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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Rent Huck Finn + Going Fishing = Kids OFF The Couch

What is more symbolic of summer than a barefoot child and a fishing rod? Even if your kids have never put worms on a hook (or aren't likely to wait patiently for a bite), the kicked-back mood of the angler is contagious now that the end of school is in sight. To get ready for the relaxation and recreation we all crave this time of year, we turned to a 1993 adaptation of Mark Twain's great American novel, The Adventures of Huck Finn, starring Elijah Wood and Courtney B. Vance. The lazy journey of Huck and Jim down the Mississippi is a classic metaphor for a boy's racial coming of age, and our kids caught the film's message about slavery and racism, even though it is presented very subtly in this PG-rated Disney film. Our kids are always happy to cast a line over a river or a bay, and have learned (from experience, believe us) that the process is often - necessarily - more important than the product! Whether you send them out with Dad on Father's Day this year, or pick up a few rods to use on a lazy day sometime later this summer, we can promise that baiting and casting and waiting will bring you peace of mind.

Click here for detailed fishing tips and a description of the basic items you'll need to get started.

Kids Off the Couch Family Friendly Films Summer 2009

Summer means three things in our house: school's out, the beach is in, and of course, it's time to savor the studio blockbusters! Here's what you can look forward to in the next three months:

"Up" Will Raise Your Spirits: Pixar's dazzling animated tale debuts this weekend after having opened the Cannes Film Festival to ecstatic reviews. In this tale, a grumpy elderly man ventures into the sky in a hot air balloon to embark on the journey he never experienced when his wife was still alive. With state of the art technology and stunning visuals, Up is a heartfelt love story about living life to the fullest. Whether the film inspires you to visit an air and space museum, plan a grand adventure of your own, or pick up a forgotten hobby, Up is a wonderful reminder that the passions we cultivate in life make us who we are. Up (May 29, PG)

History On The Big Screen? Night at the Museum 2: Battle at the Smithsonian beat out all the competitors at the box office last weekend, and this romp through the hallowed halls of the world's greatest natural history museum offers families a wonderful way to connect to the past. Our kids were captivated by the cutting edge 3D IMAX experience, and we were thrilled to find ourselves in conversations about Amelia Earhart and ancient immortalized pharaohs as we drove home. (In theaters, PG)

Speaking Of Sequels: X Men Origins: Wolverine, Terminator Salvation, and J.J. Abrams' Star Trek represent the big, tent-pole films of the summer and are fun for kids who are old enough to manage the action sequences (all are in theaters and rated PG-13). The proliferation of sequels in the summer line-up made us feel a little nostalgic, so we shared with our kids that Star Trek was our favorite TV show from the 70's, and have stacked our Netflix queue with movies like The Terminator and Galaxy Quest (a fun send up of Trekkies) so we can keep our kid's film history knowledge up-to-date.

And That Was Just May: June and July promise more silver screen stimulae, from wizards -- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (July 17, PG) -- to dinosaurs Land of the Lost (June 5, PG-13) and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (July 1, PG). Kids with funny bones will line-up to see Eddie Murphy as a man whose daughter's imagination is fueling his success at work Imagine That, (June 12, PG) and inevitably Jerry Bruckheimer's guinea pig commandos will make your kids squeal in G-Force (July 24, PG).

August Looks Classic: Japanese anime master Hayao Miyazaki has a new film about a goldfish princess who yearns to be human, Ponyo, (August 14, not yet rated) and Roberto Rodriquez (Spy Kids) has a new fantasy adventure called Shorts (August 7, PG) about a magical rock that grants wishes. Finally, we're pumped to see the Meryl Streep and Amy Adams pairing about Julia Childs and a young chef who cooked every recipe in her famous cookbook; Julia and Julie (Aug 7, PG-13) is really for adults, but we too need something to look forward to!

Dreaming big and adventuring with gusto are sure to be the messages of this summer, if the buzz on Up is any indication - we hope your summer will be filled with both!

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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

Rent Parent Trap + A Family Camping Trip = Kids Off The Couch

Camping trips don't get much better than in Parent Trap, where twin girls play naughty pranks in the great outdoors, hoping to convince their dad's fiancee to flee so he will re-unite with their mother. Both the original film (starring Haley Mills) and its 1998 remake (Lindsay Lohan's debut) win gold merit badges for physical comedy and tug scampishly at the heartstrings. Inspired by Haley Mills' al fresco antics in the original Parent Trap, we decided to spend a few nights under the stars! We spent a fun-filled weekend at a nearby campground, exploring, relaxing and restoring our over-scheduled family's natural harmony for a few idyllic days.

Click here to find out more about family camping as well as great family campgrounds near your city.

Hotel For Dogs + Your First Puppy = Kids Off The Couch

First Puppy Bo Obama is cute, cuddly and... no doubt the cause of many a parent-child tussle around the country. The first couple did it right by promising the pup as a reward for surviving the campaign, and that extended longing does make the early days of puppy parenting all the more rewarding! After years of listening to her kids agitate, our good friend decided the time was right to adopt an abandoned pup, and made a 4-year-old Maltese part of her family. As devoted dog owners, we know that even though the price of that doggie in the window may be minimal, there are lots of hidden costs to bringing a new dog home -- a small price to pay for the love a dog bestows upon his human friends, but a price nonetheless. We compiled our inside tips on all things puppy for you to bone up on before you head to a shelter. Not knowing how much work goes into raising a dog is exactly why animal shelters are full of abandoned pets, as our kids learned by watching Hotel For Dogs (just out on DVD) a story of two orphaned siblings who turn an abandoned Manhattan hotel into a 5-Star retreat for strays. Our kids were mesmerized by all the tekkie contraptions the hotel boasted, like bone-throwing and feeding machines, and fell in love with the canine cast. Ahhh, puppy love! Click here for more about how to adopt a pet in your city and for a chance to win a copy of the movie.

Duma + Wildlife Rescue Station = Kids Off The Couch

As moms who grew up watching "Born Free", weeping into wads of tissue paper, we love being able to introduce our children to an equally bittersweet tale about wildness that can't be tamed. Directed by the legendary director Carroll Ballard, Duma tells the story of a boy who raises a cheetah cub and then, after his father's death, crosses the Kalahari Desert to release the adult cat into the wild. Ballard, who also directed Black Stallion, Never Cry Wolf and Fly Away Home, is masterful at using the camera to explore the relationship between children and animals. We found ourselves clutching tissues again, this time holding them to our childrens' noses. The boy and cheetah made such excellent travel companions that we spent an afternoon touring a Wildlife Rescue Station near our home. Watching bobcats and snakes being rehabilitated made us happy to only have a dog and a fish tank to worry about!

Click here for more on Ballard, a few red flags about this film, and a link to an animal rescue station near you.