It's important for kids to read in order to become well-rounded, knowledgeable adults and positive members of society. It turns out there's another benefit to reading -- it can lead to weight loss. Scientists at Duke Children's Hospital in North Carolina have found that overweight girls who were given a book that featured an overweight girl reduced their body mass index by one percent in just six months.

The book the girls read, Lake Rescue, promotes a healthy lifestyle, including exercise. A control group that was not given the book actually increased their BMI by half a percent. Even though the loss was small, it represents a significant impact because the expected outcome, sans book, would be for the girls to increase their BMI, as, in fact, the girls in the control group did.

"The idea that a book can positively influence weight loss and decrease BMI is encouraging because it's fairly easy to implement," says Dr. Sarah Armstrong, who specializes in Nutritional Disorders and Obesity at Duke. "And it's a welcome addition to a world where there aren't a lot of alternatives." Whether a healthier lifestyle is a good reason to read or reading is a good way to live a healthier life, I say it's a win-win situation.

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Are you a mom? Do you Twitter? Would you like to meet other moms who Twitter?

Twitter is a social networking site that allows participants to engage in "microblogging." Twitterers post updates that may not exceed 140 characters; the trick is to be funny or engaging or provocative in as few words as possible. Other Twitter members can follow you and read your updates, and you can do the same. Twitter is like blogging, but faster and more concise and possibly more personal.

Twitter just might be the future of blogging.

One Twitter member, Megan Calhoun, saw an opportunity to bring moms together via the 140 character update; in September, she founded Twittermoms, an online community for moms who Twitter. Calhoun says that as with most mommy blogs, Twittermoms was born out of a desire to create community. "As a stay at home mom, you sometimes don't get enough adult interaction during the day. Twitter was great for connecting with friends, and I noticed a lot of moms on it – but no easy way to learn more about them, or make decisions about who would be really interesting to connect with on Twitter." Her husband joked that she needed to start a site to fill that niche, and so, on September 2, Calhoun did. "I added the URL to my Twitter.com profile and the next morning we had four members. A month later, membership rushed past 2,200 active members. A cool new mom joins every few minutes. It's been quite a rush!"

There's more to Halloween than costumes and candy. Coming, as it does, just a few days before one of the most important elections we've had in a long time, it's also a potential predictor of the outcome of that election. You see, one of the perennial favorite categories for adult costumes is politicians and what better than to pick one's favorite candidate?

According to costume suppliers, mask sales have successfully predicted the outcome of the last few elections. So which of the two presidential candidates is winning, at least in mask sales? So far, it's Obama, but there's more to it, this time around. Sarah Palin has added an unexpected twist to the mix -- she was a late announcement so vendors were caught unprepared and she is a rare opportunity for women to dress as a candidate.

Personally, if I thought the correlation at all implied causation, I'd be in line to buy a dozen or so masks of my favorite candidate, but instead, I think I'll just chuckle a bit and make sure I vote in November.

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Soccer superstar David Beckham is set to launch a series of books aimed at getting kids to read through soccer. These days, Beckham is known as much for his celebrity lifestyle and products that carry his name as he is for his Euro football moves. In addition to fashion plate wife Posh and three sons, David lays claim to cologne among his other endeavors.

Beckham is not planning on writing the books, however, and will hire a ghostwriter to pen them. The books will be set in both London and his new home of Los Angeles and will focus on his soccer academies. My main question is whether or not there will be a character based on Posh!

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I'm constantly battling technology demons. On my drive to pick up kids from school, I question if I should return calls and allow my toddler to watch Strawberry Shortcake in the minivan, or should we be singing and practice saying colors in Spanish? And while I am grateful that writing allows me to be home with my kids, I recently cringed when my six year-old complained, "Are you blogging again, Mommy?"

A recent study by AOL's Platform confirms what I was beginning to sense: Today's moms are the most efficient multi-taskers in the history of mothering. In fact the study demonstrated that we pack and astounding 27 hours of work into a 24-hour day! And while it also found that moms use technology primarily for "task oriented" parenting like helping a child with a school project or researching a symptoms before calling the doctor, many of us are beginning to challenge the pros and cons of being such darn efficient parents.

Case in point: parents sending kids off to to college for the first time are debating text messaging. My sister-in-law is grateful for how it enables her to stay connected and close with her out-of-state child. But another friend of mine fears that constant texting between parents and their college-age kids is interfering with this rite of separation, and enabling helicopter parenting. Instead of figuring things out for themselves, too many kids are reflexively texting mom when a problem arises. Yet, I remember what a hassle it was for my parents to coordinate rides and after-school activities with four teenagers. Text messaging would have cut down on the times my sister and I were left waiting for my mom to pick us up because our game or activity ended early and there was no way to reach her because she wasn't home. I feel downright ancient even telling this story!

What I am most grateful for is that technology has removed much of the isolation once associated with at home-motherhood. In interviews I conducted for a book I am writing about the changes in at-home motherhood, feeling cut off from the outside world was the top complaint from previous generations. Today, thanks to internet phone services that have made it virtually free, I can talk to my sister who lives in Uruguay on a daily basis. When it comes to technology, the debate and calls for balance rage on, but I will always marvel that my husband can list off movie titles at the video store from his cell while I look up reviews on the net so we can decide together and avoid disappointment later. Now that is technology working for families!

Actor Denzel Washington has a few words for Americans hitting the voting booths this November. He is urging us to take into consideration the needs of our youth as we consider casting our ballots. He's also urging our leaders to take these matters into greater account.

Washington is a strong supporter of the Boys and girls Club of America, and has taken youth issues to heart. Says Washington, the nation's leaders need to focus on the needs of our youth, including the increases in obesity and the high school dropout rate. The Oscar winner also commented on the violent crime among young people, which increases in the hours right after school.

Washington made his opinion known via a commentary piece for CNN.com and feels that if we don't deal with these issues our children won't be prepared to deal with the "challenges posed by a complex world." Well said!

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I have to confess, I like Gwyneth Paltrow. I appreciate how honest she is about the vagaries of her life as a mom -- about how hard it was to lose the the baby weight, for example, and her bout of post partum depression. I was impressed to read that she doesn't employ a professional chef, but does all her family's cooking herself. (Although if I were a movie star married to a rock star? I would TOTALLY have a chef. I'm just sayin'.)

Paltrow has a new project -- no, not the PBS cooking show, another new project: she's launching a lifestyle web site called GOOP. That name makes me cringe a little (because "GOOP" in all caps like that? really?) but what makes me cringe even more is the site's tone. In the introduction, Paltrow writes: "My life is good because I am not passive about it. I want to nourish what is real, and I want to do it without wasting time. I love to travel, to cook, to eat, to take care of my body and mind, to work hard. I love being a mother who has to overcome my bad qualities to be a good mother. I love being in spaces that are clean and nice."

I may be a little cynical here (or a lot, whatever) but it seems to me that it's probably easier to overcome "bad qualities" when you have a nanny and a personal trainer helping out. I'm not knocking either of those things (I wish I had both, frankly) but as a mom who can only keep half the flat spaces in her house clear at any moment (right now I'm typing at a table that is covered with bills and baseball gear and things to be returned to various stores) I'm a little put off by the tone of GOOP. I love to travel and cook, but I also love to pay the bills on time, which means that I spend most of my day working, which leaves precious little time to either "nourish what is real" or waste time.

GOOP is broken into six categories: Make, Go, Get, Do, Be, See. When the site is fully launched, each category will include essays written by Paltrow (maybe on how to keep your spaces clean and nice? or how to stop wasting time?). GOOP strikes me as a sort of Martha Stewart for Moms kind of thing, and I'm having the same response to it that I have to Martha Stewart and her craft projects: sure, I COULD make that wreath for the front door out of corn husks that you dry yourself, but really, I'll just wind up buying one at the store because I have to go to work and fold eleven thousand loads of laundry and help the kids with their homework.

I like Gwyneth Paltrow, I really do, and I honestly would like to live more like her. But first I have to figure out how to get all this crap off the table so I can get some work done. Or is that just wasting time?

We love book order day at our house. Because we're heavy library users, and because we already have a large book collection, we rarely spend money on books. But my kids love to flip through the flimsy pages, oohing and ahhing over the offerings, and if there's an especially good deal or a classic we don't own, we'll order it.

But when school children everywhere get their future Scholastic book orders, something will be missing... Bratz. Scholastic recently announced that they will no longer be selling Bratz products in their book orders or school fairs. The ban comes following an email campaign launched by consumer group Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood, who claims to have barraged the company with 5,000 emails. Scholastic, however, is mum on whether CCFC's efforts had something to do with them dropping the passionate-for-fashion dolls.

Initially, Scholastic claimed that the books were necessary for reluctant readers, but the CCFC shot back that the computer games and "design your own purse" Bratz products Scholastic hawked at their fairs were hardly literature. A lot of girls love fashion, my own included, but there are better, less-sexualized, more appropriate toys out there for fashion-forward girls than Bratz. I applaud this decision, but it's sure to be controversial. What do you think? Did Scholastic do the right thing?

If you can't get political enough this season, then perhaps you can share even more of your opinions via your baby's tummy. That's right, world, just when we thought we'd said "ENOUGH!" to all the witty slogan T-shirts out there (no longer midriff-bearing, thank goodness, I am SO over that), the onesie-with-commentary takes center stage.

Check out these witty onesies (and a few bibs) courtesy of website urlesque, which provides interesting tidbits and goings on about the wonderful machine that is the world wide web. Whether you're a democrat or republican, you'll be sure to find something to sport your baby in with political style. Or, perhaps you have no real affiliation, but you are committed to causes like stopping global warming--there's a cute onesie for that one too.

Several of the onesies featured center around our current lame duck president, but most center on Obama and McCain. Of all the 28 pictures, the only onesie I've actually seen is "My mama's for Obama." Several naturally also poke fun at Hillary Clinton. None, of course, center on Sarah Palin, although I'm sure we'll see those soon enough. Just give the witty minds enough time! The one I found most clever made good use of Obama's slogan, "Time for a change." It features a baby who needs his diaper changed (it's promo Obama but the republicans could get a good laugh out of it too!). Very funny!

Funny onesies aside, regardless of what you clothe your kid in this season, PLEASE VOTE IN NOVEMBER!

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Michelle Rodriguez is not exactly known for her soft side. The actress, perhaps most memorable for bad girl roles in television's Lost and the movie Girlfight, also recently spent some time in jail after being arrested for DUI.

Maybe she's trying new things or trying to change her bad-girl image. Now the actress has taken on the role of writer for a kid's film, which she says will be sort of a "Jumanji meets Goonies" kind of tale. Given the greening of Hollywood (and everything else) the story will have a spin of environmentalism. The description of the film, in Rodriguez's own words, however, sounds far from family-fare.

Apparently the futuristic film is about animals who start attacking everything that isn't pure after a botched seance. That sounds rather terrifying, no? The film is to center around twelve- and thirteen-year-olds. Rodriguez says she's been working on the idea for the film since she was about that age.

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Actress and sometime do-gooder Angelina Jolie claims she makes action movies for her children. I'm not sure who got her to come out of her shell long enough to hear this information--Jolie has been tucked away safely since the birth of her twins Vivienne and Knox--but perhaps this is old info just now being issued to keep us satisfied while we await her return to the media frenzy that is her life.

According to Jolie, she wants her kids to be able to see the films and be proud of her. I'm not sure how proud anyone would be of efforts like Tombraider 2, but hey, Jolie claims to also do all her own stunts--that would be pretty rockin' if it's fact. Jolie says she does that to prove to her children they can do anything to which they set their minds. Fair enough.

The star should be more proud of her philanthropic ways, which I am also sure she hopes to pass on to her kids. Learn by example, right? If that's true then there should be six more philanthropists among the Jolie-Pitt clan to carry on the work of Ange and Brad Pitt. Either that or they'll all want to appear in remakes of their parents' films!

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Author Candace Bushnell seems to think so. Just when the world may have thought it'd had enough of SATC after the recent move to the big screen, and just when Gossip Girl lost its minimal intrigue, sights have been set to unleash a teen version of the HBO cult favorite. The question is not whether or not we need a teen SATC, but whether or not we want one.

I guess we do, at least in print. Author Bushnell, who brought us the original SATC is set to launch a series aimed at teens starting in 2010. They will serve as prequels to the well-known wonders of Carrie Bradshaw. The books will be part of The Carrie Diaries and will follow Bradshaw through her teen years as she struggles with romance and fashion. Yawn!

Well, if it's recycled product you want, then perhaps it'll be recycled product you get--at least it sounds that way. Of course, I was one with a penchant for reading the Sweet Valley High series when I was a kid so perhaps these Carrie Diaries is really just SVH for the modern set.

Thoughts? Would you read these books--and would you let your teen? I read the SVH series almost every single one, and I lived to tell about it!

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Moms and dads of the under-5 set know them well. They're The Wiggles, the colorful, noisy, silly children's musical group from Australia. I remember the first time I saw them -- pre-motherhood -- and I thought, "What the heck? Are they for real?" But it didn't take me long as a mom to realize their appeal. Not only are The Wiggles a whole heap of fun, they promote healthy living habits like nutrition and exercise, making them a hit for parents who are trying hard not to raise little couch potatoes. When I had a two-year-old and a newborn, I counted the 30 minutes I spent dancing around the room with my toddler to one of their DVDs my daily workout!

The Wiggles hard work and popularity have paid off for them. According to Business Review Weekly, who recently compiled a list of the top 50 Australian entertainers, The Wiggles are the top earners in show business in their country and have held their number one spot for four years. Last year, they earned $45 million. Other Australian entertainers include:

• Kylie Minogue
• Russell Crowe
• Hugh Jackman
• children's group Hi-5
• Cate Blanchett
• Keith Urban
• AC/DC
• Anthony LaPaglia

The Wiggles have a lot more competition these days, with new TV shows and groups marketed to children coming on to the scene all the time. But they're tiny fans still seem to love them!

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Wow. Talk about uncomfortable. It's hard enough as a kid to have to learn about the birds and the bees. It can be equally excruciating when it's your parents telling you about it (although I'm sure we prefer that to school yard hoopla). But what about when your mom is Pam Anderson, who is as famous for the sex tape she made with your dad, Tommy Lee, as she is for anything else in her career?

Tough indeed. Recently the former Baywatch star came clean with her two sons about the sex tape, which may have ultimately been the only choice she had. It's not like everyone in the known universe isn't aware the tape exists, so eventually someone was going to have to say something to the 10- and 12-year old she has with the Motley Crue drummer. Before they sat down to watch the movie Borat, which features both Pam and her sex tape, mommy sat the kids down to do some 'splaining.

Says Anderson, she advised them she and daddy run around naked in the tape and that she "la la la'ed" over the parts she didn't want them to hear. All the boys' friends had seen the tape and they really wanted to see it, so she felt compelled to tell them about it rather than have them hear about it from their pals. Seems like a rational move, right? Don't worry--I'm not going to ask you what you would do if your kid found out about your sex tape. I don't want to know if you made one! What I would say is perhaps it is best to think about how our actions will affect us later on down the line when we are parents (remember when Madonna made that Sex book???).

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What would your kids buy if they came into a little money? Candy? A record album? Toys? Well, Emma Watson, who played Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies, spent a litte more than that. After turning eighteen and gaining access to the millions she'd earned over the years, the child star went out and spent some of her hard earned cash.

So what did she get? How does a house sound? Actually, it was a million-pound ski chalet in the French Alps. According to a friend, "The house is Emma's way of celebrating her recent straight As at A-level and finally getting her hands on some of her hard-earned cash. She worked really hard this year and didn't have much of a birthday party so this was her present to herself."

Watson is a big skier, so this seems like a reasonable purchase for a young woman with $17 million dollars in the bank. I know if I found myself with that kind of money, I'd be picking up some real estate too.

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