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About Me
- Roger Sutton
- I've been the editor in chief of The Horn Book, Inc, since 1996; previously editor of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books and a children's and young adult librarian. Received my M.A. in library science from the University of Chicago in 1982 and a B.A. from Pitzer College in 1978.
A Family of Readers
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9 comments:
Claire hits the nail on the head. I can only hold out as my hope that some/many of the moivie-going kids leave the movie to seek out the book for "more". Sigh.
Sounds pretty much exactly what I was afraid of.
Thank you, Claire!
This was our family's experience with the books and movie, too. My 9-year-old son LOVED the books and eagerly anticipated the movie. When a snowstorm kept us from seeing the movie on opening night, he was so disappointed. He got to the movie later in the weekend, and was completely underwhelmed.
No Clarissa! No time spent in the Hermes cabin. Nothing much interesting about Percy himself.
He told me, "They took something deep and made it just about fighting."
Well, the book is almost always better than the movie. I guess this is an extreme example of that rule in action. :)
--and here I was thinking we might have to petition Claire to continue her stellar review service! Thanks, Claire. All of your criticisms are dead-on. I found myself waiting impatiently for the movie to end, despite the flashy fight scenes. What a disappointment.
We were forewarned, I suppose, by the planting of major spoilers about Percy's parentage in the trailers.
On another, cranky, note, did it bother anyone else that Hades first appears as a Balrog?
p.s.
The three 11-year-old girls I took to the movie were underwhelmed. The two who had read the book were angry about how badly the story had been handled.
Anatidaeling, your son summed it up exactly! I think he has a future career taking over the HB movie reviews...
Claire
Does anyone know how to make a good movie out of a children's book? It seems that anymore we just wait to see how bad it's going to be. I find it disheartening.
Yes- that was pretty much how me and my sons saw it too; disappointed but not surprised.
At the library on Sunday one of my young patrons asked if I had seen the movie yet and wanted to know if it was as bad as what they did to 'Eragon' - I had to reply that in my opinion it was.
Looking for some feedback from the masses:
Hopefully here is hightened interest from the media blitz that can really push this book into the forefront for non-readers. For those who have read the book, the movie may fall short, but examine this in reverse - can we use the movie release to excite children who aren't otherwise inclined to read?
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