Did you hear the one about the fish who moved to Hollywood?
We’re not laughing at L.A.; we’re laughing with it. From jokes about earthquakes to jokes about LA traffic, these kid-friendly jokes will have your little one laughing out loud.
We’re not laughing at L.A.; we’re laughing with it. From jokes about earthquakes to jokes about LA traffic, these kid-friendly jokes will have your little one laughing out loud.
Whether you’re a Ravenclaw or a Gryffindor, the wizarding world is filled with fun facts that keep the excitement going even after you’ve read every last page of the epic Potter series. We’ve rounded up some of the most magical Harry Potter trivia from the books and the movies that are sure to mystify everyone in the entire house—even your wisest wizards.
Related: If Your Kids Love ‘Harry Potter,’ Read These Books Next
Related: Your iPhone Has Harry Potter Spells That Turn It Into a Magical Wand
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If Valentinus of Rome (canonized St. Valentine in the 5th Century) had never lived, we humans would surely have invented a day to celebrate the greatest of all virtues–LOVE. But recorded history includes Valentinus’ story and the date of his death on February 14, which, for centuries, has been memorialized as Valentine’s Day!
The commercial version of Valentine’s Day has us scrambling to buy flowers, chocolates, and sentimental greeting cards for loved ones—and perhaps helping our school-age children assemble their own sets of Valentine messages and bags of emoji-imprinted candy hearts to take to school. For those of you who would like to use the celebration of Valentine as a teachable moment, we have some reading suggestions—love stories for children, books that show the many faces of love and honor its many forms, among them kindness, affection, and compassion.
Our February book choices are an eclectic mix that includes stories of first crushes, of observations and discoveries that lead to a love of Nature and all that is plain sight, and a beautifully illustrated book that attempts to answer the existential question, What is Love? Please consider our February book list to be our Valentine’s gift to you, our readers. Enjoy the day with a book—about love!
Sardines of Love Written and Illustrated by Zurine Aguirre
This book was written as a tribute to Zurine Aguirre’s own grandparents, Lola and Lolo. It is about their love for each other, and for sardines. When Lola runs out of sardines, she goes off on an adventure to find some. Lolo is so sad that she is gone, he cries an ocean of tears, and floats away. Will they find each other? The sophisticated, retro illustrations help make this book sweet and silly at the same time. You and your children will be talking about what love really means, and what those in love will do for each other.
What is Love? by Mac Barnett, Illustrated by Carson Ellis
Love is hard to explain, especially to children. Sometimes love must be found by going out and looking for what it means to others, which is what the young main character of this book tries to do. He asks a fisherman, who replies, “Love is a fish.” Then he wanders all over, asking anyone and everyone. “Love is applause.” Says the actor. Each person has a vastly different answer to his question. Maybe there is no right answer, but instead a discussion about love, and how it is personal and unique to each of us. The watercolor art is worthy of framing, and portrays each character’s love superbly.
The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, Illustrated by Robert Lawson
This classic story, published in 1936, is about a bull that decides to be true to himself, mainly because of the unconditional love from his mother. Young Ferdinand doesn’t like to fight. He prefers relaxing in the meadows smelling flowers. An unfortunate encounter with a bee creates a misconception of Ferdinand’s personality to the bullfighting crowd in Madrid. As Ferdinand is placed in the arena, with the Matador ready to fight, he chooses instead to sit down and smell the flowers of the lady’s hair in the stands. The message that stands out the most in this story is the importance of the love, support and guidance from parents.
The Day I Became A Bird by Ingrid Chabbert, Illustrated by Raul Nieto Guridi
With poetic text and delicate line drawings, Chabbert tells the tale of a young boy who falls in love with a bird-loving girl in his class. The boy comes to school dressed as a bird to attract her attention, which then complicates his life and causes him to be bullied. The boy learns that we sometimes willingly undergo a change within ourselves in order to spend our time and emotions with another person. This story really shows that love, especially first love, can be as deep and agonizing as it is joyful.
Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch by Eileen Spinelli, Illustrated by Paul Yalowitz
Solitary shoelace factory worker Mr. Hatch receives a Valentine card and box of candy with the words, “Somebody loves you.” This gesture touches him, moving him to then reciprocate to others he was once distant to, becoming a neighborhood favorite. But then the postman tells Mr. Hatch that the Valentine delivery was a mistake, causing him to question his new outgoing existence. Feeling unloved, Mr. Hatch soon returns to his former antisocial self. His friends and neighbors miss him, and show him in a big way that they all love him.
Ten Beautiful Things by Molly Beth Griffin, Illustrated by Maribel Lechuga
Lily and her grandmother start a journey across Iowa in the car with a game in which they find ten beautiful things on the way. Lily is recovering from an implied loss and an uncertain future. Gram’s wisdom about finding beauty everywhere, even when it’s hard, helps the sad and anxious Lily to feel a bit better. Their list grows as they see a rural sunrise, a wind farm churning under pink clouds, and a thunderstorm breaking across the plains. When Gram tells Lily that their love for one another is the tenth beautiful thing, it is a tribute to the healing power of nature and love.
Out of My Heart by Sharon Draper
Melody, a tween with cerebral palsy, convinces her parents to let her go to Camp Green Glades, a camp for kids with disabilities. It’s her first time away from home, and it is there that she makes friends that really understand her, and also has her first crush. The challenges that Melody and the campers face are sometimes funny, sometimes serious, but always help the characters in the story to grow closer. This is a story about friendship, courage, optimism, and love.
At twenty-eight, I was older than most other students in beauty school when classes started. A few girls had just graduated high school, others had already worked in salons. And then there were a few like me, people looking for a different way to make a living. I’d tried being an actor in New York City for eight years, to no avail. I’d found myself stuck in the dream machine, feeding money to the shady industry that dangled vague promises of success in front of hopeful actors like a carrot.
The first day, we received our kits, including two mannequin heads, a set of plastic rollers, cheap scissors, a comb, a brush, a jar of Queen Helene green gel and another pot of cholesterol. There was a smock with the school acronym LIBS, and a cutting cape—everything a beginner at beauty school might need. The teacher, Ms. Evalyn, said in her Staten Island accent: “If you finish this course, you’ll never be without five dollars in your pocket.” To this day, I’ve found this to be true. I finished the course. I earned my license. And I don’t think I’ve ever been without enough scratch to buy myself, or someone else, a cup of coffee.
I didn’t feel it at the time—I suffered through getting lost in a haircut on the school’s salon floor and lumbered through a poodle perm—but taking the chance on beauty school not only changed the trajectory of my life, it also allowed me the space to be as uncomfortable and bad as I needed to be as I embarked on learning a skill I had no talent for and no earthly idea of how to even start. But it also presented the tools I needed to learn how to learn.
Every new step was a series of mini-journeys reliant on my willingness to listen, not only to my human teachers, but also the materials I was working with, who were the real teachers. And with each new challenge, I found myself a perpetual beginner again, caught in an endless loop of pushing forward and circling back.
The benefits of the beginner’s mind are well documented. The absence of expectation is a boon to the human experience, and an open mind is key. But aside from all that, being a perpetual beginner has other benefits as well. A life of learning keeps things fresh. The connections between disparate ideas and skills become apparent. And when a hopeful beginning ends in abject failure, as it did when I earned my motorcycle license, despite driving a scooter into a ditch, one not only learns about the benefits of failure but that a whole new beginning lays in wait.
Some beginnings are simple. Learning to bake bread. Hiking the mountains in Maine. Reading a book in a genre you’ve never read before. Some are more complex. Adopting a pet. Learning to drive. Getting married. Starting a new profession. And other new beginnings are thrust upon us—the times in life when a person doesn’t choose the beginner’s path, the path chooses them. The new experience of having a child, for instance. Or ushering a loved one into death—the sort of new beginning that occurs when something else ends. What if the practice of beginning and of learning is also the practice of humility? What if living life as a perpetual beginner teaches us to weather the hardest beginnings with a little grace, a little kindness, and maybe, even within the pain of loss, a tiny, perhaps nearly invisible, glimmer of hope?
It might not seem logical but stepping into that first day of classes released a chain of events, beginnings, endings, and middles that forked like rivers or cracks in glass. It led me to work backstage on Broadway, a whole new world I explored for over fifteen years. Working in theater is one of the very few places where working on a different job every year is an asset instead of a liability. Every new show was a new beginning and required new ways of thinking, new strategies, new experiments, and new subtle and surprising teachers. I suspect this practice and profession of beginnings and endings led me to graduate school, which led me to write a book, which led me here, writing this article, another new beginning, for I’ve never written about being a perpetual beginner before.
Ms. Evelyn knew the score as she led us through unpacking our kits, counting our rollers, and setting up our mannequin heads that first day. In my memory, she had a slightly mischievous quirk at the corner of her mouth as she watched us struggle to comb our mannequins’ knotted hair. None of us were good. All of us were beginners. This moment, she knew, would be the beginning of things we never saw coming.
This New Year, dare to become a perpetual beginner. It doesn’t matter if you’re good at it. Learn a new skill, start a new hobby, pick back up the instrument you played in high school. You’ll become a better listener with a more open mind who isn’t afraid of failure. And with those evolutions, you live and see a brighter life.
—Amy Neswald, author of I Know You Love Me, Too
We’ve all gotten used to streaming blockbuster videos at home during the pandemic, especially when it comes to kid flicks. Thankfully, many films are coming to streaming providers earlier than ever, and that includes Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Encanto!
Disney’s newest film just hit theaters on Nov. 24, but you won’t have to wait much longer to view it from the comfort of your own sweatpants home. According to What’s on Disney Plus, the movie is coming to the Disney+ platform on Dec. 24! And while you wait for Friday to come, you can watch a special new featurette about the film right now!
Because the film is exclusively in theaters for 30 days, you won’t have to purchase Premier Access (usually $30) to watch it come Dec. 24. Your regular subscription is all you need!
Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Encanto tells the story of the Madrigal family, who live in the mountains of Colombia in a special place called Encanto. The location is home to the family, but also to plenty of magic. Keep scrolling to catch the official trailer.
Mirabel, the only one in her family without magical powers, is on a journey to find her place in the family. Voicing the character, Stephanie Beatriz shares, “Mirabel is a really funny, loving character who also deeply yearns for something more. She’s also not afraid to stand up for what she knows is right—something I love and relate to very much.”
The film features new original songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, as well as the voice of Colombian singer and songwriter, Carlos Vives.
––Karly Wood
Feature photo: Walt Disney Animation Studios via YouTube
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Lance Bass is twinning! He’s welcomed boy-girl twins with his husband Michael Turchin. A sweet photo of the birth certificates on Instagram revealed that Violet Betty and Alexander James entered the world on October 13.
“The baby dragons have arrived!” he captioned the image, followed with a quip “Now, how do you change a diaper?” It’s the first children for Bass and Turchin and they were born right in the middle of the day, at 1:24 and `1:25 p.m.
If you missed it, the couple posted an epic Halloween-themed birth announcement when they first learned they were expecting via a surrogate. Turchin posted the same images today on Instagram and added “they’re pure perfection and yes that includes the dozens of poops that we’ve already dealt with. Our hearts are full!”
The former NSYNC star and actor/visual artist have been together since 2014. No doubt these new additions will be tearin’ up their hearts!
––Sarah Shebek
Featured photo courtesy of Silvia Elizabeth Pangaro / Shutterstock.com
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There are lots of things we try to escape in Atlanta—heat, mosquitoes and traffic all come to mind—so it’s funny that our town is so wild over getting into Atlanta’s best escape rooms! Maybe it’s because you play only with your group, or perhaps because its air conditioned, but we think Atlanta is wild for escape rooms because they’re just so fun. Keep reading for our favorite escape rooms geared towards the kids, below.
Featured photo via iStock.
—Shelley Massey
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Musical fan? Or maybe just a huge fan of Lin-Manuel Miranda? Then you’ll want to run, not walk to YouTube because the writer, actor and director is sharing something special.
This morning, Miranda shared the first eight minutes of the much anticipated film version of his 2005 Tony Award-winning musical, In the Heights. Keep scrolling to watch!
The film adaptation stars plenty of big names, including Hamilton alums Anthony Ramos and Lin-Manuel Miranda himself. In addition, you’ll spy Jimmy Smits, Marc Anthony and Corey Hawkins to name a few.
In the Heights hits theaters this Fri., Jun. 11 and is available on HBO Max for 30 days.
––Karly Wood
Feature photo: Warner Bros. Studio
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Nostalgia alert! Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots are making a comeback—on the big screen.
The beloved childhood game is back and battling again. Instead of battling on your kitchen table, these robots are duking it out in a new feature film.
photo courtesy of Businesswire
The live-action adventure is a collab between Mattel Films, Universal Pictures and Vin Diesel’s One Race Films. Not only is Vin Diesel’s production company bringing the battling bots to life, the actor is starring in the flick.
Diesel said in a press release, “To take the classic Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em game, with Mattel as my partner, and align it with the kind of world building, franchise making success we have had with Universal, is truly exciting.”
Robbie Brenner, executive producer of Mattel Films added, “We are proud to bring this iconic piece of Mattel IP to life on the big screen with our tremendously talented partners Vin Diesel, One Race Films and Universal.”
Currently, there is no release date for the film, but stay tuned.
—Erica Loop
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When you think of Henry Golding the word dad may not immediately come to mind. Even though he made a major name for himself as the over-the-top handsome, yet down to Earth for an uber-rich guy, love interest of Crazy Rich Asians, IRL Golding is now a devoted dad.
The Crazy Rich Asians star and wife Liv Lo welcomed their newborn last week. Golding recently posted a sweet Instagram pic of himself, Lo, and their new baby, captioning the black and white photo, “This woman right here. Beyond anything I could have ever imagined. Your strength brought us our greatest joy. Thank you, I love you.”
The actor’s wife also posted her own birth-day pics, sharing photos of herself at the hospital and in labor. Lo added, “On March 31st our lives changed forever. Link in bio of leaving Instagram for #maternityleave (for the time being). I’ll prob be up during midnight breastfeeds checking in on you, but otherwise “I’ll be back” xx.”
Lo, a fitness instructor and wellness entrepreneur, wrote about her decision to take time off after giving birth on her Fit Sphere website, “This simple knowing, that I can return to work and the world when I am ready gives me the power to direct my attention to what is most important to me. 40 days, or about 6 weeks postpartum, is the first postpartum exam with your OBGYN. Until this clearance happens I am not keen to get back to work or sharing with the world how I am feeling. This may come as a shock or disappointment; however, in my self-reflection, it has become clear that I need to set these boundaries for myself and my family.”
—Erica Loop
Featured photo: Andrea Raffin / Shutterstock.com
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