Just an update about my newest project, which just launched this morning, and has been occupying my time for nearly a month!
In conjunction with GlobWorld, where I am a community manager, and the Mark Does Stuff Internet empire, I have just launched a blog wherein myself and quite a few of your fellow members of THIS community will be navigating the world of children’s literature, television, animation, music, video games, and much more for the benefit of all the parents in the world. THE WHOLE WORD *dun dun dun*
A lot of what I have read in terms of parent blogging is criticism or “guides” to popular culture largely written by outsiders who have no real interest in understanding what they are consuming. They are merely interested in telling parents whether this is a “bad” thing or a “good” thing and then moving on. Well, you all know me well enough to know that I think things are never that black and white and that context, detail, specificity, and an analytical mind can all help us figure out how to feel about the world of pop culture.
A great deal of you have asked me to cover children’s fiction or children’s TV shows. A lot of you also asked to write a guest post or facilitate coverage of a series in the Mark Reads/Watches style. I could never personally figure out how to do that here on this site, so when the opportunity arose to take control of a largely dormant and underused blog space for my work, I decided to kill two birds with one stone.
Starting today, and over the course of the next two weeks, you will see a wonderfully diverse set of reviews start up about a myriad of topics and series, from the Junie B series, to the show The Backyardigans, to a guide to video gaming as a parent written by a fantastic woman whose name you’ll recognize if you’ve ever posted in the comments, to features about what sort of stuff you might be able to do with your kids that doesn’t involve the Internet.
I am also very excited to announce the two projects I’ll be tackling specifically for this new blog: Mark Reads A Series of Unfortunate Events and Mark Watches Spongebob Squarepants. I am dead serious about those two. The adventure never ends, right?
Now, I realize a lot of you aren’t parents, and that’s ok. You are still absolutely welcome to follow along with the wonderful journey that is going to unfold, as I haven’t even revealed a quarter of the series that will be covered by this blog. The idea is to give fans an empowered platform to share their love of a show for parents to explain WHY a show is good for a child or why it is NOT so good. Or everything in between! All of this is written by your peers, most (if not all) of them from the Mark Does Stuff community, people I handpicked for their unique views and their experiences as teachers, parents, writers, games, and, above everything else, their unabashed nerdiness. Some will be in the style of the series’ I’ve covered in the past. Some will not. That’s what so exciting to me, though, is that all of this is VERY new and different!
Please head on over to this new blog, bookmark it, comment in an unhealthy manner (PLEASE DON’T SWEAR THERE ARE PARENTS AND CHILDREN WATCHING), and rejoice!
Additionally, we are still expanding and looking for people to write for this project. If you can provide samples of your writing that you’ve done and if you’ve got a particularly good idea of something you’d like to tackle, do not hesitate to send me an email:
markreadsandwatches [at] gmail [dot] com
Thank you all! AHHHHHH I AM SO GLAD I CAN FINALLY TELL YOU ALL ABOUT THIS!
lsdjfdjksflksfs you have no idea how much I squeed when I read "Mark Reads A Series of Unfortunate Events" I MEAN I KNEW YOU WERE GONNA DO IT EVENTUALLY but gosh sldjf
SO MUCH EXCITE!!!!
Also, also, The Backyardigans is simply glorious
What a cool project! I'm happy for you to be able to pull something like this together!
It sounds like it will be fun- and a great resource for parents! Yay for you!
PLEASE LET ME KNOW SHARE WITH YOU SOME CHILDREN'S MEDIA THAT I GO TOTALLY GA-GA OVER. 😀
It's called Captain Bogg and Salty- perhaps you have heard of it? It's PIRATE ROCK.
Their entire reason for getting together was their love of all children's pirate stories, and wanted to put together a band that was full of imagination, silliness, mystery, and drama without the tone of condescending over-sweetness that is too-often included in children's music.
As a result, they have pulled together a band that is not only great for children, but adults adore it too. I've seen them live several times- they're brilliant! 😀
they have four albums: Bedtime Stories for Pirates (which is their first album, and the most appropriate for small children,) Pegleg Tango, Prelude to Mutiny (which is aimed at a tad older crowd- and includes my favorite cover of a Disney song of ALL TIME), and Emphatical Piratical.
Mark. If you have never heard of these guys before, you should TOTES CHECK THEM OUT. 😀
http://www.boggandsalty.com/
Ha. I remember back in the Hunger Games series when you said that you should do Mark Watches Spongebob but I didn't take it seriously. Hmm… I haven't watched that show since the first couple of years it was on. Should be interesting. Ooh maybe you'll do the Fairly Oddparents, I remember liking that one. Or Rugrats, Hey Arnold, Doug, Aah! Real Monsters, Rocko's Modern Life, etc. I'm probably forgetting a ton and will feel bad later when I remember them…
I remember in middle school a lot of people were reading A Series of Unfortunate Events but I was kind of eh about it even though I bought the first few books. Maybe I'll dig those out from wherever they are.
Amazing. It's exciting to think that parents will have something more to go on than just a "Y7." And I'm so glad you're doing video games; I always had to go into detail about content when I talked to daycare parents. Who did you find to do that gaming guide? Aw, it's a secret, isn't it?
Arthur! Someone needs to watch Arthur!
Also, since you did The Hunger Games here, how about The Underland Chronicles, Suzanne Collins' other work, in your new site?
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am sooooooo excited for the expansion of your internet empire! Congratulations!!! 😀 I'm also very excited for Mark Watches Spongebob and Mark Reads A Series of Unfortunate Events. My whole family was OBSESSED with Spongebob when it first aired. My sister even dressed as him for Halloween and then reprised the look for Thanksgiving dinner with my dad's side of the family.
Mark, you just became my new favorite person! (not that I didn't think highly of you before, of course ^_^) I'm currently working on my Master of Library Science with an emphasis on Young Adult Services and I've pointed to Mark Reads often as an example of how to review YA literature. There are plenty of review blogs that talk about the moral values of certain works and how well these works are received by the masses and critics, but very few delve into how well something is written – not with the level of discernment that you do, anyway.
I am SUPER EXCITED about this!
That is so amazing. There's not enough of this type of adventure in the world. I'm studying to become a YA librarian and this is exactly the kind of thing we librarians love to see in media (both print and online)—not only articles and pieces that talk about what is appropriate/good/bad for children, but also healthy discussion and essays on the value of the literary (or other media) works themselves. Good on you!
Since you promised to read series of unfortunate events,will that be posted on here as well as on Globparents.com?
That's really cool, Mark. I will read that.
BUT ARE YOU EVER GOING TO GET BACK TO RE-READING HARRY POTTER!
I've been waiting for the next chapter forever.
(P.S. Since tone is hard to read in type-face, could you read the above in an excited and impatient "When is the bell going to ring!' voice rather than an "I am angrily telling you what to do because I am totally the boss of you" voice? Thanks.)
THIS IS AWESOME, Mark! I'm excited for this to start!
Aha, it is revealed.
Will GlobParents be a safe space?
I'm not a parent but I think this is awesome! SO EXCITE
I'm not a parent (in fact, I hate kids!), but I've been meaning to read Lemony Snicket, so it will be fun to read along with you!
I'm so excited for you to read the Series of Unfortunate Events! I loved those books (minus one of them, I wonder what you'll think of that one). Are you going to post those here as well? And will they be in the usual format, chapter by chapter and telling us your thoughts?
I AM EXCITE, but I am EXTREMO-WORRIED about your current workload…. D':
God, Mark. I AM FILLED WITH JOY.
I love this idea! I am really excited about this. This could get very interesting. We parents can be oh so opinionated when it comes to things for our kids. I've had a few knockdowns with other parents of the Junie B books so it will be interesting to see what the consensus is (I love them FWIW).
Can I recommend the Percy Jackson series? I find it is a great start for younger readers who aren't quite ready to tackle Harry yet.
Junie B. Jones is VERY controversial. Some parents hate hate hate them! I didn't know how much until I started working in the children's department of a bookstore.
…Bwu? How do you hate Junie B. Jones? *wiki* Not a good role model? But that’s why she’s funny! You wouldn’t hate Calvin and Hobbes for not starring a good role model, would you?
[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ‘0 which is not a hashcash value.
I know! Most of the arguments are on how "the books don't promote proper grammar etc" but I am of the thinking that if the books are funny enough to cause an interest in reading- then they are a good thing! She cracks me up and my daughters LOVED the books and they both love to read and and write. The books didn't scar them,
I posted over at MarkWatches, but this project sounds amazing. Good luck and I'll be reading along!
This does sound amazing! Lol Spongebob. That's awesome. My favorite children's show was always Digimon. I mean, people said it was a ripoff of pokemon, but pokemon generally didnt deal with the issues resulting from death, divorce and how it affects kids, and other relationship stuff that digimon went into that was really heartbreaking/warming. That show was amazing, and exciting and way better than pokemon.
Cool! Would you ever do shows like Glee in some other category? That would be really amazing!
Sounds really interesting Mark! I'm not sure what kind of age groups you're going for, but I highly recommend reviewing a book called "Moody Cow Meditates" by Kerry Lee MacLean. My little cousin loves the book.
This is so great, Mark! I’m working for a company in China that has a virtual world site for kids to help them learn English, and oh if we could have someone as dedicated and full of ideas as you!
I hope that your workload isn’t going to be overwhelming, I have no idea how you do it all as it is! But meanwhile, thank you! I’m really loving reading along with the Book Thief this time (although I want to know what happens, dammit!).
I hope this new project is as hugely successful as Mark Reads and Mark Watches.
You will LOVE A Series of Unfortunate Events, Mark! LOVE. I promise.
What age ranges are we talking about here? Is it under 12-ish or will there be material aimed at teens, too? I might have a few ideas about things to write about once I get a feel for the site!
oh my god
"MARK WATCHES SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS"
I can't, I physically cannot. This is the best thing ever.
Am I the only one who can't find Mark anywhere on the website? The series are like MY FAVOURITE BOOKS EVER and it is driving me nuts that I can't find them :S
I haven't read all of the comments, so someone may have already suggested it, but you should definitely do Yo Gabba Gabba! If you haven't heard of it, do yourself a favor and look it up! It's hilariously awesome, and I'm pretty sure it's the most parent-friendly show on kids tv 🙂