The Stones of Ravenglass by Jenny Nimmo (Chronicles of the Red King #2)

The second book of the Chronicles of the Red King finds Timoken still looking a home and then, when he finds it, dealing with his enemies and supernatural forces that wish to stop him.

(Some SPOILERS)
If I'm being honest I'm not entirely sure what I want to say about Ravenglass. It was a good book, for sure. Timoken finds a place to call home and tries to build a castle for himself and his friends but meets with supernatural resistant. Also he is hunted by some enemies and in the end defeats them, is found by all of his friends and they make a home together in the castle that he builds. I didn't really connect with Timoken that much so his story didn't grab me like, for example, Charlie Bone's did. But still it was a good story and I am definitely going to get the third one and hear more about Timoken and his children.

John Keating was once again the narrator and I enjoyed his reading. The audio book was very well done.

5 hours, 46 minutes.

Chronicles of the Red King
#1 The Secret Kingdom

The Secret Kingdom by Jenny Nimmo (Chronicles of the Red King #1) (audio)

A prequel of sorts to the Children of the Red King series featuring Charlie Bone, this series explores the mysterious Red King, Timoken, and his adventures that lead to the story we later see in the Charlie Bone books.

Timoken and his sister, Zobayda, under the protection of a forest jinni but pursued by evil viridees, straddle the world of men and the world of enchantments, seeking a home while remaining young by drinking a potion called Alixir.

 You know, I enjoyed the Charlie Bone books though I never did finish the series. I plan to though. I think I'm going to finish out the Chronicles of the Red King series and then go back to Charlie Bone from the beginning. I've forgotten quite a bit of the lore and history from those books so it's like I'm learning it all over again. I think this will make the Charlie Bone books pretty fun. But I also think that is what made this book a little bit boring for me because I'm suppose to know some back story of all this all ends. Still I enjoyed the beginnings of Timoken's life and hearing how it all started. I am also glad that the majority of the 200 years covered wasn't spelled out in great detail though I do wonder how he didn't get bored being alone for quite a few of those years with only his camel for company. But I guess that is not the point of the story. The point was to get Timoken to Britain with his friends. So goal achieved and now we know where and how he meet them and how he ended up in Britain from Africa and what the deal with the Red Cloak is. So onwards to the next book to see what happens next.

5 hours, 43 minutes

John Keating is the narrator and, while he did a fine job, he isn't my favorite narrator. Something about his tone, I'm not sure, what but he didn't draw me in as some narrators do.

Nick and Tesla's High-Voltage Danger Lab by Bob Pflugfelder and Steve Hockensmith

Nick and Tesla are 11 year old twins who are sent to live with their mad scientist uncle while their parents are off to Uzbekistan for their own research. The twins love science and are excited to share their uncle's lab. But when Tesla's pendant that their parents gave to her is lost, she and her brother stumble onto a mysterious house with some shady characters living in it. Not to mention the girl in the window. Can some quick thinking and science solve this mystery?

Quirk Books sent this one for review and I thought it would be a fun book to read with my 6 year old son. We have just got into chapter books and I was looking for one to engage him with. This turned out to be a good choice. He really liked it and asked to read the science book at night. Some of the chapters are longer so I would break them into two parts but mostly we read a chapter a night. This might be one of the longer books we've read together. He is really excited to read the second book which Quirk Books also sent to me for review.

We both enjoyed the story and I like how the science and inventions really helped them out. The twins are as clever as their names and they were good characters. Plus it is a mystery which I always like. My son liked the dogs, Jaws and Claws, for some reason. He thought they were hilarious. I wouldn't be surprised if he wants to try out a few of the inventions. Because that is another cool thing. The plans and instructions for the things Nick and Tesla invent are included in the book. And it is nothing too complicated and something that would be fun for a kid and parent to do together.

The Peculiar by Stefan Bachmann (audio)

Don’t get yourself noticed and you won’t get yourself hanged.
In the faery slums of Bath, Bartholomew Kettle and his sister Hettie live by these words. Bartholomew and Hettie are changelings—Peculiars—and neither faeries nor humans want anything to do with them.
One day a mysterious lady in a plum-colored dress comes gliding down Old Crow Alley. Bartholomew watches her through his window. Who is she? What does she want? And when Bartholomew witnesses the lady whisking away, in a whirling ring of feathers, the boy who lives across the alley—Bartholomew forgets the rules and gets himself noticed.
First he’s noticed by the lady in plum herself, then by something darkly magical and mysterious, by Jack Box and the Raggedy Man, by the powerful Mr. Lickerish . . . and by Arthur Jelliby, a young man trying to slip through the world unnoticed, too, and who, against all odds, offers Bartholomew friendship and a way to belong.

If I had to describe this book in a few words I'd say fairy, dystopian, steampunkish. In this world, fairies have waged war on humans and lost and are now subjugated to the slums and minority sects of England except for a few who have risen in the ranks. And the changelings have it the worst. Half human, half fairies, the changelings are viewed as abominations by all.  So Bartholomew and his little sister Hettie are kept indoors and away from the windows and prying eyes. Until one day when they do get noticed putting them both in danger. And on the other side of town, Arthur Jelliby is a mild-mannered government official who just wants to live his quiet, unassuming life. But when he confidentially overhears a nefarious plot by the Chancellor Mr. Lickerish, he feels compelled to stop him and to save the woman in the plum-colored dress.

I enjoyed this book. It was a delightful book with a different take on fairies and them living in a human world. It was interesting how the humans found ways of keeping the fairies subjugated and how the fairies became stuck in our world. I liked Bartholomew and how all it wanted to have was a friend. It was actually sad the lengths he went through to have a friend of his own, stuck in his house with his sister and mother. But find an unlikely friend, he does. There is a lot of action and danger in this book especially for Bartholomew and his sister. 

I feel like this story could have been wrapped up in one book though so I'm curious what the sequel The Whatnot will be about.

Provided by SYNC

Peter Altschuler is the narrator. I enjoyed his reading though I wasn't fond of a few of the voices he choose, still he did a great job. He has a very nice voice and puts a lot of emotion into his performance.

7 hours, 35 mintues

"Who Could That Be At This Hour?" by Lemony Snicket (All the Wrong Questions #1) (audio)

When Lemony Snicket was a boy he began an apprenticeship with a chaperone. The first assignment of that apprenticeship takes them to Stain'd-by-the-Sea to find a missing statue. But  Lemony quickly learns that asking all the wrong questions will get you nowhere when one right one is all you need.

I'm not sure what I was expecting. More of A Series of Unfortunate Events type stuff? Maybe. And this certainly follows in that vein. I guess this is the precursor to that series. More on the mysterious Lemony Snicket who, I was jarringly reminded, is actually a fictional character in his own right. A few characters from ASoUE appear, a detail I appreciated. I wonder if the Bauderlaire parents will appear.

Anyway, Lemony takes an apprenticeship which I guess consists of solving mysteries with a chaperone (mentor). His chaperone is certainly a character and not the most effectual one. But she is suppose to be a means to an end. Instead though she brings him to Stain'd-by-the-Sea where they are suppose to find a statue that was stolen. But instead of asking whether something can be stolen that didn't belong to the person in the first place, he asks all the wrong questions and is lead on a crazy quest around town, meeting the types of characters you'd expect to find in a Lemony Snicket book. And like ASoUE this is a dense book in that a lot of things are happening and most of it is not explained. But if you are a Lemony Snicket fan you will be expecting that.

Liam Aiken is the narrator and to be honest I wasn't really feeling his reading. He has a nice voice and is a good narrator but I don't know how I feel about him as Lemony Snicket. He does sound like Daniel Handler so maybe that has something to do with it. 

3 hours, 43 minutes

Wisdom's Kiss by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Goodreads: 
Princess Wisdom, known as Dizzy, longs for a life of adventure far beyond the staid old kingdom of Montagne.
Tips, a soldier, longs to keep his true life secret from his family.
Fortitude, an orphaned maid, longs only for Tips.
These three passionate souls might just attain their dreams while preserving Montagne from certain destruction, if only they can tolerate each other long enough to come up with a plan. Tough to save the world when you can't even be in the same room together.

I haven't read Princess Ben so I was unfamiliar with the world and with the character.  I might have to go back and read it because Nonna Ben was pretty fierce.  As was Wisdom.  She was very tenacious and curious and fairly unprincess-like. While she wasn't my favorite character (that honor going to Trudy) she was alright for a princess.  Trudy was the sweetest and the one with the most to lose as an orphaned serving girl with psychic powers.  The love triangle that springs up between Wisdom, Trudy and Tips, Trudy's childhood friend and first love, was inevitable.  But the real meat of the story, for me, was in the intrigue between Wisdom's kingdom and the duchy she is meant to marry into.  I loved the outcome and how clever they solved the problem.

I liked this book, let me say, I did.  But it is told in many random forms like diary entries, memoirs, letters, biographies, a play and all of that together felt mish mashed.  Random bits of important information are thrown in through in encyclopedia entries which seems like a lazy way of importing things readers need to know.  The conceit is cute at the beginning but loses its cuteness about half way through the book.  But it doesn't make the book unreadable.  On the contrary, it is a charming book that I enjoyed very much.  It was just one of the those things I couldn't help noticing.

From NetGalley

The Unwanteds by Lisa McMann

In Quill, people are divided at the age of 13 into three categories, Wanteds, Necessaries, and Unwanteds.  The Wanteds are sent to university and get the higher level jobs, the Necessaries do the menial labor and the Unwanteds are sent to their death.  But all is not what it seems because at the Death Farm, there is a magical world, Artimé, behind the gates that takes in the Unwanteds and grows their artistic talents (the reason they are Unwanted in the first place).  Alex is an Unwanted with a drawing ability while his twin brother, Aaron, is deem Wanted.  The two brothers are very different and that might cause the biggest problems of all between Quill and Artimé.

I really did feel sorry for Alex and all the other Unwanteds.  Sentenced to die for having creative ideas is terrible.  But the High Priest is determined to keep everyone under her control and forward-thinkers would challenge that so out they go.  But luckily for them Mr. Today, the so-called "Death Farmer," has created a magical parallel universe hidden from Quill to save the Unwanteds and not only foster their artistic abilities but to teach them magic based on their abilities.  So the drawing students learn to paint themselves invisible and use clay to bind people and many other pretty awesome things. The Unwanteds thrive in this world.  But they must say hidden from the land of Quill otherwise the consequences would be dire. It's a pretty neat concept and I liked the magic involved as well as the characterization of Alex and his Wanted twin, Aaron.

I was expecting more older middle grade but this was read younger middle grade to me.  The story was very simple and everyone was fairly straightforward.  Nobody really had gray areas in their personality.  But it was cute and I enjoyed it.  The cover says The Hunger Games meets Harry Potter and that is far from the truth, having neither the grittiness of The Hunger Games nor the world-building of Harry Potter.  It is still charming though.  If I compared it to anything it might be Diana Wynne Jone's Chrestomanci series but it still lacks that intangible quality that makes those books great.  What I'm getting at is that it is cute and fun and provides a largely one-sided view of creativity and that it is worth reading, but it lacks that something that makes a book a classic.  Children will enjoy it, some adults will enjoy it as well.  I would recommend it, just don't go looking for greatness.

Provided by the publisher
Publisher: Aladdin (Simon and Schuster)
Publish date: 8/30/11
ISBN: 9781442407688

The Wizard of Dark Street by Shawn Thomas Odyssey

12 year old Oona is destined for the position of Wizard's Apprentice since she is a rare Natural Magician.  But all she wants to do is start her own detective agency.  When the current Wizard, also Oona's uncle, is stabbed with a magic knife, it's up to Oona to figure out who purported the crime.  

"Indeed, Deacon," she said.  "Nothing like a bit of spying to put one in the right mood."  ARC p. 75

This was a great mix of fantasy and mystery so it combined two of my favorite genres.  Oona is a girl detective and those are the best kind.  She is smart, witty, clever and loyal to her uncle.  She is also filled with a deep sadness after the death of her mother and sister and a fear of her own magic because of their deaths.  It adds some depth to Oona's story which otherwise might have been too formulaic.  I also loved Oona's talking encyclopedia raven, Deacon, and their relationship with each other and how he aids her in sleuthing and acts as her friend and companion.

The world that Odyssey has built is very well thought.  Dark Street is the last of the faerie paths, now closed off to the Faerie world and only available to our world for a minute each night at midnight.  It makes the inhabitants of Dark Street very unique.   Still it is a pretty normal place to them.  But it is a world unto itself.  I liked how the magic of the place flavored the book, but wasn't the point of the book.  I loved how really this is, at heart, a mystery, just dressed in fantasy clothes.

Sent by publisher for review

The Entomological Tales of Augustus T. Percival: Petronella Saves Nearly Everyone by Dene Low

Petronella is all set for her coming out party when something horrendous happens. Her uncle swallows a beetle at tea and suddenly begins craving insects.  On top of that, a kidnapping occurs at her party.  So Petronella, a forward-thinking and boisterous girl, decides to help in the investigation and winds up saving nearly everyone.

Although James's laughter irritated me, he looked absolutely endearing, with a dark shadow of beard just beginning to appear.  I longed to stroke his cheek to feel its roughness even as I longed to punch him in the jaw for being so obstructive and medieval.  p. 132

Funny and charming.  Those are the two words that come to mind when I think about trying to describe this book.  I loved the Wodehouse style writing with the jokes and the very proper way Petronella has of speaking.  This had the air of a mystery along with a comedy of manners and I thought it was an entertaining little book.

Petronella is a spunky, smart and determined heroine and she takes it upon herself to protect her uncle's secret and rescued the kidnapped from her party.  Partly to do what is right and partly because she cannot stop herself and partly because she is very clever.  She is a 1930's British Nancy Drew in a way.  I liked her best friend, Jane, and Jane's brother (who is also Petronella's secret crush) James is very cute.  Although I do hope he wisens up or he is going to lose the fabulous Petronella.

I checked the author's website for the next book and was sad to learn that, although it has been written, it hasn't found a publisher yet.  I hope that it does soon because I would love to read more of Petronella's adventures.

Hogwarts: Charms
Take a Chance

Lucy Unstrung by Carole Lazar

Lucy is a delightful if confused 13 year old whose mother had her when she was a teenager and now her mother wants to get out and explore the world she missed.  Unfortunately for Lucy that means moving and a lot of changes for her.  But, in general, Lucy handles it well though she doesn't understand really where her mother is coming from.

So Lucy has to move away from her friend and her school and go to a trailer park with her mom and away from her dad and go to public school.  Lucy has always go to a private Catholic school.  She has to deal with the possibility of her parents dating other people and with being bullied at school.  But with a few misadventures here and there, Lucy pulls through the upset in her life and learns that not everything about change is bad.

"No, because we were both weird only children with no social skills."
I don't like him talking like this.  It makes me very uncomfortable, probably because I bet some people would say that I'm a weird only child with no social skills too.
It's time to change the subject.  p. 125

I've been reading a lot of coming of age stories lately (which is not like me at all but anyway) so I was a little afraid to get started on this one.  But this was cute and a bit funny.  I liked quirky little Lucy and her adventures with figuring out her new life.  I understood what her mom wanted in her life, unlike Lucy, but I don't know she went about it in the right way.  I did like how Lucy's dad is obviously not her bio dad and yet that was never addressed since he is her real dad.  I hate it when books make a big show about that.  This was much more assumptive.

Lucy gets into the usual 13 year old trouble especially as she tries to figure out how to stay at the same school.  And to stay friends with her only real friend.  This was a short, sweet book that I recommend if you need a few laughs and a good coming of age story.

Won from Library Thing's Early Reviewers
Hogwarts: Muggle Studies
Off the Shelf

A Crooked Kind of Perfect (audio) by Linda Urban

Zoe wanted a piano.  What she got was an organ, a Perfectone D60.  With a mother who is always working and a father who doesn't like to live the house and a boy who follows her home from school and now an organ rather than a piano, Zoe's life is far from perfect.  But soon she learns that might just be okay.

This was a very cute, quirky book.  It was interesting to see how a child deals with having a parent who is afraid of people.  And how she deals with the disappointment of not getting the piano she dreams of and how she, too, is a little quirky because of her parents.  I liked Zoe and thought she handled everything reasonably well, more maturely than some.  While I am sadly not musically abled I liked the story of how music can change your life and how it is incorporated in the lives of so many.

3 hours 17 minutes
Taj Alexandra Ricci is the narrator of this book and I liked her voice.  She had the right tone and zeal for Zoe and I think she does a terrific job.  She has a clear even tone and her voice acting fits right into the story.  She does a great job of bringing the story and Zoe to life.

Hogwarts: Perfect mini-challenge
Whisper in my Ear

A Season of Gifts (audio) by Richard Peck

Grandma Dowdel from the A Long Way From Chicago and A Year Down Yonder is back!  In A Season of Gifts, she had new neighbors including the ten-year son of the new preacher.  Told from his point of view, Bob watches as Grandma Dowdel helps the town folk without looking like she is doing anything.

I always enjoy Richard Peck's books.  They are so simple and folksy and Grandma Dowdel is an unforgettable character.  I was glad to see another book with her in it.  She gets older but never changes.  By befriending the new family next door (even though she doesn't "neighbor") she shows how the giving spirit can last all year long.  She is a very clever lady and I love some of her schemes and how they work out.  And there are some seriously laugh out loud moments in this book.  I especially enjoyed the tree story and the ghost story.  The narrative is broken into what seems to be more like short stories though there is a theme overall.

Mackenzie Blue (1-3) by Tina Wells

Mackenzie Blue (#1)

Meet Mackenzie Blue, Zee to her friends.  She is starting seventh grade this year without her best friend who has moved to France.  But Zee is an outgoing friendly girl who makes friends with a new girl on the first day back.  Everything is going great for Zee until her diary is stolen and excerpts are written on the board at school.  Who took her diary and why are they tormenting her?  Zee is determined to find out.

Zee had been only two places that day - her house and school.  Oh no!  If the diary was at school, maybe someone had found it and read it.  p.54

This was an extremely cute book.  It was so fun and lively and Zee was an awesome girl!  She has great friend and is very talented and very enthusiastic so that was fun.  The main plot is about Zee losing her diary but the subplot is about a music competition.  Zee writes her own music and she doesn't know what to do when her diary is stolen.  There is a lot of "be yourselfs" and "doing your bests" in this book (without being preachy)  and I think it is a great book for middle graders.  I can see this on the Disney Channel or ABC Family.

Mackenzie Blue: The Secret Crush (#2)

Zee is back with her gang and they are forming a band with the help of Mr. P, the ultra cool music teacher.  The Beans, as they name themselves, decide to put on a musical as way of introducing themselves to the school.  And everyone wants the leads of course.  Zee wants the female lead and hopes Landon, her not-so-secret crush, get the male lead.  But Zee's friend Jasper also wants the lead and he is acting weird toward Landon.  How will Zee handle all this tension?

But Zee knew her mother would never understand what wa really important to her.  It was Zee's dream to be a star, and the musical was her opportunity to shine.  p.1

Another cute book in the Mackenzie Blue series, I think this one is a little better since all the characters have been introduced.  I can't figure out the Kathi character.  She is given a lot of motivation for her behavior and then she acts out of character.  Maybe that is a hallmark of the tween age, trying to figure out who you want to be.  I like the illustrations in each book and think it adds to the story nicely.

Mackenzie Blue: Friends Forever (#3)

Zee and her science class, including all of the Beans, are off on a wilderness class trip!  Zee is trying to figure out what's up with her friends, including BFF Ally, Jasper, and her crush Landon.  Everyone is acting funny and Zee just wants everyone to get along.

Zee looked at Chloe.  Jasper was right - crashing into a guy was not the best way to flirt.   p.22

This series gets better with each book.  I love the way Zee is so real and the issues are exactly right for middle grade girls: crushes, best friend fights, fitting in, periods, etc.  I remember all those things being so important at that age and I would have loved this series back then.  I actually really enjoyed reading it now.  Zee and her friends get into real and often humorous situations and the illustrations are so cute.  I'm actually looking forward to the next book.  This is a great series!

Sent by publisher for review

Anything but Typical

Goodreads:
Jason Blake is an autistic 12-year-old living in a neurotypical world.Most days it's just a matter of time before something goes wrong. But Jason finds a glimmer of understanding when he comes across PhoenixBird, who posts stories to the same online site as he does.
Jason can be himself when he writes and he thinks that PhoneixBird - her name is Rebecca - could be his first real friend. But as desperate as Jason is to met her, he's terrified that if they do meet, Rebecca wil only see his autism and not who Jason really is. By acclaimed writer Nora Raleigh Baskin, this is the breathtaking depiction of an autistic boy's struggles-and a story for anyone who has ever worried about fitting in.

It was how I felt it sometimes when I was with my mother.  The way I would sometimes just fell just my head or sometimes just my toes and they'd feel warm.  And I felt safe with my mother.  I could breathe easily.  p.23

I was captivated by this story of Jason.  How he failed to recognize distinguishing features on people, and couldn't control his emotions or his physical gestures, how he really felt inside but was unable to express.  It was interesting to "see" inside his mind and how it worked.  So sad and so sweet.  I think I have a better understanding of autism now.  It was interesting to see how Jason couldn't comprehend his mother's emotions except to know the basics.  Complex emotions seemed out of reach for him.  But it was endearing how much he really loves his parents and how he expresses it to himself, but never can to them.  And it was interesting to see how people reacted to him and expected things out of him.  A very moving little book with a wonderful character, I was  deeply impressed with Anything but Typical.

Hogwarts: Muggle Studies
Library
Autism Awareness

Into the Wild

Julie has been raised keeping the Wild under her bed and knowing that fairy tales are real.  After all, her mother is Rapunzel.  But now the Wild has escaped and is trapping people into fairy tale roles, Julie's mother included.  And it's up to Julie to rescue her mother and save the world from the Wild.

She couldn't walk into the Wild and intentionally use fairy-tale items.  She'd only be making things worse. p.76

I picked this up on the recommendation of Bookworm Nation and I'm glad I did.  It was a very cute book.  I liked the take on what would happen when the characters escape from their fairy tales and the idea that they are trapped there in an endless cycle.  It would be interesting to read the story of how they escaped.  That would make an excellent book. But the "what happens later" concept of this book was also fun.

Into the Wild was obviously written for a younger set than what I usually read.  It definitely has more of a kid's book feel to it.  It reminded me a lot of Labyrinth.  There are even some similarities in plotting and in the dénouement.  Julie is a fun and feisty character and I like how she used her difference from everyone else to help her mother.  And, of course, it was fun to see the fariy tale characters in real life and how they survived and what they became.  That was one of the main reason I liked this book.

Hogwarts: History of Magic
TwentyTen
Rainbow Challenge

The Truth about My Bat Mitzvah

Goodreads:
Seventh-grader Caroline Weeks has a Jewish mom and a non-Jewish dad. When Caroline's nana dies around the same time that Caroline's best friend, Rachel, is having her bat mitzvah, Caroline starts to become more interested in her Jewish identity.

I had never heard my grandmother speak like that.  The stories she told about her life, about her family, always sounded like stories.  Like books at a far end of the shelf, not real  I had never heard my grandmother sounds as she did now, like a little girl.  p. 116

 This was a sweet little book.  Caroline is sad when her grandmother dies and she receives a Star of David necklace from her.  Slowly she begins to explore her Jewish identity as her best friend prepares for her bat mitzvah.  She begins to understand the grown-up relationships around her are not as simple as she assumed.  She wonders if she has the right to become bat mitzvah because her family is lax about keeping the customs and religious days and her father is not Jewish.  But then, with the help of her friends and family, she starts to decide that maybe it is okay to be Jewish and that she has the right to be.

Hogwarts: Muggle Studies

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (audio book/movie)

Claudia is tired of living her ordinary life; of having to take care of her brothers and doing her chores.  So she decided to run away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art taking her cheapskate (and "rich") brother, Jamie, with her.  The two have a great time living at the museum when they discover a statue reported to have been carved by the great Michelangelo.  Determined to find out the truth about the statue leads Claudia and Jaime to the original owner, Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

I read this book a lot when I was a kid.  Like a whole lot.  I was always fascinated by the idea of living in a museum and how awesome that would be.  And of course with the mystery of Angel, the Michelangelo statue.  I thought that was so great and I loved Claudia and Jamie and how clever they were.  I still thought that though I realized how annoying Claudia was and Jamie is so funny.  The money exchange was funny because this was written in 1968 when a dime was big money and a quarter was even bigger.  Nothing really new stood out though from child to adult perspective, but it was nice to revisit an old favorite.  I will definitely be adding this to the little man's shelf.

The narrator of the story is Mrs. Frankweiler and it was read by Jan Miner who did an excellent job of giving everyone voices and adding some humor to the reading.

 I watched the made-for-TV movie with Lauren Bacall as Mrs. Frankweiler, Jean Marie Barnwell as Claudia and Jesse Lee Soffer as Jamie.  I saw this when it originally aired in 1995, but hadn't thought about it much.

This movie gives Claudia more motivation than the book does for running away.  Her parents are very busy and expect her to pick up the slack and her brothers don't seem to do very much.  So the story stays pretty true to the book; the kids run away and live in the Museum and then the Angel statue comes to the museum and Claudia wants to solve the mystery.  Mrs. Frankweiler appears a few more times in the movie and the parents have a bigger part.  I liked the kids they picked for the parts.  They did a good job with their parts and they were age appropriate.  It is a very cute movie and a good example of turning a book into a movie.

Harriet the Spy (audio book/movie)

Harriet loves to write in her notebook.  She takes notes on anything that she sees and writes down all her thoughts.  But when her notebook is read by her class and they see some of the things she thinks about them, they decided to start a Spycatcher's Club.

I read Harriet the Spy along time ago and, though, I thought it was good, it was never one of my re-reads as a kid.  There are so many elements that made me uncomfortable that I could never bring myself to read it again.  Some of that still hits home as an adult.  When I was a kid, I also felt sorry for Harriet.  Her classmates read something that was private and made her miserable and they turned on her so quickly without giving her a chance to explain.  They played mean tricks on her.  And she is so sad after the loss of her nurse, Ole Golly, which adds to her general misery after being ostracized at school.  So I could never stand to read about her depression.

As an adult, I see all of that and I still feel sorry for Harriet.  Because she really was depressed. But the thing I wonder about are the adults of the story, specifically Harriet's parents and Ole Golly.  I really wonder if they thought Ole Golly could leave and Harriet would just move on.  I'm assuming that Ole Golly did most of the caretaking and so it would be like your mother just one day saying Bye.  Have a nice life.  I mean I know Golly loved her and was sad to go.  I can see more of that now that I'm older.  But Harriet is not the most mature or introspective child and so she couldn't recognize the depression that followed Golly leaving.  And the adults really did nothing to help that.   And then to add to Harriet's misery her friends find her notebook and turn on her.  They really don't do too much to her, but then ignoring her I think is the worst.  Harriet though cannot understand why they are mad and if she would have just ask an adult I think they could have explained it to her.  Also her parents take away her notebook which was the worst decision they could have made.  I was glad when they finally took her to a psychologist because she really should have gone much earlier.

Harriet as a character is funny and insightful and brutally honest but she is also a pain in the neck and shouts too much and is very sassy.  In other words, she is very much like a lot of 11 year olds.  I think she was a good friend to Janie and Sport and out of all of the kids those two should have given her a chance to explain.  But then, I guess, when your best friend says mean things about you, you would take it the hardest.  Though someone needs to explain to the children that we all have uncharitable thoughts about others at one time or another.  Harriet just make the mistake of writing them down.

In 1996, Nickoledeon made a movie starring Michelle Trachtenberg as Harriet and Rosie O'Donnell as Ole Golly.  And I sat down to watch it after listening to the book. This is a fairly accurate and a good represenatation of the book.  There are a few chances here and there, the biggest being that after Harriet's friends start their club and spill paint on her (instead of ink) she gets back at them in various ways like posting an embarrassing picture of Sport and messing up one of Janie's experiments.  She does some mean stuff in the book, but not quite like in the movie.  And Golly comes back instead of just writing to her.  But the tone is right and Michelle Trachtenberg does such an excellent job of protraying Harriet.

Side note: I've heard that Disney is doing a new verison with Jennifer Stone from Wizards of Waverly Place and I just cannot fanthom that.  She is way too old to play Harriet and I think it is going to be awful.

The Extrordinary Adventures of Ordinary Basil

Basil lives in a lighthouse and wishes for an extraordinary adventure.  One day a man shows up in an air-boat and Basil gets his wish in this high flying book.

Wiley Miller, the author, is the creator of the comic strip Non Sequitur and so this book has a lot of illustrations.  It is a very fun little story.  Basil feels so ordinary and then one day he is whisked away to a city in the air and from there has a grand adventure to help save the city.   The illustrations are fun and the story is definitely a good one for kids.




Here's a couple of (bad) page shots:

 

A Year Down Yonder (audio)

Mary Alice and Grandma Dowdel from Peck's Newbery Honor, A Long Way From Chicago, return.  This time Mary-Alice is sent to live with Grandma Dowdel while her father looks for work.  Her brother Joey, whose point of view A Long Way From Chicago was told, is gone and Mary Alice is alone with Grandma.  Told in several short stories about Mary Alice's year with her grandmother, we get to experience life in a small rural town and her "hard hearted" grandmother.  But Mary Alice learns that her grandmother is more than she appears when her grandmother finds a way to do good works under the cover of only doing her part.  A Year Down Yonder is a wonderful old-fashioned book and I loved it.  I would recommended it to anyone.


*for the Rainbow Connection Challenge and the Take Another Chance Challenge and the Audio Book Challenge