on wizards, shape shifting, and the smell of magic (review)

~ Ms. P. ~ 1 Comment

img_3948I feel sympathy for every author who wants to write a fantasy about wizards in the post Harry Potter world. Talk about living up to high expectations.  Your wizard fantasy most likely will not end up as a destination at Disneyland. And what about the fear of comparison for your poor developing characters? There will never be another Hermione, no matter how anyone tries.

Against my better judgement I am going to start out a review of The Evil Wizard Smallbone with a comparison or six… because our view of wizards in training has been influenced. I need to clear the magical air on how Nick and Harry differ. Not every wizard lives in a broom cupboard.

Now that we’ve established that, I can tell you why a Potterhead liked this story of an American wizard living in Stephen King’s neck of the woods.  Evil WS has great character development,  it makes us root for the protagonist in dangerous plot twists, and I love a book where local dialect gets a showcase. Ayuh.

Must read moments…
The magical bookshop makes recommendations to the young wizard in training based on his need and ability. Books come out based on requested spells or information (sometimes reluctantly). An invisible but helpful librarian? Maybe I will be reincarnated as a bookshop? Fascinating.

Books themselves do not tolerate sloppy studying, bad words, or cheating. The pages of these magical books go blank for Nick if he doesn’t toe the line. Pretty impressive student management.

As Nick learns about magic he identifies spells by scent. Not a new idea (especially for fans of The Alchemyst), but a nice way to keep the reader predicting what turn the story will take when Nick is on the scent of a spell.

Nick discovers where the previous apprentices are…and decides to rescue them.

If you love magic, hate bad guys and always wondered what would happen if you were turned into a rat, this is a great read for around 3rd grade and up. If you are stuck on the idea of wizards in training in scholarly situations only, this fun fantasy will attempt to knock you off your train..er..broom…er thestral.

10 reasons everyone should go to a legofest at least once

~ Ms. P. ~ Leave a comment

img_3753The Lego Brickfest was in town this weekend, and though I really hate traffic, paying at a parking garage, and dodging cars on busy city streets,  I went.  Though I am a curmudgeonly traveler, this was a can’t miss event.

Brickfest is a great opportunity to show your littles that they are never too old to create something cool with tiny pieces of plastic that really hurt when stepped on. We had a blast and I would recommend it as a fun family learning opportunity.

10 reasons to attend a festival o’ legos

10.  There will be a sea of bricks to sit in. Or perhaps you can be adult and allow your child to sit in the midst of it instead of you wading in. Either way, totally cool experience you cannot replicate. Unless you are Oprah or something. How many blue bricks are in there?

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9. Geek networking. I talked shop with “lego instructors”. Yep, that’s a job. And they have all kinds of neat learning opportunities ready to teach all ages.

8. Build a lego car and RACE it. This could get all science-y with talk of velocity and streamlining, or you could just build the coolest car and not care if it wins.

7.  Everyone is pretty nice and they share. I don’t know if there were some competitive areas I missed but there were many places to build collaboratively and kids were very kind to each other. We did go at a down time instead of peak.

6. You do know those little lego kits are really hard to put together, right? For my way of thinking, if my kid wants to read those tedious directions and put together a lego speedboat he should get math credit or something.

5. Entertainment that involves eye-hand coordination, is indoors, and isn’t a contact sport. Those poor baseball moms who’ve been sitting outside for practices should be all over this.

4. Training for the lego challenges you are going to come up with.

3.  People who are crazy enough to make Lego masterpieces like a Van Gogh painting will display them. You can say you spent the weekend seeing “art” and sound very cultured!

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2. Brickfest is so big you should strap on that fitbit and get those steps in!  Wear sneakers, carry a water bottle, and a bring a snack keep up your strength. Wait until you tally those steps, you will feel like a track star.

And the #1 Reason to hit the brickfest is…

Guaranteed nap for everyone.  (Except moms, you never get one, right?)img_3752-e1501451965818.jpg

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rereading a wrinkle in time- you can’t time travel so you should get started now

~ Ms. P. ~ Leave a comment

You need to read A Wrinkle in Time again if it’s been a while. Why the urgency? The movie is coming, the movie is coming! I don’t mean to sound like a librarian-chicken-little, but seriously, this is a seminal work of fantasy and it’s coming to the big screen with BIG actors and special effects in March 2018. HOW CAN YOU NOT BE REREADING IT RIGHT NOW? I always try to reread a story before the movie to get the most out of seeing it. My friends and family may point out that this only makes me very annoying in the theater as I list major discrepancies (“Frodo would never say that to Sam!”* ).

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Admittedly the danger of reading it just before a film release will be that you will question casting choices. The three wise, elderly women of the novel will be played by younger women- but what women they are! Oprah, Mindy Kahling, and Reese Witherspoon? WOW.  Even Oprah is impressed.  They have dramatic and comedic credits,  important for the role of gentle aliens trying to recruit children to a dangerous crusade against evil. The character of the Happy Medium, a woman depicted on the cover of the 1980’s editions of the the book, will be played by Zach Galifianakis.  Slightly different than I pictured while reading but I am sure that a comedic break in the dangerous scenes will be fun for audiences.

As I reread A Wrinkle in Time I smiled at things that will seem so outdated to children today, but seemed quite normal to me as a child. Calvin has to use a landline to inform his parents where he is for dinner,  Mrs. Murray prefers a liverwurst sandwich, and dated jargon** in the dialogue will seem odd to some today.  Be prepared to define the word tramp very specificly. We don’t make cocoa on the stove and the modern ready packets never allow a “skin” to form on the top of your milk.  Thankfully, a female scientist as brilliant as Mrs. Murray will not seem unusual as it was when the book was published (also a Doctor Murray like her husband). Perhaps the reason L’Engle made the character a microbiologist and beautiful was to focus attention on the reality of women having both.  Her beauty also serves to highlight the protagonist Meg’s dissatisfaction with her own appearance and place in school. Every adolescent can identify the challenge of feeling accepted and fitting in. Meg’s irritation with “not belonging”  is one we can all relate to at some point in our lives. In fact, when Meg has nothing but trouble at school and with peers some of us feel like maybe we don’t have it quite so hard.  Even her anger at her father for failing to protect her brother is relatable to teens, who isn’t mad at their parents in middle school? While the book explains Meg’s anger very well as an effect of the Dark Thing’s influence the movie will have to make sure viewers understand she isn’t just a screaming brat, but damaged by her experience. 

This novel has resonated with readers across many generations, and like all beloved books will be a challenging one to portray in a movie.  The cast and writers seem to understand that, and I am a hopeful the film will honor the work’s best characters and scenes. I want to see Aunt Beast!  I can’t wait for the popcorn and the lights to roll! 

Covers I remember seeing (since I am old)…
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*I still stand by that one.

**My favorite out of date sayings included, “The whole thing smells!” I know this may be taken quite literally by today’s readers but Calvin just meant that it was a strange and fishy situation. Meg referring to a wandering homeless person as a “tramp” should be fun to explain. Meg’s “dreamboat“ eyes may also illicit some questions.