Them's Fightin' Words

Any Twilight lovers willing to take this on?

All the flaws of Stephenie Meyer’s novel — the redefinition of conflict as prolonged miscommunication, the romanticization of obsession over affection, the passing off of incident as plot — are laid bare in this self-indulgent cinematic adaptation.

Claire E. Gross is associate editor of the Horn Book Magazine. This quote is from her review of New Moon, which you can read here..

More Fall Movies

Where the Wild Things Are isn't the only movie based on a book to come out this fall! Cirque du Freak is out today!

Here are a few more movies of interest to children and teens:

October 23: Cirque du Freak. Who's read this? I keep meaning to but have never gotten to it yet. The whole series is pretty much checked out, but I don't know if that's because of the movie, or if it's been popular all along. (The first book came out in 2001.) We also have the first volume redone as manga, in our YA Graphic Novel Collection!

November 6: Disney's A Christmas Carol. This story is all over the place in our collection, and Barbie and Sesame Street and the Flintstones and who knows who else all have their take! Many copies are in J, but if you're out and someone needs it, there are some books in adult fiction, too.

November 6: Precious is based on the novel Push, by Sapphire, which is in our adult fiction collection, but since it's about a teenage girl, there is crossover appeal to YAs.

November 13: Fantastic Mr. Fox I haven't read the book! I don't know the gossip about the movie! Anyone want to jump in here and save me? All I have is this LA Times article. It's stop-motion, not 3D, and has tons of big voice names. Are you going to see it?

November 20: Ah, yes. A little picture based on a small book: New Moon. Fanboys and girls, it's time to speak up, because at this rate, I am never going to read the books or see the movies! Who's seen them? Who's going to this one?

November 25: Disney's Princess and the Frog. Okay, there's a lot of these stories out there--the search "(prince or princess) and juvenile and frog" brings back 45 items in J FIC, folktales, and picture books. This movie is noteworthy because it is a traditional 2D animation from Disney, and because it is the studio's first black princess. There is much discussion going on! Here's an article from the NY Times, from May, and one from Moviefone, in September, for a quick overview of what people are saying. (My favorite comment, from the NYT: "We finally get a black princess and she spends the majority of her time on screen as a frog?")

December 11: The Lovely Bones. Again, not a YA title, but one lots of high school girls have read. I think I'm one of the fourteen people who have not yet read this. But it's directed by Peter Jackson, so there is tons of buzz and Oscar speculation already, even though it's not out for another 2 months!

December 25: Holmes. People are going to say Guy Ritchie is playing pretty fast and loose with the Holmes character, although 1) Ritchie has said, "There's quite a lot of intense action sequences in the stories, [and] sometimes that hasn't been reflected in the movies," and 2) people have been playing pretty fast and loose with Holmes since he was first written. Books are all over our collection ("Sherlock Holmes" as a keyword = 208 items), though what's in J is usually adaptations.

Where the Wild Things Are

So are you going to the movie, or keeping your book experience unsullied by film?

Alyson gave us her take back in June, when we also posted some links to interviews and blogs, including Terrible Yellow Eyes, with awesome Wild Thing tribute art!

And here's a blog that has gathered some cute Wild Things craft/art ideas.

Here's a fresh interview from Newsweek last week with both Jonze and Sendak.

One snippet from it to get you started!

What do you say to parents who think the Wild Things film may be too scary?
Sendak: I would tell them to go to hell. That's a question I will not tolerate.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

The movie opens September 18th. This adds to the questions about Where the Wild Things Are that Melissa asked in her post:
"How do you adapt a quintessential work from its original media to another? Just how problematic is it to try to stretch a picture book into a full-length feature?"

Check out the trailer.
It will be interesting to see how this goes over.

Up

Here's a nice article from the LA Times connecting the Pixar movie Up with children's literature.

More About the Wild Things

Spike Jonze, the director of the new Wild Things movie that Alyson posted about yesterday, along with others on the movie team, have a blog going, We Love You So, as kind of a bulletin board where they tack up a bunch of items of interest: "This place has been established to help shed some light on many of the small influences that have converged to make this massive project a reality."

There's a lot of pretty random stuff, but also great pieces like Mr Rogers defending PBS funding in the midst of the Vietman War, artwork depicting children with imaginary friends, and quotes, interviews, and video clips of Maurice Sendak.

Another very cool WTWTA-related blog: Terrible Yellow Eyes, which showcases WTWTA-inspired artwork.

A fan site with lots of links to interviews and articles is Where the Wild Things Are.

There's also a 6-months-old Rolling Stone interview with Spike Jonze in which he touches on some of the adaptations he made, and states that Maurice Sendak likes the movie.

I can't wait until the discussion about the movie starts in earnest: how do you adapt a quintessential work from its original media to another? Just how problematic is it to try to stretch a picture book into a full-length feature? (Horton Hears a Who, Cat in the Hat, Jumanji...) What are people going to think about Dave Eggers' novelization/tie-in/inspired-by-the-movie novel, The Wild Things?

Coraline

Neil Gaiman's movie Coraline was released yesterday! Coraline was also released as a graphic novel...anybody read both and want to comment?

As you know, Neil Gaiman just won the Newbery for his new title The Graveyard Book, so interest is probably going to be high for his stuff for awhile now.

His books have a creepy but literary vibe...what have you been recommending to kids and teens who want more? Did you know he even has a couple of picture books?

The director of the movie is the guy who did Nightmare Before Christmas. Would Corpse Bride work for the Coraline crowd, or not? Who's seen it?

Twilight

It's here! Twilight, the movie, was released today.

For those of you who have been living on Mars this year, Stephanie Meyer's vampire series has been THE hot read. What are we going to recommend to tweens and teens who have A) read all the books and B) seen the movie 20 times already and C) want something just like it?

Leave us a comment with some movies or books that you are going to recommend!

City of Ember

Yesterday was the release of the movie City of Ember! It's based on a YA book by Jeanne DuPrau (1st of a trilogy) & is a big middle-school read, though I know 4th and 5th graders have read it too.

So it's all checked out--and of course we won't have the DVD in for awhile. What are we going to recommend to the kids who come in looking for it or who loved the movie?

If you haven't read it (it's a good one), read a few reviews* and see what other upper-elementary/middle school titles come to mind as possible recommendations. Leave a comment with your title, and why you think it's a good read-alike.

If everyone leaves one or two ideas, we'll have a really nice list to help kids out with this month!

*reviews are easy to find--just click on the cover image in Milllennium.