Best this month Planes
Dusty the crop duster is tired of flying back and forth over cornfields. In this Disney 3D animated feature directed by Klay Hall, he wants to be a racer plane in the Wings Around the World competition. “Maybe, just maybe, I can do more than I was built for,” he tells himself. Luckily, Dusty has the support of a small circle of friends in the farm community, including a fuel truck who serves as his coach, a creative mechanic, and an old Navy Corsair who volunteers to train him.
He qualifies for the race but has a
problem: he’s afraid of heights. Can he do the race his way, flying close to the ground? There are plenty of thrills in this family film, which puts forth collaboration as a value to emulate over winning. It also honors the courage and determination it takes to step into your own dreams and make them happen (Walt Disney Pic- tures, PG—some mild action, rude humor).
Once Upon a Northern Night As a child sleeps warm and cozy in bed, the first snow falls outside and we watch in won- der as the northern winter night unfolds. The stars shimmer in the sky, the pine trees hold out their prickly hands to catch the snow- flakes, a mother deer and her fawn leave tracks in the snow, a gray owl swoops down from his
The Brussats pub- lish the website www. SpiritualityandPractice. com where you can find more information about the items reviewed in this column.
perch, a fox watches two hares, and a mouse scampers in the snow to find shelter beneath a bird feeder. Writer Jean E. Pendziwol crafted a lovely poem filled with beautiful lines, and illustrator Isabelle Arsenault used pencil, gouache, and watercolor and ink to create the little dramas that are played out in the dark. Here is a portrait of the night that conveys the wonders of the natural world (Groundwood Book/House of Anansi Press,
www.houseofanansi.com).
Can a crop duster win the Wings Around the World race his way?
The Big Disconnect: Protecting Childhood and Family Relationships in the Digital Age
Computers, smartphones, digi- tal tablets, e-readers and the Internet have taken over in our homes and altered how families communicate with each other. According to a 2010 Kaiser Family Report, kids between 8 and 18 spend more time on their electronic devices than on any other activity besides (maybe) sleeping—an aver- age of seven and a half hours a day. Their love affair with tech
is often mirrored by their parents, who are missing in action while carrying on cellphone conversations, tex- ting or sorting through emails. Catherine Steiner-Adair, an internationally recog- nized clinical psychologist, consultant and educator, is convinced that “the digitalized life we now take for granted is taking a far greater toll on family cohesion and childhood itself than we imagine.” Her book, writ- ten with Teresa H. Barker, is highly recommended for plugged-in parents who want to find creative ways of handling family life when everybody is immersed in the digital world (HarperCollins,www.harpercollins. com).
42 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
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