Kidsmomo

Guess what tomorrow is! Well, yes, it’s Monday. And yeah, traditionally Mondays have not been our favorite days ever. But this week, we’re making an exception because tomorrow kicks off Children’s Book Week 2013!

From May 13th to May 19th librarians, teachers, publishers, kidlit bloggers (like us!), and children’s book lovers everywhere (us again!) will be celebrating how totally completely AWESOME books and reading are.

This year, we’re celebrating by taking part in a Giveaway Hop — which means that a ton of websites about kids’ books are all hosting their own Children’s Book Week sweepstakes at the same time! The brilliant idea of Mother Daughter Book Reviews and Youth Literature Reviews blogs, the hop is kinda like a big virtual party in honor of kidlit — the only bad part being that you can’t eat virtual cake…

Here at Kidsmomo, we’re giving away two — count ‘em, TWO — prize packs for our Children’s Book Week Giveaway! Check out our prize swag below, then enter for a chance to win!

And after you do that, check out the other sweeps! NOTE: You guys can enter our sweepstakes yourselves, but a lot of the other Giveaway Hop sweepstakes are not specifically for kids. However, they are ALL related to books for kids, so please grab a parent and check out these sweeps together!

And also leave a comment and let us know: What are YOU reading right now, during Children’s Book Week 2013?

TWO WINNERS WILL RECEIVE A PRIZE PACK EACH!
Prize Pack #1 includes:
• Children’s Book Week poster
• Sidekicks
• The Boneshaker
• Dear Dumb Diary, Year 2, Book 1: School. Hasn’t This Gone on Long Enough?
• Vordak the Incomprehensible
• Noonie’s Masterpiece

Prize Pack #2 includes:
• Children’s Book Week poster
• Skulduggery Pleasant
• The Classroom: The Epic Documentary of a Not-Yet-Epic Kid
• Gossip from the Girls’ Room
• Raja: Story of a Racehorse
• ParaNorman

Enter before May 20th! See official rules.

This sweepstakes has ended.

Are you sitting down? You’re probably at a computer, so you’re probably sitting down.

Now, set aside any fragile glassware you have nearby and get ready to jump up and absolutely burst with JEALOUSY and AMAZEMENT! Because… *drumroll please*… we just came back from the Harry Potter Studio Tour in Leavesdon, UK, and we have tons of pictures to share with you!

(Pause for screams, shouts, and jumping… maybe even some fist pumps.*)

Okay, now are you sitting back down?

So yes, just like Karen mentioned in her last blog post, recently we went to the country of Harry Potter and had a chance to visit the exhibition and movies sets. Check out our photos by clicking on the thumbnails below!

*If you rolled your eyes at this… well, this is how we reacted to the Harry Potter Studio Tour.  Because we love Harry Potter. Duh.

— Karen and Nancy

How excited are we for the next  Percy Jackson movie? Really, really, REALLY excited. For example:

The trailer was posted online, and two seconds later in a chat…
Nancy: [doesn't bother to say 'hello;" just links to video]
Karen: YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY

So here it is!

After you’ve watched it a couple hundred times like us, check out our coverage for the first Percy Jackson movie (karaoke hilarity) and other Percy Jackson love (general hilarity).

— Nancy & Karen

The yellow brick road. The Emerald City. Flying monkeys. Poppy fields. Munchkins. And of course, witches. All our favorite parts of the marvelous land of Oz come to life again in the new movie Oz, The Great and Powerful. But can it live up to the classic books by L. Frank Baum and the beloved 1939 film?

Obviously, we had to investigate. So we bravely made our way through the crowds to see Oz on opening night — seriously, there were more excited movie-goers fighting for seats than warts on a witch’s chin. And were we rewarded for our efforts?

Read on, for our review of Oz, The Great and Powerful:

KAREN: I was pleasantly surprised! Before we watched the movie, I knew it didn’t get very good reviews, so I went in with low expectations.

KAREN: I thought it was going to try to be an awesome epic action adventure, and it would fail. But I realized pretty quickly that it wasn’t trying to be that at all; instead, it wanted to be a funny fantastical family film! So once I realized that in the first few scenes, I was all like:

KAREN: And now that I think about it, I kind of got that feeling right from the beginning because I LOVED LOVED LURVED the opening sequence with all the old-fashioned paper art. It was so light-hearted and whimsical and I was like:

NANCY: I agree with most of what you said — but one thing really distracted me during the movie, and that, unfortunately, was the actor who played Oscar (the Wizard): James Franco. I found him to be so goofy and distracting! Every time he overacted, I would wince, like this:

NANCY: So since he was the main character and on the screen all the time, this is how I felt for most of the movie:

KAREN: I’m not a big James Franco fan either. Originally, Robert Downey Jr. was going to play Oscar, and I was super excited about that. When I heard he was replaced with James Franco, I was definitely like:

KAREN: I think James Franco is kind of fakey and slimy — but actually, that was perfect for this role! So when I realized he was just going to act like a kind of silly, slick salesman through the whole thing, I was like:

NANCY: Agree to disagree… But on a positive note: As usual, I’m a sucker for visuals — I thought the film was beautiful! The scenes showing the gorgeous and magic scenery of Oz were kind of long, but I didn’t mind so much because I was like:

KAREN: Disagree again! I really didn’t love all the computer-generated settings, like the gigantic flowers and the green crystals that some of the characters floated over. It looked too obviously computer-generated to me, compared to how realistic Pixar makes nature look in their movies.

NANCY: Okay, well, maybe we can agree on this: You know what character I especially liked? The flying monkey servant, Finley. He was adorable! And so funny.

KAREN: YES! I loved Finley too. And also the little China Girl who is Oscar’s other main companion in the movie. And guess what — she’s voiced by Joey King, who played Ramona in the movie Ramona and Beezus! I recognized her name in the opening credits, and I was all like:

NANCY: Overall, I’m definitely on the fence about this movie. On one hand, I liked almost everything in the movie… EXCEPT the main character! I feel so conflicted:

So… should you see this movie? Neither of us would say, “This is the best movie ever! Run out and see it right now!” If we said that, you’d definitely end up like this:

But if you’re a fan of the books and/or you just want to see the world of Oz on the big screen in stunning technicolor, then we say, “Go for it. But for heaven’s sake, keep your expectations low!” As long as you do that, you’ll probably be like:

We can’t take credit for making any of these images — all taken from the Interwebs!

A few days ago, we posted about the 2013 Newbery Award winners — aka only the mildly, slightly BEST BOOKS EVER of last year!

Well, we have some awesome news (because we are awesome): If you’ve been dying to get your hands on those award-garnering bad boys since the winners were announced, now’s your chance! We’ve got a prize pack featuring all four books!

ONE BIG WINNER WILL RECEIVE A NEWBERY PRIZE PACK!

• A copy of 2013 Newbery Medal winner, The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

• A copy of 2013 Newbery Honor book, Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz

• A copy of 2013 Newbery Honor book, Bomb: The Race to Build — and Steal — the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin

• A copy of 2013 Newbery Honor book, Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage

Enter before March 1st! See official rules.

This sweepstakes is now closed.

A big thanks to all of you who’ve participated in our December Charity Drive! For those of you who haven’t yet joined in, we have some good news: we’re extending the deadline to January 7th!

Yes, we know that technically, that makes it no longer a December Charity Drive, but we also know that the last couple of weeks have probably been pretty un-normal for you, with school being out and maybe you’ve been out of town or maybe out-of-town visitors have been staying with your family, etc. So we figured we’d give a week of extra time to get yourself in the game.

Plus, we got 24 book reviews today — count ‘em, 24 in a single day! Maybe all those guys didn’t have computer access over the holidays, or maybe they were too busy eating candy canes to use their hands for typing, or perhaps everyone’s new year’s resolution is to write more reviews for Kidsmomo (which we would LOVE, btw). Whatever the reason, those 24 reviews in one day tell us that you guys aren’t done yet!

So you have through January 7th to submit YOUR book review for our December Charity Drive! Don’t forget, every review = $6 for UNICEF to help needy kids around the world.

And, of course, check out the latest reviews from kids like you in our Reviews by You(th) section. We’ll be adding more from today’s submissions, plus new ones as they come in!

Last week, we announced the Kidsmomo December Charity Drive. Here’s a quick refresher:

For every kid-written review we publish this month, we’ll donate $1 to charity (up to $100) — and through the magic of matching donations, every $1 we donate will become $6 for UNICEF, which helps kids in need around the world.

But the big news is… If you submit a review before Tuesday, 12/11, then even more $$$ will go to charity! Until 12/11, every review YOU send to Kidsmomo will result in $12 for kids in need. That’s right, 1 review = 12 buckaroos to help struggling kids around the world! That’s because UNICEF is doubling donations for a limited time only.

So it’s true that we have all month to reach our goal of 100 kid reviews and $600 for charity. And if you’re like us, you may be inclined to wait until the end of December to send in your book review. And that’s okay because it will still count, even if you procrastinate like we always do. (What does “procrastinate” mean? We’ll tell you later. HA HA HA HA. Er, that’s a joke you won’t get if you really don’t know what “procrastinate” means.)

BUT if you send in a review before 12/11, your review will go twice as far in helping UNICEF. They’re asking people to pick from a bunch of different life-saving and life-changing gifts. For example, here’s what YOUR reviews could pay for:

• 3 reviews = 12,000 high energy biscuits to fight hunger
• 4 reviews = two specially-designed carrying boxes so medicine can be delivered to children in hard-to-reach places
• 5 reviews = 1,800+ vitamin and nutrient packets for malnourished children

So, if you’re planning to participate in our charity drive, do it now! Submit your review before Tuesday, 12/11, and it will result in $12 to help needy children worldwide.

PS – Your review doesn’t have to be about the last book you read. It can be about any book you’ve ever read. Got a favorite that you think everyone else should read? Review that one!

Call us Captain Obvious and Captain Duh, but clearly the holiday season is upon us. Let’s go through the checklist, shall we?

✔ Pitchfork-wielding mobs at the stores
✔ Jingly music on the radio
✔ Cranky parents making to-do lists
✔ TV specials as cheesy as Velveeta (and yet super awesome)
✔ The holiday aisle of Walgreens barfed all over your neighbors’ houses and lawns
✔ Candy canes and hot cocoa

Yep, it’s the holiday season all right!

Of course, the most important part of the holidays is getting presents. JUST KIDDING! Really, the holidays are all about family and friends and a spirit of love and caring and togetherness — and in that spirit, we’re hosting the Kidsmomo December Charity Drive!

For every kid-written book review we publish in December, we’ll donate $1 to charity, up to $100. Our chosen charity is UNICEF, which helps kids in need all around the world. And get this — a couple of our friends have agreed to match our donations AND one of those friends works at a place that double matches charitable donations, so we’re going to donate through them and every $1 will turn into $6!

So help us get to our goal of 100 book reviews from kids in December! Every review YOU submit equals $6 to help needy kids worldwide!

(And guys, please don’t just send in reviews that are like, “Hi, this book is awesome, okay, byeeeeeeee!!!” At the same time you’re helping kids in need around the world, your reviews should also help other kids visiting Kidsmomo to decide which books to read! C’mon, we know you people have opinions to share.)

Can we get to 100 reviews in December? Honestly, we don’t know… Because it’s totally up to you guys! So tell your friends, tell your siblings, tell your cousins, tell your enemies, tell your neighbors, tell your crush (especially tell your crush) — it’s up to all of you to meet our 100-review goal and help donate $600 to charity!

Please don't send us any personal information such as your last name, address, or phone number. Read our Terms of Submission below before you submit your article.

Kids: Ask your parents or teachers for approval before you submit anything to us, and read our Privacy Policy Statement.

* All fields are required

Your First Name ONLY:

Your Age:

State:
AlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareDistrict of ColumbiaFloridaGeorgiaGuamHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaPuerto RicoRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaVirgin IslandsWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinWyomingOTHER

Book Title:

Author:

Your Book Review:

Rate the Book!
---11.522.533.544.55

Terms of Submission

Before being published, your submission will be reviewed. It will be checked to see that it does not contain any inappropriate language or personal information. By sending us your submission, you are giving Kidsmomo permission to edit, promote, and put it up on our site and/or read it in its entirety in our podcast. However, because lots of kids send us submissions, we won't be able to publish all of the submissions that we receive. Also, it's really important to send us only your own writing and not anything that you copied from somewhere else. Thank you.

What are you gonna be for Halloween? Here’s one thing Karen would like to be: a great artist! Sadly, if you’ve watched any of our past rounds of KidsmomoMo Pictionary, then you know this would be a HUGE stretch — even for a Halloween costume. Alas.

But if you’ve missed previous rounds of our competition, here’s how it works: all the answers are titles of books we’ve recommended on Kidsmomo in the past. Now watch Part 9 and play along! How many titles can YOU guess?

And here’s a running tally of Correct Guesses:

Is it just us, or is October flying by? Barely enough time to savor the brilliantly-colored leaves and hot cider, if you ask us. But here’s a fall favorite we’re always up for: game night!

Today we continue our monster game of KidsmomoMo Pictionary! If you’ve missed any previous rounds of our competition, here’s how it works: all the answers are titles of books we’ve recommended on Kidsmomo in the past.

Watch Part 8, below, and play along! How many titles can YOU guess?

And here’s a running tally of Correct Guesses: