Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

I have a deep dark secret. It's so against "the way things should be" that sometimes I feel like I must be a bad children's librarian for feeling this way. But I think it's time to come clean with my readers.

I do not love Harry Potter.

You may be wondering: How on Earth can this be? It's fantasy, and you love fantasy! And for crying out loud, it's Harry Potter! Everyone loves Harry Potter!

Yes, all of that is true. And it's not that I hate Harry Potter. I read and enjoyed the entire series, and the first three books are actually quite brilliant. But somewhere along the way I feel like J.K. Rowling stopped putting together an awesome series and started writing her own fan fiction. I truly think that the latter books in the series could have been edited down to a solid 500 pages or less rather than the 800+ pages they currently require. And when the books stopped being about Quiddich and Harry's schoolwork and started focusing more on fighting Voldemort, well I really just started to miss the happy, magical haven that Hogwarts had been.

More specifically, I really actively dislike the fifth book in the series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. This particular book has a few major problems of its own. In this volume we basically transition from the younger, happier Harry to the older, darker, and more dangerous version. And that's really all it is: 800+ pages of transition as Harry deals with his grief and frustration. Harry spends a lot of time whining about how everything is so awful and while his reaction is honestly very normal for someone in his situation it doesn't make for very interesting reading. And don't get me started on the obnoxious convention in YA lit used here to simply leave the main character in the dark about what is really going on. So annoying.

Because I hated this book so much I absolutely refused to see the 2007 film version when it was released. But this weekend it happened to be showing on cable and I didn't have anything better to do, so I finally caved and gave it a shot. And I have to say, I was much more impressed with the movie than I expected to be. A lot of the details from the book were glossed over due to time constraints, but in the case of a this sort of plot this was actually a good thing. I give actor Daniel Radcliffe and the movie's writing team a lot of credit for making Harry seem legitimately angry and confused rather than selfish and whiny. There is quite a bit going on visually in this movie, and the climatic scene in the Department of Mysteries was especially interesting to watch. The movie still isn't perfect and - let's face it - it's still all transitional material. But I can honestly say that this is one of the few cases I've seen where the movie was better than the book.

Overall Grade for the Book: C
Overall Grade for the Movie: B
Book-to-Movie Adaptation: B+

Beat the Band

Cooper, Matt, and Sean are eager to start their sophomore year of high school with a bang. Well, Cooper is anyway. He's sure that he is going to be a big hit with the ladies. Unfortunately, the first day of health class changes everything when he is partnered with social outcast "Hot Dog" Helen for their semester-long project on safe sex. Cooper knows that he's going to have to do something big to overcome the stigma that comes from working with Helen - something like winning the school's Battle of the Bands with Matt and Sean. The only problem? Their band is really bad...

Beat the Band is the sequel to author Don Calame's 2009 gem Swim the Fly, and this follow-up is just as much fun as the first. This time we get the story from Cooper's perspective, which is actually a lot of fun. Cooper is the kind of wacky, irreverent character who usually makes an entertaining sidekick to the main attraction as we saw in Swim the Fly (which was narrated by Matt's character). With this book narrated from his point of view we really get inside his head with no apologies and no justification for his behavior. But what we do get is the opportunity to see his funny-man of the group really develop in to a fully three-dimensional character, and I give Calame a lot of credit for fleshing him out without loosing any of his ridiculous charm. Like its predecessor, Beat the Band is a light and funny but impressively complex story that is sure to please.

Overall Grade: A-

And further good news: Don Calame has plans to write a third chapter in this series, this time narrated from Sean's point of view. This installment is tentatively titled Call the Shots and will be out Fall 2012.

Wearing My Book

I have one last moment from the Dr. Seuss party that must be shared.

Not too long ago, one of my dear friends and former co-workers gave me a delightful gift in the form of this t-shirt:



Isn't it awesome? I decided that the Dr. Seuss party was the perfect time to wear the shirt to work, so wear it I did. In the fifteen minutes before the party as families started to trickle in, one little girl - clearly very excited about the whole thing - came up to me and said the following:

"Hi!!! I'm Ellie! *big eyes* You're...you're wearing...you're wearing my book!!!!"

Too cute.

Dr. Seuss Party

Dr. Seuss is one of the most recognizable names in the children's book world, even 40+ years after the publication of some of his best-known books. Schools and libraries across America celebrated this beloved author's birthday this week as a part of the NEA's Read Across America initiative.

We decided to throw a birthday party for Dr. Seuss at the library. We started off by watching the animated version of Dr. Seuss' environmental story, The Lorax. This film was about 25 minutes long and was a good way to occupy our party guests while staff set up the rest of the party. NOTE: My library has a movie license which allows us to show films like this to the public. Don't try this in your library without a license!

After the movie families were invited to participate in a number of fun activities. We had lot of birthday cake and juice to enjoy:



Doesn't it look yummy? And only two cake spills on the floor all night. Huzzah!

There was a craft project for kids to work on as well. We made clovers out of pom-poms and pipe cleaners with a speck for the Whos to live on, as seen in Horton Hears a Who. This was a fairly simple craft - no cutting, no drawing, just two drops of glue. We did use tacky glue for its extra strength which required some grown-up help to keep the glue under control. We also put out several coloring and activity sheets, all of which were found at the official Dr. Seuss website. Seussville.com is a great resource for anyone planning a special Dr. Seuss event, and has lots of online games and activities for anyone who simply wants to have fun exploring the world of Dr. Seuss.

We planned three party games for kids to enjoy too. First was a fishing game based on One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. I made eight fish out of paper, two each to represent the titular fish, and attached a magnet to each. We put the fish in a "pond" (in this case, a large plastic bin) and then let the kids go fishing. We made a pole out of a wooden dowel, duct tape for the handle, some yarn, and another magnet. One pleasant surprise of the evening came when one of the older kids, who was having a blast with the fishing game, took the time to teach one of the younger kids how to properly hold the fishing pole with the tip in the air so that the string would hang down. He was very patient and the whole incident was so sweet.

The next game was perfect for the youngest kids in attendance - the Yertle the Turtle stacking game! Based on the book of the same name, this game recreates the story of how Yertle forced all of the turtles to stand on each other's backs while he sat on top, king of all that he could see. We covered four boxes of different sizes in colored paper, and then attached images of the turtles from the story to each box. Kids could then try to stack all of the boxes on top of each other. They seemed to have a lot of fun making towers of turtles and then taking the tower apart again. Amazingly enough, we didn't have a single incident where the tower was knocked over in a violent fashion!

Our last game, which came from the Seussville website, was a big hit as well. We played a version of pin the tail on the donkey based on Green Eggs and Ham. We printed and enlarged the image of the platter with ham, and then laminated the poster. Next I made some green eggs out of construction paper. These were also laminated. We then blindfolded the kids, spun them around, and they tried to stick the green eggs on the platter. The laminate meant that would could keep putting reuse the eggs and the poster since the tape would easily peel off of the pieces without damaging them.

Of course, none of the fun and games happen if it weren't for Dr. Seuss' books. I set aside a few of his books just for this party and put them out on a table for everyone to enjoy.



All in all, the party was a great success! We had lots of activities for the kids to do, but none of them were terribly difficult to create. Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun, and I'd love to do a party like this again next year.

At the party there were several moments where I was reminded why we plan programs like this for families. There was the moment described above where the older child mentored a younger child at the fishing game. There were lots of sweet moments where parents had kids in their laps as they curled up with a Dr. Seuss book. (Book appreciation! A literacy skill!) And there was the time when I overheard a parent comment to another that they had never been to the library before and would maybe have to start coming back. There are so many good reasons to plan awesome program like this. There is only one question left to answer: What do I plan next?

Emma Dilemma: Big Sister Poems

Jessica's little sister, Emma, is quite a handful. Sometimes she is sweet and caring, and sometimes she can be a royal pain the neck. Sometimes Jessica has lots of patience with Emma, and sometimes she looses her temper. In 34 powerful poems author Kristine O'Connell George presents sisterhood is all of its glory. Rivalry, compromise, privacy, love, and more are all presented as readers explore Jessica's complicated relationship with her little sister. The poems culminate at the end in an incident that, while difficult for both Jessica and Emma, will bring the two sisters together in a very touching way.

This is a very sweet book that really explores sisterhood from all angles - the good, the bad, and everything in the between. But no matter how bad things get, it is clear that these sisters will care about each other through thick and thin. The poems are simple yet surprisingly resonant and the story that connects the individual poems helps to make this poetry approachable and accessible to readers who didn't necessarily know that they were looking for poetry. Illustrator Nancy Carpenter's illustrations really brings the Jessica and Emma's story together, capturing the girls' expressions expertly with colors that perfectly suit the mood of this sweet book.

Overall Grade: A