Websites

• Alliance for Childhood www.allianceforchildhood.org
  Prepares materials and advocates for regaining childhood, including play.
• American Academy of Pediatrics www.aap.org
  Position statements and handouts on a variety of key media issues.
• Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood www.commercialfreechildhood.org
  Coalition working to promote policy and grassroots efforts to stop marketing practices that harm children.
• Center for Media Literacy www.medialit.org
  Selects, evaluates, recommends, and sells quality media literacy teaching resources.
• Coalition for Quality Children’s Media (CQCM) www.kidsfirst.org
  Publishes Kids First, a newsletter which reviews and rates children movies and videos.
• Commercial Alert www.commercialalert.org
  Advocates for policies to limit harmful marketing directed at children
• Common Sense Media www.commonsensemedia.org
  Reviews children’s media (films, TV and videogames) in terms of age appropriateness.
• Empowered By Play www.empoweredbyplay.org
  Helping families and teachers protect and promote imaginative play in our way-too-busy, consumer-driven, media-filled world.
• Handmade Toy Alliance www.handmadetoyalliance.org
  Supporting small batch children's apparel, toy, and accessory makers
• International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media www.nordicom.gu.se/unesco
  Global clearinghouse on media practices, resources and research
• Kaiser Family Foundation www.kff.org
  Prepares the most comprehensive reports on status of media in the lives of children and families
• Media Education Foundation http://www.mediaed.org
  Documentary films. Challenging media.
• MediaLit4U.com www.medialit4u.com
  Media literacy skills for a healthy body, mind, democracy and planet
• Playing for Keeps www.playingforkeeps.org
  Educates and advocates about the value of play

Resources for Adults

• Acuff, Daniel, and Reiher, Robert. (2005). Kidnapped: How Irresponsible Marketers Are Stealing the Minds of Your Children. Kaplan Business.
• Carlsson-Paige, Nancy. (2008). Taking Back Childhood: A Proven Roadmap for Raising Confident, Creative, Compassionate Kids. Penguin Group.
• DeGaetano, Gloria. (2004). Parenting Well in a Media Age. Fawnskin, CA; Personhood Press.
• Dyson, Anne Haas. (1997). Writing Superheroes: Contemporary Childhood, Popular Culture, and Classroom Literacy. New York: Teachers College Press.
• Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick, Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy, and Eyer, Diane. (2004) Einstein Never Used Flashcards: How Our Children Really Learn--and Why They Need to Play More and Memorize Less. New York: Rodale Books.
• Healy, Jane. (1999). Your Child's Growing Mind : Brain Development and Learning From Birth to Adolescence. Simon & Schuster.
• Hoffman, Eric. (2002). Changing Channels: Activities Promoting Media Smarts and Creative Problem Solving for Children. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.
• Hoffman, Eric. (2004). Magic Capes, Amazing Powers : Transforming Superhero Play in the Classroom. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.
• *Levin, D. (1998). Remote Control Childhood? Combating the Hazards of Media Culture. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.
• Levin, Diane and Kilbourne, Jean (2009). So Sexy Son Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids. Random House.
• *Levin, D. & Carlsson-Paige, N. (2006). The War Play Dilemma: What Every Parent and Teacher Should Know. New York: Teachers College.
• Linn, Susan. (2005). Consuming Kids: Protecting Our Children from the Onslaught of Marketing & Advertising. New York: Anchor.
• Paley, Vivian Gussin. (2005). A Child’s Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Paley, Vivian Gussin. (1993). You Can’t Say You Can’t Play. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Rideout, V. & Hame, E. (2006). The Media Family: Electronic Media in the Lives of Infants, Toddlers, Preschoolers and their Parents. Menlo Park, CA: Kaiser Family Foundation.
• Schor, J. (2004). Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture. NY: Scribner.
• Zigler, Edward, Singer, Dorothy G., and Bishop-Josef, Sandra J. (2004). Children’s Play: The Roots of Reading. Washington, DC: Zero to Three.

Books for Children

• Berenstain, Stan. (1984). The Berenstain Bears and Too Much TV. Random House.
• Brown, Marc. (1997). Arthur’s TV Trouble. Little, Brown.
• Brown, Marc. (1985). The Bionic Bunny Show. Little, Brown.
• Cantor, Joanne. (2004). Teddy’s TV Troubles. Goblin Fern Press.
• Lewis, Barbara. (1998). The Great TV Turn Off. Bethany House Publishers.
• Miller, Sara Swann. (1998). Better than TV. Skylark.
• Novak, Matt. (1994). Mouse TV. Scholastic.
• Polacco, Patricia. (1996). Aunt Chip and the Great Triple Creek Dam Affair. Philomel.
• Spinelli, Jerry. (1998). The Library Card. Scholastic Paperbacks.
• Vail, Harriet. (2003). Mama Rex and T Turn Off the TV. Orchard.
• Van Allsburg, Chris. (1991). The Wretched Stone. Houghton Mifflin.
• Winn, Christine M. (1996). Boxhead Boy. Fairview Press.
• Ziefert, Harriet. (1993). When the TV Broke. Puffin.

Additional Resources

• Mickey Mouse Monopoly. Media Education Foundation documentary.
• Consuming Kids. Media Education Foundation documentary.
• Childhood Gone Mad. Diane E. Levin's blog on raising healthy kids in a mad world.
• Empowered by Play. Blog by Empowered by Play founder Geralyn Bywater McLaughlin.

Research References

• Coming Soon