Julie Andrews on publishing, princesses, and Pippa

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012

Excuse me while I brag about the perks of my job: Last summer I got to visit Sesame Street. Over the winter I was invited to bring my daughter for a tour of Radio City Music Hall and a private dance lesson with The Rockettes. And yesterday, to continue my winning streak of interacting with massive cultural icons, I attended a small roundtable discussion with Julie Andrews. She and her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton, were talking to us about the upcoming National Princess Week, sponsored by Disney and Target. (If you’re like me and your car practically drives itself to Target every weekend, you’ll see how it’s being celebrated there: with toys and items about all the Disney princesses and a new 2-DVD set of “The Princess Diaries” and “The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement” on Blu-Ray, among other things.) The week also coincides with the publication of the third book in Julie’s and Emma’s Very Fairy Princess series, The Very Fairy Princess: Here Comes the Flower Girl. Julie and Emma were accompanied by Emma’s sweet young daughter, Hope, who generated a big “awww” from the room when she said that one of the things she likes best about princesses is that “they’re so kind.”

As someone who went on “The Sound of Music Tour” in Salzburg and has attended not one but two Sound of Music singalongs, getting to meet Julie Andrews in person was kind of a huge deal. She is precisely the way you’d expect and hope she’d be: warm, well-spoken, poised, lovely. And learning more about her super-successful writing career was so interesting. She’s written more than 20 books, many of them children’s picture books that she’s co-authored with Emma, who teaches children’s literature courses and has a thriving business mentoring children’s book authors. The mother-daughter duo live on opposite coasts (Los Angeles and Long Island, respectively) so they do a lot of their collaborating via iChat and Skype. They told a great story of the morning Julie woke up to Skype with Emma and felt too underdressed–so she spritzed on some perfume. (“It made me feel better,” Julie laughed.) You might assume, as I did, that getting books published has been relatively easy for them, but they’ve dealt with their share of rejection: “Oh, we’ve proposed lots of ideas where we’re told, ‘We think it’s a great idea, but it feels like a… quiet book,’” Emma said.

Given all the princess talk, the conversation inevitably led to Kate Middleton, and then right on to her sister Pippa, who’s currently in the middle of a pistol “scandal” (I’m not getting the gravity, personally). Julie shook her head. “I feel sorry for her,” she said. “By not being a royal, she is free to be targeted by the press. The paparazzi can’t get at Kate, so they get at Pippa. It must drive her crazy.”

When I got home last night, I read the new Very Fairy Princess book to my two girls, ages 6 and 3, and they sat quietly through the whole thing. That’s high praise in and of itself, but the real seal of approval came later when I went into my older daughter’s room to turn off her light, and the book was tucked under the covers with her.

Parents Daily News Roundup

Thursday, December 29th, 2011

Third Baby Ill with Rare Bacteria Associated with Tainted Formula
An Oklahoma baby is the third infant this month sickened by bacteria sometimes associated with tainted infant formula.

After Christmas Death, Teen Leaves Online Message Behind
A Texas teen who died suddenly on Christmas Day from a congenital heart condition, is touching thousands of people around the world with a video he posted shortly before his death.

Target Nurse-In: Did It Change Perceptions of Public Breast-Feeding?
Boobs and babes took center stage Wednesday morning as nursing mothers held “nurse-ins” at Target stores across the country to assert their right to breast-feed their children in public.

Smoking During Pregnancy May Be Tied to Children’s Vascular Damage
Children of parents who smoke during pregnancy may show signs of vascular damage by the age of 5.

2012 Brings Changes in Car Seat Law
Current California law mandates children under 6 and weighing less than 60 pounds have to ride in a booster seat. Come January 1, that will change and the change is catching a lot of parents off guard.

Toddler Racks Up $200 iPhone Bill
When 20-month-old London Hall got a hold of her parent’s iPhone, she went on a shopping spree within one of the games racking up a $200 bill in the App Store.

Parents Daily News Roundup

Wednesday, December 28th, 2011

Affluent Children Are More Physically Fit Than Poor Ones
Elementary schools in affluent districts have far more physical education specialists than those in poor ones.

Controversy Grows Over Pro-Spanking Book After Abuse Deaths
Michael Pearl’s book “To Train Up a Child” is coming under fire after the caretakers in three separate deadly child abuse cases reportedly owned the book.

Mother-Toddler Bond Linked to Teen Obesity
Toddlers who have poor relationships with their moms are more likely to pack on extra pounds as they grow up, a new U.S. study shows.

Doctors Split on Vaccine Strategy to Shield Babies
A large group of U.S. doctors on Monday gave the green light for pediatricians to offer vaccines to close family members of babies who are too young to get shots themselves.

The Nurse-In: Why Breast-Feeding Moms Are Mad at Target
Nursing mothers intend to turn out en masse from Maine to Oregon to breast-feed their babies while wandering through after-Christmas markdowns or sipping a latte in the in-house Starbucks — it’s a maternal twist on civil disobedience: the nurse-in.

On Tape: Baby Puts Fingers in President’s Mouth
President Obama got a Christmas Day surprise when a baby put his hand in the president’s mouth.

See Your Baby’s Name in Lights

Wednesday, December 29th, 2010

Sometimes announcing your baby’s birth in the newspaper just isn’t enough. Sometimes you just need to announce it on the big screen in Times Square or the Hollywood and Highland Center in Los Angeles. Now you can.

Target has created a Target Baby FaceBook page where parents can create a playful birth announcement (free of charge) to share via Twitter, e-mail, and FaceBook. The best part is that you can enter to have your announcement randomly chosen for display on the Big Baby Billboard in either NYC or LA. The announcements will air from January 1, 2010 to January 5 (LA) January 6 (NYC).

Daily News Roundup

Monday, October 25th, 2010

British kids log on and learn math- in Punjab:
Three state schools in London outsource part of their teaching to India via the Internet through new online-based company BrightSpark.  Students can now have a one on one tutoring experience at half the price that a British tutor would charge. [New York Times]

Kids’ docs urged to screen new moms for depression: The Pediatrics Academy says that over 400,000 babies are born to depressed mothers each year, and that their conditions can affect their babies as well. Research shows developmental and social delays occur often in babies with depressed moms. [MSNBC]

Raisinets recalled over peanut risk: Nestle has recalled has recalled 10 oz. “fun size” bags sold to Target, Shoprite, and Don Quixote stores because they may contain peanuts. Nestle says the recall only applies to candy with the 02015748 production code and UPC number of 2800010255. [MSNBC]

40,000 drop-side cribs recalled for safety risk: The recalled Ethan Allen, Angel Line, and Victory Land Heritage Collection 3-in-1 cribs have drop-sides that can detach due to faulty hardware or wear and tear, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. This can create a gap where young children can be trapped or suffocated. In the past five years more than 9 million drop-side cribs have been recalled and caused at least 32 infant deaths since 2000. [CBS News]

First four months critical to new babies sleep habits: A new study in the journal Pediatrics finds that most babies will sleep five to eight hours per night by their fourth month of life. Many babies will sleep while the rest of the family is sleeping–50 percent of babies at age five months. [Paging Dr. Gupta/CNN]

Celery recall plant awaits results from FDA: The FDA linked four deaths to contaminated celery from a Texas plant. The state health department traced six of 10 known cases of listeriosis during an eight-month period to celery processed at the SanGar plant. On Wednesday the agency shut down the plant and ordered the company to recall all the produce that has passed through the plant since January. [MSNBC]