A Winter's Tale

Children love stories, and winter provides the perfect time to hear a new one, while cuddled up under a blanket at home or out in a darkened movie theater.

     Kids can follow Agatha, with her cat and bodyguard, as they solve international mysteries in The Curse of the Pharaoh, The Pearl of Bengal, and The King of Scotland's Sword by Steve Stevenson.

    In the prize-winning picture book, Nino Wrestles the World by Yuyi Morales, kids can have fun learning about the colorful luchadores in Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries who wear masks to hide their identities when wrestling. Or they can go along with a boy and his duck on a funny Japanese adventure in Dodsworth in Tokyo by Tim Egan.

     Although it's a child-tailored reference book, History Year by Year: The History of the World, from the Stone Age to the Digital Age, kids will like the "Child of the Time" features which describe the lives of children during various historical periods. The descriptions could lead to role playing using the book's quotations from primary and secondary sources or their own imaginations.

     Unlike last year's Oscar-nominated live action shorts (Described in the earlier post, "See the World at the Movies"), this year's fail to give a broad picture of the lives of children in foreign countries."Helium," which won the Oscar, focused on a dying child and "Aquel No Era Yo" (That Wasn't Me) shows the tragic life of an African child soldier. If the Oscar-nominated short animated films are being shown at a local movie theater, however, children (and adults) would enjoy the banter of the ostrich and giraffe "puppets" that introduce them. "Mr. Hublot," which won the Oscar, could inspire a child to draw a series of robots with a mechanical/robotic pet that gets bigger and bigger. Mr. Hublot eventually had to move to a warehouse. In one animated short, "Room on a Broom," which is also a book, a witch, cat, dog, frog, and bird prove no one should be excluded anywhere in the world.

     The credits of all foreign films show how names differ from one country to another. These new names may come in handy when a child is naming his or her doll, plush toy, or action figure. (See the earlier post, "What's in a Name?")

Tin Can Art

Can beauty come out of the dumps in slums around the world? Recycled materials are already being used in furniture and fashion. "Social sculpture" is providing an environmentally-friendly update to the older idea of a community coming together to paint a mural on the side of a building. In a new way, globalization is showing how it is possible to bring beauty out of museums and galleries and into the lives of people on the street.

     While artists direct social sculpture projects (Read about Theaster Gates in the earlier post, "Global Drawing Power."), people, including children, collect the recycled materials that go into the art and often help develop designs. Victor Castro has orchestrated public art projects in Mexico and Peru. For his social sculpture in Madison, Wisconsin, he invited members of the community to bring cans, bottles, cartons, and all manner of clean discarded food containers to their local libraries. At one school, children worked together to create their own collages of recycled materials. Some of their works may become part of the 2000-piece library mural Castro expects to complete this summer.

     In the later blog post, "Idea Transfer," see how children can imitate the French artist who made sculptures out of toilet paper rolls.

Take Your Best Shot

Like many mothers, I experienced a day toward the end of winter, when I couldn't think of any new ways to amuse my six-year-old daughter. That's when I bundled her up and sent her into the courtyard with my old Super 8 movie camera. What caught her eye? Did she learn not to pan too quickly? While she didn't develop an interest in becoming a photographer, exposure to the photographic and movie-making processes could help another student discover an international career.

     This week we'll see all aspects of the Sochi Olympics in magazines and newspapers, on TV, and on the Internet. We'll also see reporters broadcasting from Sochi. Look at the backgrounds behind them. Just as network correspondents tell viewers where news is being made by standing in front of a school, parade, or courthouse, young people can begin to pay attention to the backgrounds they choose for their photos.

     To get ideas for photography, young people can check out lightbox.time.com, photography.nationalgeographic.com, and the scenic wonders Ansel Adams captured in Yosemite National Park. Also, be on the lookout for a new book, The Photographer's Eye, from National Geographic. It includes the best photos from the 300,000 submitted by photographers around the world, as well as tips telling how these photos were taken. Street photographers just ask people they see on the street if they can take their photos. It's a good way to show how regular people look when they're just going about their lives.
Seeing a drone used to film surfers from overhead reminded me how photographers often view life from different angles. With YouTube, there also are different ways to project your views of life.

     At ngkidsmyshot.com, kids can find out how, with a parent's permission, to submit their own photos that might be featured online or published in National Geographic Kids. Students can learn about National Geographic's Traveler Photo Contest at NationalGeographic.com/TravelerPhotoContest/ or go to nationalgeographic.com and search "travel photo contest.".There are four categories for photos: portraits, outdoor scenes, sense of place, and spontaneous moments. Information about the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards for photography is on an earlier blog post, "Young Voices." Free Spirit Publishing is sponsoring a "Words Wound Video Contest" for teens that ends April 15, 2014. A teen will win $250 by posting a short video on YouTube that shows how teens can use technology and the Internet to make schools kinder places. Details are available at freespirit.com. For information about future competitions designed to attract African feature movie and documentary cinema talent, go to afrinollyshortfilmcompetition.com.

     Sarah Stallings at National Geographic suggests a number of things to remember, when taking photos:
1. Hold a camera steady in both hands and brace upper arms against body.
2. Think of a tic-tac-toe grid over your picture. The horizon can be on a vertical line and key elements on the intersections.
3. Take a number of photos of the same object or scene by moving closer and closer.
4. Catch before and after scenes that no one else has by arriving early and staying late for an event.
5. Light gives emphasis to the important parts of an image. Inside, light from a window or a doorway focuses attention on a subject. A Luma company device enables a cellphone to obtain a light reading that makes it easy for photographers to set a camera's appropriate light setting.

     The field of photography has many branches. Besides sports, photographers travel the world to report the news; photograph fashion, nature, and landmarks; take photos for postcards and travel brochures; and win Oscars for feature films, documentaries, animated full length and short movies, and live action shorts. Museums, such as the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., now exhibit photographs. A number of fashion photographers, who not only know plenty about style and design but also have social media fans, have become brands, i.e. entrepreneurs whose prints appear on products. David Bailey for one offers T-shirts printed with the likenesses of Mick Jagger, John Lennon, and Grace Jones.

    Photography requires patience and technology. My grandfather was friends with an eye doctor who was a freelance photographer who waited for hours to capture the best light for a photo he took of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Steve Winter worked for 14 months and used a video camera equipped with infrared detection and external lights to capture the iconic "Hollywood" sign behind a puma in Griffith Park, California.

      In color or black and white, a photographer can have an exciting international career.