Anne Frank - The Whole Story + Jewish Holocaust Museum = Teens Off The Couch

While Stephanie Meyer and Dan Brown's latest tomes might be on your teen's holiday reading list, Anne Frank can give these best-sellers a run for their money. In Anne Frank: A Diary of a Young Girl, the young author's description of being thirteen captures readers with the same heart-stopping directness today that it did when we raced through it decades ago. In fact, the original film adaptation (based on a popular stage play) was produced fifty years ago and has just been re-released on DVD. Our kids found ABC's 2001 mini-series, Anne Frank - The Whole Story more compelling, for it portrays Anne's entire life with equal weight given to her childhood, her time in hiding, and the end of her life in the concentration camps. (An added bonus is Ben Kingsley as Otto Frank). Although the subject matter is tough, our kids loved Anne from her book because they are aware that despite the difference in country, culture and time, Anne was just like them—interested in movies, boys, and clothes, while frustrated with the adults around her. That frustration with parents extends to knowing that such horrors as the Holocaust have happened in their world, so a visit to a Jewish Heritage Museum helps kids to see how one person can effect change. At the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, our teens pored over a few Anne Frank artifacts, and then took an intense, guided tour through an interactive exhibit that simulates being in a concentration camp. (This is not an adventure for young children!) To resenstitize our teens, we attended a talk by a Holocaust survivor who is alive because the woman who found her hiding in a barn chose to give her food and a jacket rather than call the Gestapo. Our excursion allowed us to share our closely held values with our teens on topics that remain relevant today and hopefully will help to cultivate righteous values and actions in our lives. (Click here for links to the best Jewish Heritage museums around the US, and to learn how Hilary Swank's Freedom Writers is related to Anne Frank.)

Kids Off The Couch - Summer Readin': Had Me a Blast

Summer is an ideal time for kids to catch up on leisurely reading. Whether delving into beautifully illustrated picture books with the youngsters, or turning pages pool-side with the big kids, you'll find lots to love on our Summer Reading List.

Our faves? Rose Blue's Ron's Big Mission uses colorful images to teach little readers about segregation, and older ones will love laughing at Harper's clumsy protagonist in Uh-Oh Cleo. My One Hundred Adventures reminds us of our latest film obsession, Pixar's luscious Up; and the sci-fi loving middle schooler can explore the dark and mysterious world of Miyuki Miyabe's Brave Story.

PICTURE BOOKS: Ron's Big Mission (Blue, Rose), Pete & Pickles (Breathed, B.), The Flower Man: A Wordless Picture Book (Ludy, Mark), Word Builder (Paul, Ann Whitford), The man Who Lived In A Hollow Tree (Shelby, Anne), Monsoon Afternoon (Sheth. Kashmira), The Story Blanket (Wolff, Ferida).

EARLY READERS: The Secret of the Painted House (Bauer, Marion Dane), Bad Kitty Gets a Bath (Bruel, Nick), Nikki & Deja (English, Karen), Uh-Oh, Cleo (Harper, Jessica), Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things (Look, Lenore)

UPPER ELEMENTARY CHAPTER BOOKS: Millions (Cottrell, Boyce Frank), The Tomorrow Code (Falkner, Brian), The Girl Who Could Fly (VIctoria, Forester), My One Hundred Adventures (Norvath, Polly), The Night Tourist (Marsh, Katherine), Trouble (Schmidt, Gary)

MIDDLE SCHOOL NOVELS: Bunker 10 (Henderson, Jan-Andrew), How To Ditch Your Fairy (Larbalestier, Justine) Brave Story (Miyabe, Miyuki)

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The Secret Garden + Edible Gardens = Kids Off The Couch

Michelle Obama tapped into a green zeitgeist by planting the White House's organic, edible garden. All around the nation, locovores and plant lovers are turning their backyards (and even their front lawns) into fruit and vegetable producing plots. To celebrate spring, we revisited The Secret Garden. In Agnieszka Holland's beautiful 1993 adaptation of Francis Hodgson Burnett's classic book, Mary is shipped off to a lonely mansion on the English moor to be raised by her uncle. There, Mary discovers two secrets: a hidden garden, overgrown with weeds, and her sickly cousin Colin, locked away in a secret part of the vast estate. Mary instinctively knows that both her cousin and the garden need sunlight and love to return to health. We needed a restorative dose of nature, so we stole the kids away to our favorite public garden, and were happy to discover a hidden Secret Garden (inspired by the novel) and even tumbled upon an edible plant area called Nature's Table Garden. Teeming with new lettuce and tomato plants, this fragrant plot inspired us to stop by a nursery to pick up tomatoes, lettuces and herbs for our own edible garden. Summer will truly have arrived when we enjoy that first tomato salad!

Click here for advice on starting an Edible Gardens in any yard