Quick Takes: My Favorite Movie to Inspire

I recently had the chance to see one of my all time favorite movies and realized I had never posted a recommendation for it on this  blog.  The movie is a very little known story from 1987:

Amazing Grace and Chuck

 The two leads in the movie are played by a young boy [his only movie I think] and a pro basketball player, Alex English, which may have contributed to the movie being overlooked by many.  However the movie also boasts some serious star power.... Gregory Peck playing the President of the United States, Jamie Lee Curtis, a young [pre-CSI] William Peterson plays the boy's dad, and Frances Conroy plays his mother. Avid TV and movie viewers will also recognize other familiar lesser known faces in various supporting roles. Mike Newell directed the movie and later went on to direct hits such as "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "Enchanted April."

This 1987 movie does not pretend to be a realistic way of ending the threat of war but deliberately and literally leaves viewers with the message... "but wouldn't it be nice."  Although the movie is fiction and takes place at a time when the fears and political enemies were different,  I have used this movie with my kiddos and my students to start the conversation about the impact that anyone, even a child, can have when they champion a cause.

To follow up with real-life examples I share chapters from a wonderful, award-winning book:
It's Our World ,Too!- Young People Who Are Making a Difference: How They Do It and You Can, Too!   by Philip Hoose. It won a Christopher Award for "artistic excellence in books affirming the highest values of the human spirit. Every chapter celebrates a child or teen who has made a significant difference through their effortsand every chapter is true!  [pub 1993 by Little, Brown and by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux in 2012].

Check these out.... please!  Share them with kids you know.