The Lightning Thief film - reviewed in The Horn Book

A new review will be up soon. I spent this week finishing a grad school application and two FAFSAs (mine and younger son's). Older son did his own. Thank you! Meanwhile, here's a great, literary, movie review of The Lightning Thief.

By the way, the third graders at my school are so into the Percy Jackson series right now that they're raiding the library for books on Greek mythology. The ones who have seen the movie say: "The book is way better!"

A dragon novel fit for a kindergartener

Gruffen

By Chris D'Lacey

Illustrated by Adam Stower

Orchard Books, 104 pages

$9.99, ages 5-9

At my school, which serves gifted students, it can be a challenge to find books for youngsters who can read "chapter" books at an age where they're not ready for a lot of the content contained in most novels. If you have a reader like that, you've no doubt run up against that challenge.
Some of our 5- and 6-year-olds might be able to read the words in Harry Potter – and even think they're interested because of the movies and talk from bigger siblings and schoolmates. But the content in the books is too scary or sophisticated for children that young. So is the sheer length. Same thing goes for many other novels. The subject matter is simply geared to the interests of the children the author believes are most likely to be reading the books – which makes perfect sense.
Most younger kids, even those who are precocious readers, still like big print, pictures and a book they can fit easily in their little hands. And wouldn't it be nice if they had characters and situations they could relate to to go with reading material that was at their level.
As this blog grows, I'm planning to create some specialized book lists, and one for these kids will definitely be included.
But for now, young fantasy lovers will be entranced by Gruffen and its sequels, Gauge and Glade, the the first three books in Chris D'Lacey's "Dragons of Wayward Crescent" series. This is a junior version of D'Lacey's popular Last Dragon Chronicles series (The Fire Within, The Fire Eternal, et al).
The charming series for younger readers reprises two of the same characters, Lucy and her mother, Liz, who makes ceramic dragons, some she sells, and others who come alive. Those live at Liz and Lucy's house. Each has a special role to play, like cleaning or listening for unusual noises. They look the same as any of the others when visitors are around. Whenever a new task needs to be done, Liz makes a new dragon.
As Gruffen opens, Lucy is having trouble sleeping because she sees a monster in her room, so Liz creates Gruffen to protect her. There's good detail about the creation and a comical and harrowing description of Gruffen learning how to be a protector. It involves bumping into walls and landing in slippers.
After he's competent, he discovers that Lucy's monster is only a bat. The tale then weaves in facts about bats and peaceful cohabitation (despite the efforts of a crochety neighbor to drive bats out of the neighborhood).
It's a satisfying, just-scary-enough read for young ones, and a decent read-aloud, too, with lively black-and-white line drawings by Adam Stower.
In the two other books, Glade is a mood dragon and Gauge is a timing dragon employed to help save the town's clock tower.


-Rebecca Young

Where's Kronos!?!

Our verdict on the movie: "Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief"? Entertaining, but not amazing. I went with my two young- adult kids. All of us had recently read and loved the entire Percy Jackson and the Olympian series.

I usually expect disappointment when a good book is made into a movie (with the possible exceptions of "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Wizard of Oz"). It's impossible to fit in every precious scene and nuance.
But, in this case, one awfully big character was left out – the evil Kronos. Sorry if that's a spoiler. The real movie reviewers have insisted on comparing this film to Harry Potter, so I'll use an HP analogy, too.

Leaving out Kronos is like leaving out Voldemort. And as my daughter wondered, so much of what comes in books two through five builds on what happens with Kronos in the first, so what will they do about sequels?

Other changes to brace for: Percy is a high school student, not a 12-year-old. And a few other great characters from the book don't show up, including Ares and his daughter, Clarisse, and Dionysus, the director of Camp Half Blood. Dionysus is listed on the IMDB Web site, so his part must have been cut to nothing.

That said, there is much to like.  Steve Coogan is unexpectedly funny as Hades. Brandon T. Jackson is great as Percy's sidekick/protector, Grover the satyr. Some big names grace the screen: Uma Thurman (with snake hair), Pierce Brosnan (with horse torso), Catherine Keener, Sean Bean – and the guy who plays Owen on "Grey's Anatomy." Many of the special effects seemed pretty cool to me, though I'm no expert and the real movie critics certainly quibbled with them.

Some awfully little kids were sitting in front of us. The younger boy (4?) seemed okay, but his slightly older sister (6?) was hiding her eyes during the hydra scene. The film isn't quite as scary as the later Harry Potters and has more humor, but I'd say 9 and up is a safer bet. You know your own kids though.

Happy Valentine's Day

Woof: A Love Story
By Sarah Weeks
Illustrated by Holly Berry
HarperCollins, 32 pages
$16.99, ages 4-8

Was there ever a story of more woe than Juliet and her Romeo?

At the picture book level  "Woof: A Love Story," by Sarah Weeks might qualify. There's no bloodshed, but this tale of a lovesick dog has plenty of angst.

Really it's a charming and humorous tale of the communication issues that ensue when the sentimental hound fall for the fetching green-eyed white feline next door.

He's notices that her nose looks like tiny, pink cake-frosting rose, as she perceives in a worried thought bubble: "The teeth on that dog are as long as my tail."

While she sits safely high in a tree, he tries to tell her "I love you!" She hears "woof woof woof woof."

"Climb down. I adore you."

"Woof woof woof woof."

After many frustrated attempts, he barks: "You don't understand me" and slinks off, head hanging low.

He digs to make himself feel better and finds a bone – a trombone.

After a few false attempts he learns to play and music, a language that anyone can understand, wins over the pretty kitty.

When she tells him she loves him, it comes out "meow."

"But he understood what she meant anyhow."

A sweet story, with many connections that can be made to real-life situations.

Holly Berry's illustrations are marvelous, happy collages, full of color and life. Buttons, flowers and lace add pizazz. One fabulous picture shows the dog lying in the grass, hearts exploding from his chest. He's daydreaming about the cat, who is pictured in a heart-shaped thought bubble behind a wedge of chocolate cake decorated with a pink rose that sits right where her nose would be.

-Rebecca Young

For Black History Month

Marching for Freedom: 
Walk Together Children and Don't You Grow Weary
By Elizabeth Partridge
Viking, 72 pages
$19.99, ages 10 and up

Even though it's been more than four decades, the Civil Rights Movement in the South doesn't always feel like history. The battles fought and won by Martin Luther King Jr. and thousands of ordinary  Americans are still fresh and relevant to to those that still need to be fought in this country and worldwide.

Elizabeth Partridge's brilliant new book, which reads like a thriller and is illustrated with more than 50 stirring, amazing photographs, focuses on the children and teenagers who participated in the landmark 1965 march from Selma, Ala., to Montgomery.

The book begins: "The first time Joanne Blackmon was arrested, she was just ten years old."

That was in 1963. Joanne was with her grandma and a crowd of others who were trying to register to vote. She and her sister, Lynda, three years older were each jailed about 10 more times in the next two years before Dr. King came to Selma to kick off the campaign to win blacks the right to vote.

"Don't worry about your children," he told parents. "Don't hold them back if they want to go to jail."
In researching the book, Partridge traveled to Selma and interviewed people who were kids and young adults during the march.

"Day after day in 1965, they'd protested, sung and marched," she writes on her Web site. "They were threatened and bullied, jailed and beaten, then got up the next morning and headed out again. I was awed by their courage and determination."

Partridge doesn't neglect the leaders of the times. King, Rosa Parks, President Lyndon Johnson and others appear large as life throughout the book.

But the roles of the young people will fascinate today's kids.

Some of the stories are terrifying and violent. Partridge interviewed Lynda Blackmon (now Lowry) about Bloody Sunday, the confrontation with state troopers on the Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965, the day the march began.

Tear gas canisters were flying. Troopers lashed out with nightsticks. Lynda, enveloped in a cloud of tear gas, was hit over the eye and again in the back of the head. Her wounds took more than 30 stitches to close, but what was most painful, she said, was the hatred in the eyes of the white men attacking them.
"These people beating us, they took pleasure in it."

The march continued and swelled, of course. Lynda got patched up became the youngest person to complete the entire march.

Ultimately, Partridge ends on notes of triumph, empowerment and hope. The Voting Rights Act was signed on Aug. 6, 1965, six months after Bloody Sunday.

She writes:

"Selma, Dr. King said, was a 'shining moment.'

It was also a testimony to nonviolent protest. Hundreds of students had put themselves at risk to change America's voting laws. Their idealism and bravery encouraged the adults."

Young readers will be inspired to wonder, 'if they could do that, what could I do?"

Partridge's resources are excellent: source notes, bibliography and index. Again, her Web site has some excellent links, including footage of President Barack Obama's visit to Selma, interviews with people who were involved in the 1965 march and a taped conversation between Dr. King and President Johnson.

Partridge is the author of some other great nonfiction, too, including John Lennon: All I Want Is The Truth, This Land Was Made for You and Me: The Life and Songs of Woody Guthrie, and Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange.
-Rebecca Young

Exercise for brain and bodies

Taking the dogs for a walk is an excellent excuse to listen to The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, on my iPod. Fabulous book + exercise for me + exercise for dogs. Win-win-win!