Author: FCA Editor

The Travel Mamas’ Guide by Colleen Lanin – Book Review

Posted on by FCA Editor

travelmamasIn her new book, writer Colleen Lanin gives readers some great advice for traveling with children. The title, The Travel Mamas’ Guide: How to Vacation with Babies and Children…AND STAY SANE, says it all. This is a wonderful way for parents to find little techniques to make their family vacations less hectic and more enjoyable.

 

We’ve all been there – on an airplane with a screaming child or in a restaurant while trying to enjoy a nice meal and a child is running around interrupting everyone’s nice dinner. Even though many times children just have to cry or fuss, this book has some great recommendations for minimizing them.

 

Here are only a few little hints for traveling with children that readers might find useful:

 

  • Invest in a portable DVD player so kids can stay occupied with their favorite shows.

 

  • Have food on hand for breakfast so fussy risers will not ruin the day. Many kids don’t want to wait to eat after waking up.

 

  • Make dinner reservations so you don’t have to wait for a table.

 

These are simple things to do and, as Lanin says, are only a few ways to simplify traveling with children. She writes about traveling by car and by plane, eating, shopping, and exploring, and making your travel experience with your children the best it can be.

 

Lanin not only relies on her own personal experiences and tips for traveling with kids, she also includes anecdotes and suggestions from other travel mamas. Hey, when you’re in a situation traveling with infants or toddlers, you often run out of ideas to help them when they’re away from home and their normal activities. This book is a good guidebook for this. Some of the tips might not be right for you or your family, but I know you will find some things in here that you can use on your next excursion with your youngsters.

 

One idea I found especially intriguing was the souvenir suggestion. After all, as Lanin explains, you don’t want to get stuck having to pay for heavy baggage filled with trinkets your kids just had to have. She has many great suggestions, including letting your child find one postcard per day to keep as a remembrance, or taking advantage of the penny-flattening machines that create keepsakes as thin as a, well, flattened penny. One of her fellow travel mamas collected thimbles. Little hints like this might spark another idea for you and your traveling family.

 

Whether you have one child or more, are traveling with another adult or as a single parent, there are plenty of ideas, tips, and tricks in this book to help along the way.

 

Whether you’re going on a fancy trip, camping, or just to visit friends, there is some great advice here. And, she also discusses traveling while pregnant, how to pack (when you have a baby make sure you spread his/her things out in separate bags in case one bag is lost, all your baby’s things won’t be gone), and what times of the year are best for traveling with youngsters. There are so many ideas and suggestions in this book, every reader is sure to find some things that will help them along the way.

 

About the Author

Francine Brokaw has been covering all aspects of the entertainment business for 20 years. She also writes about technology and has been a travel writer for the past 12 years. She has been published in national and international newspapers and magazines as well as internet websites. She has written her own book, Beyond the Red Carpet The World of Entertainment Journalists, from Sourced Media Books.

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The Goon Holler Guidebook by Parker Jacobs

Posted on by FCA Editor

goonhollerThis book provides hours of entertainment for kids. Not only are there things to read but there are also plenty of things to do. And even adults will enjoy them along with their children.

 

The book is from the creators of Nick Jr.’s very popular Yo Gabba Gabba show and the Hub’s entertaining The Aquabats! Super Show! Geared for ages 4-8, The Goon Holler Guidebook is meant to stimulate young minds while amusing them with fun, memorable characters and stories.

 

Kids can explore the magical land of Goon Holler with a Yeti named Tooba. Among the other characters, of which there are plenty, are Uncle Theodore Wiznat, a wizard of course, Dosie Doe, the train engineer, and Vert Vert, an evil alien. Individually these guys are fun, but put them together and they are a zany mixture of entertaining personalities.

 

Goon Holler is a delightful, fun-filled journey to a magical place with whacky characters and plenty of things to do and learn. Forget “Rock, Paper, Scissors.” The Goon Holler version is much more fun. It’s a new twist on an old favorite.

 

Families will enjoy exploring together the magical world of Goon Holler with this fully illustrated book. With recipes (Marshmallow Goon Pie, Lyman Cucumber Punch, and several more), games, stories, jokes, comic strips, songs, and a lot of other things to discover and learn, The Goon Holler Guidebook will be a treasured book by both youngsters and their parents. And let’s not forget baby-sitters! This is something I would have appreciated in my baby-sitting days.

 

The Goon Holler Guidebook retails for $12.99 from Sourced Media Books and is available at www.goohnollerbook.com and www.sourcedmediabooks.com. This is a children’s book and makes a great gift. Keep it in mind the next time you need a last minute party gift. It’s sure to delight young readers.

 

About the Author

Francine Brokaw has been covering all aspects of the entertainment business for 20 years. She also writes about technology and has been a travel writer for the past 12 years. She has been published in national and international newspapers and magazines as well as internet websites. She has written her own book, Beyond the Red Carpet The World of Entertainment Journalists, from Sourced Media Books.

Follow her on Twitter

Like her on Facebook

Lee Daniels’ The Butler Combo Pack

Posted on by FCA Editor

Forest Whitaker performs beautifully in The Butler, a story derived from true events. With Oprah Winfrey, John Cusack, Jane Fonda, Cuba Gooding, Fr., Terrence Howard, James Marsden, David Oyelowo, Alan Rickman, Live Schreiber, Robin Williams, Clarence Williams III, and many others adding to the roster, The Butler is the story of Cecil Gaines (Whitaker), a man that went from picking cotton on a Southern farm to being a butler at The White House.

 

Gaines saw his father shot, his mother attacked, and his life going nowhere until he went up North and started working at a lavish hotel. It was there his strict work ethic paid off and he was offered a job as a butler in The White House. With a wife (Winfrey) and two sons to care for, this job was a Godsend and allowed him more prestige doing what he was trained to do. He enjoyed his surroundings and served several presidents – Eisenhower (Williams), Kennedy (Marsden), Johnson (Schreiber), Nixon (Cusack), and Reagan (Rickman).

The movie jumps back and forth from the happenings at The White House to the Civil Rights events around the country. After Cecil’s oldest son Louis (Oyelowo) graduated from high school and went to college in Tennessee, his consciousness was raised and he joined the Freedom Fighters with Martin Luther King, Jr. (Nelsan Ellis). The story follows the Civil Rights movement through the 60s and 70s all the while Cecil is serving each president with dignity.

 

Cecil Gaines was taken aback when his son joined the Black Panthers, and mourned when his youngest son was killed in Vietnam, but even as his personal life ebbed and flowed, his professional life excelled and he became a formidable employee of The White House, although sometimes he asked why the black employees earned less than the white ones. Gaines was a professional and took pride in his work and the fact that presidents often asked his opinion on issues.

This movie is more about the Civil Rights movement than it is about life in The White House. It is not a story of working for the president. It is a story of racial issues in the United States over a period of several decades.

 

This combo pack includes a Blu-ray, a DVD, and Digital HD. Bonus features are deleted scenes, a gag reel, a featurette on the story itself, and a featurette about the Freedom Riders.

 

The movie runs 132 minutes long. It’s basically a history lesson, which I found to have very little entertaining scenes. It is harsh and dramatic. Lee Daniels’ The Butler is rated PG-13 for some violence and disturbing images, language, sexual material, thematic elements and smoking.

 

About the Author

Francine Brokaw has been covering all aspects of the entertainment business for 20 years. She also writes about technology and has been a travel writer for the past 12 years. She has been published in national and international newspapers and magazines as well as Internet websites. She has written her own book, Beyond the Red Carpet: The World of Entertainment Journalists, from Sourced Media Books.

Follow her on Twitter

Like her on Facebook