Review #125: Charlotte's Web

 
The 3rd Annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival is coming soon!  We attended the screening in Chicago last year and it was tons of fun!  Don't know what the 90-Second Newbery is?  I'll put some links at the bottom of this post.  But in the meantime...

For our entry this year, we decided to tackle one of the most highly favored novels in Children's Literature.  Charlotte's Web won a Newbery Honor in 1952.  Ten years later, Spider-Man made his first appearance.  Hey... why not bring the two legendary spiders together?  Why not re-imagine the "Charlotte" characters as costumed heroes and villains in the opening credits of an imaginary tv show?  Okay!  Let's do it!  

We're proud to present our Charlotte's Web / Spider-Man / Mashup Video:



And for an actual 'review' of the book, here are the lyrics to our song:

­­

Charlotte’s web, Charlotte’s web

Making miracles with her thread
She spins a web that brings surprise
With her words she saves lives
Look Out!
Here comes Charlotte’s web

See that pig in the mud?
He will faint at the thought of blood
Will our Wilbur soon be dead?
Just take a look overhead
See there:
There’s hope in Charlotte’s web

From the farm to the fair

Meeting animals everywhere

He could get eaten any day

Danger’s never far away

That’s why

He needs Charlotte’s web

In the chill of night
With her own special twine
She in secret writes
To save the life of a swine

Charlotte’s web, Charlotte’s web

Friendly, generous, lots of legs
The pig gets fame
While she’s ignored
Making friends is her reward

So pigs, whenever you are shakin’
She’ll come and save your bacon
Look out for Charlotte’s web!

To see all four of our own Newbery Videos, click here...
To learn more about the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival, click here...
To see the best of the 90-Second Newbery videos, click here...

Author: E.B. White
Illustrator: Garth Williams
Published, 1952: HarperCollins
Want the book?  Here it is

 

Review #121: The Prairie Thief

Dad:  We just finished a big family reading of "The Prairie Thief" by Melissa Wiley.
Gracie (age 12):  I've got such a good blurb for this book. 
Dad:  Oh yeah?
Gracie:  It's better than any blurb Isaac will think of.  I'm going to whoop Isaac at the blurbage.  
Dad:  Okay, tell us your blurb.
Gracie:  I don't want to right now!
Dad:  You want to save it for the end?
Gracie:  Yes, because it still needs a little tweaking here and there.
Dad:  Alright... we're on pins and needles.  So let's talk about "The Prairie Thief."  Let's start with each of the words in the title.
Isaac (age 14):  I'll tell you about the word "The."
Dad:  How about "Prairie"?
Lily (age 9):  The characters live on a prairie.  A prairie is a nice field of long flow-y grass that blows in the wind.
Isaac:  This book takes place in the same timeframe as Little House on the Prairie days.
Gracie:  Yeah, when I think of prairies, I think of Laura.
Lily:  Little girls with braids in their hair, running through the fields.  It's the Old Days.
Elijah (age 7):  They're probably all dead by now.
Dad:  Tell me about the "Thief" part of the title...
Lily:  The girl's dad was accused of theft-ing.
Gracie:  You're not even saying it right.  It's "thievering."
Dad:  Uh, thievering?
Gracie:  Louisa is the main character.  A whole bunch of stolen property is found on their land, and her father is falsely accused.  He has to go to jail, and Louisa has to clear her father's name before they hang him, because her Pa is like an awesome honorable man.
Lily:  Louisa has to go stay with the people who accused her Pa because they are the only ones who live nearby.
Gracie:  It's miserable!  They are called The Smirches.  Which sounds like a totally evil name.
Lily: (growling)  Smmmirchhhhhh....
Gracie:  Doesn't that name just sound like an evil name?
Lily:  Smirch.
Gracie:  Like, listen to this.  Which one sounds like the evil character:  Mrs. Brody...  Mrs. Mack...  or Mrs. Smirch.
Lily:  Smirch.
Dad:  We talked a bit about how this book has a historical setting.
Gracie:  But it was also magical.
Dad:  The author did a good job describing what life on the prairie was like.
Gracie:  Yeah.  And then she did a good job describing what life was like with a Leprechaun for a neighbor.
Elijah:  It's a Brownie!  Louisa finds a Brownie.
Dad:  Brownies!  That sounds delicious!
Elijah:  No.  A Brownie is a little short man with a beard!
Dad:  Like you?
Kids: Ha ha ha hah!
Dad:  Elijah is a little short man.
Gracie:  But he doesn't have a beard.  You do.  It's a mix between you and Elijah.
Lily:  There are two kinds of Brownies.  The "little man" brownie and the "eating" brownie.  And you can't get them mixed up.  That would be pretty bad.
Dad:  Back to the story...
Gracie:  The author shows how difficult life really was back then on the Prairie Days.  She expresses that really well throughout the book.  But then she mixes in magical creatures.
Isaac:  It's a good mix... showing life a long time ago, but also with some fantasy.  It doesn't overdo it either way.  It's a good mix.
Lily:  Louisa crawls into a little hole that she thinks is a badger hole.
Elijah:  But she found a Brownie!
Gracie:  He's got a pointy little hat.
Lily:  And he can talk to animals.
Gracie:  She meets lots of fun little friends along her journey.  Like a pronghorn.  And wolves.
Elijah:  And a Brownie!
Dad:  Isaac, I have a question for you...
Isaac: (hesitantly)  Yeeeees?
Dad:  I've read a bit of debate online recently.  Some people claim that boys don't like books with girls as main characters.  What's your opinion?
Isaac:  Uhhh...  It depends on the book.
Dad:  They say that girls will read books with boys as main characters, but boys won't read books with girls as main characters.
Isaac:  That's not true.  It just has to be the right book.  I mean, boys aren't going to want "Barbie Princess."  It just depends on what the story is.
Dad:  Any examples of books you like that have girls as main characters?
Isaac: (Isaac starts rattling off books, no hesitation...)  The "Amulet" books have a girl in it -- those are graphic novels though.  "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon" would be another good book.  "A Series of Unfortunate Events" has two girls and one boy.  "A Wrinkle in Time" is not really a boy book or a girl book.  It's just a really good book I would suggest for people to read...
Dad:  So what about "The Prairie Thief"?  Is it a book that boys would read?
Isaac:  I don't know about all boys.  But in my opinion I thought it was good.  *I* liked "The Prairie Thief."
Lily:  Sleeping overnight with wolves. Riding on pronghorns. Climbing into mysterious holes.  That all sounds like stuff boys would like.
Elijah:  Yeah, it has to do with wolves and coyotes!  And Brownies!
Isaac:  It's a really good story.
Dad:  Great - thanks guys!  So, are you ready for your blurb now, Gracie?
Gracie:  Okay, I think I've got it.
Dad:  Let's have it.
Gracie:  "'The Prairie Thief' is a mystical mystery not to be missed."
Dad:  Hey, good blurb!
Gracie:  I'm the blurb master now.

Louisa crawls into the hole, by Lily

 

Louisa meets a wolf, by Isaac 

Louisa rides a pronghorn, by Gracie

Brownie riding a wolf, by Elijah

Author: Melissa Wiley
Illustrator: Erwin Madrid
Published, 2012: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Like it?  Here it is

Interview #17: Grace Lin

We had the extreme privilege of calling up author Grace Lin for a conversation about her life, her art, and her newest book "Starry River of the Sky."  (Official release date, tomorrow!)  This new novel is a companion to her Newberry Honor winning book "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon."  You may remember our review of that title: a special shadow puppet video review.  

Congratulations to Grace Lin for another wonderful tale, and many thanks for the great conversation!  (portrait of Grace Lin by Gracie)

***First a review....

Dad:  Okay guys, tell me your impressions of Starry River of the Sky...

Gracie (age 12):  It was magical!  And interesting.  And exciting!

Lily (age 9):  It's like a mystery story too.

Gracie:  The moon goes missing.

Isaac (age 14):  And the sky is crying.

Gracie:  So the characters have to find out where the moon went.

Isaac:  But the main character can't leave the city.  He can't get away.

Gracie:  And there are lots of little stories within the one main story.  Like, one of the characters will say, "Did you ever hear the story of... the Giant Frog that Ate the Moon?"  And they'll go, "No! Tell it! Tell it!"  Then later that story will tie into their adventure.  All the awesome little stories add up and connect to the main story at the end.

Dad:  You said 'awesome'...  Why are the little stories awesome?

Gracie:  They are crazy!  Like, there used to be six suns in the sky and this guy starts shooting them down with his bow and arrow.  So cool.  And there's this glorious lady who lives on the moon.  But her husband lives on the sun.  So once every month this celestial rooster flies him across the sky from the sun to the moon, and he gets to be with his wife.

Dad:  Tell me about some of the transformations that take place in the book.  Creatures are changing all over the place...

Gracie:  A tadpole turned into a rabbit.  The rabbit turned into a toad.  A different toad turned into a lady.

Lily:  A man turned into a toad.  A white tiger turned into a man.  The mountain spirit turned into a man.

Isaac:  The angry kid turned into a happy kid.

Dad:  So it wasn't just external changes...  There were internal changes too.

Lily:  People changed their hearts. 

Isaac:  Rendi, the main kid, was really angry and he wanted to leave the city.  At the beginning he only cared about himself.

Lily:  But he changed.  By the end he even saved a lot of people from danger by grabbing this girl's bracelet to make everyone chase him, drawing them away from danger.

Gracie:  But we can't say what the danger is...

Lily:  ...or else it will give the story away!
 

***And now for our chat with Grace Lin!

Grace Lin:  Thank-you guys for the great movie you made for "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon."  That was amazing!  Everyone who has seen it is so impressed.

Gracie:  It was hard.

Grace Lin:  I thought it was amazing.  You could tell how much work you put into it.  I really loved the shadow puppets.  Isaac designed all of them?

Gracie:  Well, Lily and I helped to design the characters, but Isaac built all the puppets himself.  He has them all hanging up in his room now.

Grace Lin:  I should get the publisher to hire you for new trailers.  It was so good.  So thank-you very much!

Dad:  I think we have a special bond with that book now - since we delved into it for so long, crafting puppets and retelling your story.  And after taking such a close look at your work, it seemed like we knew you a little bit too, even though we'd never met.

Grace Lin:  So what did you guys think about the new book?

Gracie:  It was sooo good!

Isaac:  It was awesome.

Lily:  Yeah!

Gracie:  We enjoyed it so much.

Grace Lin:  Oh good, I'm glad.

Dad:  Who's got an interview question ready?

Isaac:  Since you write your books and you illustrate them... what do you like best about each of those things?  What are their ups and downs?

Grace Lin:  The part I dislike most about both of those things is the same.  I really, really don't like writing a first draft.  And I really, really don't like making the first sketches either.  That first "getting it all out" is the hardest part for me.  The part I like best in both is the revising.  Fixing the story is always fun to me.  And after the drawings are done, painting them and adding the color is fun for me. 

Gracie:  Personally, I love to paint.  And I love the way you paint.

Grace Lin:  Oh thanks!

Gracie:  How do you paint like that?  It's so detailed and so pretty...

Grace Lin:  Aw, thanks!  That's a nice thing to say.
Lily:  Yeah, how do you do that?
Grace Lin:  It's just... "Time."  It's just sitting there and painting one pattern over another pattern.  And I think the way I paint is a little bit like how I write too.  If you notice, there are stories within stories.  Layers on layers.  Pattern over pattern.

Gracie:  I got your books "The Year of the Dog" and "The Year of the Rat" for my birthday.  I was wondering, are those books about you?
Grace Lin:  Yes, they are very, very autobiographical. 

Gracie:  So you are from Taiwan?

Grace Lin:  My parents were born in Taiwan, but I was born here in the United States.  All the things that happen in those books, happened in real life.  But a lot of things that might have taken place over the course of two years, I squished into one year in the book.  Or a lot of the stories that my mother tells me in the books were really told to me by my aunt or my cousin.  But I just said my mom told the stories because I didn't want to add too many new characters.

Dad:  Keeps it simpler.

Grace Lin:  Yeah.  So it's not 100% true.  But they are actually all things that really happened.

Gracie:  What about the stories the characters tell in Starry River of the Sky?  Did you make those up, or did you have to do a lot of research to find them?

Grace Lin:  Those stories are inspired by Chinese folktales.  I added a lot of details to them, and sometimes I made changes or switched things around.

Gracie:  Why did you do that?

Grace Lin:  Many of the folktales don't have a lot of details.  So I saw the story in my head, and I added the details to make it more interesting to myself.  And also to tie the individual stories in better with the rest of the book.

Lily:  Why do you choose to use folktales?

Grace Lin:  I enjoy researching Chinese folklore for my own personal reasons.  And I guess I think, "Well since I'm researching, why don't I just use it in my books!"

Gracie:  Cool.

Grace Lin:  Since you've read "The Year of the Dog," you'll know that I grew up here in the United States.  And I didn't know that much about my Chinese heritage.  In fact I really didn't want to know too much.  Nobody around me looked like me.  Nobody else was Chinese.  But when I grew older, I felt really sad that I knew so little, and I wanted to learn more.  Since I'm a children's book author, I like reading stories.  So one of the ways of learning about my heritage that was interesting to me was reading Chinese folktales and fairytales.

Isaac:  We did notice that your stories have a lot of Asian culture to them.

Grace Lin:  I guess writing all these books now is my way of trying to get back the things I missed out on when I was younger.

Isaac:  In Starry River, one of the characters says, "When people tell stories, they share things about themselves."  So we were wondering what this book tells about you?

Grace Lin:  The first thing is one that you noticed -- all my stories are about Asian culture.  So all my stories share how I'm interested in my heritage now.  But specifically in Starry River of the Sky... I guess a lot of that book has to do with finding peace and letting go of your anger.  There were parts of my life when I felt really angry about things.  But there is a Chinese proverb that says, "Holding onto anger is like holding onto a hot coal - it only hurts yourself."  That is something I learned, and that is something I want to share.
Dad:  And since she's shared that lesson through her story, we readers can have a chance to learn it too.

Grace Lin:  You guys might know...  my first husband Robert unfortunately died of cancer.  He was sick for a very, very long time.  When he first got sick, I was really, really angry.  "Why is he sick?"  And then after a while I realized that... me, being angry that he's sick, is just wasting energy.  It's just making my life very, very unhappy.  So I should let go of that anger and find peace, and that's how things can be happier.  I guess that's what I was trying to share.  That's kind of what this book is about.

Lily:  Are there going to be any more sequels to these two books? 

Grace Lin:  I think one more...

Dad:  Gracie got a big smile when you said that!

Grace Lin:  Ha ha...  Although I'm not exactly sure about it!

Lily:  When you made the first book, did you know you were going to make a more?

Grace Lin:  When I finished the first book, there were all these folktales left over that I didn't get to use.  And I had the beginnings of a new story forming in my head, so I wanted to do a second book.  There was supposed to be a third one, but all my ideas for the third book got squished into the second one... Ha ha... So I'm kind of out of ideas now!

Dad:  Uh oh.

Grace Lin:  But I do know for the third one, I want it to deal with water.  Where the Mountain Meets the Moon deals with the sky... the heavens.  Starry River of the Sky deals with the earth... the mountain.  And I wanted the last one to deal with the oceans or the seas.  That was the idea for doing a third one... although I still have to work on what it's exactly going to be about.

Gracie:  How did you feel when you got a Newbery Honor for Mountain Meets the Moon?  Did you jump up and down and do a happy dance?

Grace Lin:  I did actually!  It's every author's dream to win one of these big awards.  But you don't even want to think about it ahead of time because it's such a big deal and you don't want to jinx yourself.  So the night before they announced the awards, all these people started saying, "I heard a lot of buzz that your book might win something tomorrow."  And I said, "Don't tell me! I don't want to hear anymore!"

Gracie:  Ha ha ha!

Grace Lin:  My editor said, "I have to get up super early, like five in the morning, for award day tomorrow."  And I said, "Don't tell me! Don't tell me!"  But of course I got it in my mind that the awards would be announced at five in the morning.  So the next morning at 5:00, I woke up.  No one is calling.  And I thought, "Oh I didn't win."  Then 6:00.  Nobody calls.  "Oh, I didn't win...  That's so sad...  Who cares...  It doesn't matter...  Newbery Schmubery..."

Kids:  Ha ha ha ha...

Grace Lin:  Then at 10:00 I got a phone call: "You got a Newbery Honor!"  I had already gone into a whole circle of -- who cares, it's not a big deal.  Then I had to go back -- Oh, I guess it is a big deal!  It was a really exciting morning.

Dad:  One final question...

Lily:  What's the best thing about making chapter books versus the best thing about making picture books?

Grace Lin:  One of the reasons I love writing chapter books is because of things like this -- getting to talk to you, the actual readers of the book.  With picture books I do sometimes get to talk to the readers, but usually they are very, very small - very young - and they don't say as much.  Whereas the readers of chapter books have so much they want to talk about and so many things they want to ask... I really, really enjoy that.   I really like the readers' feedback for chapter books.  That's why I love doing them.

Gracie: (sweetly)  Awwww... We're the best thing about chapter books?

All: Laughter
Grace Lin:  Yes, you are!  Definitely!

Gracie:  That's so sweet, thank-you!

Dad:  Well thank-you for the conversation, Grace Lin!

Lily:  It was nice meeting your voice!

Grace Lin:  It was nice meeting you!  I'm glad you like the book.

Gracie:  Oh, we loved it.

 

chasing after Rendi, by Lily

 

WangYi visiting the Moon Lady, by Gracie

 

white tiger changing into a man, by Isaac

Author/Illustrator: Grace Lin
Published - October 2, 2012: Little Brown

Like it?  Here it is...

Review #117: The Order of Odd-Fish

 
Gracie (age 11):  We are reviewing The Order of Odd-Fish, and it is SO weird. 

Isaac (age 13):  It is crazy.  You will never read anything else like this. 

Lily (age 9):  It's very odd.  And you don't know what's going to happen next... so it's also kind of fishy. 

Isaac:  Silly.  And sometimes it's nerve-racking and suspenseful.

Dad:  From the very fist page we could tell this book was a little different.  But when did we know this book was totally off the rails?  When did we know that we were in for a very strange experience?

Gracie:  The flying head.  The first weird thing that happens is Mr. Cavendish's head flies off...

Dad:  Well, that's not the FIRST weird thing.

Gracie:  Oh yeah... before that, there's this giant talking cockroach...

Dad:  That's not even the first weird thing.

Gracie:  There's a guy with this weird digestion...

Dad:  THAT's not even the first weird thing!

Lily:  HA ha ha ha!

Gracie:  Colonel Korsakov comes along and he's got this magic digestion that tells him what to do.  So it's like... 'okay, that's weird.'  But by the time you get to the 3rd chapter in the book, talking digestions don't seem weird at all because Mr. Cavendish's head flies off and starts buzzing all over the room!

Lily:  It was very crazy.

Gracie:  The main character is Jo, and she works at a diner.  The only people in the whole town are old senior citizens.  Her Aunt Lily, who is kind of nutso, finds this black box, and she says, "I'm going to do a magic show!"  She stuck the box on Mr. Cavendish's head and cranked it, and Mr. Cavendish's head popped out of the box and started flying around!  And there was this crazy lady who started throwing waffles everywhere trying to hit the head.  All the old ladies were like, "Catch him! Bring him back!" And all the old men were like, "Go, Mr. Cavendish! Be freeeee!"  That's when we first thought, "What the heck is up with this book?"  I was laughing so hard.

Dad:  Okay, let's back up.  Tell me more about our main character Jo.

Gracie:  Jo is all mysterious.

Lily:  When she showed up as a baby, a note came with her.  "This is Jo.  Beware... she is a dangerous baby."  Bum-bum-BUM!

Isaac:  There was a really bad prophecy about her that said she was a monster called the Ichthala. 

Gracie:  It's going to destroy the world.

Isaac:  But Jo doesn't want to become a monster.  Everybody wants to kill the Ichthala.  But they don't know that it is Jo -- only she knows.

Gracie:  She feels like a living lie.

Isaac:  She doesn't know what to do.  She wants to tell somebody, but everyone will freak out and hate her.

Dad:  So that's something you don't always see... The main character of our story is the hero AND the villain.

Isaac:  There were lots of villains.  Ken Kiang is a millionaire who is attempting to be evil.

Gracie:  He wants to be the most evil person ever, but he can't because the Belgian Prankster is the worst.

Lily:  The Belgian Prankster can pluck his nose off and grow a stinger.  He also is really good at making balloon animals.

Gracie:  And he filled the Grand Canyon with tapioca pudding.

Dad:  Tsk tsk... how evil of him.  And tell us, what exactly is the Order of Odd-Fish from the title?

Gracie:  The Odd-Fish live on this island.  Jo and her friends get there after being swallowed and spit out of a big fish.  Colonel Korsakov was like, "Halleluiah! I'm in a giant digestion!"  The Order of Odd-Fish is an organization made up of all these knights that study ludicrous things.  Like... the leader is Sir Oliver, and he studies "Dithering."  Sir Festus studies insane weaponry.  Sir Alasdair and Dame Isabel study weird musical instruments and interesting smells.

Lily:  All the knights get a flying ostrich, and they ride all around on them.

Isaac:  The book has very weird creatures. 

Gracie:  Flying ostriches, talking cockroaches, Nangnangs, the Schwenk...

Isaac:  The Schwenk is a creature with four wings and it's very colorful.  It likes to be hunted.  Colonel Korsakov has a quest...

Gracie:  He's the "digestion" guy.

Isaac:  He has to capture the Schwenk.  That was his life's goal.  But the Schwenk always gets away before he catches it.

Lily:  There are also howling squids.  Jo and her friends go over to a big pit and get swallowed up into water. Then they ride around on squids in the diamond-walled tunnels and get chased by evil underground monkeys.

Gracie:  It's not something you see everyday.

Lily:  It's freaking awesome.

Gracie:  This is nothing like any other book.  It's so weird. This guy has an awesome imagination.  I love whoever wrote this book.  James Kennedy rocks. 

Dad:  The book is packed full of crazy.  So much more.  We haven't even begun to scratch the surface.

Gracie:  Kids will love this book... Unless you are some abnormal kid that likes broccoli and is all serious about the world.

 

underground squid riding, by Lily

 

Mr. Cavendish's flying head, by Gracie

  

Ken Kiang rides the schwenk, by Isaac

Author: James Kennedy

Published, 2008: Random House

Like it?  Here it is

Review #114: The Hobbit

Dad:  What did you think about "The Hobbit"?
Isaac (age 13):  "The Hobbit" is one of my favorite books.
Lily (age 8):  It's the bestest book ever.  Really good.  It should win an award.
Isaac:  I like it because it feels like it could have really happened thousands of years ago.  I like how the author describes everything.  It feels like you could go hiking around outside and find those places.
Lily:  I like it because it's an adventure story.  It's exciting.
Gracie (age 11):  I like this book because it was funny.  The characters are funny.  I like fat old Bombur.
Elijah (age 6):  Everyone should read the book because it's cool.  The coolest book we've ever read.
Dad:  Tell us what the story is about...
Gracie:  There's this Bilbo.  Bilbo Baggins.  And he's a quiet little guy.  He's a REALLY little guy.  He's a hobbit.  Hobbits are baby-sized people with big fuzzy feet.
Isaac:  They're not the size of babies.
Gracie:  Maybe the size of a baby cow.  Bilbo's friend Gandalf -- who he just met -- is a wizard.  He's cool, except he always keeps disappearing at the worst times.  Gandalf tells Bilbo, "You need to go on an adventure."
Lily:  Then a whole bunch of dwarves come.  They want Bilbo to go on an adventure to be a burglar to get gold back from the dragon who stole all the gold from the dwarves.
Dad:  They had lots of adventures along the way...  What was your favorite one?
Isaac:  The spiders.
Lily:  I like spiders...
Gracie:  You like spiders?
Isaac:  The group got completely lost in Mirkwood Forest.
Lily:  They went off the forest path.  They fell asleep and the spiders wrapped them up in their spider webs.  They are huuuuuuge spiders.
Isaac:  I imagine the spiders to be the size of dining room chairs.
Gracie:  Cows.  I think they are as big as full grown cows.
Isaac:  Yeah!  Cows!  That big.
Dad:  Hmmm, spider-cows....  They could squirt webs from their udders.
Lily:  Bilbo Baggins got out of his spider web and saved all the dwarves.
Isaac:  He sees the other dwarves wrapped up in the trees, but there were tons of spiders.  This is the first time Bilbo can't rely on anyone else.  He has to do it himself.  He becomes a hero.
Gracie:  Normally they would all be like, "The wizard saved us."  But Gandalf had disappeared again.  So Bilbo was like "I'll have to stand up and save these dwarves, because apparently, they can't save themselves!"
Isaac:  It's the first time the dwarves start appreciating him.
Elijah:  Bilbo was a warrior.  Bilbo killed practically all of the spiders.
Dad:  Would you be brave enough to do that?
Elijah:  If I was like Bilbo.  But I think Bilbo is braver than me.
Dad:  What if Dad was wrapped up in a spider web, about to be eaten?  Would you come save me?
Elijah:  Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm......
Isaac:  You'd better say yes!
Elijah:  Yeah, I'd do it.
Dad:  Thank-you!
Gracie:  What about me?
Elijah:  No.  I would leave you there.
Gracie:  My brother loves me.
Elijah:  I'm just kidding.
Dad:  Tell us about some of the characters and creatures they all met along the way.  How about Elves?
Gracie:  Sometimes elves are like solemn warriors.  But in this book they were like, "Tra-la-la-la-loodle! Tra-da-doo-da-doodle!"  They were jumping around, dancing in the trees, drinking wine.
Dad:  How about Goblins?
Isaac:  They escaped goblins more than once.  Wolves chased everyone up into the trees.  Then the goblins came and started setting the trees on fire so they were trapped.  Then these eagles came and picked the dwarves and Bilbo up off the trees.
Gracie:  The eagles are coming!  The eagles are coming!
Dad:  How about Dragons?
Elijah:  Smaug is the name of a big dragon.  He's cool.
Gracie:  I like Smaug.  Smaug is the bestest.  He's my favorite besides Fili and Kili.  He's the dragon who guards all the treasure.  He's kind of funny and gruesome.  He likes to kill things.
Dad:  Anyone else?
Lily:  My favorite character of the book was Gollum.
Gracie:  What - are you serious?
Lily:  I like Gollum.
Gracie:  You like Gollum?  And you like spiders?  You're just creepy.
Dad:  You didn't like Gollum, Gracie?  I thought you loved that chapter.
Gracie:  I did.  It was my favorite.  I just don't like him.  But he makes a good villain.  Gollum is yucky.  He's evil!  He's creepy!!!  And he liked to eat people.  He became invisible with a magic ring and he ate a baby goblin!  A little squeaker!
Dad:  That's one less goblin in the world.
Gracie:  But it was just a baby squeaker!
Lily:  Gollum is really mischievous.  He likes riddles.
Gracie:  His riddles were tricky.  I don't know how Bilbo solved them.  But I like people who can tell riddles.  So maybe Gollum and I could be friends -- if he wasn't evil, and still had his grandma, and wasn't living down in the caves eating people and little baby squeakers.  Then he might be my friend.

Bilbo and Gollum, by Lily

Bilbo and spiders, by Elijah

Smaug, by Gracie

eagles carrying dwarves and Bilbo, by Isaac

Author: J.R.R. Tolkien
Published, 1937: Allen & Unwin
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Review #109: The Black Cauldron

We have another video review for you today!

Earlier this year we reviewed "The Book of Three" by Lloyd Alexander.  Afterward, our family continued reading through the rest of the Prydain Chronicles.  The second book in the series, "The Black Cauldron," was a Newbery Honor...  so we figured we'd work up another submission for the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival...

This time, the review is a solo effort by Lily!  She summarized the book all on her own and later did all the pictures.  The movie does run over 90 seconds, but I didn't have the heart to cut a single precious second from it.

Here's Lily's take on "The Black Cauldron" -- enjoy!  And feel free to share :)





Author: Lloyd Alexander
Published, 1965: Henry Holt
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Review #108: The Penderwicks

Lily (age 8):  "The Penderwicks" is about a family.  A nice family.  But sometimes they get into trouble.
Dad:  Who is in the Penderwick family?
Gracie (age 11):  Rosalind, Skye, Jane, and Batty are the kids.  And there is Mr. Penderwick.  And their dog Hound.  But their mommy died.
Isaac (age 12):  On their vacation they go to this cottage by this mansion where Mrs. Tifton and her son Jeffrey live.
Gracie:  Jeffrey is nice.
Isaac:  But Mrs. Tifton wants to marry this guy named Mr. Dupree who is evil.
Gracie:  Dexter!
Lily:  Dexter Dupree!
Isaac:  He wants to send Jeffrey to the war academy...
Dad:  Military school?
Isaac:  Yeah, military school...  They draw Mr. Dupree's face on a cardboard box, and they shoot arrows at it.  Also when they play soccer, they call one of the balls "Dexter" when they kick it.
Dad:  What did we find interesting about the Penderwick kids?
Gracie:  They are exactly like us!
Dad:  The Penderwick kid personalities match up with the Zenz kids pretty closely!  In the same order too.  Who is the oldest Penderwick?
Gracie:  Rosalind.  And she's good at being in charge and helps out a lot.  So she's just like Isaac.
Dad:  Isaac is like another little parent in our family.  Isaac, did you think Rosalind was like you?
Isaac:  Yes, but not at the end.  She got weird.
Gracie:  She fell in love.
Dad:  Love makes people turn weird, huh?
Isaac:  Yeah, and she did weird things, like falling off a rock into a pond.
Dad:  But when she had her head on straight, she was like Isaac.  Who's the next oldest Penderwick?
Gracie:  Skye.  And she was like me.  She couldn't keep her mouth shut.
Lily:  "I'm going to kill you."
Gracie:  "I'm going to murder you!"
Dad:  She was feisty.
Gracie:  She got in trouble a lot.
Lily:  And every time she baked something it went wrong.
Gracie:  Just like me.  She burnt brownies.
Isaac:  She's the hyper one.
Gracie:  There was one way she's not like me.  She likes Math.
Dad:  Who's the next Penderwick.
Gracie:  Jane.
Lily:  Jane is me.
Gracie:  She's imaginative like Lily.  They both have their heads in the clouds.
Lily:  She's creative.  She's an imaginary-ist.  And I'm an imaginary-ist.  I like to make stuff up, and I get carried away.  I go to Lily Land -- it's up in a cloud in my head.  I go there, and then I have no idea what people are saying to me.
Dad:  And who is the littlest Penderwick?
Lily:  Batty.  And she's kind of like our sister Evie.
Dad:  Evie is the little cutie of the family.
Lily:  Batty likes flowers.
Gracie:  She always had her butterfly wings on.
Dad:  What about Elijah?  Was there anyone like our brother Elijah?
Gracie:  Hound is like Elijah.
Dad:  Because he's brave.  And he's loud.  And he doesn't like to be tethered down.
Gracie:  Or told what to do.
Lily:  Or maybe baby Maggie is like Hound.  Because she eats everything she finds.
Isaac:  Hound is a mixture between Maggie and Elijah.
Dad:  My favorite thing about the book was how well the author, Jeanne Birdsall, wrote the personalities.  They felt like real people.  Even the way the kids talked... If Jane said something, she wouldn't say it the same way Skye would.
Gracie:  If they had to check on Jeffery, Jane would probably say, "This is 'Sabrina Star' going to save the poor boy in the window from his evil mother!"
Dad:  And how would Rosalind say the same thing?
Gracie:  She would say, "We can ask Churchie to cover for us, and then we can go up the rope ladder that Cagney built for us..."
Dad:  She would come up with a whole plan.  And how would Skye talk?
Gracie:  "Be quiet or I'll murder you!"
Mom: (half-listening in)  I suspect that's the character you thought was like Gracie?
Dad:  Ha ha ha ha... Yup.  And what about Batty?
Isaac:  "Where's Hound?"
Lily:  "I want to see the bunnies!"
Gracie:  I was freaking out when Batty went into the bull pen.  She wanted to see horsies in the barn.
Lily:  But she didn't suspect a bull was in there!
Gracie:  She was picking flowers, and when the doors opened, a bull was there.  Then they had to save Batty from the bull.
Lily:  I thought the bull was going to get her.  I was like, "Eeek! Eeeek!"
Gracie:  The book has a lot of exciting parts.
Dad:  What else did you like about this story?
Gracie:  It made me laugh.  It was funny.
Isaac:  It's just a nice, good book.
Dad:  It's simple, right?  It's not a huge adventure.  Just a normal, real, life-size adventure.
Lily:  I like it because I want to have that life.
Dad:  I think we do...  It was about a nice family that loves each other.
Lily:  Yes.  And we all love each other too.
Dad:  Are you glad there are some sequels we can look for now?
Gracie:  The book doesn't leave you hanging.  But it does leave you wanting more.  Everyone is left in a good situation at the end... but there's got to be more!

Rosalind, Skye, Jane, and Batty, by Gracie

Batty and the bull, by Lily

target practice on Dexter Dupree, by Isaac

Author: Jeanne Birdsall
Published 2005: Knopf
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Review #106: Fablehaven

From time to time we'll break from our regular group review format and check in with the kiddos One-on-One to see what they've been reading on their own.  Today we hear from Isaac!

Dad:  What have you been reading dude?
Isaac (age 12):  The Fablehaven series.  By Brandon Mull.
Dad:  You are flying through them.
Isaac:  I usually get through each book in a day or two.
Dad:  You've been wanting to read these forever.  How are you liking them?
Isaac:  They are great.  I like the action and the adventure.
Dad: Do tell...
Isaac:  These kids named Seth and Kendra go to their grandpa's house.  At first they are bored.  But then they find out that their grandpa works on a preserve for magical creatures.
Dad:  Are they new made-up creatures, or are they creatures from mythology?
Isaac:  Mostly creatures from mythology, but there are a few new things.  Like nipsies.  Those are kind of like brownies, but they are the size of flies.  There are goblins and hobgoblins - which are very different from each other.  There are giants that are 30 feet high and eat yaks.  There are centaurs which are really cool, but they are kind of stuck-up.  There are a lot of dryads - water dryads, tree dryads, everything dryads.  There's a dragon that is really awesome.
Dad:  It sounds like a lot of the same creatures as in the Spiderwick books.
Isaac:  It's a lot like Spiderwick.  You even need special abilities to see the creatures.
Dad:  Really?
Isaac:  The creatures are always invisible to people, which is what helps them stay preserved.  They are invisible unless you have this special milk from a giant 30 foot cow.
Dad:  Yikes.  Milk?
Isaac:  Or if you have walrus butter.
Dad:  Walrus?  Butter?
Isaac:  Yeah.
Dad:  Does it feel like the series copies Spiderwick?
Isaac:  No.  It has a different storyline.  The "invisible" part is the only thing that's really the same.
Dad:  So, why do you like books with fantasy creatures so much?
Isaac:  It's good inspiration for stuff I make.  I love the creatures.  I like the designs.  It gives me ideas for stories and pictures and for building little creatures.
Dad:  Could Brandon Mull tell the same kind of stories using all zoo animals instead?
Isaac:  It wouldn't be as good.  Stories with zoo animals would have to be more realistic.  But with made up creatures, anything can happen.  A dragon can breathe fire.
Dad:  You could get away with featuring a talking polar bear, but it probably wouldn't breathe fire.  With real creatures, to some degree you're stuck with things that make sense according to science.
Isaac:  But you can do anything with fantasy creatures.
Dad:  No limitations.
Isaac:  Like, there are these balls that live in caves.  Little yellow fluffy pompom things that float around in caves, hundreds of them.  They explode into gasses and disintegrate people.
Dad:  Now, are these things a mix of good creatures and bad creatures?  Or are they all neutral like animals?
Isaac:  There technically aren't good creatures and bad creatures.  But they might seem that way to people.  Like... a bear or a man-eating lion or a killer bee.  A bear would attack you if you got to close to its cubs.  People don't like some animals because they will attack you or bother you, but they are not "evil."
Dad:  But there are some bad guys in the books, right?
Isaac:  Some characters are pure evil.  But the books don't make them too freaky... not like wet-your-pants-freaky.
Dad:  What kind of creatures are those?
Isaac:  Werewolves and vampires and a genie who is evil.  Under the house they have a jail for all the bad creatures - creatures that have been transformed purposefully for the point of evil.  There are these goblins who run the jail.  And they made this stuff called glop that they feed everyone.  Glop is a mixture of any junk they can find.
Dad:  Now, you haven't finished the series yet.  You are taking a little break?
Isaac:  Yeah, I'm on book 4.  But there are a couple other books I want to read, so I'm taking a break.
Dad:  What are you reading now?
Isaac:  "This Present Darkness."  Our youth pastor told us about it.
Dad:  I read that when I was right around your age.  I was probably a year or two older.
Isaac:  Did you like it?
Dad:  Oh yeah.  Quite a lot.  But, back to Fablehaven...  I'm wondering, would girls like these books as much as boys?
Isaac:  Girls would like them too.  Especially the first book.  Because there are fairies, and the main character is a girl.
Dad:  How about me?
Isaac:  Oh yeah, you would really like them.  You would love Fablehaven.

goblin jailer serving glop, by Isaac

Author: Brandon Mull
Published 2006-2010: Shadow Mountain
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