Create-A-Cover--Fairytales

If you haven't checked out Fairy Tale Fortnight yet, get over to The Book Rat or A Backwards Story RIGHT NOW because it is awesome.  And because Misty and Bonnie have put together some great posts this year.  And because fairy tales are always fun.  

One of this year's events is a create-a-cover challenge, and I decided to give it a go.  This was my very first attempt at photoshoping, so they're not the most polished images ever, but I'm honestly just impressed that I figured out how to get photoshop to work at all.

I don't know what it is about hooded figures, but I love them.  There's just such an aura of mystery about them.  If you know of any hooded-figure-covers, send them my way.  And the dancer was too graceful not to put in a dancing hall.  Or a creepy, empty cathedral.

I got both (1,2) of the models from faestock.  She has some stunning photos, so you should check out her profile.  The woods are from ~frozenstocks.  And the empty hall is from *E-dina.

Head over to Misty's create-a-cover post to see what other people have created or to submit your own cover.  And while you're over there, check out all the other cool Fairy Tale Fortnight posts.  If you create your own cover(s), be sure to let me know in comments so I can check them out.

Review: Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon and Dean Hale

Rapunzel's Revenge--Shannon and Dean Hale
Illustrated by Nathan Hale
August 2008 by Bloomsbury USA Childrens
144 pages--Goodreads

Once upon a time, in a land you only think you know, lived a little girl and her mother . . . or the woman she thought was her mother.

Every day, when the little girl played in her pretty garden, she grew more curious about what lay on the other side of the garden wall . . . a rather enormous garden wall.

And every year, as she grew older, things seemed weirder and weirder, until the day she finally climbed to the top of the wall and looked over into the mines and desert beyond.

Newbery Honor-winning author Shannon Hale teams up with husband Dean Hale and brilliant artist Nathan Hale (no relation) to bring readers a swashbuckling and hilarious twist on the classic story as you’ve never seen it before. Watch as Rapunzel and her amazing hair team up with Jack (of beanstalk fame) to gallop around the wild and western landscape, changing lives, righting wrongs, and bringing joy to every soul they encounter.

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Rapunzel's Revenge is a lot of fun.  I love the western/fairytale mash up, though that setting takes a little getting used to.  Rapunzel is great.  No damsel in distress, she is proactive in rescuing herself from towers, sea serpents, and giant henchmen.  I love the little touches of tomboyishness the illustrations give her, like leaves in her hair after she has been climbing trees.  Jack is also a lot of fun.  He is shameless, but lovable.  He's a scoundrel and a thief without being a jerk.  Like Han Solo, but less rude.  He and Rapunzel play well off each other.

I love the little chunks of humor sprinkled here and ther, things like Jack saying, "We'll have to wait until nightfall," and in the next frame the narrator textbox says "Night fell."  Little quirky things like that make the book not take itself too seriously.

This is not the book you're looking for if you want a complex villain or developed relationship between Mother Gothel and Rapunzel.  I love the mother-daughter dynamic in Tangled, but that is not part of this book.  And I'm okay with that; it's out of the scope of this particular retelling.

Some reviewers have said the plot is too slow before Rapunzel escapes from her tower.  I can agree that the story picks up that once Jack comes in and Rapunzel starts lassoing things with her hair, but I liked the backstory.  Either way, it's a graphic novel, so it's a quick read.  The plot does feel a bit disconnected as we move from one adventure to the next, but it each adventure is still fun.

Rapunzel's Revenge is a fun, quick read, and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel.

Book Haul 7

Yay, new books.  Please excuse the top of my head for not being in frame.  It had somewhere very important it needed to be.

Splintered--A.G. Howard

The Fault in our Stars--John Green
Dragonsong--Robin McCaffrey

Esperanza Rising--Pam Muñoz Ryan

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone--J.K. Rowling
The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963--Christopher Paul Curtis

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas--John Boyne

Amulet:  The Stonekeeper's Curse--Kazu Kibuishi

Martin Luther King Jr--10 Days--David Colbert

Rules--Cynthia Lord

Plagues, Pox, and Pestilence--Richard West

How They Croaked--Georgia Bragg

Frankenweenie Thoughts

We recently watched Tim Burton's Frankenweenie in my Frankenstein and Film class, and it was super cute in a creepy sort of way.  It's sweet; it's funny; it's clever.  There are so many references to other Frankenstein films, the original novel, and monster movies in general.  Shelly the pet turtle, Edgar E. Gore, Percephone's Bride of Frankenstein hairdo, Godzilla rampaging and crushing a car.  And of course, there's the usual Tim Burton visual vibe of tall, gaunt, pale, spindly legged people.  Everyone in town is distinctive, but the best representation of this is a character whose name on the script is just "Weird Girl."

Weird Girl

My favorite character is Mr. Rzykruski (no I can't pronounce his name), the science teacher styled after Vincent Price.  There is a (mild spoiler) great scene in which the towns people/mob are gathered at a parent meeting to question whether this science stuff is healthy for their children.  They accuse him of being a monster (figurative, not literal, need to clarify for this movie), but they give him a chance to defend himself, and he basically calls them ignorant, small-minded, fools and proceeds to use cracking-head-open imagery to describe his teaching.  So he basically plays right into the town's preconceived prejudices about him, and I can't decide if he did that intentionally or not. Since I can't find the clip of the parent meeting, here's a clip of one of Mr. Rzykruski's science lessons, just so you can get a feel for his character. 

Frankenweenie is a great adapation of the Frankenstein story.  So go forth and watch it on Netflix or Amazon Prime or Redbox or wherever you watch things.

Review: Plagues, Pox, and Pestilence by Richard Plat

Plagues, Pox, and Pestilence--Richard Platt
Illustrated by John Kelly
October 2011 by Kingfisher
48 pages--Goodreads

A comprehensive history of disease and pestilence, told from the point of view of the bugs and pests that cause them. The book features case histories of specific epidemics, ‘eyewitness’ accounts from the rats, flies, ticks and creepy-crawlies who spread diseases, plus plenty of fascinating facts and figures on the biggest and worst afflictions. Illustrated throughout with brilliantly entertaining artworks and endearing characters, you’ll be entertained by a cabinet war room showing the war on germs, a rogues’ gallery highlighting the worst offenders, the very deadliest diseases examined under the microscope and much more.

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Plagues, Pox, and Pestilence is super fun and very informative.  It's surprising how much information they fit on 48 pages.  But the book never feels overloaded.  The layout is similar to Eyewitness books with one main topic per page-spread with chunks/paragraphs of supplemental information spread across the page-spread.   The book covers a few diseases in detail (plague, small pox, malaria) and glances over a few more.  I would have been interested to see more about the diseases skimmed over, such as Ebola and HIV.  I'll have to save that interest for another book.  The book also addresses how far we've come in the fight against disease as well as future threats, such as antibiotic resistant tuberculosis. 

The illustrations are a lot of fun.  It is very colorful, and the characters are quirky.  The rats and mosquitoes don't play a central role; they mostly just highlight the informational paragraphs.  

My only complaint is that the book is so thin, it can easily disappear on the bookshelf, but that's the price you pay for getting the paperback.  Aside from that, it's a great short informational text.

Review: The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens

The Emerald Atlas--John Stephens
January 2011 by Knopf Books for Young Readers
417 pages--Goodreads

Kate, Michael, and Emma have been in one orphanage after another for the last ten years, passed along like lost baggage.

Yet these unwanted children are more remarkable than they could possibly imagine. Ripped from their parents as babies, they are being protected from a horrible evil of devastating power, an evil they know nothing about.

Until now.

Before long, Kate, Michael, and Emma are on a journey through time to dangerous and secret corners of the world...a journey of allies and enemies, of magic and mayhem. And—if an ancient prophesy is correct—what they do can change history, and it is up to them to set things right.

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It is so satisfying to get a good book.  A book that you just like.  A book you like so well that you just can't help but love.  The Emerald Atlas was that book for me.  I loved it.  It's a sort of Harry Potter meets Narnia meets Series of Unfortunate Events without shamefully ripping from any of the series; it just uses the elements we love best out of them.  It does draw on the prophesied destiny of the chosen one(s) trope, but it only felt a little overdone in that sense.  The characters keep it from feeling tiresome.

The characters are absolutely fantastic.  Stephens captures the sibling dynamic between Kate, Michael, and Emma perfectly.  They bicker and fight and get on each other's nerves, but they love each other desperately.  Each sibling is unique.  Kate is the traditional protective oldest; Michael is the annoying bookworm; Emma is the feisty one.   And great characterization is not limited to the core cast; every character is memorable from the quirky wizard Dr. Pym to the slovenly and dwarf king Hamish.  Captain Robby and Gabriel are solidly honorable.  Each character is a delight to read about.

As an added bonus, the audio book is narrated by Jim Hale, the same guy who narrates the Harry Potter books.  He is an excellent reader, but his narration gave the book this weird semi-British, semi-American effect because it takes place in America, but there are dwarves and it's read by a Brit...

The novel is well paced, thought it may take a bit of time up front to get into it.  The climax is exciting and the ending satisfying.  There is a bit of bad guy monologuing from the Countess and some deus ex machina rescues via Dr. Pym, but as it is a middle grade fantasy, I'll excuse that.

It's just a solid, fun adventure and I'm eager to get my hands on book two.

Ancient Mars Capable of Supporting Life

Okay, so this isn't bookish news, but it's just too cool not to include.  NASA via the Curiosity Rover found evidence of an ancient environment on Mars that could have been capable of supporting life.  Watch this episode from Sci Show and Hank Green will explain it all.