Media Matters

 Animated Christmas movie. This is a charming Santa origin story that teaches the moral: One small act of selflessness sparks another. Note: It has slightly older humor and a couple of slightly scary moments.

This animated movie is full of color, music, and fun, while also delving into themes of belonging, gifts, family, community, service, pressure to be perfect, miracles, and love. It’s the type of movie you could watch multiple times at different stages of life and get something different out of it each time. Suitable for all ages. Note: one of the characters has the gift of seeing the future, and it is portrayed in a dramatic fashion with sand, glowing green eyes, etc. I would discuss with children that his gift is a real gift of the Spirit: the gift of prophecy and revelation. But obviously the real gift looks much different.

Book by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows I listened to the audiobook and highly recommend it, as the narrator was spot on! This is a very funny, romantic fantasy with some loosely accurate historical bits. There’s nothing deep about it, but if you’re in the mood for something light and VERY entertaining to listen to, this is the book you want. It’s also fairly clean (some innuendo between a married couple and a joking reference to never having “kissed with tongue”) , so you could enjoy it with your older teenagers.

 Book by Alan Gratz A powerful, but heart wrenching book about three different refugee families: Jews escaping Nazi Germany in 1939, Cubans escaping Fidel Castro in 1994, and Syrians escaping a civil war in 2015. 

 Book by Dan Gutman. Even if you have no interest in baseball or baseball cards, this book is still an enjoyable read. It spans genres: fantasy/sci fi, historical, contemporary fiction, sports… It has good messages about doing what’s right regardless of the cost. Since I’ve only read the first in this series, I’m curious if the baseball hero/time travel premise gets old as the series continues, but it definitely works for this first installment.

Halloween may be the most difficult holiday when it comes to finding movies and books that support your values. Everyone has different ideas of what is or isn’t appropriate. I try to stay away from anything that glorifies violence, celebrates evil, or generally causes the Spirit to leave. Here are some ideas: *Dia de los muertos is the day after Halloween, a holiday that is all about celebrating ancestors who are dead. The animated movie “Coco” revolves around this holiday. You could even throw a party with this theme. Decorate with old photos of loved ones. Read stories of your family’s history! Visit a cemetery. Have reverence for those who have come before. *Harry Potter has enough fantastical creatures and suspense to work as Halloween stories or movies, and hosting a Harry Potter themed Halloween party could be a fun family tradition! *The classic Scooby Doo cartoons are fun mysteries where the supernatural elements always end up being not so scary after all. *There is a 20 minute...

 Nonfiction book by Garrett Graff. This is a very well done audiobook, with over 45 different voice actors narrating hundreds of first person accounts of the various events of 9/11. It was heart wrenching to listen to, but also compelling and important, particularly as a means of helping today’s young adults who didn’t personally experience that day to better understand what happened and why it affected the nation so much. My favorite parts were learning about the angels, both seen and unseen, who helped people on that day. My only complaint was the inclusion of the actual flight transmissions. They are so choppy and full of static that I couldn’t understand any of what was being said. I appreciate the attempt at authenticity, but I think a re-enactment would have helped with comprehension during that section. Also be warned it is a very long audiobook! I listened at 1.2x which worked well with the material. Note: This is very graphic in terms of gore and might be too disturbing fo...