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Archived Posts

Ramona and Beezus Movie Review

10/29/2010

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Let's start with the differences between the book and move:

  1. The name.  The book is called Beezus and Ramona not the other way around.  Why change the name?  More people are familiar with the name Ramona Quimby and I get it.
  2. The movie is from Ramona's point of view, the book is from Beezus'.
  3. There are only 2 girls not 3.  The movie has the addition of a baby sister, thus making Ramona the middle child not the youngest.
  4. The ages of the girls are older.  In the movie Beezus is a teenager and Ramona is 9.  Again, I get it.  The older the girls are the more relevant the movie becomes to the target audience.  
  5. Aunt Beatrice has a bigger role in the movie. In the book, she's Beezus' favorite relative, a confidant she can rely on.  She is in the movie as well except she relates more to Ramona.
  6. Beezus is pretty.  In the book, Beezus is an awkward girl still trying to figure out who she is and what she wants.  She's still coming into her looks.

Having listed all of that, I'm going to tell you why I liked the movie and it wasn't Selena Gomez.  The theme of the book was sisters.  Two girls, different in personalities, realizing just how much they mean to each other.  The movie did just that.  Yeah, Ramona was a goof and some of the antics she did was funny,  but she was still Beezus' little sister. 

I also like the mix of reality and imagination.  Ramona is an imaginative child, that's the point of her character and the movie did a good job showing off her imagination and separating it from her reality.  Click here to visit the official website.
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The Sixty-Eight Rooms Book Review

10/29/2010

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Malone uses the actual sixty-eight rooms located in the Art Institute of Chicago as the basis of this middle grade fantasy book about two sixth graders who find a magical key that allows them to shrink in size and explore these miniature rooms.  Ruthie wanted nothing more in life than adventure, something exciting she could call her own.  When she and her friend Jack discover the key to her new adventure, a literal gold key that shrank any female holding it, Ruthie's life will never be the same. 

Ruthie and Jack discover a mystery behind the Thorne Rooms, a history of women who have come and gone within the walls of the miniature rooms.  They discover a world only few before them have  known.  For anyone who have actually seen the real Thorn Rooms, this book will bring a creative edge to these wonderfully crafted rooms providing another level of admiration.
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Mockingjay Book Review

10/29/2010

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Recently, I reviewed the Hunger Games, the fist installment in an exciting trilogy written by Suzanne Collins.  Usually, I don't review multiple books in a series, but when I finished reading Mockingjay, the third and final book in this trilogy, I couldn't pass it up.  By the time Mockingjay opens, Peeta was captured by the Capital, District 12 was blown up and District 13 wants Katniss to be the face of the rebellion. 

This final book does a nice job closing the loop on character's storyline, which is what you want in a conclusion.  For starters, you get to see more of Gale in this book.  With the previous ones, it was all about Katniss and Peeta, even though Gale was a choice she had to make.  In this book, you saw more of him as well as Katniss with him.  Seeing him allowed readers to understanding the ending and why Katniss made the choice she made.  It was also the choice I wanted her to make.

Collins also reworked Peeta.  Peeta was tortured by the capital causing him to turn on Katniss.  He was down right cruel sometimes and totally out of character for him.  She really tried to make the reader hate him and in some cases I'm sure it worked.  I never doubted him though.

The most surprising part was the ending, a true Shakespeare paradox.  The one thing that causes Katniss to board this rollercoster ride of the Hunger Games is the one thing she couldn't stop from happening in the end.  The fate or destiny of it all.
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Twilight Saga- Eclipse Movie Review

10/1/2010

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So I have to admit, the third movie was immensely better than the first two.  It not only followed the book more, but didn't play too much on the whole love triangle thing.  After all, these books are more than just Edward vs. Jacob.

What's funny, is that I can figure out what to say about this movie.  I'm not sure of that's a good or bad thing.  Good in the since that I have nothing truly negative to say about it, but bad in the since that I have nothing truly positive to say either, except it didn't suck badly.

I will say I did like the fight scene, vampire against vampire, wolf against vampire.  I also thought the dialogue between Edward and Jacob in the tent was nicely done. 

However, I have to say, that's all I've got.  I think as an Eclipse reader, you'll enjoy this installment best.  As an Eclipse watcher, you'll enjoy Jacob with his shirt off.

The next book, Breaking Down, has been split into two movies with the first one to release November 18, 2011.  How they plan on bring those scenes to life, I can't even fathom.  It may be to adult for PG.

Click here to visit the official website.
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Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer Book Review

10/1/2010

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John Grisham, well known fiction legal author with thrillers such as The Firm, A Time to Kill and Runaway Jury, tries his hand at a younger audience, with 13 year-old Theodore Boone.

Theodore, or "Teddy" by his mother, is the son of two lawyers, the nephew of a third lawyer and knows more about the law than most adults.  In fact his friends frequently come to him for legal advice, for free of course.  However, when one of his friends comes to him with information that could change the course of the first major criminal trail since the 1950s, Theodore doesn't know what to do.  Without this information, a murderer could go free, but a promise is a promise, and lawyers rarely break client's confidentiality.  So, what's a kid to do?

John Grisham brings to this story the same suspense he gives all his tales and readers won't be sorry in reading this book.  Who cares if the main character is 13?

Click here to purchase the book.  To visit the official scholastic site, click here.
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