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Tag Archives: John Carter of Mars

The Magic of Literacy – Part 2/2

12 Mar

As a child, reading the books of Edgar Rice Burroughs is still  a fond memory.  Before there was Star Wars, Star Trek, The Lord of the Rings, Interview With a Vampire and Harry Potter there was John Carter of Mars.

When I discovered several months ago that John  Carter of Mars was going to be a movie, I was excited, and when the movie came out, I went to see it the first day it was released — it was everything I imagined it should be.  I have no complaints except that I wanted more.


10 Minute Movie Review from the FLICK pick

There are eleven books in the series and they are free through Gutenberg.org or offered at a low price through Amazon Kindle with no waiting for years as we did for each Harry Potter book and the movies that followed.

The Barsoom series is responsible for me going on to read books such as The Lord of the Rings (three times), the Anne Rice vampire series starting with Interview of a Vampire, all of the books written by Ursula K. Le Guin, and C. S. Lewis along with dozens of other authors and hundreds of books.


ten minute extended clip – movie trailer

Since reading is crucial to cultivate life-long learning, what better way is there to motivate a child/teen to read books than to have them watch a movie such as John Carter first. Once curious, those eleven books are waiting.

In addition, TV-Addiction.com says, “Reading requires the child to imagine what the words represent and this acts like exercise for the mind,  creativity, imagination, and constructive skills. Television (including computers) does the reverse and fills the mind with nonsense images that blunt the child’s intellect and imagination.”


John Carter – a surprisingly good movie

Then Veronica Scott writing for Ezine @rticles says, “With children and their development, nothing is more important than imagination to help the growth of thought processes and creativity, while research has proved that watching too much TV or spending too much time surfing the Internet stunts the imagination and actually retards the development of that area of the brain.”

Last, Life-Long Earning shows that Imagination and Creativity is vital for Critical Thinking and Problem Solving to take place.

What are you waiting for?  If you haven’t seen John Carter yet, go, and do not forget the eleven books that are waiting to ignite a child’s imagination and love of reading.

Return to The Magic of Literacy – Part 1

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga.

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Posted by on March 12, 2012 in family values, literacy, Literature, Parenting, Reading

 

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The Magic of Literacy – Part 1/2

11 Mar

Visiting both mobile and brick-and-mortar libraries as a child turned me into an avid reader and a lifelong learner leading to my earning an Associate of Science degree, a BA in journalism and an MFA in writing in addition to a teaching credential—about nine years of college.

As a child, one of the grade schools I attended was across the street from my parents’ home, which brings me to the cultivation of my imagination. Books!


Reading at home is important too!

However, learning to read wasn’t that easy for me. Soon after starting school, my fate and my future hung in the balance. Experts at the first grade school I attended tested me and told my mother I would never learn to read or write. In those days, there was no term for dyslexia. In fact, the “experts” didn’t know about dyslexia.

Nevertheless, my mother made liars out of those so-called experts and taught me to read at home. How she did it is another story, and it didn’t hurt that my parents both loved to read.

Both my mother and father did not have the opportunity to graduate from high school. The Great Depression and other family tragedies were responsible for both of them dropping out to find jobs and contribute to their financial survival at the age of 14. My mother ran away from home and found a job as a waitress and my father mucked out horse stalls at Santa Anita Race Track in Arcadia, California.

Fast forward to me as a child that learned to love reading books, and once a week, a county library bus visited the grade school I attended.

Years later, I worked in the high school library and managed to read sometimes two books a day.  It was as if books were feasts for my imagination and soul. I read all the historical fiction I could find on the British Empire, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, and American history. Then I discovered science fiction and fantasy, which led to Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom series. Later, I would add westerns and mysteries to the mix and eventually start reading literature at a much older age. As a child, I wasn’t ready for literature — not exciting enough.

Continued on March 12, 2012 in The Magic of Literacy – Part 2

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga.

To subscribe to “Crazy Normal”, look for the “E-mail Subscription” link in the top-right column, or click on the “Following” tab in the WordPress toolbar at the top of the screen.

 
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Posted by on March 11, 2012 in family values, literacy, Literature, media, Parenting, Reading

 

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