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Long-time readers of this blog, and people who know me well, know that there's no "letting" involved when it comes to reading. My philosophy when it comes to children and books is, "let them read what they want." Experience has taught me that children can be trusted to put down a book when it is too advanced or difficult or upsetting for them. In fact, experience has taught me that most "problems

It's been a big day for news pertaining to popular book franchises that are making the jump from the page to the screen. First, the official movie trailer for The Adventures of Tintin was released. Then, Entertainment Weekly released this week's cover, featuring the first look at actress Jennifer Lawrence all kitted up for The Hunger Games. I love days like this!

Okay all you Wimpy Kid fans; here is your chance to really be a wimpy kid and Wimp Yourself! This highly entertaining website allows you to try a number of different wimpy personas. Just to show you how successful it is, here's me: And, if you know me, you know that this Marcy look-alike, is pretty accurate! All that's missing is a big pair of hoop earrings. And maybe a side parting. But, if it

This must be the summer of picture book adaptations making their way to the big screen. Last time I went to the pictures I saw a preview for Where the Wild Things Are. This afternoon, as I prepared to enjoy "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" (recommended, by the way,) I was treated to the preview for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, based on the classic picture book by Judi and

Well here's a book-to-film adaptation that will definitely go down well at our house. Walden Media has announced that they will be adapting Beverley Cleary's Beezus and Ramona for release in March 2010. Of course, Ramona had her own TV series where Beezus was mainly incidental to the hi-jinks of her younger sister. But in the original book the sister-sister dynamic is much more prevalent, and

The Guardian reports that Disney will no longer partner with Walden Media to produce the film version of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I find this strangely annoying. I say "strangely" annoying because I have not been a fan of recent film adaptations of beloved books. I should be relieved--"Treader" is safe and can stay just as I remember reading it, rather than how someone chooses to translate

While trawling through my sadly neglected Google Reader (these late running Sox games are killing me!) I came across this piece from the BBC. For me, the draw is the appearance of John Simms (also known as The Master, for those of you who are not Whovians)as the dad. I know I've said this before, but I am so leery of book to film adaptations. It seems that there is less and less of a relation

The NEA, sponsoring this year's Read Across America, has made available an animated version of Horton Hears A Who. The book, by the inimitable Dr. Seuss, can be downloaded from kidthing. Read Across America is happening Monday March 3, 2008. The theatrical release of Horton Hears a Who is not far behind.

No surprise here. My 5th/6th grade discussion group met on Tuesday to discuss the two WK books, and one topic that came up was "Who would you cast to play Greg Heffley in a film version?" I'm dismayed to say that, other than Frankie Muniz, who's probably too old by now, I'd not heard of any of the actors they suggested!