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Resources, Resources & a New Children’s Book By Rebecca Rupp!
Anybody taking chemistry? From Britain’s University of Nottingham, the Periodic Table of Videos is a wonderful teaching tool: there’s a short informative (and occasionally hilarious) video for each element, often with experimental demonstrations. These people love their science, and it’s contagious. Go watch them blow up a hydrogen balloon, drop a lump of sodium into a dog dish, and visit a linear accelerator.
Take a bath and help save the planet. Celebriducks makes what is advertised as the world’s first 100% recycled rubber duck. It looks pretty much like your standard bathtub duckie, but it’s green (“Green is the new yellow!”), and it comes neatly packed in a 100% recycled cardboard box.
The green ducks cost $11.99 apiece. Recommended for bath- and planet-lovers of all ages.
Justice
Straight from Harvard, Michael Sandel’s 12-part online lecture series is a fascinating experience for teenagers and adults. Each hour-long lecture covers a different moral dilemma, and all provide not just food, but a positive feast, for thought.
Episode One, for example, “The Moral Side of Murder,” begins with the following conundrum: You’re driving a trolley car along a track and suddenly, there in front of you, are five men working on the rail. There’s no way you can stop. No matter what you do, you’re going to kill all five.
Then you spot a side rail, on which only a single person is working. What should you do? Divert your car onto the side rail and kill one man, or continue on your current course and kill five?
Soon, however, the problem becomes far more complicated – and leads to the utilitarian philosophy of Jeremy Bentham and the case for cannibalism, based on a famous 19th-century legal debate. A shipwrecked crew of four, after nineteen days lost at sea, decides to kill the weakest among them – the cabin boy – so that the rest can survive. What do you think? How far should utilitarianism go?
Other lectures cover such topics as the libertarian concept of individual rights (how free should we be to make our own choices?); the validity of the draft; the ethics of lying; the pros and cons of affirmative action; and the legality of same-sex marriage.
The web site has related readings, discussion guides for each episode (at Beginner and Advanced levels), and opportunities to participate in online discussions.
Thought-provoking, challenging, and highly recommended.
Resistance
The first of a planned trilogy for ages 13 and up, Resistance (First Second, 2010), written by Carla Jablonski and illustrated by Leland Purvis, is a graphic novel about the French Resistance movement during World War II.
The war has already come close to Paul Tessier and his younger sister Marie: their father is a prisoner of the Germans. Paul’s best friend, Henri Levy, is Jewish; when his parents suddenly vanish, Paul and Marie concoct a plan to hide Henri from the Nazis in the wine caves of their parents’ hotel. Then Paul learns of the secret Resistance movement, and the three kids bravely decide to join.
The story is suspenseful, sometimes painful, but still wonderfully done. Well-presented background historical information sets the stage for readers who may not be familiar with World War II France.
And here’s what Kirkus had to say about my latest book, which is coming out on September 1:
OCTAVIA BOONE’S BIG QUESTIONS ABOUT LIFE, THE UNIVERSE, AND EVERYTHING
Author: Rupp, Rebecca
Review Date: August 15, 2010
Publisher:Candlewick
Pages: 192
Price ( Hardback ): $15.99
Publication Date: September 1, 2010
ISBN ( Hardback ): 978-0-7636-4491-8
Category: Fiction
Rupp tackles some heavy material in this provocative middle-grade novel. Once Octavia’s mother, Ray, joins the Fellowship of the Redeemer church, their formerly happy household quickly unwinds. Ray had always encouraged Octavia to be an individual, question authority and think for herself. But Ray’s total acceptance of the church’s doctrine, which is the antithesis of her former beliefs, leaves Octavia and her dad confused. Then, just before Christmas, a holiday the church does not celebrate, Ray leaves to live with other Redeemer disciples.
Narrator Octavia revisits her seventh-grade year to find a reason for Ray’s turnabout, revealing a young girl struggling to make sense of things she has little control over. Her chatty, opinionated, often funny account makes manifest her precociousness, establishing the believability of her insightful-beyond-her-years arguments against organized religion—which make vigorous discussion fodder. The year that changed her life leaves Octavia with some big questions: “What makes a more-or-less normal person with a more-or-less normal life suddenly go off the deep end about God?” Readers may well find themselves wondering the same. (Fiction. 9-12)
Becky Rupp
rebeccarupp@gmail.com
P.S. from Grandma Linda (Dobson) – Maybe if enough people leave comments here, we can talk Becky into offering up a copy of OCTAVIA BOONE’S BIG QUESTIONS ABOUT LIFE, THE UNIVERSE, AND EVERYTHING for a giveaway for Parent at the Helm readers! Congratulations, Becky, and good luck with the book!
[…] Dobson presents Resources, Resources & a New Children’s Book By Rebecca Rupp!, saying, “from Grandma Linda (Dobson) – Maybe if enough people leave comments here, we can […]