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

 

Favorite Books of 2013

Out of the hundreds and hundreds of books that have crossed our path this last year, here are our favorite titles from 2013!


Journey
by Aaron Becker


Mr. Tiger Goes Wild
by Peter Brown


Dream Friends
by You Byun


Elecopter
by Michael Slack


Warning: Do Not Open This Book!
by Adam Lehrhaupt and Matthew Forsythe


Chickenhare
by Chris Grine


Yes, Let's
by Galen Longstreth and Maris Wicks


Jane, the Fox, and Me
by Fanny Britt and Isabelle Arsenault


Flora and the Flamingo
by Molly Idle


Mustache Baby
by Bridget Heos and Joy Ang


Once Upon a Memory
by Nina Laden and Renata Liwska


I Haiku You
by Betsy Snyder


Wait! Wait!
by Hatsue Nakawaki and Komako Sakai


We Love Each Other
by Yusuke Yonezu


I Can See Just Fine
by Eric Barclay


Oliver and His Alligator
by Paul Schmid


Battle Bunny
by Jon Scieszka, Mac Barnett, and Matthew Myers

Review #124: The Monstore

Dad:  We have ourselves a copy of The Monstore, by Tara Lazar and James Burks!

Lily (age 10):  The words and pictures are so good together, you’d think they were done by the same person.

Isaac (age 14):  The book is about this kid named Zack.  He goes to the Monstore, which is a store with useful monsters. 

Lily:  The monsters are adorable.  Well, some of them are kind of creepy.  But mostly adorable.

Isaac:  Zack buys a monster in order to keep his little sister in line and keep her out of his room--

Gracie (age 12):  And what is his little sister’s name, hmmm?

Isaac:  Gracie.

Gracie:  Heh, heh, heh…

Isaac:  Where was I?  Gracie messed me up.

Dad:  We need a monster to keep *our* Gracie in line.

Isaac:  Yeah, EXACTLY. 

Gracie:  Zack’s sister might be annoying, but she has an awesome name. 

Isaac:  The monster he buys doesn’t work, so he gets another one.  That one doesn’t work either, so he keeps getting more and more and more monsters. 

Gracie:  The monsters don’t keep Gracie out of his room, instead they help her annoy her brother.  Which is hilarious.  It’s the exact opposite of what he wanted. 

Isaac:  At the Monstore there are no exchanges or refunds, so Zack had to keep them all.  He built up a huge collection of monsters.

Dad:  Zack’s not very bright.  You’d think he’d figure out pretty soon that buying monsters wasn’t working.

Gracie:  He’s not very smart.  Not as smart as his wonderful, beautiful, incredibly-named sister.

Dad & Gracie:  Hah ha ha haah hah!

Dad:  We do actually have it on good authority that this character is kind of named after you, my dear.

Gracie:  She is me.  Tara Lazar said that when she made up these characters, the girl’s name was just always Gracie.  And she thinks unconsciously she named her that because she reads our blog!  And it IS a lovely name.

Lily:  Why wasn’t *I* stuck in her head?

Elijah (age 7):  It would be fun and awesome to draw pictures for a book like this because of the monsters in it.

Dad:  You are our monster-boy.  You love drawing monsters.

Elijah:  Yes, I do.

Dad:  How did these monsters hold up compared to other monsters you’ve seen?  How is James Burks as a monster draw-er?

Elijah:  Better than me.

Dad:  So he gets a thumbs-up?
Elijah:  The monsters are awesome.  Really awesome.  The awesomeness of them is awesome.

Dad:  Would you guys want to have a monster?

Gracie:  It depends on what kind of monster.  I would like to have the kind that eats dinners you don’t like.  And I’d use him every day.

Isaac:  Then you’d starve and die.

Lily:  I’d buy a glow-in-the-dark monster.  That would be the most useful.  For my life it would.  Because I always like to stay up late.

Elijah:  I want that globby monster in the jar.  I’m pretty sure you could transform him into anything.  I’m pretty sure.  You could just shape-him-up and then make him do stuff for you.

Dad:  What do you think the most helpful monster would be, Isaac?

Isaac:  I’ve actually thought about this before.  Yes, I have.  And I’ve decided – at least at this moment I’m still feeling it – that the best monster would assist you with your pet peeves.  So, when someone leaves the faucet on and it’s barely dripping, the monster would turn it off.  Or if someone leaves the front door open and the flies are flying in, the monster would close it.

Dad:  That’s what children are for.  “Hey kid – go turn that off…”  You’ve got plenty of brothers and sisters for that…

Isaac:  Are you kidding.  I’ve asked so many times.

Gracie:  Yeah – he’s always like, “Turn-it-off–Turn-it-off–Turn-it-off…”

Isaac:  It doesn’t work.  That’s why I want a monster.

Lily:  The purple furry balloon monster is the cutest one.  It’s a girl.  I know because it has eyelashes.

Gracie:  Dad has eyelashes.

Elijah:  I have eyelashes.

Gracie:  Elijah’s eyelashes are way, way long.  The longest eyelashes of anyone I’ve ever met.

Dad:  I love the monster in the book that is just a teeny eyeball with legs.

Gracie:  Hey, what does that little eyeball monster even do?  What is he useful for?

Elijah:  He is just useful for awesomeness.

monster line-up, by Isaac

monsters hi, by Elijah

monster party, by Lily

 

helpful monsters, by Gracie

Author: Tara Lazar

Illustrator: James Burks

Published, 2013:  Aladdin

Like it?  Here it is