Bridge to Terabithia - Book versus Movie #2

Bridge to Terabithia, the novel, was originally written by Katherine Paterson, and won the Newbery Medal for this book. For this comparison, I read half of the book watched the movie, and then finished up with the book. I am not sure why I did it that way, it just worked out like that this time. This is a rare occassion where I actually liked the movie better than the book. The book was copyrighted in 1977, and the language and tone of the book reflects that time. The movie was a more updated version, and for some reason I seemed to relate to this better.

In both stories, Jess and Leslie become friends, which it seems at first is out of convenience and location than anything else. As the story evolves, they become very close, and venture into the woods to form an imaginary world, which they name Terabithia. Jess and Leslie are king and queen of Terabithia, and the creatures in this world often reflect people they encounter in their daily lives. This world is an escape for both of them. Neither child is well-liked at school or paid much attention to at home. Their imaginary world becomes a place where they can call the shots and actually feel in-control of something.

When Jess goes off on a private field trip with Ms. Edmunds (their music teacher) he has a brief notion of asking Leslie to come along, but decides against it. He has a crush on Ms. Edmunds and wants this time with her to himself. It is a fatal decision, because Leslie decides to go to Terabithia without him, and "magical rope" that swings them from one world to another breaks over the creek and Leslie dies. This affects Jess deeply, but he soon gets it together and passes on the magic of Terabithia to his little sister, May Belle.

The movie followed along closely with the story, with a few updates for a newer generation and some theatrical effects to enhance the experience. I actually liked AnnaSophia Robb in this movie better than I did in Because of Winn Dixie, she seemed to have grown up a little bit and was a better actress in this movie. While I did enjoy the movie better than the book, it was still not was I was expecting when I first saw the previews for this movie. I expected it to be a little more like The Chronicles of Narnia in that the other world was a little less make-believe and more of a real place. The fantastical creatures in the movie mostly focused on the evil, fighting ones (which I had to shield from my son), instead of the beauty they saw in Terabithia.

Both the book and movie were still highly enjoyable, and I would recommend them to anyone!

Sources:

Paterson, K. (1977). Bridge to Terabithia. New York: HarperTrophy Publishers.

Csupo, G. (Director). (2007). Bridge to Terabithia [Motion picture]. United States: Hal Lieberman Company.

www.barnesandnoble.com Book image retrieved 4-4-08.

www.imdb.com/title/tt0398808. Image and information retrieved on 4-5-08.

The Three Pigs by David Wiesner - a Caldecott Medal book

The Three Pigs was written and illustrated by David Wiesner, and is a tale of what would have happened had the pigs could have written the story. After some of the original tale, the pigs decide that instead of being eaten, they would "jump" out of the story and hide from the wolf. The three pigs find this is very exciting and go exploring in other stories, from which they gather some followers: The cat with the fiddle (from Hey diddle diddle!) and a big dragon. Instead of staying hidden in obscurity forever, the pigs, cat and dragon decide to head back to Number Three Pig's brick house and turn the tables on Mr. Wolf. Boy is he in for a surprise!

While I did not enjoy this book quite as much as I thought I would, it was still a fun tale. It reminded me of an assignment I had in eighth grade, where we were to make up alternate endings to common stories such as The Three Pigs. The illustrations were wonderful, and I liked them much better than some of the more abstract drawings I have seen in other books. I just do not understand that type of interpretation I guess!

Sources:

Wiesner, D. (2001). The three pigs. New York: Clarion Books.

www.barnesandnoble.com Image retrieved on 4-4-08.

Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes - a Caldecott Medal book

Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes is a delightful tale of a young kitten that sees her first full moon in the sky and thinks it is a dish of milk. The kitten tries every way she can think of to get to the "dish," but with no success. After several attempts and ending up soaking wet, the poor kitten decides to head home, where her luck changes after all. For there waiting on her is a REAL dish of milk, which she happily laps up.

Kevin Henkes also did the illustrations for this book, which are all in black and white. I really enjoyed the illustrations, and the faces Henkes sometimes gave the cat to express its feelings were hilarious! They almost had a human-like quality about them. Henkes also had a Caldecott Honor book in Owen, and received the Newbery Honor for his novel Olive's Ocean.

Sources:

Henkes, K. (2004). Kitten's first full moon. New York: Greenwillow Books.

www.barnesandnoble.com Image retrieved on 4-4-08.

Journey Home - a book by Yoshiko Uchida

Journey Home by Yoshiko Uchida is a sequel to the book Journey to Topaz, which concentrated on Yuki (a young girl and main character of the stories) and her family being sent to a Japanese interment camp during World War II. Journey Home is the story of the family being released from Topaz, only to discover that much has changed since being in the camp. For awhile, Yuki and her family cannot return home to Berkeley, California because it has been forbidden for Japanese families to live in California.

After dealing with that adjustment, the family must also worry about their son Ken, who is a Japanese-American fighting in World War II for the Americans. Soon, the ban of Japanese from the West Coast is lifted, and Yuki and her family may return to the place they love, but they find that all the Japanese families must completely start over. Where once there were successful shops and vibrant Japanese churches lie neglected and run down buildings. Yuki's family helps her best friend and grandmother come back to California from Topaz, and with another man, help each other start a new life. It is very different from the life Yuki once knew, but she begins to embrace it as her own and begin to feel at home again.

This book was a very powerful tale about the treatment of the Japanese-Americans by the American government during World War II. The author, Yoshiko Uchida, based some of this book on her own family's struggles during this time. Uchida was born in California in 1922, and was a Japanese-American. During her senior year at the University of Berkeley, she was sent to one of the Japanese interment camps that popped up in the United States during World War II.

Uchida began writing about the Americn injustices and how Japanese-Americans were treated duing this time. She created literature for Asian-American children where there was none. She died in 1992.

Other titles by Yoshiko Uchida include:

• Journey to Topaz (prequel to Journey Home)
• A Jar of Dreams
• Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family
• The Bracelet
• Pricture Bride
• The Best Bad Thing
• Samurai of Gold Hill

Sources:

Uchida, Y. (1978). Journey home. New York: Antheneum.

www.barnesandnoble.com Image retrieved on 4-1-08.

www.clarion.edu/edu-humm/libsci/buchanancoursesyl/uchida2.htm Information retrieved on 4-1-08.

Liar, Liar - a book by Laurence Yep

Laurence Yep was born in San Francisco, CA in 1948. As an author, he has won numerous awards, including a Newbery Honor Award. He is one of the most respected Asian-American writers of his time.

He fell in love with writing almost by accident. In high school, his English teacher told his class that to get an "A" they would have to get published in a national magazine. Although the teacher later withdrew that threat, Yep begin writing and sold his first story for a penny a page at the age of 18.

The book I read by Yep was Liar, Liar. This book is fairly old, and the image on this page of the book is not the image on the book I actually read! But the story remains the same. Sean Pierce, a 16 year old, tries to prove that his friend's car was tampered with before he had a fatal accident. When it comes out that Sean has lied before, people pass off his notions as "crazy." For once, he is telling the truth, but it may be too late by the time anybody believes him, because now the killer is after him. This book is a great mystery, and it shows how the boy who cried "wolf" too many times finds it hard to get people to believe in him, especially when the killer is a respected business man. I thought the book was well written, if a little juvenile. The main character took on some responsibilities that most 16-year old boys would not take on.

After doing some research, I wish I had read a different book of his, but this was all my library currently had in. Maybe when I have some free time (ha! ha!) I can read one of his more recent works!

Other titles by Laurence Yep include:

• Dragonwings
• Child of the Owl
• The Lost Garden
• The Rainbow People
• Sea Glass
• Dragon of the Lost Sea

Sources:

Yep, L. (1983). Liar, liar. New York: William Morrow and Company.

www.eduplace.com./kids/hmr/mtai/yep.html Information retrieved on 3-13-08.

www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/y/laurence-yep/ Images retrieved on 3-31-08.

Because of Winn-Dixie - Book versus Movie #1

In this comparison, I actually read the book before I watched the movie. The book, by Kate Dicamillo, is an enchanting tale of a young girl and her ugly dog, and the wonderful friends she meets along the way when trying to get used to living in a new town. The way India Opal interacts with some of the townspeople is very loving and innocent, and gave her a naivete that was very endearing. I literally did not want to put the book down! I read it in one day, so I was really excited to see the movie.

Unfortunately, as Hollywood is wont to do, the movie did not have near as much charm as the book. There were a lot of scenes in the book that had been left out of the movie. For instance, Jeff Daniels (who plays India Opal's father in the movie) was talking to her about her mother. In the book, he told her exaclty ten things about her mom, including that her mother liked to drink. This is not how it went in the book, and Ithought that was a key element to the plot line. It explained a lot about why her mother left, and although hinted to in the movie, it was never really said. I thought the actess that played India Opal in the movie over-acted the part. They would have done better to cast Dakota Fanning's little sister (who played Sweetie Pie in the movie) as India Opal. They also skipped parts of the book around so that they were not necessarily in the order as the book.

All in all, I liked the book much better than the movie on this one.

Sources:

www.barnesandnoble.com. Images retrieved 3-29-08.

DiCamillo, K. (2000). Because of Winn-Dixie. Cambridge: Candlewick Press.

Wayne, W. (Director). (2005). Because of Winn-Dixie [Motion Picture]. United States: Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation.

Rosa by Nikki Giovanni - Coretta Scott King Award Book

Rosa by Nikki Giovanni is a unique look at the Civil Rights Movement in Montgomery, Alabama. This book won the Coretta Scott King Award and is Caldecott Honor Book. This book tells the story of how Rosa Parks was tired of being treated as less-than-human and refused to give up her seat on the bus. The legendary tale sparked a series of events from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. encouraging the citizens to walk "until justice runs down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream" (p. 23) to the 1956 Supreme Court ruling that segregation was wrong on all fronts.

The illustrations in this book (done by Bryan Collier) are wonderful, and really help to tell the story of the Civil Rights Movement. They add to the story, and I think the most powerful on is the cover itself, with the white man looking down sternly at Rosa Parks. It almost gave me chills to look at this drawing, it is that good.

I would recommend this book to anyone, young and old alike. I think a lot of different groups can learn a lesson from this story - that all people should be treated equally.

Sources:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ Image retrieved 3-14-08

Giovanni, N. (2005). Rosa. New York: Henry Holt and Company.