Movie Review 1: The Adventures of Tintin and The Muppets

Hi everyone!  Sorry it's been awhile since my last post but suddenly life just got a little too busy.  So here's my first set of movie reviews.
The Adventures of Tintin
I thought this movie was pretty good.  If you have read the graphic novels, then you will see the differences between the two formats for sure.  However, I thought that the changes were rather good.  The Uncanny Valley effect was minimal and seemed limited to some of the more realistic looking people.  The more cartoony the character was, the less the effect.  I highly suggest watching this whether or not you've read the graphic novels.

The Muppets
This movie was absolutely hilarious!  This movie was not above poking fun at itself and I rather enjoyed the conventions that were used and satirized (especially the bit where they say "We'll travel by map!).  This movie is definitely a true family film.

Fairy Tales in Popular Media

      I have to say that I can't help but notice a trend in TV shows and films.  Not only one TV show, but two, have come out in one season that are both based on fairy tales.  It is my hope, though perhaps vain, that these two shows will help people realize that fairy tales aren't just for children.  The idea that fairy tales are just "kid's stuff" is something of a recent trend, when in fact these tales used to be for adults.
   
     Once Upon A Time is based heavily on the Grimm and Perrault set of tales, it is not above poking fun at itself once in a while or taking dark twists that you really don't expect.  Since it is produced by ABC channel, that means some of the Disney characters that you know and love will be making an appearance, although maybe not in ways you would expect.
   
     Grimm is also heavily based on the Grimm tales.  This show is a crime drama with fairy tale twists.  It is dark and gritty.  I would suggest this particular tv show for people who are interested in the darker side of fantasy and for horror fans.  One of the things that gets me hooked is the quote at the beginning.  I always Google it so I can see which tale it is going to be based on.  This is how I discovered that not all of the episodes are based on the Grimm set of tales.  One of the episodes, titled  "Beeware", has the quote from a film called The Queen Bee.  Another of the episodes, "The Thing with Feathers" is actually based on Hans Christian Anderson's The Nightingale.  I had never read that tale so I went and got it.  It's actually quite an interesting story about freedom.
   
     If you are not familiar with fairy tales, there are so many variations for each tale.  Each culture has its own version of Cinderella, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood.  If you like darker versions, I highly suggest that you try to track down the gypsy versions.  Seriously, someone in my oral storytelling class told a gypsy version of the Twelve Dancing Princesses and it was super creepy and adult.  Definitely not for children.
   
     If you want child friendly versions, I suggest you check out the children's section of your local library.  Grimm, Perrault and Anderson are all very popular, but see if you can find some versions from other cultures.  I know it may seem weird if you are in adult in the children's section, but the librarians don't mind!  398.2 is the fairy tale section in the public library.

     Also, two films are coming out this summer, both based on the Snow White tale:  Mirror, Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman.  Personally, I think that Snow White and the Huntsman looks like a far more interesting version than Mirror, Mirror, but I tend to like films with a feminine twist (i.e. heroine kicks butt) much better.

Happy Reading (and watching)!

Blog Reboot

I think it's time that I rebooted this blog.  It has been over a year since I last posted.  However, all those posts were various assignments for a class I took in library school.  Now, I'm going to post reviews or just general thoughts on what I've been reading.  I'll also be posting links to websites that are of interest to whoever and just general news that I believe will impact the reading world.

Happy Reading!

Shiver and The Night Wanderer

So, I read Shiver.  I really liked it once I got into it.  The characters are fully developed and it acknowledges the reality of some teens parents.  I also really liked when the same events were told from the perspectives of Sam and Grace.
The Night Wanderer was interesting as well.  I figured out pretty quickly what the main character was.  I found it really interesting to hear the history of the Ojibwa from the point of view of Pierre L'Errant.  The girl is very realistically portrayed and I have to say I remember arguments similar to that which I had to my parents.

YA International Awards

This is the complete list of awards that we looked at.  There's even more than these!  Another good source is the Children and Young Adult Literature Handbook by John Gillespie.  Other sources also includes White Ravens, IBBY and Crossing Boundaries with Children's Books edited by Doris Gebel.

Awards

• Some awards are given out to international authors from outside the country rather than the authors who are from the country. An example of this is the BILBY award, which is an Australian award that has been awarded to Roald Dahl, a British author because the awards are chosen by children.
• Some awards have had multiple name changes, but the qualifications for the prize either do not change at all or change very little.
• European Awards
• Hans Christian Anderson award – this book is administered by the IBBY Secretariat and is extremely prestigious having been nicknamed “the little Nobel Prize”. A gold medal and diploma are awarded every two years to an author and an artist based on the entire body of their work and the fact that they are considered to have made a lasting contribution to children's and young adult literature (Gillespie, 2005).
• Astrid Lindgren Prize – Established in 1967, this annual award is given to honour achievements in writing for children
• Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award – Established in 2002, the Astrid Lindgren Award may be awarded to writers, illustrators, narrators and/or promoters of reading whose work reflects the spirit of Astrid Lindgren (Swedish Arts Council).
• This award is awarded to authors of any nationality. This year, the winner is Shaun Tan, an Australian.
• UK Award
• Carnegie Medal
• The sponsor for this medal is The [British] Library Association. The medal is awarded annually for “an outstanding book for children and young people”. Www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk
• Booktrust Teenage Prize
• This award was begun in 2003 and recognizes contemporary teenage fiction. A shortlist of about ten titles is selected in the spring and the winner is announced in November. (Gillespie, 2005) www.booktrusted.co.uk/booktrust/teenage

• Australian Awards
• Cross Pen Prize for Young Adult Fiction, formerly the Sheaffer Prize for Adult Young Fiction, formerly Alan Marshall Prize for Children's Literature
• This award is awarded to an Australian author and is based on literary merit, so illustrations are not taken into consideration.
• Multicultural Children's Literature Award – established in 1991, the award is presented to encourage authors to deal with issues of cultural diversity in their books for young readers and to present themes of social justice and supportive community relations in a positive. This award is divided into three categories: picture, junior and senior.
• New Zealand Awards
• Te Kura Pounamu Award – Established in 1995 by the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa, this award is given annually to the author of book for young people written in the Maori language. The author must be a citizen or resident of New Zealand.
• Russell Clark Award – Named after the prominent New Zealand illustrated, this annual award, first presented in 1978, is given to a New Zealand illustrator for the most distinguished illustrations for a book for children or young adult.
• South Africa
• Percy Fitzgerald Award – Sponsored by the English Academy of Southern Africa, this biennial award is given to the author of a children's book in English. The author must be living in South Africa or the book must be from a South African perspective.
  Many literary prizes are awarded in South Africa for books written in languages other than English (Gillespie, 2005)
  
  

The Knife of Never Letting Go

This is a really interesting book.  It takes place on a colonized world that is called the New World.  It is a coming of age story that takes place in a town called Prentisstown.  There are no women, killed by what is known as the Noise.  The Noise is a germ that is spread by the Spackles, the native aliens of the planet.  When Todd finds a hole in the Noise, he freaks out.  His parents help him run away and he runs into a girl, the only one he's ever seen in real life.  The story looks mostly at how nothing is ever what it seems.  The emotions in this book range, but the suspense is extremely well played out.
This is the first book in a series called Chaos Walking.

Fluency

I really did read the chapter.  However, I was really tired, so I don't know if I retained that much.  From what I understand, fluency relates to literacy across all kinds of media.  Fluency is when or how people are able to "read" the media.  It also looked at how people choose media to listen or read.
This got me to thinking that if, as librarians, we include other kinds of media that this will allow us to find something that appeals to everyone.  For example, someone may look at Twilight and think that it is way too large a book to read.  However, it would be interesting to see how the same person would choose the same book in an ebook format.  They also might find the movie or audio book much more accessible.  Another format that would make it more accessible is the Graphic Novel version of the book.  There are several books that have been reformatted into graphic novels, so many more books may be more accessible than you think in this format.