The Places You Will Go

If You Want Pictures, Try the Graphic Novel

By DAPHNE LEE

From Tots to Teens, StarMag

IT seems that Coraline, the movie, may not be released in Malaysian cinemas. If it does hit our cinemas, Yahoo! Movies says it won't be until August. That's a long time to wait considering that it was released in the States in February this year.

Why the delay? Heaven only knows. Perhaps the distributors are just buying time while they try to figure out what to do with this movie. They are probably confused as to who the target audience is. Fans of fantasy fiction? Animated movie aficionados? Children? Neil Gaiman groupies? All of the above? It's very likely that they don't think it's going to make much money in Malaysia and, hopefully, the handful of people who want it to be shown here, will just forget all about it come August.

I think we will just have to wait for the DVD. In the meantime, if you haven't already, check out the graphic novel (Bloombury, 192 pages, ISBN: 978-0747594062).

Wild Teaser

I still haven't figured out how to embed videos so here's the link to the trailer for the Where the Wild Things Are movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RowGJtytQRE

I love the Wild Things - they're just so perfectly like those in the book. Max doesn't look or "feel" like Max, but I may get used to him over the course of a whole movie.

I'm not sure how I feel about the scene where Max spies his mother kissing someone ... his dad, her boyfriend? I don't know if that's a necessary addition to the story. We'll have to see.

Remembrance of People Lost

Nicholas Hughes, the son of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes hanged himself a few days ago. He was said to be suffering from depression.

Coincidentally, I've just read a review of Julia Donaldson's new book for teens, Running on the Cracks (Egmont Books, 256 pages, ISBN: 978-1405222334), which is about Leo, a girl who's an orphan and searching for her grandparents. Along the way Leo meets Mary, a kindly mentally ill woman.

In the review it says "Donaldson spoke openly and honestly about the mental illness of her son, Hamish, who killed himself aged 25. She explained that the character of Mary and her acquaintances were based, in part, on Hamish's hospital friends, and she also talked about raising awareness."

Beautiful things can be produced despite and, sometimes, thanks to great suffering. In my opinion, that's one of the ways unbearable loss can be faced.

The Hugo Nominations

The Hugo Awards celebrate the best in the field of science fiction and fantasy.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman is nominated in the best novel category (good to see that children's novels share this category).

And Shaun Tan is nominated in the best professional artist category.

More here.

The Science of Miracles

THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX

By Mary E. Pearson

Publisher: Henry Holt, 266 pages

ISBN: 978-0805076684

JENNA Fox is 17. When she was 16 she was in an accident that put her in a coma for a year. She is awake now and every thing is different. Strange.

It’s not just that her family no longer live in Boston. It’s not just that Jenna can’t remember a single thing about her past. Or that every link she had with her life before the accident seems to have been severed.

Her parents whisper about her and watch her closely, with something like fear in their eyes. Her grandmother, whom she used to call Nana, but now automatically calls Lily, is physically and emotionally distant. “Why do you hate me?” Jenna asks her and Lily replies, “I don’t hate you, Jenna. I simply don’t have room for you.”

Yet Jenna, although she can’t remember events from a year ago, has distant memories of babyhood, memories of a time when Lily adored and cherished her. What could have happened to cause her feelings to change so drastically?

“How far would you go to save someone you love?” This question is printed across the book’s cover. How far did Jenna’s parents go to save her after the accident? So far that Jenna’s grandmother doesn’t approve?

Lily says that Jenna is “not natural”. But her own daughter, Claire (Jenna’s mother) was an in vitro baby. Claire says to Lily, “You always called me your miracle. Why can’t I have one too? Why do you get to decide when the miracles will end.”

What sort of miracle is Jenna? Mary E. Pearson does a good job of keeping you guessing and wondering. Every thing is seen from Jenna’s perspective so you share her confusion and worry and questions. Equally, you also learn things as she does, and feel her horror and anguish as the truth is slowly revealed.

Do or Die

From Tots to Teens, StarMag

HOW brutal and blood-thirsty the ancient Romans were, gathering to watch people kill and be killed in terrible ways, even hunted and eaten by wild beasts. How unfeeling the public in Elizabethan England were, attending public executions and watching, with morbid fascination, as men and women were hung, drawn and quartered or burnt at the stake.

Could we stomach such violence and cruelty? Don’t we anyway when we watch some action and horror movies? Does it make a difference knowing that what we see isn’t “real”?

I think it depends on the viewer. I can’t watch a torture scene in a film because although I know the actor isn’t really suffering, I can imagine what it might be like to undergo the torture. I can imagine his pain. And what’s worse is I know that people are tortured in real life.

We get our fill of fictional violence, blood and gore on the telly and in the cinema, and in video games too. If we didn’t, would we welcome the opportunity to witness live executions and combat? After all, most of us enjoy the thrill of watching reality programmes: Seeing someone suck up half a kilogramme of real raw brain is so much more entertaining than knowing it’s in fact pureed banana with a dash of strawberry sauce, isn’t it?

The Hunger Games (Scholastic Press, 464 pages, ISBN: 978-1407109084) by Suzanne Collins capitalises on the popularity of reality TV and violent shoot-’em-up video games. It’s a comment on the voyeur in all of us, and how the media feeds on this and manipulates us for its own gain. It also asks how far humans would act and how much they would accept in the name of entertainment and monetary gain.

Rrrroarrr

Spike Jonze's adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are by Maurce Sendak is due out this October.

Don't think I'll be able to resist watching it so I hope it won't make me want to spit at the screen - like most book-based movies do.

Books Do Furnish a Room

My book collection is once again getting out of hand. When I first moved into this flat, I could shelve my books in single rows. Now I think I shall have to start double-shelving again. I dislike double-shelving as it makes it difficult to find books.

Then again, my collection's isn't very organised at the moment. Lack of time and space means I just stick books willy nilly wherever I see a gap in my bookcases. I'm not even going to think of putting the books in order just yet.

A couple of weeks ago I decided I was not going to buy any more books for at least a year, but I've just been told that there will be a mother of all warehouse sales in May. Will I be able to resist? Perhaps I should put off not buying books until after the sale - that's cheating, but don't all addicts cheat?

My current reading list is growing steadily - as you can tell by the books on my bedside table [above]! The problem is there are so many books I want to read and I can't decide which one to start first or which one matches my mood. Best to just start on them all and see how things go.

PS Maybe I can turn unwanted books into footstools, with the help of superglue. However, I would probably be lynched for it. Unwanted by me, but probably many would offer them good homes ... but NOT in in the shape of footstools.

Simply Beautiful

(1st April 2009: This was March 2009's Picture Book of the Month)

From Tots to Teens, StarMag

ANYONE who appreciates the profound beauty of a cat asleep in a patch of sunlight will appreciate Wabi Sabi (Little, Brown, 40 pages, ISBN: 978-0316118255), a picture book written by Mark Reibstein and illustrated by Ed Young. No, not wasabi, the green mustard paste served with Japanese food, but wabi-sabi, a Japanese phrase that represents a philosophy of transient and imperfect beauty.

In Reibstein’s book, Wabi Sabi is a little rust-coloured cat who lives in Kyoto, Japan. One day, her master has visitors from abroad. They ask what Wabi Sabi means and the little cat’s master says, “That’s hard to explain”.

Wabi Sabi’s curiosity is piqued and she asks her friend, a white cat named Snowball, if she knows what Wabi Sabi means. Snowball says that it is “a kind of beauty” and then proceeds to mumble words that leave Wabi Sabi more puzzled than ever.

The little cat asks Rascal, the dog, if he can help, but Rascal is a little spiteful and implies that she would not understand his explanation. He then mutters to himself that Wabi Sabi is as ordinary as a brown leaf.

Is Wabi Sabi beautiful or ordinary? The little cat is thoroughly confused, but a passing bird advises her to journey to Mount Hiei. There, Kosho, a wise old monkey, would be able to explain the meaning of Wabi Sabi to her.

"Shoes" Misses The Pointe

I bought the DVD of the 2007 ITV dramatisation of Noel Streatfeild's Ballet Shoes. Watched it last night and was rather disappointed.

It was just totally not what I "see" when I read the book. Neither was the BBC version that was released in 1975 (I have that on video). I guess that happens when you really love a book.

Emma Watson was wrong for the part of Pauline, and so was Yasmin Paige as Petrova. Lucy Boynton who played Posy was quite good though.

Theo Dane, the dancing teacher, was portrayed quite scarily - always shaking her behind and sweeping her arms about. And I really disliked her moping because she was manless and lonely. The way they had a man appear at the end to sweep her off her feet, and her desperate delight when she realised that she wouldn't die a dried up old spinster was ridiculous and offensive.

I would much rather be an old spinster than someone like Theo, and so I loved the old Drs Smith and Jakes, played brilliantly by Harriet Walter and Gemma Jones respectively.

I felt that the movie focussed more on the Sylvia, the children's guardian, than the children. There seemed too much emphasis on her loneliness and struggle to support the children. Of course they killed off Mrs Simpson and had Sylvia fall in love with and marry Mr Simpson!

Almost nothing was shown of the running of the Academy and the children's education and life as performers. So the title, Ballet Shoes, didn't really fit the story that told.

I give it 4/10.