Children's Books

[Deleted]

Yep, it's Megan Follows all the way through. It looks like the only other version of the "Anne" books on DVD are the 1930s versions with Anne Shirley playing Anne Shirley (the actress adopted the name as her stage name.)

I'd say if you hated the actress playing Anne, just skip the middleman and read/reread the books!

[PearlySweetcake]

Updating this thread because I found a copy of Bridge to Terabithia in the greenroom of the orchestra I work for. So while killing time waiting for rehearsal break, I began reading the book, and damn! I had no idea it was going to end like that. I sat there and cried my eyes out - and the achingly sad cello concerto the orchestra was playing didn't help matters either.

Okay, sniveling aside, I have five kids (offspring of friends) to buy for this holiday season, ages 9-13, and I want to get books for all of them. As a kid, I loved Thursday's Child by Noel Streatfield and Wild Jack by Scott O'Dell, but both appear to be out of print.

Does anyone remember a mystery series with a girl named Meg and her Siamese cat? One of the books had to do with poodles and missing diamonds, but that's all I can remember.

eta: Duh, Wild Jack is by John Christopher, not Scott O'Dell. No wonder I couldn't find it in the O's....

[SGleason]

The BBC is making an adaptation of Ballet Shoes with Emma Watson. I can't wait! They better not mess it up.

Does anyone else know Where's Wallace by Hilary Knight? It's like a Where's Waldo book, but it pre-dates Waldo and is a million times better. There are wonderful panoramas and some running jokes in it.

[incognito]

pearlysweetcake said:

Updating this thread because I found a copy of Bridge to Terabithia in the greenroom of the orchestra I work for. So while killing time waiting for rehearsal break, I began reading the book, and damn! I had no idea it was going to end like that. I sat there and cried my eyes out - and the achingly sad cello concerto the orchestra was playing didn't help matters either.

Wait, there's actually someone out there who didn't read this book as a child?? This was required reading at my elementary school and we had class field trips to see the local theater stage adaptation.

Now I feel kinda bad, because this is one of those books (along with other children's classics such as Narnia, The Giver, Maniac Magee, etc.) where I was never very careful to avoid "spoiling" it for adults.

Speaking of The Giver, it's going to be made into a movie! Which has been known for a long time now, so it looks like the film is currently stuck in development hell. I've always wondered how the movie was going to deal with how the Community can't see color. When I mentioned this before, others referred to movies like Pleasantville and Sin City as guidelines to follow. But The Giver is different, I think, because a huge part of the book is that the Community can't even understand the concept of color, and that the readers themselves don't know this until Jonas himself realizes it. I remember reading this as a kid and being completely stunned when I found out that there was no color in Jonas' world. There is really no good way that this sort of effect can be translated to the movie version IMO.

[PearlySweetcake]

My reading went from the Little House books in fifth grade straight to Cosmopolitan magazine in sixth grade. So I missed out on a few children's classics, which I'm making up for now. The orchestra greenroom (which is a classroom during the day) has a collection of Newbury (sp?) award winning books and I'm working my way through them now.

Oh, and I found the author of the Meg mystery series. It's Holly Beth Walker. *Skips off to Half Price Books*

[lyrasilver]

The BBC is making an adaptat ion of Ballet Shoes with Emma Watson. I can't wait! They better not mess it up.

Really? Cool! I love Ballet Shoes. It's funny because when I was little I always wanted to be Posy, the ballerina, but when I reread it recently I realized that Petrova is most interesting character - she's a good dancer, but she'd rather be fixing cars and thinking about flying planes.

[Deleted]

Ballet Shoes is and always will be my favorite book. I am really excited that they're making the movie; I have the BBC version on video and love it but imagine it will translate even better to the big screen.
I will have absolutely no objectivity when it comes out, by the way; unless they change huge plot points, I'm already certain to love it.

[pittipat]

lyrasilver said:

The BBC is making an adaptat ion of Ballet Shoes with Emma Watson. I can't wait! They better not mess it up.

Really? Cool! I love Ballet Shoes. It's funny because when I was little I always wanted to be Posy, the ballerina, but when I reread it recently I realized that Petrova is most interesting character - she's a good dancer, but she'd rather be fixing cars and thinking about flying planes.

Wow, I just figured out that I've actually read that book. Hurrah! I thought my childhood had been missing something but it just turns out my memory sucks I'll have to steer my oldest towards it - I know she'll love it.

Add me to the didn't read "Bridge to Terabithia" gang. Rented the movie for my girls not knowing much about it. That'll teach me. My oldest did decide to read the book anyway. I'll have to read it myself. Maybe the next time I need a good cry.

[Deleted]

I have a cold, and I thought I'd better wash the teddy bear I still sleep with (shut up-I got so used to sleeping with him as a pillow, I'm just so used to it), and I thought about The Velveteen Rabbit. I found it on Gutenberg and just wept the whole way through. (Nowadays, wouldn't you just be able to wash him?)

I also found at the author also wrote a story about the Skin Horse, who had befriended the Rabbit. I'd love to get my hands on it.

[pathtaken]

The 1st book I bought when I was pregnant with my 1st kid was a beautifully illustrated version of The Velveteen Rabbit.
It was one of my favorite stories as a child but I had only seen it in a collection of stories, with only a few illustrations, so when I bought it, it was really for me.

I really believed your stuffed animals talked and could turn real if loved very, very much.