This Looks Awesome Alert: New NPR Series on Kids' Culture

©2013 NPR Monkey See: currently running a very cool series of stories on 

kids & media, literature, culture, toys and play

Via Emma Mustich over at the Huffington Post, news about a recent, month-long series by NPR examining various aspects of kids' media culture and consumption practices, from questions of representation (gender, race), to contemporary (and enduring) toy trends. Here's an excerpt from the HuffPo article:

"...why don’t we pay closer attention to the art and entertainment our kids experience on a regular basis? How carefully do we really consider the media they are ingesting at the library, in the playroom and when they sit in front of the TV?

In a month-long radio series, NPR has approached this question from myriad angles -- examining everything from the lack of racial diversity in children's books to how the media presents hard subjects like cancer, school shootings and genocide.

"Media," for the purposes of this series, is a broad term, meaning books and TV shows, but also physical toys -- from blocks to dolls. In an upcoming story, we learn about the rise of kids playing with "goth Barbies" (better known as Monster High dolls)."

 Here are the links to some of my favourite stories from the series (so far):

• "As Demographics Shift, Kids' Books Stay Stubbornly White" by Elizabeth Blair
• "An 'Adventure' For Kids And Maybe For Their Parents, Too" by Neda Ulaby
• "Girls' Legos Are A Hit, But Why Do Girls Need Special Legos?" by Neda Ulaby