MOVIE: Beginners

Super story about sadness...
Limited release 6/3/11
12/23/11 on the Delta flight from Phoenix to Detroit
R (1:44)
RT:  Critics:  84% Audience: 79%
cag: Liked it a lot
Director:  Mike Mills
Focus Features

Ian McGregor, Christopher Plummer

After McGregor's mother dies, his father (Plummer) tells him that he's always been gay...and that his mother knew it.  As an elderly dude he begins to live the life that he's always dreamed of, only to find that he has stage 4 cancer.  The story is played out as the son remembers bits and pieces of things that happened, to both his dad and himself..discovering love, too...at the same time.

The Marvelous Toy - Tom Paxton

Illustrated by Steve Cox
Includes a 4-song CD
Imagine! A Peter Yarrow Book
$17.95
24 pgs.
for: ages 3-5
Rating: 4.5
Endpapers: a mesmerizing blue/aqua shooting-star filled sky

Magical. Every page is magical.

I've been a Tom Paxton fan for a zillion years. Seen him in concert four or five times. He's funny, clever, and quite politica (he doesn't miss anything)l. A very cool guy. And I've heard this song dozens of times - including live. So I sang along as I read. The book follows the words to the song, showing a father giving a cool new toy to a son...and ending with this same son, now grown, passing it along to his own son. The gorgeous bright-blue toned illustrations are a blast to ingest.

This is a yummy book - a great gift for a young child - with four Paxton songs included! ! !

(And I see that not only did Paxton get a Life Achievement Grammy this year, he has a new album (Comedians and Angels) out. Bravo, Tom Paxton!)