CMA Blog

A few months back our CMA Writers’ Group was joined by Stephanie Smith, editorial director for Scholastic News.  Stephanie talked to us about the ins and outs of making news for kids!  Remember the colorful news magazines you used to get in classrooms when you were a kid?  That’s Scholastic News!  And they’re still around and bigger than ever!  The newspapers are shipped out to schools all over the place to support teachers’ needs.  Current events are not currently (see what I did there?) part of school curriculum (which to me seems goofy) and as Stephanie sees it, it’s our duty to keep up with current events and kids like to keep up with current events so Scholastic News help fill that void in classrooms.

One of the biggest challenges for Stephanie and her team is how to go about reporting troubling news like the Newtown shootings.  When troubling news comes up Scholastic often enlists the help of school psychologists to figure out how best to deal with things.  It’s important to explain that the event is over and not likely to happen again.  Their stories try to take a positive spin and emphasize heroics that happened, especially something that involves other kids.  Like after 9/11 Scholastic did a story on kids pitching in to collect money for the Red Cross.  They don’t emphasize the gory details and they certainly don’t want to frighten kids any further but certainly if it’s important national news, it needs to be reported!

Looking at these magazines is pretty neat.  I myself learned a bit about how astronauts eat and sleep in space.  Unless it’s big news, Scholastic tries to contextualize the news so it’s not based on breaking news that may be over with or outdated before kids get the magazines in their classrooms.  There’s also an opinion section where kids are asked to write in for the “debate of the week” like whether video games are good for you or not.  They’re also asked to write in with advice on a “sticky situation” like what should you do if your friend starts getting into trouble.  Tell his/her parents?  Talk to them?  Keep your mouth shut?  Wait, stop looking at me.  I don’t have the answer.  I was just giving an example…Fine, sheesh.  Talk to your friend.  That’s what friends are for.  Happy now?

I have no idea what this is about, but I’ve been laughing for 5 minutes

Main Takeaway: While adults are yelling that print is a dying medium, circulation for Scholastic News is through the roof because classrooms aren’t caught up to the latest technology yet.  And with current events not being a part of curriculum, I think it’s awesome that Scholastic is helping make the kids of today informed citizens.  In fact, I just decided to get a newspaper delivered to my apartment because I never know what’s going on in the world and man does it make me feel goofy sometimes.  Maybe now I’ll finally get that invite to be on Meet the Press.

What do you mean this doesn’t count?

Personal Takeaway:  You never know what stories are going to grab a kid’s attention.  Stephanie said at election time, they got more letters from kids about an article on third party candidates (the kids by and large didn’t know that there was such a thing) than they did on a piece they thought would be more appealing about big cats.  Kids if it makes you feel any better, most adults don’t really know there are third party candidates either.  This coming from a frustrated third party voter.

Inappropriate Takeaway:  Stephanie pointed out that ever since the contested election in 2000, there’s been a big disaster about every 6 months:  9/11, school shootings, war in Iraq, the Star Wars prequels.  It’s weird, eh?

Vroooommmmm!  And we’re off!  30 children’s television shows from around the world all in one day, led by the nicest tour guide you could ever hope for – David Kleeman.  Indeed folks it’s the Prix Jeunesse extravaganza!  Prix Jeunesse international is a bi-annual competition unique among other competitions because all participants can vote for the award winners.  www.prixjeunesse.de.  Each festival has a theme with research presentations, activities and discussions.  In 2012, the theme was “Watch, Learn, Grow with Children’s TV.”  I’ve had the pleasure of going to a few Prix Jeunesse screenings and David is always eager to emphasize that the submissions seen here are not typical what’s on TV every day in those particular countries – they’re festival submissions so everyone wants to put their best foot forward and submit the equivalent of the very special Family Ties where Alex’s friend got killed in a drunk driving accident.  You get the picture.

A Blog Deadline? No Way!

I’m not going to go through each of the programs we watched but I will highlight a few that stood out for me and that sparked debate among the audience.  For most folks, all the segments showing preschoolers doing things that our litigious society would never show them doing – using hammers, saws, and taking apart a giant industrial scale without adult supervision – caused the most stir.  And every time I see these things I wonder if we underestimate our own kids and what they can or can’t do.  I remember learning how to shoot a BB gun when I was around 8 years old and no, I didn’t shoot my eye out.

That’s pretty much what I looked like then                              and what I look like now

For me, as far as dangerous viewing went I thought the most egregious entry was a program from Thailand called Vitamin News.  In this one they were trying to teach safe practices during a flood and the host quizzes two kids about dos and don’ts.  One kid is giving the right answers and one kid is giving what I imagine are supposed to be glaringly wrong answers.  My problem?  I don’t know if someone who’s not schooled at all in the subject would know which answers were right and which were wrong and it seems that the host nodded and validated BOTH kids.  But maybe in Thailand knowing these things is like my assumption that a preschooler knows shoes don’t go on your head?

My favs were a selection from the Netherlands called Sien van Sellingen (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyHUUGHovFc)  in which a little girl cuts off her grandma’s hair but for all the right reasons.  And The Doll Adventure from Sweden wherein two girls totally trash their baby doll by making it “sick” and feeding it various goo from the kitchen as “medicine.”   And then there was The Pirates from Sweden which I totally want to be on.  A game show that immerses kids in a piratey world and gives them tasks to do and adventures to go on.  In the clip we saw the group of kids had already had several mateys disappear mysteriously.  It was awesome even if one of the tasks they had to do was a glorified pirate game of Jenga.

Man is there anything you can’t find on the internet?

The most innovative award (from me) had to go to Open Story from Finland.  The concept of the series is that schoolchildren entered a contest by writing open-ended stories.  The best were produced for air with a call for viewer ideas on how to complete the story.  We only saw the beginning but I’m rooting for poor Jimi to learn how to deal with his alcoholic mom and find happiness.  Also, I think I wrote a very very similar story when I was 14.

There were also your fair share of documentary programs about very unique children:  kids with autism (which gave a great view of the autism spectrum), the story of two brothers one of which is confined to a wheelchair with a degenerative disease and a show about boys who believe they should have been girls.

There was also the very controversial, bittersweet and sad Duck, Death and the Tulip from Germany which I thought was really beautiful and others thought was inappropriate.  But you should check out Dade Hayes’ article on this from the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/arts/television/prix-jeunesse-suitcase-series-of-childrens-tv-and-film.html?pagewanted=all

All in all it was a day of great programming, great company and I’m not gonna lie, my fair share of candy.

Main Takeaway: I wrote a note that says our capitalism stifles us.  How very socialist of me.  These entries definitely brought home how we in the US tend to play it safe and many of our shows have a greater desire to tackle toy shelves than they do tough issues.  There’s nothing wrong with that but I think our kids could handle some meatier content if everyone weren’t so afraid of offending everyone else.

Personal Takeaway:  I so want to be on that pirate show.  Think they take thirty-something contestants who are as short as kids?

Yo ho a pirate’s life for me!

Inappropriate Takeaway:  David said Prix Jeunesse submissions are like beer.  Some are more full-bodied and some are lighter.  And not all of them are for everyone.  Mmm…beer.

To kick off the new school and TV seasons the good folks at Sesame Workshop were kind enough to invite us into their home to get some insight into the collaboration that goes into producing the infamous Street.  Sitting down with us was Rosemarie Truglio – SVP of Education and Research, SVP of Creative and Executive Producer Carol-Lynn Parente, Chrissy Ferraro – Show and Outreach Writer and moderator Nadine Zylstra – VP of Sesame Production.

So how does Sesame Street keep it all together collaboratively?  Well for starters, they’ve had 43 years of practice.  Carol-Lynn said she feels like the moderator between writing and research.  Rosemary and her team develop the curriculum which is revised annually and she works closely with the content creators to make sure they’re hitting all their educational goals.  In case you haven’t seen the show in awhile, the emphasis is on a STEM curriculum and this year it’s branching out to include the arts.  But more on that later.

Research and production generally see outlines.  It’s up to the head writer to determine when a script is ready to go to research.  Carol-Lynn looks for any major issues and makes sure there’s a balance of characters and she monitors how many street stories and segments hit the curricular focus for that season.  Rosemary is looking for the implementation of curriculum and is reading with the eye of a three-year-old – will they get the script?

In studio, research is on hand to raise any red flags that puppeteer improvising may cause.  They used to monitor the studio feed from their offices and they had a red phone to call to the control room in case they had any issues.  But production got into the habit of ignoring the red phone and so now someone from research is always on set.

Commissioner?  What is that infernal muzak?

Chrissy is on set to make last minute changes to script if the show is running over.  They generally shoot 12-14 minutes of show a day and for every prop a puppet is handling you have to add 15 minutes to the shoot time (those rod puppets don’t actually just pick up phones and things you know – someone has to rig it up!).

Then we got a sneak peek at the new hotness on the Street:  Elmo the Musical.  Rosemary wanted to highlight the math aspect of STEM curriculum and they decided to use the arts as a tool to teach math.  Chrissy said for her the new direction toward the arts is very freeing.  We writer types aren’t always the best at math and science so sometimes (well, at least for me) we’re learning the lessons along with the characters.  So check out the new season of Sesame Street, a show that’s been around for decades and never stops evolving.  I hope someday someone can say the same about me.

Main Takeaway:  No man is an island in children’s television.  Curriculum and writing go hand in hand even if production has to step in sometimes and MAKE them hold hands.  You can’t have one without the other.  Same goes for production and research and writing and production.  That’s a lot of hands!

Hands Across the Studio

Personal Takeaway:  Just to show how seriously they take their curriculum, there was a story about how Super Grover hit a wall (as he does) and slid down.  But in reality, in real life physics you’d bounce off the wall with the same force.  So they changed it in the episode to get the science right.  Now that is curricular dedication!

Now that’s an awesome helmet.

Inappropriate Takeaway:  Someone said they shoot the Muppets in costumes first because it’s easier to undress them than it is to dress them.  There’s something about undressing Muppets that seems inappropriate, no?  

This is really the most intimidating movie poster I’ve ever seen.

BLOGGER’S NOTE:  This year for Christmas, I am giving my loyal reader(s) a holiday treat!  A present you never even knew you wanted:  more madcap recaps from yours truly!  We here at blog central will be taking next week off to eat our weight in turkey but after that from now until Christmas time we’ll post weekly!  I know, better than socks, right?  Now on to the blog:

“Marshalling the play of forces within us – outside of us – in work oblivious to all else, as a festive act – means creating in the fashion of children.”  – Johannes Itten, 1919

I have no idea who Johannes Itten is and I’ll admit right now, I’m not gonna look it up.  But he or she has gotten at the heart of what I try to do every day with my work.  My goal, of course is to make it not feel like work and sometimes it happens and then I am a kid again.  Which is fortunate since I make media for kids.  I also achieve this state when the ice cream man comes or when I’m at an amusement park but it’s more productive when I can connect it to my livelihood.  Anyhoo, this summer we went to the cultural mecca of MoMA to see the exhibit Century of the Child:  Growing by Design 1900-2000 (that’s where I saw the quote – it’s all connected, take that “Cloud Atlas”).

We were greeted by a gigantic table and chair, designed to let adults know what it means to be a child’s height and to see from a child’s perspective.  Being shorter than average, I felt I already had this perspective down.  The exhibit showcased toys and art from the last century that showed the evolution of childhood.  At the turn of the century (last century, not this one) children were being integrated into society more and were showing up in print ads and in art.  Gone were the days of seen and not heard as children were accepted as a part of society.  Now some of this was awesome – the kindergarten movement began to encourage kids to use materials and techniques to explore the world around them.  Some of it was creepy – like the display of propaganda posters that featured children or were even aimed at children.  My favorite being a Japanese game that portrayed the Allies as silly geese to be destroyed with a shake of the dice as you move your game piece around the board that included swastikas and other creepy imagery.  Unfortunately, I don’t speak Japanese so I couldn’t really decipher the directions but I got the “America bad” gist.

As the century progressed children’s toys and games started to reflect what was going on politically at the time.  Pajamas and clothes during the war made bomber planes and tanks ordinary sights and leading up to and after the moon landing there were all sorts of astronaut toys.

Even I wouldn’t eat that.

Then there was a room filled with stuff from Pee Wee’s Playhouse.  I gotta admit, I missed the cultural significance part, I was too busy resisting the urge to spin Globey.

Why does Globey always look so defensive?

Now, despite my sophisticated appearance and how shall we say, elitist tastes* I am a little bit of a little kid when it comes to museums.  I think I want to go to them, I even really want to read all the plaques of information but then I get there and I’m frustrated that I can’t touch anything.  Lucky for me, the second part of the exhibit was a trip to the Material Lab – a place for kids and Melindas to play with stuff!  Yay!

At the material lab we could open up doors to unveil materials used in exhibits at MoMA.  We saw pictures of the art pieces that use those materials and got an activity to do with those materials.  For example, Livia Beasley and I accepted the challenge to make chairs out of cardboard.  While we have no photographic evidence, I would say our little cardboard chairs rivaled the otto chair.  And so long as no one else has any pictures of our creations, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!  The materials lab was a wonderful way to get kids engaged as they could play with the materials and then go on a kind of scavenger hunt to find those materials in the art displayed at MoMA.  Awesome idea!

It’s made of cardboard.

Main Takeaway:  We rail against the loss of childhood and the idea that kids seem to grow up faster and faster but seeing this exhibit I think there’s always been this expectation of kids to grow up fast.  Seeing the way popular toys seamlessly made war the norm was really interesting.  That was it, go back to your railing.

Don’t want to eat your peas? This tiny tank says you don’t have to!

Personal Takeaway:  Gabe, my seven-year-old buddy and I made the coolest magnet story in the Material Lab.  I couldn’t do such a masterpiece justice now but it involved skulls, robots and the thought that intergalactic peace can be achieved if we all just paint pictures together.  Thanks for playing with me, Gabe!

Inappropriate Takeaway:  Surely it’s okay if I touch the “do not touch” stuff at the museum, right?  I’ll be very careful with it and I just washed my hands, so there’s no chocolate on them.  Wait a minute.  Lick.  Now there’s no chocolate on them.

Artist’s approximation of Melinda

 *Does my sarcasm come through in blog format?  Man, I hope so.

I know you wouldn’t think it of your mild-mannered blogger but I love horror movies.  Scary ones, cheesy ones, gory ones.  I declare October Halloween month and use it as an excuse to watch every horror movie there is and I trust I won’t get committed because, well, it’s Halloween month.  So imagine my delight when we had a Talking Tech event entitled:  What Left For Dead Can Teach Us About Kids’ Games.  Could it be that my affection for horror could actually help my career in children’s media?  Turns out, it just might…at least when it comes to video games.

Our wonderful presenters were Carla Engelbrecht Fisher and Anne Richards (no relation) from No Crusts Interactive.

          http://www.nocrusts.com 

First, Carla and Anne gave us some insight into how various age groups approach game playing differently.  Preschoolers are literal and egocentric, they have trouble understanding the relationship between the mouse and the screen which his why iPads and touch screens are so appealing to them.  6-8 year olds are still pretty literal but they’re refining their motor skills.  9-12 year olds are getting into abstract thinking and this is the age where gaming splits with girls becoming more interested in social games and boys getting into first person shooters.  For a STEM curriculum, game makers are looking to showcase cooperative play, play that encourages sharing ideas and constructive criticism, trial and error, the collecting and visualization of data and exploration and discovery.  Surprise, surprise some of your adult games model these principles perfectly.  Like Left For Dead, you can play it alone but it’s hard to solve unless you play cooperatively.  Lots of communication is needed to play the game so the core of the game is good for kids even if all the blood and zombies are not.  Same with Slice, a game that had all of us absolutely terrified that somehow someone was actually going to get hurt (even though that’s impossible) and reminded yours truly that I really need to catch up on my Dexter.

That’s Slice. You try to move the blades, press the button and not get your fingers hacked off.

There are also great examples of intergenerational games, not necessarily geared toward kids but everyone can enjoy them like Rock Band.  Cooperative play and trial and error!  This I can attest to as I watched my 4-year-old nephew “sing” “Eye of the Tiger” in perfect pitch and score way more than the rest of us playing instruments.  I guess Rock Band could care less if you sing actual words.  Weird.  Me?  I sing the right words in the way wrong pitch.  It’s a talent, really.  Even Angry Birds is all about trial and error and finding more than one solution to a problem.

We indeed rock.

So now you know you can play violent games and still write them off on your tax returns (Just kidding, Big Brother – don’t send me for re-education!) but if you are making video games for kids now you know what kind of interactions work best for them.  But what about what works from a narrative perspective?

I’m glad you asked, cause I totally took notes on that.  2-5 year olds need game playing that’s physically obvious, there has to be a consequence to actions instead of a motivation.  They’re not going to hang in for getting to the princess in level a billion, they will hang in there for immediate cause and effect in game playing.  Like popping balloons or collecting coins or winning a race.  They tend to recall isolated moments instead of overall plot. This age group also doesn’t understand conventions that we take for granted like flashbacks, instant replay or dream sequences.  5-8 year olds have great plot recognition and their understanding of motivation improves (they just might rescue that princess).  8-12 year olds get all of the plot and can have much richer experiences.  They describe others less in terms of external characteristics so you can really get into personalities of the characters in the games they play.  Like the Night Circus game, which is based on a book, you need to read the book to play the game – awesome.  Or LA Noire, which has an element of looking at the characters on screen and trying to understand their motivations and emotions.  Sophisticated stuff, just like this age group.

Since I most likely didn’t do the event justice (I’m still trying to stop the nightmares about Splice), check out the Kids Got Game blog on Kidscreen.com.  You won’t regret it.

Main Takeaway:  Everything is educational, even zombies and first person shooters.  The trick is to recognize those elements that are educational for kids and then make them kid appropriate.  DO NOT LET YOUR KID PLAY LEFT FOR DEAD or they just may turn out like me.  Fully functional but actually, truly afraid of zombies.  I’ve crossed the street to avoid a potential zombie attack.  I mean, that guy might have just been drunk but I’m not taking any chances.

LOL indeed, cats. LOL indeed.

Personal Takeaway:  I did not know this.  If you measure out the same amount of water in two glasses of equal size and show this to a preschooler they will say the glasses have the same amount of water.  If you then pour one of the glasses into a bigger glass, the kid will tell you that the smaller glass has more water.  Even though the kid just saw that they have the same amount of water!  So interesting.  Try it with a little one of your own, I’m not joking!

They have no idea. Seriously.

Zombilee zoo! Zombilee zoo! Blood and guts are waiting for you!

Melinda here.  So last time I got all political and the country’s getting all political so I thought you might like a break from political (and me) and enjoy yet another wonderful, wonderful guest blogger!  Hmm, why did I miss this event?  I believe I was trying to broker peace in the Middle East and help Bono pick out some new shades, his were getting kinda old.  Yeah, let’s go with that.  My good friend and active CMAer (see how I seamlessly integrated that?) Michal Richardson, she who shares a name very similar to my maiden name, graciously offered to recap the writers’ workshop with the famous Betsy Bird. Michal helps to create educational games by day, but can often be found folk dancing or elbow-deep in calligraphic ink.  She hopes to one day perform a song on her ukulele from atop a unicycle.  And I hope to see her do it!  Take it away Michal!

That’s a guitar but you get the point

No one I know (or at least, no one I keep in touch with anymore) has ever truly called off that enduring love affair with children’s literature.  But few enthusiasts for the genre could ever hope to rival the unbridled zealotry of Betsy Bird.  At a recent meeting of the writers’ group, in her gloriously geeky and effortlessly witty way, Ms. Bird demonstrated how to take children’s book appreciation to a whole new level.

As the Youth Materials Collections Specialist for the New York Public Library (or some sort of Grand High Children’s Librarian, as far as I can figure), Bird performed her job to perfection.  I came away with a long list of books to read, and a newfound yen for scouring for them online and placing them on hold for pickup at my local branch.  I’ve never felt quite so warm and fuzzy about the NYPL.

Bird outlined emerging trends she’s noticed in various subgenres of children’s literature.  I drew little stars in my notebook next to books given a particularly enthralling pitch – and the stars kept coming.  We learned that hopeful imitators of wizarding-universe fantasy and diary-style novels continue to thrive (as I circled my star next to The Strange Case of Origami Yoda), along with a sudden fascination with books about foster children.  Bird waxed eloquently and longingly about the perfect name of Sarah Pennypacker, author of the foster children-focused novel Summer of the Gypsy Moths (and according to the NYPL website, my copy has just arrived).

Do or do not make origami Yoda.      There is no try.

How anyone named Betsy Bird could covet other names is beyond me.  Then again, I’ve been recording her name as “BB” or “BBird.”  I’ve browsed a few Sesame Street archival scripts in my time, and I keep misreading my own notes so as to attribute Ms. Bird’s lines to a certain 8-foot canary.

Ms. Bird instructed us to be wary of young adult publishers’ predilection for post-vampires, post-zombies, angel-focused fiction – and a post-Hunger Games fervor for dystopic, steampunk-inspired literature.  We were warned to steer clear of celebrity picture books, including Jay Leno’s morbidly intriguing-sounding train wreck If Roast Beef Could Fly.  (I’ll spare you the distressing visuals; you can seek those out yourself.)

Aspiring authors also received a bit of practical advice:  the world always needs more alphabet and counting books, more books about trains, and more books about death.  (Has anyone notified Jay Leno?)  And Bird advised us to get an agent, a SCBWI membership, and the 2013 edition of the Children’s Books Writers & Illustrators Market.  We even learned that the Authors’ Guild can score you health insurance.

But frankly, the most abiding lesson I gleaned from this event was the unnerving but unmistakable wish to simply be Betsy Bird.

Betsy Bird – children’s book guru

For starters, she’s got the best job in the world.  Apparently some librarians’ jobs involve more than agitated shushing and exhorting of teenagers to put their skateboards away:  Bird gets to preview children’s books, and decide their fates on the shelves of the NYPL.

And with the boundless and contagious joy she takes in delineating all her favorite angles on a book well done – and a similar enthusiasm for analyzing why some books simply don’t work – you can see how she landed the job.  She’s damned good at it.

Nowhere did this come across more comprehensively than in the category of picture books.  Bird instilled in me an uncanny desire to read Chloe and the Lion (a meta-aware book in which the lion eats the illustrator), and a preemptive adoration for I Want My Hat Back, which she compared to the work of Edward Gorey.  Sign me up.

When I got home to secure my copy of I Want My Hat Back, I discovered a review on the NYPL site written by none other than Ms. Bird.  As it turns out, in addition to her busy life as a librarian, writer, and blogger, Bird has managed to churn out thousands of book reviews across her own blog (http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/afuse8production/) and numerous other sites.  When does this woman sleep?

Betsy Bird has extensive thoughts about children’s books, and is only too happy to share them.  Her views take into account issues I’d never have considered unless I became a children’s librarian myself:  how a book plays to a group of kids when read aloud, for instance.  Bird’s instinct is to analyze the cover, the aesthetic choices of the illustrations, the size of the book and the feel of the pages, the meter usage and the word choices, to hone in on the book’s read-aloud value.  Basically, she thinks like a children’s librarian – one with a singular devotion to her craft.

Bird’s hundreds of thousands of words worth of thoughts on these matters add up to more than an endearingly geeky quirk.  Her reverence for children’s books reminds us of why we take an interest in how they evolve, and why we ever began adoring them in the first place:  these books introduced us to letters and phonemes and words, and to connecting words with telling stories.

Children’s books helped to raise us, and without them (unless you were the type to pick up War and Peace as a tot – which, despite my parents’ best efforts, I was not) we might never have come to love reading, and subsequently arrived at all the modes of storytelling we employ in our lives as media-makers.

So go ahead and revel in I Want My Hat Back.  The New York Public Library has 92 copies.  Someone has made sure of that.

Ahh the first blog of the new CMA!  And a new logo even.  Classy, eh?  It’s fitting that as we expand our wonderful organization to be more inclusive to everyone who represents and loves children’s media that the first blog of the new CMA is about gender issues in media.  It’s as close to controversial or political as I’m ever going to get so pay attention.  Or skip it and go get some coffee.  I’m flexible.

If you think it’s hard out here for a pimp, try being a young woman navigating your way through the media!  We were treated to a screening of “Miss Representation,” a film which explores the way women are portrayed in the media and how that effects the overall perception of women in this country.

My notes are a little sporadic (it was dark and I was enjoying the movie) but here are some things I took away and some insights I had while watching.

Some Interesting Things I’ve Never Thought About:

• When women entered the workforce en masse during World War II a lot of them wanted to keep their jobs after the war.  So TV in the ‘50s was designed to make women want to stay at home.  New appliances were featured on TV shows and an emphasis was placed on the family unit with dad as breadwinner and mom staying home to take care of the house.
• The US is 90^th in the world for women in legislature and footage of how reporters (both male and female) talk about female candidates was fairly shocking.  They’re more likely to talk about what the women were wearing and how they look than they do for their male counterparts.
• Someone in the film, though I can’t recall who, said, and I paraphrase, Women are expected to be able to win Miss USA, have sex like Samantha on “Sex and the City” and have a mind like June Cleaver.  We are a nation of teenaged boys.

Start a revolution? Don’t be silly, Beav.

While watching, I started to think of the way men are portrayed in the media.  While of course this varies from show to show I kept going back to sitcoms where the men are often portrayed as being goofballs and horn dogs (I was thinking of “Two and a Half Men” a lot) and reality TV where the men are often these big, really macho types.  I think there may be a greater problem with our society in that intelligence doesn’t seem to be something that is prized in most of our media.  I think it’s getting better with movies like “Spiderman” and shows like “The Big Bang Theory” championing the geek cause but still, intelligence seems to fall by the wayside whereas backstabbing, alcoholism and bad behavior sell shows.  I was about to point out that even on “Big Bang Theory” the girl is hot and not a geek but then we have PhD earning Bernadette who manages to be cute and geeky at the same time.  Hmmm…  I totally digress.

I have a PhD.

At the after panel we got some insight into the minds of teenaged girls as they talked about their media experience and the thing that seemed to be echoed over and over again is that they have a dialogue with their parents about media and how the images on TV aren’t normal.  These girls seemed very media literate and savvy to the tricks that the media uses.  Still, it’s not enough.  Some young women aren’t getting that kind of insight from strong female role models in their lives.  I thought about it for a moment and I initially thought I didn’t have specifically female role models when I was growing up.  I wanted to be Jim Henson and Stephen King.  But then again, I had the most important positive female role model – my mother – encouraging me to prize intelligence above all else.  It’s a lesson I try to impart to my teenaged niece, especially when I hear about her watching Teila Tequila.  So yes, ladies, let’s make media that supports smart, intelligent women and let’s not talk about Hillary or Sarah Palin’s hair anymore!  But let’s make media that prizes intelligence on everyone’s part because our country could use a generation of kids who want to win quiz bowl instead of wanting to have the most off the hook sweet sixteen.

Look at the big brain on Brett.

Okay, don’t let me down folks, I’m actively soliciting comments on this presentation.  Folks who were there what do you think?  What did you takeaway from it all?  Here are my takeaways:

Main Takeaway:  People are impressionable, the brain doesn’t stop developing until we’re well into our 20s.  Depictions of women in the media do have an impact on the way we think and act toward each other.

Personal Takeaway:  I really wish we could just stop talking about men vs. women.  We’re all people, let’s just all be that and not worry about anyone’s gender. Let’s not stereotype anyone.  Let’s make media with characters that are well-rounded and nuanced because that’s what makes interesting characters, regardless of their gender.

Inappropriate Takeaway:  Someone in the film said something about ESPN being for men.  Why?  I watch sports.  We all have to be careful about not stereotyping anyone, men included.  I cringe every time I hear one of my girlfriends say something like, “You know what guys are like” and I’ll admit I’ve done it, too.  We roll our eyes when men say things like “women be shopping” and we should also roll our eyes when women say things like “you know how men are with their sports.”  Blech.

C’mon, Kevin. Even you know better.

Let’s face it, without Joan Ganz Cooney I’d just be some lunatic on the street ranting to myself about singing turtles and pirates.  With Joan Ganz Cooney I have turned the fantasy world I live in 100% of the time into a lucrative career.  The WiCMinos were lucky enough to be invited to the Museum of the Moving Image (if you haven’t been there go, it’s awesome) in Queens for an evening with the aforementioned children’s television rock star.

Ms. Cooney talked a bit about the origins of our favorite fictional street.  At the time when Sesame Street was conceived she was working at Thirteen and she noticed that children all over the country were singing beer commercials.  Joan thought if they can learn that from watching TV couldn’t they learn something practical like their ABCs?  Research showed that disadvantage kids went to school not knowing the basics that their more privileged counterparts knew.  Sesame Street was designed to bring everyone up to speed by creating a sort of Laugh-In for kids.  Of course at the time, the common perception was that kids had short attention spans, something that we know now just isn’t true especially if you’ve seen a child patiently waiting for Dora to listen to them and choose the right path.

Some fun facts about the Street:

Initially Henson didn’t want to do it.  He didn’t want to do something that was just for kids.  Thank goodness he changed his mind.

The first episodes also didn’t have puppets on the street. Advisors didn’t want to mix the fantasy of the puppets with the reality of the real urban street setting.  Of course, the kids thought that was Bor.Ing.

Get outta here, Bird! You too, Bert, Ernie, Cookie Monster!
(Really I put this in because I totally had this when I was a kid)

Those are the highlights, or at least the things I jotted down that were legible in my little old-fashioned blogger notebook.  I’d write more but I have to go mutter to myself about pirates and dinosaurs that ride trains.  Though of course not all together.  That would be crazy.

Main Takeaway:   Though I kid, none of us would be here if Sesame Street didn’t strike a chord with children and parents in 1969.  The show continues to be hugely popular and I believe the headline “Politicians Threaten To Kill Big Bird” is the main thing that keeps funding coming for shows on PBS.  It reminds us of everything that was imaginative and awesome about our childhood and even those nasty politicians don’t want to kill that.

Personal Takeaway:  Was the above observation not personal enough for you?  I even hinted at politics!  The only politics I ever talk about have to do with gender discrimination issues at competitive eating contests.  Mama always said never talk about politics or money in dinner party conversation or on the internet.  That’s right, my mother predicted the invention of the internet back in the ‘70s, take that Al Gore.  Oh no, more politics!

Hot dog eating and the liberal agenda. Tonight on 20/20.

Inappropriate Takeaway:  This is inappropriate just because I couldn’t believe it happened.  As a person who considers herself to be very genderblind when dealing with people, the fact that stories like this exist shock me time after time.  Someone asked Joan if she had ever had difficulty being a woman in the business.  She said some funders wondered if a woman would be taken seriously in the role of President and Chief Executive Officer.  She was actually asked to make  a list of men she would recommend for HER job.  In the end, she refused to act as deputy with someone else in charge.  Right on!

Full disclosure (A disclaimer even before I start writing? Intriguing, isn’t it?):  I work for Speakaboos as one of their freelance writers.  Luckily, the company has been an absolute joy to work with so I couldn’t think of anything negative to say about them if I tried.  Noelle Millholt and fellow WiCMino Amy Kraft were kind enough to sit down with our writers group and tell us all about this innovative new company.

So here’s how Speakaboos works.  The company’s mission is to inspire a love of reading through digital storytelling.  ‘Nuff said.  What?  Oh you’re wondering how! Basically, parents subscribe to Speakaboos.  For a modest monthly subscription fee (say $5) you get access to the entire Speakaboos library of interactive books on any device (phone, iPad, computer, tricorder, whatever…).

But Captain – no bedtime story?

It’s a better value than going to iTunes and paying a couple of bucks per story AND you get the added bonus of getting to try out the site before committing to subscribing.  Don’t like a story?  No problem, download another one without having to pay per story.  Brilliant!  The Speakaboos audience is 3 to 5 year olds and there are three different modes of interactivity so you can tailor your experience to your child’s needs.  There’s autoplay sort of like a storybook movie with text being read by a narrator and animation, read with me which has a narrator and page interactions that you can click on and play with (that’s my favorite) and read it myself where you, well, read it yourself.

So for the modes with interactivity the main text of the page is read (for example, “One, two buckle my shoe”) and then the reader can click on characters and things in the illustrations to get interactions.  The interactions range from being bonus dialogue that supports the text to little games where maybe you can indeed help the character buckle his or her shoe.

That doesn’t seem right…

Each story is kid tested to make sure it’s understandable, relatable, engaging and that it lends itself to interactivity.  The interactive moments are also tested as well as any games that may be in the story.  The challenges of writing these stories are really keeping in mind the three modes.  You can’t rely on the interactions to do the heavy lifting of the story since a kid could be reading the story without the interactions.  You also have to keep in mind that kids aren’t going to click on things in any particular order.  They may have started with the buckling my shoe game so then it wouldn’t make sense if you clicked on the kid and she said “Oh no, I have to buckle my shoe!”  We already did that!  There’s a time travel analogy to be made here but I can’t think of it.  Basically, you have to contemplate all the “ifs” and the interactions have to be engaging whether the kid clicks around the page like a madperson or clicks on one thing and turns to the next page.

Speakaboos content is made up of public domain stories revamped for an original twist (basketball playing Cinderella anyone?), licensed content and content from IP owners.  For example, Speakaboos is partnering with Henson to create stories based on some of their preschool properties.

Check it out at http://www.speakaboos.com/

Main Takeaway: In terms of writing, interactive storytelling opens up a whole new set of challenges and opportunities to enhance and explore beyond the text.  Ever wonder what this little piggy was going to market for?  With the interactive storybook you can click on the pig and find out AND help him pick out what he needs from his shopping list.  Cool.

That kid really oughta see a podiatrist

Personal Takeaway:  Ha ha!  Personally?  All I got is, I love my job.  The team at Speakaboos has some brilliant minds behind it and they are not only embracing new technology, they are taking it by the horns.

Inappropriate Takeaway:  Noelle and Amy used the “Buckle my Shoe” story as an example and as soon as I started thinking about the rhyme it turned into the kids’ chant from “A Nightmare on Elm Street.”

One, two buckle my shoe

Three, four shut the door

Five, six pick up sticks

Seven, eight gonna stay up late

Nine, ten never sleep again

Hold on, that’s not right.  The same thing happens when I try to recite “Twas the Night Before Christmas” and it turns into “The Raven.”

Freddy Cat, Freddy Cat what are they feeding you?

The lovely folks at Insight Media invited us to their offices in the hopes of giving us insight into the mysterious minds of the illusive 9-12 age range.  Insight Kids is a research driven strategy firm dedicated to the development of innovative, impactful and inspiring experiences for kids and families.  I just made that up!  Just kidding, that’s Insight’s mission statement. http://www.insightstrategygroup.com/

Ready to delve into the mind’s of 9-12 year olds?  Or as Insight likes to call them the Kiderati (as in the upper echelon of kiddom).  Well, let’s start by taking a quick look at their kid counterparts.  3-5 year olds are going from being dependent to exploring the world around them.  6-8 year olds are going from exploring the world around them to figuring out who they are in the world.  9-12 year olds are going from figuring out who they are in the world to learning how to be their best selves.  They’re thinking about the future, they’re multi-tasking they’re evaluating what they’re good at.  I’m pretty sure I’m still one of them.

But even within that 9-12 age range the kids are drastically different.  The 9s are looking for simple stories, they’re impatient to get to the good stuff while 12 year olds are looking for more complex, engaging stories and they’ll wait for a payoff over time.  The 12s also grasp nuances more easily.  Physically, their bodies are different, too.  The 9s have kids’ bodies, baby teeth and smooth skin.  The 12s look more adult, they’re starting to wear braces (Yuck!  That was me) and get zits.  Socially, the 9s are still dependent on mom and dad and they mostly have same sex peer groups.  The 12s are becoming independent of their parents and are interested in the opposite sex.

But calm down, would be programmers for this age group, there are still similarities within the age range.  These kids are all grappling with fragile self-esteem, body image worries, they’re identifying their interests and forming social cliques.  They’re starting to specialize, plug in, they worry about bullies, they care about the world.

He’s got the whole world…you know the rest

So what is this vastly differing age range looking for in their media experiences?  They use media to help manage their moods, explore new places, experience safe failure and virtual success through games.  They want content that makes them laugh, feel smart, that lets them still be kids, that is edgy and rule-breaking, that shows hyper talented role models.  They want media that’s just for them.  They want media that helps them do their homework, relax, get social cred, and help them navigate the work of growing up.  Tall order, eh?  All right, there’s the info, no go to!

Also has the whole world in their hands but in a more terrifying way

Main Takeaway: The way I see it, programming for this age group is not unlike programming for adults.  I don’t think you’re going to please all of the kids all of the time.  In the same way that your American Horror Story crowd may not also be watching Seventh Heaven. (Can you tell I’m an AHS viewer?  I couldn’t even think of a current Seventh Heaven equivalent.)  Don’t feel like you need to program for all of their interests all at once.  That would be crazy! They’re just too nuanced -like adults.

You could get with this…

…or you could get with that.

Personal Takeaway:  The presentation had me thinking “of course” a lot but I realized I hadn’t thought about being a 9 year old in a long time.  They’re not some illusive alien target audience, in fact I don’t think I’m all that different from my 9 year old self.  I’m going to take that as a plus.

Now this is an illusive alien

Inappropriate Takeaway:  With kids becoming more and more tech savvy, I’m wondering if there may be any 9 year olds out there who’d like to be my part time IT team?  I’ll pay you in popsicles and soda just like I got when I was a kid and used to babysit.  Anyone?

Who needs cold, hard cash?

There’s a hundred and four days of summer vacation

And school comes along just to end it

So the annual problem for our generation

Is finding a good way to spend it

Like maybe…

Taking in the “Phineas and Ferb” live show?  That’s what we WiCMinos did in April and we were lucky enough to get a private pre-show Q&A with the good folks at Feld Entertainment.  Feld is a family run business that produces Disney Live, Disney on Ice, Ringling Brothers and motorcross sports.  So how do you bring classic or popular TV or movie properties to life on the stage?  Feld looks at properties they think could adapt to their particular purpose.  For Disney on Ice, they look for properties that lend themselves to dance and movement.  For Disney Live they are looking at shows that could travel anywhere and don’t need huge venues.

Oh so that’s motorcross

Each Disney Live story is an original work with an all-new creative team brought in to help execute it.  They work closely with the show creators and head writers to make sure they are getting the essence of the property but each production is totally original with sets and costumes made just for that show.  I really love that Feld strives to do something different instead of having families pay to see the same story they could stay home and watch on TV (Creators of movie remakes please take note.).

As for the show itself?  Well, it was the Best Live Show Ever (literally that was the name of the show).  It was amazing and heartwarming to see all these excited little kids singing the songs, rooting for their heroes and booing the evil Dr. Doofenschmirtz. Though the TV show is targeted for older kids, many of the audience members were younger than the target demo but that’s the beauty of the show.  It had something for everyone.  Older kids, younger kids and parents can enjoy it together.  And I’ll admit, after the live show, I’ve now started watching the TV show on a regular basis.  It’s pretty awesome.  You should check it out.

Seriously? It rocks.

But mermaids and fish don’t have feet…how can they…Wha?

Main Takeaway:   Live theatre is a huge gamble.  If your show doesn’t do well you could be looking at 6 figure loses on a WEEKLY basis.  Mr. Feld shared with us the stories of two such shows. The first was Starlight Express on Ice.  It had all the elements of a fantastic ice show but perhaps the idea was past its prime?  Though, personally, I don’t understand how an ‘80s rollerskating musical could ever go out of style in the first place.  I mean, “Xanadu” anyone?  The other shocker was “Big:  The Musical.”  It got pretty good reviews but the audiences just didn’t come.  Mr. Feld admitted he’s still trying to puzzle that one out.  Mr. Feld also mentioned that it’s harder to keep up with the times because DVDs come out so quickly and shows and movies tend to lose popularity fast because there’s always something else coming down the pipeline.

Okay, but I get to be on top.

Personal Takeaway:  Kids will come with you for the transition from screen to stage and have a much easier time of it than adults.  The exuberant little girl behind me had no doubt in her mind that she was seeing Perry the Platypus up on stage and not a person in costume.  The actors work very hard to get the nuances of the characters right and I see that they nailed them now that I am watching the show on a regular basis.  Kids want to believe but you gotta help them along.

The eyes have it

Inappropriate Takeaway:  The show has inspired me to work on my own –inator.  I call it the Enigmaticinator and it will get everyone in the Tri-State area to think that I am the most mysterious and powerful person they’ve ever met.  See? It’s working already.

First off, you can’t beat an event that comes with SWAG and Cat in the Hat swag to boot!  So thanks in advance for the nifty activity books.  I thought about doing this post all in rhyme.  Then I thought about my sanity.  But see if you can spot the random rhyming throughout!

WiCM’s first TV 360 event of the year was with the creators of PBS hit The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That.  We sat down with Kate Klimo, VP, Director Creative Development at Random House Children’s Entertainment; Kerry Milliron, Random House Children’s Brand Management; Alice Jonaitis, Sr. Editor Books for Young Readers and Lynn Kestin Sessler Sr. Producer of New Media Marketing to find out how a classic children’s book becomes an educational television show.

To get this series started we have to go way back to when the world was graced with the wonderfully talented Ted Geisel aka Dr. Seuss.  The doctor was always interested in making movies and TV shows.  He approached NASA (yes – THE NASA) about writing rhyming non-fiction that would help kids be more science literate.  Though the doctor passed away in 1991 before the books came to fruition Random House launched the series in 1998 helmed by writer Tish Rabe.  Children’s television goddess Linda Simensky approached Random House about doing a Dr. Seuss show for PBS.  Awesome!  Magic.  Done.  Right?  Nope.

Like Schwarzenegger but less threatening

The Dr. Seuss estate had to give the a-okay before a series could be created.  The good news is they said all right and it would only cost a cool mil.  The bad news is they were not willing to grant any merchandising rights. For those of you who produce shows for a living you know that in our world of low budgets and penny-pinching merchandising is key to getting a property off the ground.  It seems that the estate was very upset with how Universal dealt with the Cat in the Hat and Grinch live action movies so they decided to pull the plug on further merchandising.

Now that’s a big plug to pull

What on earth what on earth would they do?

Before it was started the project was through!

Then Random House acted and without fuss or derision

They started a children’s entertainment division!

Now what rhymes with purple again?

That’s right, Random House decided to fund the show in the hopes that they could defray some of the cost with book sales.  They wound up with a co-pro with iTV and Treehouse TV in Canada.  There were certain advantages to having a show based on an already beloved property.  Like, since they already had the books they were able to market the show upfront, 6 months before the official launch.  And it worked!  Book sales doubled when the show launched.  On the web side, they were able to do a rework of seussville.com a month before the show launched and then with the show came the official PBS site (which was a KidScreen award finalist by the way, not too shabby).  And now TCITHKALAT (sounds like a demon on Supernatural, doesn’t it?) is a big hit and the Random House Children’s Division is pitching many more new shows!

Random Aside*:  In sharing materials with us we saw a glimpse of a marketing doc that called the show highly animated.  Was anyone else there thinking this:

Lt. Kaffee: Would you say the show was animated?

                                                    Col. Jessep:  Yes.

Lt. Kaffee:  Highly animated?

                    Col. Jessep:  Is there any other kind?

No?  That’s what I thought.

Main takeaway:  Where there’s a will there’s a way.  All challenges lead to new opportunities. If not for the trials and tribulations of getting the Cat to the small screen, Random House might never have started their entertainment division.

The team believed in the show

and that was the thing they most needed to know.

It’s a joke! I kid.

Personal takeaway:  The show could only get off the ground financially by doing the ever-popular Canadian co-pro.  Dear United States:  How about some tax incentives for your animated programs?  Kids are people, too.

And bring back this show while you’re at it. Remember this? Anyone?

Inappropriate takeaway:   Did you know termites use spit and dirt to build their houses?  Three-bedroom apartment here I come!

Close Enough

*Random Aside is not affiliated with Random House or any of its employers or production partners and is the sole invention of Melinda LaRose’s addled brain.

That’s right, it’s me, Melinda – I have arrived.  Now I might not be as witty as Lucas or as tall as Lucas or as manly as Lucas but I’m here gosh darnit and possession is 9/10s of the law (Take that, Lucas! Lawyered!)  and now (Darth Vader voice)  this blog belongs to me.

The dark side has lawyered you, young Skywalker

Our first event of this joyous new year of Melinda blogging and, perhaps not un-coincidentally, the year the world is supposed to come to an end began with “Girl Power!  With Danielle Gillis and Lynn Kestin Sessler.”  In the spirit of full disclosure I must admit upfront that I want to be Word Girl.  I’m already married to a guy we affectionately call Grammar Man…

This book is actually in my apartment

…and Word Girl embodies everything that I want to be.  She’s intelligent, she has super powers, she has a monkey sidekick named Captain Huggy Face and she has met Weird Al Yankovic.

Weird Al Yankovic - Rock God

Danielle walked us through the origin of Word Girl.  The series was created by Dorothea Gillim at WGBH Boston in 2001 for kids age 4-9.  It hit the airwaves in 2006 as shorts and finally in 2007 it took on its current 11:00 format.  Each episode features two target vocabulary words and the writers make sure the words are used in every single scene.  As for the origins of World Girl herself, well she’s from the planet Lexicon of course!  She crash landed on earth where she must maintain her secret identity, fight bad guys and get her homework done just like everyone else.

In a business where there is an acknowledged lack of positive female role models, how does Word Girl do it?  Well for one thing she is a well-rounded character.  The creators made sure Word Girl didn’t fall into any stereotypical girl character traps.  She’s smart without being bossy, whiny or annoying.  She’s just as comfortable beating up bad guys as she is playing Pretty Princess (her favorite show within a show) and she fights the most hilarious cast of villains this side of “Real Housewives of New Jersey” including my personal fav – Lady Redundant Woman.  My fav – Lady Redundant Woman.  (see what I did there?)

You can check out the regular cast of baddies on the Word Girl website (www.pbskids.org/wordgirl) which conveniently brings me to Lynn’s part of the presentation.

Lynn gave us some insight into the web presence of the show.  The site was launched in 2005, one year before the show launched and it had some of the first video game style educational interactive games.  Full disclosure:  I have been playing games on the website for about an hour now.  That’s right, I rescued Pretty Princess and I learned vocabulary: effervescent, serene and haunted!  What have you done today?

And the last part of the presentation was a sneak peak at the new Word Girl special “The Rise of Miss Power” because Word Girl’s already taken on the Butcher and Mr. Big and now she’s going to take on bullying, probably the most hot button kids’ issue of the century.  Don’t ask me how, it was a super secret sneak peek so you’re just going to have to tune in to see.

Main takeaway: Boys will watch a show with a female main character if the show is compelling, funny and has wonderful well-rounded characters.  Besides, who do you think buys She-Hulk comics (besides me)?

It's not easy being green, kicking butt and taking names!

Personal takeaway:  I can be a pretty princess and be a superhero.  We all do it every day.

Inappropriate takeaway:  Does Miss Power remind anyone else of Lady Gaga?  And, therefore, could Miss Gaga be an alien from another planet?  Perhaps one of the “V?”  I mean, I’ve never seen any of them in a room together.