{Poll} Technology Boundaries for Kids?

It seems we can't function in life without our various technological devices, but they carry a lot of dangers and responsibility as well. When and how much can kids handle?

Growing up, the most advanced technology I had was a Super Nintendo that my mother begrudgingly allowed us to have, only after realizing we were using our friends for their video games and constantly asking to go to Toys 'R' Us solely so we could play on the demo video game consoles.

Today, the world is a bit different, and my younger siblings who still live at home have iPod touches that connect to the Internet, handheld video game consoles that do the same, and a cell phone for the elder one. Again, my parents delayed as long as possible before finally relenting this past Christmas.

The traditional rules I grew up with--no computers in the bedroom, no TV on Sundays--become blurry when an mp3 player can be used as both. And the statistics of how much time kids spend on these devices are staggering. Where do the boundaries lie? What age do you think is appropriate for kids to have such devices, and what restrictions (if any) do you put on them?

{A&E} Poll: What's Your Favorite Musical?

Vote in our poll for your favorite musicals, or tell us if we're missing any!

LDS Broadway star Sandra Turley released her debut album, Sandra Turley: On Broadway, this week. Featuring songs like "Popular," "The Sound of Music," and "Les Miserables Medley" and a sound straight from the stage, the album is sure to please any listener who is a fan of musicals.

“The melodies in this album tell tales of their own," Turley says, "but coupled with masterful lyrics and poetic imagery, these songs become stories that can capture our hearts."

So, what songs and stories have captured your heart? The release of Turley's album got us thinking about some of our favorites, but what are yours? Take our poll below to find out.

You can also visit our Facebook page to enter to win one of five copies of the new album or click here to get more product details.

{A&E} Romance Novels: Another Form of Porn?

As a librarian, I have the unique opportunity to help people find books to entertain and inspire. But one too many times I have seen women get caught up in the world of romance novels and lose sight of what is virtuous and lovely.

“…If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy we seek after these things.” 

The whole 13th Article of Faith is, in my opinion, a great motto for how to live a happy life. I am a librarian. I have the unique opportunity to help people find books that in some way entertain and inspire. I hear a lot of feedback about authors, writing styles, story plots, and characters. I also see a lot of trends in the world of reading. It is regarding one of these trends that I would like to focus today’s post.  

Romance novels. 

Not Jane Austen romance novels; they're just fine. We're talking the mass-market produced novels with someone who looks like Fabio on the cover and explicit sex scenes as the primary content. Those ones.

Yes, we are going there.

I see women check out romance novel after romance novel like there is no tomorrow. I believe these books are a much more serious form of pornography than people realize. 

Before you think, “Who is this blogger, and who gave her the right to say something so presumptuous?” Hear me out. I have heard women talk about these novels as their escape. That they love reading about the characters and questionable sections of the novels because it is so far from the life they themselves live. It is their guilty pleasure. I have seen these fictional fantasies take over existing relationships. Mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, brothers, sisters, friends, grandmothers, you name it, individuals who are wasting time in a trashy nowhere land rather than living their own lives. This librarian has seen it all. 

{A&E} LDS Living Children's Book Club

We on the LDS Living staff recently sat down to pick some of our favorite children's books - both those we loved as children and those we love now. Maybe you'll come across a few new ones.

I'm always on the lookout for good children's books. There are a few classics that already adorn my son's library (Goodnight Moon, Where the Wild Things Are, The Very Hungry Catterpiller, etc.) along with a few of my own picks, but one of my favorite things is when people give me books they have loved. Often they're books with which I'm not very familiar, but I can count on their quality because they've been loved by someone I know.

So, when my mother-in-law told me about her most recent book club, I thought it was brilliant. In this book club meeting, each of the participants was encouraged to bring one children's book they loved and one children's book their children loved. Often the women had vastly different favorites from their children (and even didn't really like the books their children did), but I thought it was a great way to compile a good children's library. And I wanted to replicate it.

Thus, here's our very own version of the Children's Book Club - our personal favorites of the children's book genre.

Kate Ensign-Lewis
Online Editor

The Jolly Postman, by Allen Ahlberg
This was one of my favorite books as a child. It connects Mother Goose characters through the postman, who takes letters to the residents. Each page features an actual envelope and letter, and the letters form a kind of continuing story of the nursery rhyme characters. If children today are anything like me, they will love opening and unfolding the letters and finding out what happened after the classic stories ended.