This post features an important quotation for all those who are teachers.
“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.” Plutarch
Month: April 2017
In America, 1.2 million Children Have Lead Poisoning!
StandardThis post is very important for the safety of the children of our country.
1.2 million children in the US have lead poisoning. We’re only treating half of them. Several states are doing an abysmal job of testing at-risk children for lead poisoning.
Trump has signed an executive order, for those who may not know, to eliminate all Regulations on Lead use in the USA (this includes bullets, paint, metals, possibility of water and food contamination and etc. Updated by Sarah Frostenson@sfrostensonsarah.frostenson@vox.com Apr 27, 2017, 4:30pm EDT. tweet · share. Thousands of lead poisoned children, who are …and more » from Health – Google News http://news.google.com/news/url? www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/4/27/15424050/us-underreports-lead-poisoning-cases-map-community […]
The worse states are, for the 39 states the reported to the CDC are:
Georgia
Tennessee
Florida
Kentucky
Kansas
Arizona
New Mexico
Nevada
10 other states declined to report to CDC
Beyond Telling a Story
StandardThis is an extraordinary post!
I tell stories. It began many years ago during lunchtime in my classroom with my preschoolers. I told a story about my childhood, The PeanutMan, which has become a classic story that children beg for, along with at least fourteen other stories. Yes, my stories actually have names. Imagine that!
My storytelling grew. They were all true, and every time I told a story I began with, “It happened like this”. That phrase has now become a magnet. When children hear those words, they are glued to my story.
Storytelling was also the start of my writing. I began writing newsletters to the parents and families of my preschoolers. I realized that telling children about my childhood adventures was as important as telling parents about the meaningful things that happened in my classroom. Both mattered. Both made a difference. My writing grew tremendously because parents needed to know not only…
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Maledicus: The Investigative Paranormal Society Book 1 by Charles F. French is now in Muhlenberg College’s Trexler Library!
StandardI am very proud to announce that my novel Maledicus: The Investigative Paranormal Society Book 1 is now in the Muhlenberg College Trexler Library. As an English professor and advisor of adult English majors at the Muhlenberg College Wescoe school, I am honored to have my work included in the library!
(photograph courtesy of Kelly Cannon)
(photograph courtesy of Kelly Cannon)
Please follow the following links to find my novel:
Thank you!
The book trailer:
Maledicus:Investigative Paranormal Society Book I
My radio interview:
Quotations on Inspiration
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“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
Mahatma Gandhi
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
Albert Einstein
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
Theodore Roosevelt
What is One of Your Favorite Books?
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I am a teacher, a writer, and a lover of books. I cannot remember a time when I could not read, and the simple act of reading a book is one of the best pleasures in life. So, I was thinking today about a book, one of my all time favorites: The Shadow Of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, that I am using in an Independent Study at Muhlenberg College. This novel is brilliant, funny, witty, Gothic, romantic, and deeply engaging. Can you tell I love it?
Here is a quotation from the back cover of the paperback:
“Wondrous . . . masterful . . . The Shadow Of The Wind is ultimately a love letter to literature, intended for readers as passionate about storytelling as its young hero.”
— Entertainment Weekly, Editor’s Choice
So, I ask you: what is one of your favorite books?
Please follow the following links to find my novel:
Thank you!
The book trailer:
Maledicus:Investigative Paranormal Society Book I
My radio interview:
Share Your Writing!
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Hello to everyone! I want to offer an opportunity for all writers who follow this blog to share information on their books. It can be very difficult to generate publicity for our writing, so I thought this little effort might help. All books may be mentioned, and there is no restriction on genre. This include poetry and non-fiction.
If this event is successful, I will do this about once a month. To participate, simply give your name, your book, information about it, and where to purchase it in the comments section. Then please be willing to reblog and/or tweet this post. The more people that see it, the more publicity we can generate for everyone’s books.
I hope this idea is successful, and I hope many people share information on their books!
Please follow the following links to find my novel:
Thank you!
The book trailer:
Maledicus:Investigative Paranormal Society Book I
My radio interview:
Quotations on Success
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“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
Winston Churchill
“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”
Theodore Roosevelt
“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”
Robert F. Kennedy
Salvador Dali On Artists
StandardThis quotation is excellent and needs to be shared!
Favorite Horror Movies of the 1920s–revisited
StandardI will be teaching a course this summer at the Wescoe School of Muhlenberg College on Literature and Film. I have used this post before, but I wanted to put it up again, and I plan to expand the treatment of my favorite horror films.
So, to begin . . .
I have been a fan of horror movies since I was a child. I grew up watching Universal movies from the 1930s and 1940s being shown on various themed TV shows with horror hosts. As an adult, my love for these films has not waned; in fact, it has grown and helped to feed my scholarly interest in film. I use these films in some of the classes I teach in college.
For this series, I will try to limit my choices of film to 2-4 representative examples. Two films, in particular, stand out to me from the 1920s. They both starred Lon Chaney Sr., the Man of a Thousand Faces, and were made by Universal Studios.
The first film is The Hunchback of Notre Dame, (1923) based on the Victor Hugo novel, and it is an extraordinary piece of cinema that stands up today. It was a very expensive production at the time. Estimates range in the $1,250,000 to $1,500,000 range. Given the year, that is a huge sum of money. The movie accurately reflects Hugo’s examination of the capacity of human beings to be intensely cruel to each other and of the abuse of power by those in positions of authority. Wallace Worsley directed the film, and Lon Chaney Sr. gave a magnificent performance as Quasimodo. It is also important to remember that Mr. Chaney created all of his own makeups. If all you know of this story is the Disney version, you need to see this production. I would consider it one of the best and most important films ever made.
The Phantom of the Opera (1925) starring Lon Chaney Sr. is based on Gaston Leroux’s novel and was a huge success. Chaney played the deformed writer who falls in love with a singer and who becomes her kidnapper. This tale of horror and love has been redone numerous times, including the well known stage musical, but none of those productions have reached the sterling height of this extraordinary film. As with the Hunchback, Chaney created this makeup, and his performance is sublime. Again, if you have not seen this film, I recommend it highly.
Please follow the following links to find my novel:
Thank you!
The book trailer:
Maledicus:Investigative Paranormal Society Book I
My radio interview:
