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Checkers and alphabet blocks beat out Candy Land, Clue and Big Wheel to win two coveted spots this year in the National Toy Hall of Fame. There are now 28 toys in the Hall of Fame, including Mr. Potato Head, Barbie, Etch-A-Sketch, Legos and the teddy bear. Brenda Tremblay from member station WXXI reports.

Irish filmmaker Jim Sheridan's latest movie, In America, draws on the filmmaker's own move to the United States. The tale of an Irish family starting over in New York City mixes autobiography and fiction. NPR's Bob Mondello has a review.

A growing number of American movies are being filmed in Vancouver, Canada. The city offers a similar look to U.S. cities, experienced crews, tax breaks and lower production costs due to the difference between American and Canadian dollars. Trevor Hughes reports.

James Carter, the lead singer of "Po' Lazarus," the opening song on the Grammy award-winning soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou?, died Nov. 26. He was 77. Folk music collector Alan Lomax recorded Carter singing "Po' Lazarus" in 1959, while the latter worked on a chain gang at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman. NPR's Bob Edward has a remembrance.

Daniel Bergner's book, In the Land of Magic Soldiers, tells the stories of victims and perpetrators in Sierra Leone's brutal civil war, and the efforts to rebuild the nation. He finds a country so devastated that its people often plead for a return to British rule. Hear NPR's Melissa Block.

The Metropolitan Opera has revived La Juive, a 19th century French opera about religious persecution. Enrico Caruso once filled the lead tenor's role in the work by Jacques Fromenthal-Halevy. The new tenor star is Neil Shicoff, who speaks with NPR's Linda Wertheimer.

Critics have rarely embraced Stephen King as a serious writer. But the prolific novelist, best known for his horror stories, is about to enter some serious company. The National Book Foundation is honoring the best-selling author with a lifetime achievement award whose previous recipients have included Arthur Miller, Eudora Welty and John Updike. King discusses the award and his writing with NPR's Susan Stamberg.

The Barbarian Invasions, winner of the "Best Screenplay" and "Best Actress" awards at this year's Cannes International Film Festival, opens in U.S. theaters. Los Angeles Times and Morning Edition movie critic Kenneth Turan offers a review.

Dream Jungle is the third novel by Jessica Hagedorn, who was born and raised in the Philippines. Hagedorn places the story in her home country in the 1970s, and weaves together several narratives involving a number of characters, including a young country girl, an urban businessman and an American journalist. Alan Cheuse reviews the book.

Back in 1971, college student Ted Chapin got extra credit for working on the Broadway-bound Stephen Sondheim musical, Follies. Thirty years later, Chapin has written about that experience in the book, Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical 'Follies', which details the ups and downs of what became a controversial production. Hear NPR's Liane Hansen and Ted Chapin.