The Thief Lord

Here is a book I've recently finished and passed on to my ten year old daughter. I'm pretty sure she is going to love it. In all honesty, I did not pass on to her the actual copy I read since I listened to the audiobook on my drive to and from work, and I checked a paper copy out of the library for my daughter. Do you consider listening to the audiobook "reading"? I know some book clubs scorn it. It makes good sense to me as I can't stand overly political or overly hyuk hyuk silly talk radio in the morning.

Back to the book. The Thief Lord, written by master German storyteller Cornelia Funke (Inkheart, Igraine the Brave, and so on) tells an adventure story of two orphaned brothers who run away to Venice after the younger one is about to be adopted by an unloving aunt and the older is to be sent to boarding school. Once in Venice, the brothers, Prosper and Bo, meet up with other children on their own and join forces to survive. They also become involved with Victor Getz, a kindhearted private detective the aunt has hired to search for the brothers. Victor is easily my favorite character in the book, which is saying something as this is a very character driven book. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of plot going on as well. There is a lot of adventure, a touch of mystery, and even a tiny bit of magic. And even though it is written for young people, this old lady learned a good bit about the city of Venice from the pages of The Thief Lord.

Apparently the book was adapted into a film a few years back, but I was unaware of that. I am quite glad I "read" the book, and I think my daughter will soon be as well. It is a good choice for fourth through I'd say seventh graders who like a bit of adventure.

We Are Not Responsible For The "Sleeper" Part

In the last few weeks I've been reading about how the animated kids' movie How To Train Your Dragon is turning into a real sleeper hit, gaining momentum and box office draws over time. Not to be all "I was into that band before anyone ever heard of them," but I did take my kids to see How To Train Your Dragon the first week it opened. Therefore, I am only responsible for the hit description, not the sleeper bit. We were inspired to see the film after reading several of the books in Cressida Cowell's How To Train Your Dragon series. Our favorite, by the way, is How To Be A Pirate. In our post-film discussion, held while grocery shopping, all three of my children found it impossible to say which was better, the book or the film adaptation. That allowed me to explain the "comparing apples and oranges" analogy. The plot of the book is quite different than that of the film. The main character is still Hiccup, the scrawny but plucky son of Stoick the Vast, leader of a band of Vikings. Please allow me to mention that Stoick is voiced by Gerard Butler in the film and somehow his Scottish burr is just as handsome as his Scottish face. It wouldn't be a punishment to have to share a box of Lorna Doones with him if you know what I'm saying. Back on point, there are new characters introduced in the film, and the 3D effects are quite good. That brings me to one advantage of the book. I didn't spend half our time reading the book pausing to wipe popcorn butter of 3D glasses. Anyway, if you haven't experienced them yet, I recommend How To Train Your Dragon, both the book and film. Once you've enjoyed one version, check out the other because both are appealing to kids and nothing is revealed in one the spoils the other. There is something in each for both boys and girls from about ages six to twelve.

If I Read Any Faster My Tongue Will Fall Off

Awhile back I bought a paperback copy of Cressida Cowell's How To Train Your Dragon Book 1 as a potential book to read aloud with my three kids. Then other books cut it in line and it gathered dust. I finally got around to beginning it one night before bedtime last week. The kids all like it. One or two chapters in, I found out that it "Is now a major motion picture!" which is "opening in March at a theater near you!" which means I have to read like the devil is on my heels.

After six chapters, my three children and I all recommend this tale of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III. a Viking boy, hoping to be initiated into the Tribe of Hairy Hooligans. The back cover promises that he will become known throughout Vikingdom as "The Dragon Whisperer." He is not there yet in our reading. In fact, at our point in the book, Hiccup has the lamest dragon of all the Viking boys, a pathetic little creature nicknamed Toothless. We cannot wait to read what happens next. As the kids are home today enjoying a snow day we might find out before bedtime tonight.

Menagerie

My life is overrun with animals lately, none of them real. It began with traced hand turkeys a little over a week ago. We were coloring and decorating them in preparation for the Thanksgiving which largely wasn't due to swine flu. Piggy flu hit our household and we're still feeling its effects. To distract one son while he underwent a nebulizer treatment, I read some wonderful Aesop's fables. As you know, those are largely concerned with animals, clever foxes, timid mice, ants, grasshoppers, and the wolf the boy cried about. I have not read Aesop's fables in years, and I'm now on a mission to find some really good versions. It was pretty slim pickings at my local library. The best animal of the long weekend was a fox, Fantastic Mr. Fox specifically. My husband and I took the kids who we judged to be finally noncontagious to see the film last night. It is genius, genius, genius (I'll stop now before I wear out the "g" on my keyboard)!

It is based on the book of the same title by Roald Dahl. That was quite timely as my daughter who adores any word from pen to paper by Roald Dahl is writing a report on him this week. I am happy to report that my nine year old Dahl devotee was satisfied with the film adaptation. I never read Fantastic Mr. Fox, but can honestly say the movie is the best I've seen in about a year. George Clooney and Jason Schwartzman are brilliant as Mr. Fox and his son Ash respectively. The kids and adults in our family left the theater satisfied and talking about the favorite and cleverest parts. There were many.

One last animal note, my six year old son was thrilled to see a preview for the new Alvin and the Chipmunks movie, a "squeaquel," I can guarantee two things about that movie. One, it will not be as wonderful as Fantastic Mr. Fox and two, he will get me to bring him to it anyway.

Mixed Reviews

On Friday night my ten year old son saw the new Where the Wild Things Are film as a guest at an eleventh birthday party. He loved it. He was inclined to enjoy the evening as he also went out for pizza beforehand and milkshakes afterward. My nine year old daughter attended the movie at a nine year old's birthday party. My daughter did not enjoy the movie one bit. None of the girls did. Indeed, the birthday girl cried at the sadness and darkness of the film. I did not see it, and I'm pretty sure I don't want to. I adored the book as a child. Actually, I still do. In some review I read, the reviewer made a big deal of the fact that the book only consists of nine sentences so it was doomed to fall short of the original. While I was mentioning that to my kids, my husband said he heard on NPR that it consists of just twelve sentences. Anyone out there curious/anal enough to check it out?

My children have reached unanimity on Jeff Kinney's latest installment in the Wimpy Kid series, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days. Both kids laugh out loud love it. Particularly funny to them is when Greg (aptly referred to as a middle school Larry David by his creator) is signed up for a book club by his mother and then not allowed to quit it when all the other boys have dropped out.

Popcorn or Candy?

You know those preference questions which supposedly reveal so much about a person quickly? John or Paul? Beatles or Rolling Stones? Batman or Superman? I've never been good with those because I have few absolute favorites in life, except that my current husband is definitely my favorite (actually, he's my only husband). I guess I'm moody- my favorite husband would testify to that. Some days John is my favorite Beatle, but some days it's Paul. For weeks breakfast is my favorite meal, but then I get really into lunches. Anyway, since some of my favorite books are opening as movies this summer, I thought I'd put a question to you: Popcorn or candy in the movie theater? For the record, I'm popcorn with butter.

Great Moments in Book Talks

My eight year old daughter has been reading and enjoying Cornelia Funke's Inkheart for several weeks now. She carried it down to the school bus stop this morning in order to read it on her bus ride. She happily told me of her plans to renew it today at the school library and check out a different Cornelia Funke book, Inkdeath. She also thinks there is another title, maybe Inkspell, she said. "What's that? Inksmell?" asked one of my sons. "No, that would be Inkfart!" You'd think Eddie Murphy or Robin Williams was walking among us from the way they laughed. "Wait, before the guys farts, it's called Inkswell!" "If he gets possessed by the devil, it's Inkhell!" More guffawing from the kings of comedy. I doubt my daughter will be starting up a book club with those two anytime soon. To her credit, she just gave them a withering look and continued telling me about the story of Meggie and her father who have the ability to read a book aloud and make the characters come to life.

TV and Movie Stuff That Sort of Relate to Books

1. As my kindergartner and I ran out of the public library one day last week (we realized his siblings were about to arrive off the school bus to an empty house), I thought I caught a blur of Sanjaya's face on the New Nonfiction shelf. I assumed it must be a book about the American Idol phenomena or the state of American television, but, no, this dude scored a book deal. I'm torn between horrified outrage and admiration for this great country we live in where anyone can succeed.
2. "ER" is up to its final episode. I've watched it from the beginning with Doctors Ross, Green, and Benton. If I were to have a girl baby in the future, I would fight my husband tooth and nail to name her Neela after the doctor played by Parminder Nagra. Judge all you want. Thank God for "30Rock" or I'd be lost on Thursdays in the upcoming months. Maybe I'll get more reading done.
3. I dropped my son off to play at a friend's house on Saturday morning. The boy's mom, a friend of mine, invited me in to see her new couches. They are lovely, but of more interest to me was the episode of "The Brady Bunch" the daughters of the house were watching. They had checked out the entire third season of "The Brady Bunch" on DVD from our public library. I could have parked my rear on those couches all day once I heard Jan whining, "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia." Luckily, I know she gets hers when that ball whacks her in the nose.
4. Finally, in bookish screen news, at my book club last week, I heard that a movie is being made of one of my favorite books, The Time Traveler's Wife. Apparently it will star Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana. While information like this might not be as accurate as something read in Variety, it is lots more fun to hear it from a neighbor while working on a whiskey sour than by reading it in a magazine.

Random Food and Book Thoughts on Foodie Friday

On Fridays I like to feature a food related book here at The Book Bench, but this Friday I've just got a bunch of random food and book thoughts I need to clean out of my mental closet. Heaven knows that's the only really spring cleaning I care to do.

1. My daughter has been enjoying The Everything Kids' Cookbook by Sandra Nissenberg this week. It has kept her busy in the car, at the school bus stop, and in the waiting room at the dentist's office because it has word searches and scrambles, puzzles, and games as well as recipes and cooking tips for kids.

2. Peeps are back in the stores! Sure, there were Peep pumpkins in October and Peep snowmen and Christmas trees in December, but we all know the old school bunnies and chicks are the best. Have you ever put one in the microwave and watched it puff up? Good times. Speaking of Peeps fun, my kids learned the meaning of the idiomatic expression "gilding the lily" a few years back when we dipped the bottoms of Peep chicks in melted chocolate and then sprinkles. They were fun to make, really cute, and disgustingly sweet. Http://www.marshmallowpeeps.com/ is worth a visit with kids if you love those little marshmallows the way we do in my household. They are a fat and gluten free food by the way.



3. I think I mentioned that I have begun my third read aloud of Harry Potter, this time to my youngest. Somehow it got all three kids talking about the Harry Potter books and their favorite characters, settings, and plot points. We all agreed that we love Honeydukes Sweet Shop purveyors of chocolate frogs, pumpkin pasties, Bertie Botts' every flavor beans, and more. Interestingly, they noted that although it is a wonderful reading experience that Honeydukes sells enchanted treats, candy stores in and of themselves are magical places.

4. There is no easy segue from magical candy stores to Cormac McCarthy's bleak and gripping The Road. My husband is finally reading it and finding himself pulled into the store. As we were discussing it this week, I told him that every single time I have opened a can of food (soup, sauerkraut, stewed tomatoes) since reading The Road more than a year ago, I have thought of the man and the boy.

5. Speaking of me and cooking, here's an effect of the current economic nightmare: every night as I put dinner on the table, I find myself mentally calculating how much it cost to prepare per person. For example, Tuesday's Mexican lasagna night cost about $2.80 a person, but last night's grilled cheese sandwiches and fruit cost about a buck a person. I never really did these calculations on a regular basis before, but lately I can't help myself.

Those are my random Foodie Friday thoughts. Anything new with you and food?

This Blog Post Was Brought to You by the Makers of the Venn Diagram

My mom and I took the kids to see The Tale of Despereaux on Monday afternoon. Altogether we had four kids with us. They all enjoyed the popcorn. Apologies to the movie theater staff for the copious amounts left on the floor! All four kids enjoyed the movie, although they found it sad and scary at parts. Of the six of us, only my daughter and I had read the book. On the drive home, Hayden spent a good deal of time listing the differences between the book and movie. In her opinion, the book was better. She felt the movie was less frightening than the book. Roscuro gets too sympathetic a treatment in the film according to my pint sized critic. The council meeting was different in the film. The circumstances of how Miggory Sow ended up at the castle are different. Her list went on and on. At the same time, there were many similarities. Hayden was emphatic that it was a good thing Despereaux kept his extremely large ears for the film version. She was so strong on this point I imagine she might have stalked out of the theater had a small eared mouse appeared on the screen. The best part of the comparison Hayden made is that it piqued my sons' curiosity about the book. Perhaps they will want to read it. It also got my older son to comment how amazing it is that Kate DiCamillo could write two books so different as Because of Winn Dixie, which he has read, and The Tale of Despereaux.

By the way, did you know there was an actual John Venn? He introduced his diagrams back in 1880, or so my friends at Wikipedia tell me.

Slumdog Millionaire

This blog is intended to be about the things my family is reading. Sometimes my posts are only tenuously linked to our reading. This one isn't about our reading at all. Well, how about this? Let me say I am glad my husband and I didn't stay home and read last night. We went to see Slumdog Millionaire, and we both loved it. It is visually stunning, breath taking at times. It is, by turns, exhilarating, painfully sad, raw, and wonderful. I can honestly say it is the best movie I have seen in at least eleven years. (We were out for our eleventh wedding anniversary.) Wait, I can connect this a little closer to reading. Slumdog Millionaire is based on a book, Q & A, but I don't think I want to read it. I want the story to stay in my brain exactly as it is.