Wednesday, January 14, 2009

because I can't resist a shout out to J.K. Rowling...



Says Lisa Belkin on The Motherlode  -  

I admit to writer-envy - not just of Rowling having created a world so spectacular as that of Harry Potter and his wizarding cohorts - but of how many kids she has inspired to read.  My mom instilled the reading bug in me I think, but then again maybe it's just part of the genetic make-up. My mom went back to school to teach kids with reading disabilities and I think she chose that path because of what reading did for her, how much she enjoyed words.  She was a daily crossword puzzle do-er, always had books on the night table,  and introduced me to everything and everyone from Dr. Seuss to Anna Quindlen (I have a book she had signed to me by AQ "from one writer to another" that chokes me up because it means my mom told her I was a writer.)  She died in June 1998 so I don't know that HP ever crossed her path since it was released in the UK in 1997.  I think she would have been thrilled and moved deeply by what Rowling's Harry Potter has done for young (and not young) readers everywhere -  I know for sure she would have read it just to know what her two granddaughters were so obsessed with...

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Can I sneak Julia in? Even it's PG?

Next Harry Potter movie is going to be rated PG, according to http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=77506.

Now that's not so much of a problem as that the last one is going to be PG-13....hmmm, guess I'll have to go. What a shame....

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Books vs Movies

Niece J was in town last week for a whirlwind Disneyland in the icy rainstorm and a special trip to Diagon - I mean Whimsic Alley in Santa Monica.    And thus a monumental moment was born of the icy cold rainy Disney day where we stood on barely any lines and got a whole day in in 6 sopping wet hours.  

The first viewing by Julia of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.   She'd yet to see any of the movies (except excerpts on Scene - It), J is in town and it was in the pile of Chanukah gifts slated for the last night.  But leaving Disney early and J being in town and the second night of Chanukah is always cause for celebration and we broke it out early.   I have had a thing where I thought she should read all the books before any of the movies - and I'm glad I stuck it out til we had only a few hundred pages left of book 7.  I wanted her to make the books her own - not the hollywood version of her own.

Julia opened it and pretended to faint.  I probably could have gotten away with giving her only that for the whole 8 nights.  It's what she wanted for so long.  And certainly didn't expect to get.  

But as much as she loved it I have to say, she was a little disappointed.   Even in her 6 year old world the movie doesn't quite capture the book.    Though she did watch it again during vacation and she is begging to get to see #2....