling users to personalize their browsing experience. I use extensions to help me play music (FoxyTunes), know the weather (Forecastfox), and clip and save info I find while researching for Progressive Wednesday (Clipmarks). While this browser isn’t perfect, it’s the new age of browser, whereas IE always seems a step behind the times and slow to fix bugs and security flaws.
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Opera is another browser we find ourselves using from time to time (and those times are on the rise, baby). In fact, we’re a bit torn between it and Firefox–it’s like choosing between The Godfather and The Godfather Part II. Opera offers many features we dig on, such as: tabbed browsing; thumbnail previews of open tabs; the ability to save tabs for the next time 
you use Opera; a trash can that allows you to open accidentally closed tabs; voice operation for those with disabilities; zoom control on any page; enhanced security features; pop-up blocking; tools for using the web from your mobile phone; and widgets that you can use (and develop!) to personalize the sucker.
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If social networking is your cup of Internet tea, we’d suggest taking a gander at Flock. Much like Firefox, Flock has lots (though not nearly as many) extensions you can add to make the browser work better for you.
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Camino is the aforementioned Mozilla’s Safari look-alike. Firefox can also run on Macs, but if the Safari interface is something that makes you drool (and not in that while-you-sleep-and-drool-on-your-pillow sort of way), we recommend Camino. Why? Because it’s open source and not owned by a mammoth company. In essence, Mozilla is like the Green Bay Packers: it’s not really owned by any one entity, and it’s not driven by the bottom line; it’s driven by the needs and desires of its users and the greater good.
Afterward:
If this isn’t enough to convince you, consider this: Progressive Wednesday is optimized to work with Flock, Opera, Safari, Camino and, of course, Firefox. We’re not suggesting that your experience with Firefox will be pain-free, but any problems will probably be more like a scratch as compared to IE’s sucking flesh wound (our apologies for this second slight hyperbole).
July 25th, 2007 by Progressive Wednesday
Problem:
At 11:50pm, last Friday night, I strolled into my local bookstore to buy Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the latest and last book in J.K. Rowling's brilliant series of fantasy novels. My experience was shorter than most; in neighboring towns there was a wait exceeding an hour long, with bookstore events that started early in the afternoon.
While the crowd was primarily in the mid-teens to adult range, most had been hooked on reading by this series as children, staring with the first book in 1997. During a time in a child's life when reading = homework and is often considered as “cool– as chess club, they began to beg their parents to wait for hours in a line in order to start reading a book at the earliest moment possible. It has been, in a word, “magical.–
Of course, these books are intended for older children and young adults (especially the latest ones), but you don't want to wait for your child to reach double digits in age before getting them “book-hooked.– And we want the values and morals of those books to mirror our own. Even if you don't have kids of your own, as progressives, we want the next generation to be intelligent, articulate, and tolerant children. We want a generation in which every child wants and has a book in their hands.
Make Progress:
To take some action this Wednesday is simple, really. It's simple as A, B, C, D, one, two, three, four– ¦.
Buy (or Borrow) & Read:
We've compiled a brief list of books (sixteen to be exact) we'd recommend reading to your future progressives. If you're interested in picking up a copy of any of these tomes for your very own, we recommend going through a small, privately-owned Western New York business, The Book Corner. These guys make finding odd or out-print-books look like making instant pudding. (Mmm– ¦ pudding.) Of course, you can always hunt down most of these titles through your local library or library system (we did).
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I Live on a Farm by Stasia Ward Kehoe
Kehoe's book uses photos instead of illustrations, and teaches children about items and actions unique to farm, such as storage silos, bales of hay, barns, tractors, harvesting, and irrigating. The book also has a discreet anti-pesticide message. We believe this book will help kids who live on farms have more pride about where they live, and will help suburban and city kids better understand life in rural America. Empathy is the most progressive of emotions.
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Spiders by Ann Heinrichs
Spiders is a children's science book that discusses the benefits of spiders (which are referred to as “nature's friends– ) to both the environment and humans. With Heinrichs' book, kids can learn key science terms, scientific history, cultural myths, and facts about reproduction. The text also addresses the common fear of spiders: “Spiders are afraid of you. To a spider, you look like a giant.– To further ease fears, Spiders emphasizes that very few arachnids are dangerous to humans. Kids also encouraged to be in awe of both spiders' silk and webs. We'll take appropriate awe over fear any day.
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At Daddy's on Saturdays by Linda Walvoord Girard
This 32-page picture-book helps kids understand the true causes of divorce (read: it's not the child's fault). Little readers also learn that both parents, despite separation, still love their children, that sadness is an understandable reaction, and that a child can feel at home with both their mother and father. We highly recommend At Daddy's on Saturday's, as well as the other books by Girard, who's not afraid to tackle emotionally charged topics like AIDS, adoption, and sexual abuse.
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Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Doreen Rappaport
This beautifully designed book won Best Illustrated Children's Book of 2001 from the New York Times Book Review, and deserved it. The book shares the biography of Dr. King along side breathtaking drawings and pithy, inspiring quotations drawn from Dr. King. The heart of the book is that courage, love, learning, and human rights shall win the day. Rappaport doesn't gloss over Dr. King's death, and she reminds kids that good work and good words on earth live on after you do. Both are, in fact, a way to make progress.
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Conservation by Richard Gates
While seeming somewhat dated (it was published in 1988), Gate's book is desperately relevant today. Fantastic photographs grace each page depicting, first, the way forests and the great plains used to be, then the way humans damaged the land, and therefore the animals, to suit their needs and desires. Toward the end, the book takes a turn as it describes the need to save nature, “guarding what we have, and not wasting it– which children can do in “[their] own backyard[s].– As a kind of conclusion, Gates depicts jobs in conservation and explains practical ways to protect animals and plants: “They are important in more ways than we know.– We think this is the kind of children's book that would help remind adults of our moral obligation to the earth.
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Every Day is Earth Day by Kathy Ross
While Every Day is Earth Day shares a world-view with Conversation, it focuses its energy on the annual Earth Day (April 22) and its purposes. The bulk of Ross's book describes and depicts activities kids can do to help promote a healthy earth. Our favorites include: a seedling necklace (which encourages kids to plant flowers); a wind sock (which shows kids that they can make crafts by recycling other materials); and a bird's nest supply box (which is an empty milk carton filled with little things like dryer lint, hair, and bits of string).
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Jackson Pollock by Mike Venezia
This is one in a series of books about artists which also includes folks like Mary Cassatt, Salvator Dali, Georgia O'Keefe, and the requisite Pablo Picasso. Jackson Pollock includes both a biography with cartoon illustrations and photos of his work before he began action-paintings and of the more famous drip-paintings, too. The book doesn't back away from lessons in art history, and explains abstract expressionism in ways kids can comprehend. Venezia ends up showing the power of imagination because it can lead one to success, and encourages kids to go to museums: “It's a good idea to see Jackson Pollock's paintings in person. The special feeling you get of being in an explosion of color and energy has a lot to do with their large size.– We're willing to wager the other books in this series carry similarly progressive lessons and suggestions.
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Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss
In this 1940 children's book, an elephant battles through rain, snow, taunting, hunters, and sea-sickness in order to hatch a bird's egg. While the plot can be reduced to a sentence, the variety of morals cannot. Geisel teaches: the problems can grow with laziness; good parenting involves carrying for your young; helping others is virtuous; one should be faithful to promises; there are creative solutions to unusual problems; animals are not designed for the amusement of humans; and when you dedicate yourself to creating something, part of you enters into it. It's simple story mixed with its litany of responsible morals, making this one of our faves.
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The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
This Seuss book is told mainly in the past tense, and tells the story of a beautiful environment destroyed by greed, big business, and an apathy toward those warning about the destruction of the sky, the water, the land, the plants, and the animals. The crux of the problem is the clear cutting of “Truffula Trees– into extinction. In the end, the person responsible for the destruction gives one last seed to Truffula Trees to a child, and it's up to him to solve the problem and protect the environment. While this book is a condemnation of big business gone out of control and a proponent of conservationism, the story also teaches children that they can be heroes.
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Owen and Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship by Isabella Hathoff, Craig Hathoff, and Paula Kahumba
This children's book tells a true story with photographs of the actual characters. The plot goes a little something like this: a baby hippopotamus, Owen, is abandoned in the wild, saved by fishermen, placed in an animal sanctuary with other animals, and befriends a tortoise, Mzee, who teaches Owen how to eat. We learn that science can't totally explain their relationship, which includes eating, swimming, drinking, sleeping together, as well as demonstrations of affection. Kids end up learning about hippos, tortoises, African countries, and on a larger level, they learn that odd friendships are okay, and that even if two people appear different on the outside they can still get along.
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The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss
This story, one of Geisel's last, tells the story of Zooks and Yooks, two groups of people who live on opposite sides of an enormous wall, and who despise one another because one eats bread and butter with the butter up and the other with the butter-side down. The two sides fight over the wall with very basic weapons like slingshots, but this quickly escalates, with each side developing larger and wilder weaponry. Eventually the weapons grow so powerful that the two sides don't actually attack and rather threaten the other side with attack. Both sides end up developing a tiny yet incredibly power bomb, and the citizens are forced into bomb shelters. The book closes unresolved, with both sides threatening to drop this destruction on the other. While clearly a book about the Cold War, this book also teaches children that hatred (which can be ridiculous in its origins) and violence lead to more intense levels of hatred and violence. The moral seems to be, in a word, peace.
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Pet Show by Ezra Jack Keats
Archie, an African-American boy, is the protagonist of this book, in which a pet show occurs in an urban neighborhood where kids can show off their pets. Archie can't find his cat, and hustles around trying to find his pet so that it can be judged. In the end, Archie brings a glass jar and says that he has brought a pet germ. He wins a blue ribbon for quietest pet. For our money this book teaches two things: first, that creativity and imagination can be used for problem-solving; and second, that a black child can (and should) be the focus of a story that does not overtly deal with race.
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Adoption is for Always by Linda Walvoord Girard
Adoption strikes us one of the ultimate progressive acts. The story in Girard's picture-book explains adoption and birthmothers and birthfathers alongside realistic black and white illustrations. Because the main character goes through a series of emotions while coming to understand her adoption (loneliness, self-doubt, anger, sadness, and fear), Girard helps adopted children by validating their feelings and at the same time comforting them. For adopted children, this seems like a must-read.
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Peter's Chair by Ezra Jack Keats
This Keats' book, like his Pet Show, has an African-American little boy as the main character. Peter is the brother to a new baby sister in the house, and he notices that all his old things are being converted to fit his sibling. So Peter takes his old chair away, and thinks about running away from home with his pet dachshund. After realizing that he doesn't fit in the old chair any more, Peter sits in a “grown up chair– and agrees to help his father paint the old chair for his sister. This book, while subtly battling against racism, teaches children about growing up and caring for one's siblings despite initially resenting the attention the new child gets.
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Haiku: the mood of the earth by Ann Atword
Before we describe anything else, we need to point out that the photos in this collection of poetry are absolutely gorgeous, and for that reason alone we urge you to check it out for your kids. Haiku is a good form of poetry to teach children because each piece is brief, encourages attention to syllables (when written in the English-language tradition of 5-7-5), and gets kids to pay closer attention to details and the natural world. Teaching conservation, it seems to us, is aided by teaching children to appreciate the environment, something haiku is, essentially, designed to do.
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Seven Brave Women by Betsy Hewne
For our money, the opening of Seven Brave Women sets a fantastic tone: “In the old days, history books marking time by the wars that men fought– ¦but there are other ways to tell time.– The book tells the story of seven generations of women in one little girl's family. Each lived through a different war, but didn't fight (“My mother does not believe that wars should be fought at all.– ). The women make art, care for the sick, write books, and care for animals, amongst other positive acts. Hewne's book ends with the little girl who narrates explaining that she will make her own history like her ancestors did, because “there are a million ways to be brave.– Besides providing positive role models for girls, the book also promotes peace over violence, and bravery outside the bounds of wars.
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You might also check out Dora Goes to School, All Families Are Special, and Herb, the Vegetarian Dragon.
Find & Tell:
If you'd like a method for discovering additional famous and not-so-famous progressive easy-readers, you can ask librarians online 24/7. Allow us to point you to Read This Now, a service provided by the public libraries in Ohio. To increase the odds you get a like-minded librarian assisting you online, we recommend entering the zip codes for either Columbus (43210) or Cleveland (44101), two of the more progressive cities in the Buckeye State.
When you find other suggestions, we'd dig hearing them — just contact us and we'll pass them along to our readers. Also, you can start a List or a Guide of recommended children's books on Amazon.com. Here's the thing, just label it “Great Children's Books– or something like that. There's no need to label them as progressive. They're just great books, so call them that.
Recycle:
There are kids out there who don't own books. While they might have access to a library, some, because of a lack of transportation, might not be able to make it to a library. Even if kids in poverty can get to a library, there's something special about owning books. There's sense of pride and confidence that comes with owning a book, and there's a treasuring, a lasting memory. I still remember the first book I could read: The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter. And I remember my favorite picture book as a kid: The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone. Besides, all children deserve a chance to feed their minds, both for their sakes as well as the culture's.
There are some very easy (maybe obvious to some) ways to donate used children's books: hospitals, your local Salvation Army or Goodwill, poor school districts, libraries, and shelters.
For whatever reason, if you're interested in other options, here are five organizations through which you can pass along the gift of language to kids truly in need of your kindness:
Gently Used Books:
Brand-Spanking New Books:
Give:
We recently learned about therapy dogs being used by elementary school children as a way to improve their reading skills. The children read aloud to the dog, and often feel more comfortable doing this because the dog sits calmly nearby, apparently listening, and giving no criticisms.
So there's three things you could do:
- Learn more about therapy dogs here and here.
- Contact Therapy Dogs International (here’s their homepage) and see if your dog could qualify for the reading program.
- Donate a small amount of money to this fantastic organization.
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