Recent Reads: Wimpy Kid Rules

I first learned about Diary of a Wimpy Kid  through the Funbrain website.  If you don’t know about Funbrain, it’s a website filled with free educational games for kids.  It’s by far the most popular website available on our children’s game computers.  Jeff Kinney, the author/illustrator of the Wimpy Kid books is also a computer game programmer who manages Funbrain, and he started putting Diary of a Wimpy Kid up on the site in daily installments back in 2004.  The first book came out in print last year, and the second, Diary of a WImpy Kid: Rodrick Rules  was released in February of this year.

The books are written as journal entries by average kid Greg Heffley with simple illustrations.  Greg’s at the age where his parents drive him crazy, especially his mom who came up with the idea of the diary to begin with.   He’s an average student – he’s a little clueless though, which lends itself to some funny situations.  He’s not exactly popular, but he’s not an outcast either.  His best friend is a goofy kid named Rowley who often annoys Greg but is extremely loyal.  The person who absolutely tortures Greg the most though is his older teen brother Rodrick.  He often makes Greg’s life miserable.

Both of the books in the series are hilarious.  I found myself often laughing out loud while reading them, and I can see why the stories are especially popular with fourth- and fifth-grade boys.  I’m sure they see a lot of themselves in Greg.  However I think some of the appeal is also that kids feel smarter than Greg when he gets himself into crazy predicaments – which he does with regularity.

The books have now drawn the attention of Hollywood.  Fox 2000 will be adapting the first book into a live-action film and has also bought the rights to the sequel and the three books yet-to-come in the series.  I hope they do a good job with the movies.  I highly recommend the books, especially if you want a good laugh!

Recent Read: Anne with an “e”

One of my all-time favorite book characters is Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables (and its sequels) by Lucy Maud Montgomery.  I love Anne’s passion, her intellect, her zest for life.  She has a vivid imagination that gets her through all the tough times in her life and the ability to truly soak in the joy during the good times.  Montgomery was a master at writing heartwarming stories that didn’t step over the line into being sickly sweet, and she always knew how to incorporate just the right amount of humor into her writing as well.

When I heard that there was a prequel to the Anne books published, I was excited for the opportunity to revisit an old friend, but a little hesitant about what the new author would do with my beloved Anne.  Well, I just finished reading Before Green Gables, by Budge Wilson, and here are my thoughts about it.

A few details about Anne’s life before coming to Green Gables are known from the original series, and Wilson has taken these details and expanded on them to provide a fuller story.  As an avid Anne reader, I found Wilson’s ideas about what might have happened to Anne in her pre-Green Gables days interesting.  However, we already knew that the early part of her life wasn’t especially happy.  She was orphaned as a baby and passed around from one difficult situation to another.  At times this made for dismal reading indeed.  Her first foster father is an alcoholic who swings from periods of sobriety to drinking binges, and his wife is a miserable woman who doesn’t make things much better.  Anne’s life pretty much follows this path for the rest of the book until she winds up in an orphanage – the place she has always dreaded.  I do have to say that Wilson tries to lighten things up by providing Anne with friends and kind adults who give her hope throughout the book.  For me, it didn’t help enough though.  Overall, the book is a bit of a downer.  Even worse, this younger Anne is not the same Anne Shirley that I loved reading about in Montgomery’s books.  Now I do realize that the point of this book is to show how Anne got to be the girl she is when she arrived on Prince Edward Island, but I can’t believe she would be that different.  This younger Anne is good and sweet to the point of being unrecognizable.  The Anne Shirley I know is good and has a kind heart, but she’s also given to bursts of temper and melodrama.  That’s what makes her such a great character.  She has flaws.  Wilson’s Anne borders on being perfect, with an occasional tendency to talk too much.

All in all, I’m glad I read this book.  It’s definitely worth reading if you’re a fan of the originals.  If only for a glimpse of what Anne’s earlier days may have been like.  But if you haven’t read the original Anne books, definitely start with those first.  They’re definitely must-reads.

As a side note –  Kevin Sullivan, who produced the wonderful Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea miniseries is currently producing his own version of Anne’s early life, entitled Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning.  Now, if I were to base my judgment on the first two installments of Sullivan’s Anne productions, I would be optimistic about this new installment.  However, I, like many others, have had the misfortune to watch his horrendous Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story.  This movie was supposed to be the third part of the Anne Shirley trilogy.  Unfortunately Sullivan disregarded the remaining Anne books in Montgomery’s series and instead made up his own story.  Not a good decision.  So, I’m a little cautious about how A New Beginning will turn out, though I would like to see it anyway.

Recent Read: Nim’s Island

The movie Nim’s Island hit movie screens this weekend.  I haven’t seen it yet, but I did recently read the book.

Written by Wendy Orr, with illustrations by Kerry Millard, this is the whimsical tale of a young girl named Nim who lives on a secluded tropical island with her scientist father.  Her mother disappeared while studying the contents of a whale’s stomach when Nim was a baby, and her only friends are the animals living on the island, including a sea lion, a sea turtle, and an iguana.  Nim has a great life, and she loves her island home.  However, her world is sent into chaos when her father’s boat is hit by a storm while he is out at sea doing research.  Nim is all alone on the island, with the exception of her animal friends, and her only contact with the outside world is through a new email pal who may or may not be a daring adventurer.  When another storm threatens Nim and the island, will she be able to cope without her father?

This was a quick, fun read, and I really enjoyed it.  Orr created a compelling story that was just the right mixture of humor, action, and suspense.

I hope the movie can do it justice.  It’s a Walden Media production, and for the most part, they’ve done a good job adapting children’s literature for the big screen (except for the poorly reviewed The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising, which I admit I haven’t seen myself).  Plus, it boasts a stellar cast of Jodie Foster, Abigail Breslin, and Gerard Butler.

So, I definitely recommend the book.  Does anyone have any comments about the book or the movie?

Celebrating Poetry

April is National Poetry Month.  In my preschool storytime yesterday we celebrated by reading a few specially chosen picture books.  I wanted to expose my kids to poetry, not just picture books that happen to rhyme.  So I chose books that were illustrated poems.

We started with The Tale of Custard the Dragon.

The poem was written by Ogden Nash and copyrighted in 1936.  This picture book version, illustrated by Lynn Munsinger, was published in 1995.  This has always been one of my favorite read alouds.  The language rolls right off the tongue and kids love the silly story of Custard, the cowardly dragon who musters up the courage to fight a pirate invading his home.

Next was I Am America by poet/photographer Charles R. Smith, Jr.

Kids always see themselves in the photos in the book and the inclusive words of the poem.

We ended up with a couple of classics.  First was The Moon by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Tracey Campbell Pearson.

Finally we wrapped things up with The Jabberwocky from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass.

Christopher Myers takes this nonsense poem and through his brilliant illustrations tells a modern story of battle on the basketball court.  The kids in storytime were a little perplexed by Carroll’s made-up words, but they seemed mesmerized by the sounds and rhythm, and they definitely loved the artwork.

So, all in all, I think the kids really enjoyed this kick-off to National Poetry Month.