From the Stacks: February 17, 2006

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Anyone who's tried to learn a language or assimilate to a foreign culture will relate to Alexandra Borisenko's light-hearted guide to "Russian Movies as Cultural Signposts" in the latest issue of Russian Life (Jan./Feb. 2006). She asks you to imagine being a newcomer in Russia, attempting to fit in. Everyone you meet seems to speak in code ... but actually they're quoting classic films! Borisenko provides the details on "Russia's Seven Most Quotable Films" so you can get in the loop. Even if Russia isn't on your itinerary, the piece will at least give you seven more movies to put on your rental list. -- Beth Petsan

It's easy, and quite fashionable among adults, to lament the sorry state of today's couch-potato youth and their Gameboy ways. In Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder, Richard Louv takes the premise in a more thoughtful direction, detailing the many ways in which the lack of direct experience with nature is shortchanging kids. Catching frogs, building tree houses, and squishing mud between our toes isn't just fun, he argues, but, in a way, necessary for our physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. He lays out his thesis as methodically as a 10-year-old building a dam in the dirt, and despite occasionally overreaching -- phrases like "the criminalization of natural play" and offhand comments about tattoos and piercings can be heavy-handed -- he's clearly got a point. Last Child in the Woods (Algonquin Books) started a necessary and overdue conversation when it came out last year, and now that it's being released in paperback it will reach an even larger audience. The only reason not to read this book is because you're too busy getting fresh air with some youngsters. -- Keith Goetzman

A new installment of The Beat Within -- a sporadic but welcome presence in the Utne library -- surfaced this week. The weekly newsletter assembles an impressive 50-plus pages of writing and art by incarcerated youth in the Bay Area and beyond. It's a valuable resource for the young people whose work fills its pages and anyone who wants to understand them. The latest issue to reach us (Vol. 10.47) features a handful of submissions on the prospect of military service. In a sentiment echoed by others, Young Loe writes: "How I see it, is I wouldn't go fight a war for a country that don't care about me. I would rather involve myself in these street and turf wars. Ya know?" -- Hannah Lobel

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