Children's Books

[mrpancake]

I just read "The Missing Piece Meets the Big O" by Shel Silverstein. It was such a good story. So simple, yet so profound. I love his books. I also really, really like the Giving Tree, even though I know a lot of people think it's lame and teaches codependency.

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mimmilina said:

Susan Cooper? New book! Wheeee! I just reread her Dark Rising series last year. Read them as a young teen and totally loved them. Found out I still did. I will have to check that out. Thank you stargirl.

Then you'll be excited to find out that a "Dark is Rising Movie" is in the works. I know I was!

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A movie? I'm obviously totally out of the loop. But that is very good news. I'm guessing I have LOTR to thank for that news: ever since Peter Jackson hit the jackpot with Tolkien's works, seems the movie companies are bringing all the fantasy-lit they can to the screen.

Oh man, now I'm worried about casting... They'd have to find a really really great child actor for Will.

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Yeah...especially since he was one of my literary crushes. He doesn't have to be cute or "pretty" but if the actor playing him doesn't have the right look, I don't know that I'll want to see the movie...sort of the way Daniel Radcliffe has the Harry Potter look--you can debate on his handsomeness level, but you can't deny that.
Also, if he can't have that adult quality that Will has as an Old One, the flavor of the book just won't carry over to the screen.

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I think Thomas Sangster (Love Actually, Nanny McPhee) could play Will properly; he has a certain gravitas.
Now I have to re-read these books again, darn you!

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Can't feel too terrible for you, noeli. ;D
Every once in awhile I get in the mood to reread the whole series (well, except for the first which is the weakest in the series). I finally went out and bought myself the whole set this past winter.

[alcyone]

They'd have to find a really really great child actor for Will

I think Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot, Nicholas Nickleby) could have played a passable Will back in the day, but he's probably getting a little old now.

Susan Cooper really is so great, though. I'm in the minority, obviously, but I do wonder sometimes why the Harry Potter series became so massively popular when there's so much truly excellent kiddie fantasy out there. Authors like Cooper and Madeleine L'Engle (on the drama/psychology front) and Diana Wynne Jones and Edith Nesbit (on the whimsical/magical front) have been doing the J.K. Rowling thing for decades, and much much better than Rowling herself, in many cases.

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JK Rowling's writing style is most similar to Diana Wynne Jones, of all the above mentioned authors--in that is is a fantasy-based realistic style (if that makes sense). Actually, if you go on her website and read interviews of questions answered by DWJ she does sort of say that she thinks JKR read her books as a girl and probably retained little bits and pieces that have been recycled inside Harry Potter (not that she even comes close to mentioning the idea of plaigarism).
I think some of the most popular books/movies have been recycled, cobbled together ideas and characters that are familiar/comforting to audiences, like Star Wars. DWJ has that, certainly--lots of stuff from mythology and fairy tales and poetry all mixed in. Harry Potter has it in more of a pop culture mix type of way, (though she has the mythology and fairy tale stuff, too) and it's done in a very appealing sort of way. She has a lot of humor in her books, too, which I think people like, as well.

[ladymadonna]

My oldest daughter (10) just recently discovered Judy Blume, so I've re-read all of her books and.... they are re-written! In every book that was written in the late 70's early 80's, there are references to MP3 players, computers, CD players, copiers, etc.

"Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing", "Superfudge", "Sheila the Great".... they have all been changed to include modern day devices!

I don't really care, per say, except that they are not the books I remember. *pout*

[dwanollah]

NO!

I thought she just did it with the belts/pads thing in AYTG? IMM.

Et tu, Judy?