Unwanted Twins, Prequels, and Giant Extinct Penguins. For Starters
Lots o’ goodies for you pups. While you sit on your deck chairs sipping sweet strawberry lemonades, thinking fireworky thoughts, do be so kind as to take note of the following blips on the kidlit radar screen.
- First off, I’ll begin with the good news and then slip into a rant or two. Many congrats and happy returns to Cheryl Klein and Arthur A. Levine who have not only appeared in a recent article in Time, but also seem to have been caricatured in the print edition (not viewable online). FYI, we are now to refer to Cheryl as Ms. Potterologist from here on in. Make a note of it in your day planners. Thanks to Read Roger for the link.
- In a sense, this next news item is also happy. We now have official permission to hate the upcoming The Dark is Rising movie. Yes yes yes. Judge not before ye hath seen, yadda yadda yadda. To that I submit the following evidence. First of all, we got wary when we heard that the director David L. Cunningham had also done The Path to 9/11. Shudders began low and in the base of the spine. Then we learned about the new scenes in the movie and we heard Harry Knowles malign the book. Shudders reached the small of our backs with the knowledge than The Walker would have a snuggle bunny in the film. But about the time the words "twin imprisoned by the Dark" reached our ears, all hell broke loose. Shudders are now running up and down our backs in a talented tarantella. As Leila at bookshelves of doom so eloquently put it, "Why even call it The Dark is Rising?" For a great response towards the film unfortunate (as it shall herein be named), run ye along and read the Oz and Ends piece on the matter. In a way, I feel kind of relieved. It’s been a while since a film took a children’s book and made a complete and utter travesty of it. And in truth, there’s nothing more fun than to pick apart and destroy a bad movie in a review. Whee!
- Speaking of movies, remember that brouhaha that crested briefly when Penguin decided that it would be a good idea to have a Canadian children’s author write a prequel to Anne of Green Gables? Sounded like a bad way to go, right? What could be odder? Well, how about a movie prequel of Anne of Green Gables that has nothing to do with that suggested book in the first place? It’s apparently happening as we speak. Oh, Canada. *sigh*
- And finally, the saddest news of all. Were you aware that once on this earth there walked giant penguins that are now extinct? Who should break the news to Greg Fishbone? Should it be you or me? Link via Shaken and Stirred.
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About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.
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I haven’t seen the print edition, but there is something online called “The Saga of the Seventh Manuscript” with some very different images of Cheryl and her boss. (I gave the URL over at Roger’s, but seem unable to do so here — if you go to the Time piece online, there’s a box with a link to this in it.)
I’m crossing my fingers that “The Golden Compass” will actually be worth seeing.
There is already a sequel to the Anne of Green Gables movies that is not based on the books (and, I believe, is actually set in a different time — during WWI). It stars Megan Follows (who acted in the real movie), so it has some legitimacy. Still — ew.
No no no no no no. Not sequel. PRE-quel. PRE PRE PRE. Which, when you think about it, is even weirder.
Right — prequel. But I don’t think that’s really much weirder than a bizarre sequel that’s set in a random time.