“The Queen Bee and Me” is not only about a young girl who is a “queen bee,” but it is also about actual queen bees and other sorts of bees, too. This book reminded me that one of the (many) things I love about reading is the opportunity to accidentally learn about something you thought you h…
Five gee oh gee oh gee! In the annals of history few technologies inspired as much disinformation and confusion as 5G (fifth generation) cellular.
Frances Hardinge’s young-adult fantasy “A Face Like Glass” takes ideas from fairy tales and twists them into an exciting story of the fight against elitism, the struggle to fix systemic inequality and the intricacies of making magical cheese.
The National Association of Theatre Owners of Illinois unsuccessfully urged Gov. J.B. Pritzker to include theaters in Phase 3 of the state’s reopening plans.
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Can you identify the screenshot of this home from a movie or TV show?
A temporary computer lab will be available in the first-floor meeting room of the library at 319 N. Vermilion St. Patrons are limited to 30 minutes and should wear masks and observe social distancing.
As I get older and pass one parenting milestone after another — my 15-year-old soon-to-be-driving son is as tall as I am now — I often wish I could talk to my parents. They both died too young, and I wish that I could ask their advice, but more importantly, thank them for the sacrifices they…
The easy-to-spot fiberglass horse on Michigan Avenue in Urbana is sporting a protective mask these days.
The 21-gun salutes, flag plantings and ceremonies will mostly be missing from the first national holiday of the ongoing pandemic. So today, we’re bringing the moving words to you. Author, Marine Corps veteran and retired educator Ray Elliott of rural Urbana shared with The News-Gazette the text of a speech he delivered at last May’s Veteran’s Assistance Commission Memorial Day Ceremony at the Champaign County Courthouse.
Much like Richard Linklater’s “Before” trilogy, Michael Winterbottom’s “Trip” films have a fly-on-the-wall aesthetic that creates a sense of eavesdropping on the viewer’s part.
Nine boys (from 9 to 15 years old) and three men are dropped off at the nearly vertical Warrior Stac — one of the tiny rock islands of the St. Kilda Archipelago in the far northwest of Scotland.
As if the pandemic weren’t enough to worry about, how about Army assault robots running amok?
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Can you identify the screenshot of this home from a movie or TV show?
Michael Fumento, a native of Champaign, military veteran and UI law graduate, is taking the position that COVID-19 is 'overwhelmingly a disease of the old and infirm' that has been falsely characterized as a threat to kills millions of all ages.
As locked down as we may be this summer, there are still plenty of places to go in books and plenty of places and adventures to talk about once the book is finished.
Director Quentin Dupieux’s script is smart in the way it subtly shows how a descent into madness is a slow progression, a sequence of inconsequential acts that seem logical to the person doing them yet culminate in what outsiders regard as madness.
In mid-February, I gave a talk at Krannert Art Museum, focusing on two of my favorite paintings in the collection.
“Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to Washington” by Ted Widmer is a book about Abraham Lincoln and his trip to Washington, D.C., after being elected president of the United States.
Spring is about new beginnings — including bird’s nests and babies — as are featured in these two wonderful new picture books.
“You can never be too rich ...” according to Wallace Simpson. Apply that to internet bandwidth, of which you can never have too much.
The World War II era remains one of the most popular settings for historical fiction. The facts of the conflict are familiar, allowing readers to sink into the story without much scene-setting or exposition, and there were plenty of heroic deeds committed by ordinary people fighting the Nazi…
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On the list of families eager to see the Champaign Public Library back in business, the Morbers have to be near the top.
Can you identify the screenshot of this home from a movie or TV show?
Special-event planners at the UI are hoping that he and thousands of other graduates can derive a few minutes of pleasure from a virtual commencement Saturday.
Andrew Ah's film is a quiet little movie that sets out to tug at your heartstrings and succeeds without laying on the sentiment too thick.
There’s a good movie trapped inside writer/director Clark Duke's frustrating debut that contains two distinct narratives, one compelling, the other ... not so much.
What happens when two adults with children start dating? In “A Field Guide to Getting Lost,” by Joy McCullough, we can enjoy what happens when two such kids fit together like “chalk and cheese.” In other words, these kids, Sutton and Luis, are so different from one another, it’s almost comical.
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