Worth our time

By Tony Staley
Compass Editor

What to watch at the theater and at home on TV or video and what books to read is always a challenge. The Christophers have offered some help with their annual awards to affirm the highest values of the human spirit.

The year's honored motion pictures were Akeelah and the Bee, Charlotte's Web, Miss Potter, Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, The Nativity Story, World Trade Center and Water.

TV/cable awards went to HBO's Baghdad ER; ABC's "A Simple Twist of Fate" from 20/20; TNT's The Ron Clark Story; Cinemax's Cinemax Reel Life: Favela Rising; and PBS's "Chimpanzees: An Unnatural History" from Nature.

Six nonfiction books for adults were honored: Barefootin': Life Lessons From the Road to Freedom by Unita Blackwell with JoAnne Prichard Morris; Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario; The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief by Francis Collins; Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza with Steve Erwin; My Life With the Saints by Jesuit Fr. James Martin; and The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East by Sandy Tolan.

Five books for young people were honored: Hero Cat by Eileen Spinelli and illustrated by Jo Ellen McAllister Stammen (preschool); How We Are Smart by W. Nikola-Lisa and illustrated by Sean Qualls (ages 6-8); The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline (ages 8-10); Listen! by Stephanie Tolan (ages 10-12); young adult for Bread and Roses, Too by Katherine Paterson (author of the perennial favorite children's novel).

The Christophers has provided us much needed help.