It's Too Close to Call

This is part 3 of my Based on the Book series. First I talked about 4 books that I thought were superior to their movie counterparts and then last week I shared 2 movies that I liked better than the original books. 

Today I move into gray area.  I want to discuss books and movies that are so good I can't pick a favorite.  The three that stand out to me are all classic books, but their movie counterparts are also excellent.  Maybe the movies aren't quite the same caliber, but I love them anyway because they hold their own without greatly compromising the integrity of the books.

The discussion is the fun part. I want to hear your opinion, too.  Do you agree with my choices? What books or movies hold a soft spot in your heart?

Too Close to Call
{All book and movie titles are Amazon affiliate links.}

The one that quickly comes to mind is Anne of Green Gablesby L. M. Montgomery.  I fell in love with the movies first.  I can't even begin to imagine how many times I've seen them. When I was in highschool I invited a few friends  over and we had an all-day Anne movie marathon.  When I was gifted the entire Anne series of books as a teenager, the books became some of my all-time favorites.  Obviously, the books have far more detail and they go beyond the timeline of the movies, but it is hard to discount the near-perfect performance of Megan Follows in the movie series.  She is Anne Shirley.

Many people may disagree with my second pick.   For years, another of my favorite books has been Little Womenby Louisa May Alcott.  I've seen several movie adaptations, but nothing compares to the 2000 versionstarring Winona Ryder. A 2-hour movie cannot include every detail of a 500+ page book, but I loved that the movie incorporated much the book's dialogue.



I'm really taken with Sherlock Holmesby Sir Arthur Conan Doyle right now.  I've read 1 of his full-length novels and 3 of his short-story collections and I plan to read more. I also have a slight obsession with all 3 seasons of the BBC's Sherlock series, though after the original episode, none of the following 8 have been able to top it. I also love both  Sherlock Holmes moviesstarring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. I have a difficult time rewatching movies, but these movies are so mentally fast paced that I discover something new each time.

An odd little tidbit: when I read the Sherlock Holmes books, I picture Benedict Cumberbatch (from the BBC series) as Sherlock Holmes, but I imagine Jude Law (from the movies) as Dr. Watson.

How about you?  Can you think of a book-movie combo that you like equally?

Come back next week for a book review.  I saw the movie years ago, but only got around to reading the book this month. 

This and That

It has been a long, cold, snowy, windy winter.  The weather has not been conducive to much playing or working outside.  It's not been ideal for half-marathon training either!  I stretched the borders of my comfort zone throughout January and February-- often running in the cold and wind, and even in rain and sleet.

Tomorrow is the first day of spring, but this was our scene on Monday afternoon. 

Kind of reminiscent of the beginning of last spring.   To be fair, last weekend was gorgeous.  We spent most of Saturday outside.  I ran 11 miles {!}. Then the kids made kites out of garbage bags and flew them in the front yard while Brian and I put up a small fence at the entrance of our driveway.  Two days later, the mercury plummeted and we had 4 inches of snow.

Brian stayed home from work because of the weather so I used the snow day to do a little baking for the week.  I made a batch of sourdough bread for the freezer, a dozen banana crumb muffins for weekday breakfasts, a loaf of egg bread in the bread machine for sandwiches, and a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (some for the freezer and some for eating warm from the oven). 

I also experimented this week with a slow-cooker rice pudding that uses coconut milk.  It had a delicious coconut undertones, but the rice absorbed too much of the liquid. I prefer a creamier pudding. My other kitchen experiment was making hard-"boiled" eggs in the oven.  I eat an egg every morning with my breakfast and I thought this might be an easier method, but I found the baked eggs harder to peel. 

Temperatures promise to be in the 60s again by the weekend, but in the meantime, we are bringing touches of spring to the inside of our house.

Our van is the repair shop so we are using that as an excuse to stay home for few days.  The kids have been asking to play with the Kool-aid Play-Doh again. 

They like its bright color, but they like even more than it smells like cherries. I need to try making another batch with a different flavor/color of Kool-aid, too.

I'm not sure what to do with my at-home time. Maybe I'll do some spring cleaning...or maybe I'll just settle for vacuuming the Play-Doh crumbs out of the carpet. A little readingsounds more appealing. 

Art for Little Hands

Benjamin is five, and like many boys his age, he is not entirely comfortable holding a pencil.   Forming letters is a cumbersome, painstaking process. He likes to color and draw pictures but only if he can do it his way.  If a workbook requires him to write the number 2 or color the tree green, he sighs.  I didn't plan art program for him in school this year because I thought he would resist, but he feels left out when the older kids get creative with their art books once a week. 

One day on a whim, I pulled out Ed Emberley's Great Thumbprint Drawing Book(affiliate link) and asked Ben if he would like to give it a try. 

The book is designed for young elementary age children, and I'm finding that it challenges Ben without frustrating him.  I start by giving him an ink pad and asking him to make 4-5 (or 10) thumbprints on his sheet of paper.  He always wants to wash off the ink immediately so while he is gone, I put away the ink and open the book. 

I  select something for Ben to try-- a pirate or a cat, maybe-- and then he follows the very basic, very simple step-by-step directions for turning his thumbprints into works of  art. 

Sometimes we stop at 1 design, but often, Ben will ask to try another.  Man with glasses was a recent favorite, as was man with a monocle!  Not only is he working on his fine motor skills, but he is also learning to pay attention to detail and follow directions to achieve a final result. 

We were given our copy of the book, but it is available at many libraries or for purchase inexpensively on Amazon.

For a slightly more advanced art book, Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Animals(affiliate link) is an alternative choice.  I borrowed it last week from the library for Owen, my second grader.  While most how-to-draw-type books are still too advanced for him, he spent an hour with this book covering a page with his doodles. It is currently less than $4 on Amazon!

More Half-Marathon Talk

One of my goals for the year is to run a half-marathon.  I talked last week about some of the things I'm learning while training to run the race. I hesitate to ramble on about running because I'm afraid I'll bore my readers who stop in here to read about books, homeschooling, and my kids.  However, I've been getting questions from friends here in blogland and other friends in real life so I want to do a question-and-answer to cover the basics. 

If you have a question I missed, let me know and I can address it in another post or in the comments. And if reading about running is not your thing, I'll be talking about my kindergartener's favorite art book on Monday.

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How long is a half-marathon?  A full marathon is 26.2 miles so a half-marathon is 13.1 miles.

Do you have to run the whole thing or can you stop to walk?  My goal is to run the entire course (with the exception of water stations), but I am free to walk as often as I need to. There is a 3 hour, 15 minute time limit on the race which I can accomplish even if I need to take extra breaks.

What is the farthest you've run? My longest run to date is 10.2 miles.  Several weeks before the half-marathon, I'll do my final long run of about 12-13 miles.  It is said that if are able to run 11 miles in training, you can run 13 miles on race day. 

Will you be able to eat or drink during the run? There will be aid stations along the course with water, sports drinks, and sports gels.  I will stop for water, but I plan to bring my own mid-run fuel since that is what my body is used to.  I've found that pitted dates keep me from hitting the proverbial wall.  I eat one at mile 4 and then continue eating one every 1-2 miles until I'm finished.  At the post race party, every runner is given a plate of  "recovery" food, high in carbs and protein. 

What do you eat after you run to maintain your energy?  I learned the hard way that I need to eat right away after I run.  I keep a container of power balls  in the refrigerator for quick fuel after a run.  I've tried other recipes, but this one has a delicious blend of  oats, peanut butter, coconut, flax seed, honey, and chocolate chips.

I've read that chocolate milk is an ideal post-run snack because it contains the perfect ratio of carbs to protein.  Brian loves it after he works out, but I'm a diva and prefer peanut butter hot chocolate instead.  It still has milk and chocolate, but kicks it up a notch with peanut butter, too.

Other things I eat pre- and post-run are cottage cheese with banana or pineapple, sourdough toast, hard-boiled eggs, oranges, or oatmeal.  

How can you run with bruised toes and a black toenail? I curl the toes on my left foot when I run and it has resulted in several blood blisters and a black toenail.  It is not nearly as painful as it sounds. My toes were sore for a few weeks, but never near excruciating.  Once I realized what I was doing, I made a conscious effort not to do it and aside from waiting for my black toenail to grow out, I'm all healed.  In the meantime, I keep purple polish on my toes to disguise the ickiness. 

Will you ever run a full marathon? I've been asked this question multiple times, most recently by my husband yesterday.  (I think he was hesitant to hear my answer.)  When I first started running, I couldn't run even half a mile without gasping for breath so the idea of a marathon was ludicrous. Now that I am training for a half-marathon, a marathon does not seem so far out of my grasp.  The reality of it, though, is that training takes significant time and effort.  I'm choosing to make it a priority right now, but when the race is over, Brian will be in his busiest season at work.  I am looking forward to dialing down the intensity on my running and spending extra time with my kids and on other hobbies.  Maybe plan for a marathon in fall 2015? Maybe.

The Movie Was Better

Last Monday, I talked about 4 books that I thought were superior to their movie counterparts.  Now I want to point out 2 movies that I liked more than the books on which they were based!  It doesn't happen often because it is hard to improve upon the depth of the written word and movies rarely live up to our imaginations.  Sometimes, though, filmmakers have that special touch.  I suspect that in most instances, I only like the movie better if had issues with the book that I thought were improved by the movie.

I'd love to hear your opinions, too.  Have you seen a movie that you liked better than the book?

The Movie Was Better

{All book titles are Amazon affiliate links.}

I had heard people rave about The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.  In fact, the day I checked it out from the library, one of the librarians swooned over it!    It was an easy and captivating read of a young girl who lives with a foster family in Nazi Germany.  I dove into the story right away and flew through the pages. However, I kept waiting for excellency... and I kept waiting.  I kept waiting for something to stand out as the purpose of the book. 

By the time I finished, I was disappointed.  It felt like the story wandered on, building up momentum and then deflating, building again and yet going nowhere.  Even the ending, while emotional, didn't seem to have a point. 

I was interested enough to see the movie anyway.  I went to the theater with a friend who had also read the book.  We both agreed the the movie stuck closely to the plot of the book.  Most of the characters were the same and the plot points weren't greatly altered, plus it kept the original ending.  Already knowing the story going into the movie, I actually liked the movie better.  I still feel the same way about the story-- meh-- but the movie left a better taste in my mouth.

Unlike The Book Thief, I saw the movie of Mary Poppins long before I read the book by  P. L. Travers.  I have happy memories of watching the movie as a child and humming "Supercalifragalisticexpialadocious" and "Spoonful of Sugar."  I remember learning about women's suffrage for the first time and watching the chimney sweeps dance on the rooftops. 

When reading the book as an adult, I was disappointed.  The Mary Poppins of the book is nothing like her movie version.  She is grumpy and smug, and the book has an overall dark feel. Though I know the author intended her written description to be the true Mary Poppins and the idea of a bubbly, musical Disney imagining was not her cup of tea, I am partial to the movie version.

How about you?  Can you think of any movie you liked better than the book?

Come back next week when we discuss book and movie counterparts that are too close to call.

Reading to a 3-Year-Old

One of the downsides of having older kids is that I don't get to read as many picture books.  I still read plenty, but the selections on our coffee table and book baskets skew more towards chapter books, Lego encyclopedias, and history books for school.   

Alaine is my saving grace and I'm entirely immersing myself in her selections these days.  (Confession: I'll take Library Mouseany day overEleanor of Aquitaine and the High Middle Ages!)

Owen, my 7-year-old, was straightening his bedroom book shelves and told me he had outgrown his beloved Little Bear book. ~sniff~  I, however, don't plan to outgrow Little Bear so I brought the book out to the living room to read with Alaine.  Our copy is a compilation of 3 books (Little Bear, Father Bear Comes Home, and A Kiss For Little Bear) called Adventures of Little Bear.  We approached it like a chapter book, reading one short story at at time. Our winter weather wants to hold on a few extra weeks this year so we cuddled on the couch with a blanket and read about Little Bear and his friends Duck, Hen, and Cat. 

When we finished Little Bear, Alaine went to her own shelf and asked if we could read Sleepytime Tales next.  It is also a compilation of stories so we're reading one at a time, though Alaine often asks to read "just one more" so sometimes we end up reading two stories.   I won't mention any names, but a certain 7-year-old (the same one who has outgrown Little Bear) was all ears as I read last night's selection, The Color Kittens.

We are huge Cynthia Rylant fans in our house so Alaine and I can't get enough of her new series for toddlers and preschoolers, the Brownie and Pearl series.  Brownie is a little girl and Pearl is her cat.   The two have everyday experiences doing ordinary things and yet the books are perfect. They are short but never annoying.

Even when my voice has hit the reading limit for the day, the goodness continues.  Alaine is enjoying The Mercy Watson Collection(on audio book) by Kate DiCamillo every night at bedtime.

Mercy Watson is a pig living with an elderly couple who treats her like their baby.  They feed her hot buttered toast and let her sleep with them in bed when she gets scared. The books are a silly combination of humor and adventure.  Mercy is always finding herself in the middle of some catastrophe that needs attending.  Her arch nemesis comes in the form of a grouchy neighbor who does not approve of house-dwelling pigs. 

Kate DiCamillo is the author of books for older children, too, like Because of Winn Dixie and The Tale of Desperaux, but this series is geared toward a preschool and early elementary audience.

Do you still read picture books to your kids? Do you have a favorite? Any new discoveries?

Based on the Book

Last spring, I had a blast with my informal Book Talk series.  Not only was it fun to discuss reading quirks and choosing books to read to kids  or when to quit a book, but I also looked forward to the discussion in the comments.  This month, I'm starting another fun, easygoing series about books and movies. 

The book is always better than the movie version, right?!  Well, not always.  In this series, I will discuss books that I thought were superior to the movie knock-offs and books that fell short of the movies they inspired.  We'll even talk about instances when both the book and the movie were excellent...and books to read in anticipation of movies coming out this year! I hope you'll join in with your opinion, too. 

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There are endless possibilities when discussing books that were made into movies.  I started making a list and never came to the end of my brainstorming.  Today, I want to discuss 4 great books that fell short in movie form.

The Book Was Better

{All book titles are Amazon affiliate links.} 

The movie version of  The Wizard of Ozby L. Frank Baum is a classic, but until I read the book to my kids last year, I had no idea how much the two differed.  The book was full of witty dialog, plus the story arc is longer and more complicated and there are lands outside of Oz to explore.  The Wicked Witch only earns a short mention, but there are other villains to watch out for, too. The basic premise of the story stays the same, but the ending is entirely different, and forget the part about the Lion, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow being farmhands.  It's not in the book.  

Plenty of movies alter the plot of the book, but when we watched the movie again after the reading the book, none of us were impressed. 

 

I read  Holesby Louis Sachar on a whim and was totally sucked in.  I couldn't put it down because the story was so intriguing and I needed to know what was going to happen at the end.  I expected to enjoy the movie, too, but got bored before an hour had passed. 

In the movie's defense, Brian never read the book and he thought the movie was really good.  Maybe it's because the movie stuck closely to the book and since I already knew what was going to happen, I felt like I was wasting my time.  {I'm kind of like that.  I get bored or fall asleep if I don't do something-- laundry, mending, snacking (ha!)-- while watching TV!}

I realize I'm saying I didn't like the movie The Wizard of Oz because it varied too much from the book and I didn't like the movie Holes because it was so similar to the book that the was nothing new to keep my interest.  I realize that, but  this is all about opinions, right?!

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella might be a poor choice for discussion because the book was not excellent.  It was fluffy chick-lit and not great literature. However, it was a lot of fun to read and yet the movie version was sort of blah.  I watched the movie before I read the book and was not impressed.  I watched it again after I read the book, thinking I would enjoy it since I knew the characters better.  I still wasn't impressed.

The Helpby Kathryn Stockett is probably another poor choice because I actually thought the movie was superb.  Still, the book was even better.  In fact, it is one of the best books I've ever read.  I've heard the book criticized for rambling.  I've also heard it criticized for the fact that a white female author wrote the story in a vernacular of a black female housemaid.  For me, it all worked perfectly.  I may have been intimidated by the thickness of the book, but that was until I cracked it open and was captured by the characters and their daily life.  I wish the movie hadn't altered a few minor plot points, but overall, I was happy that the filmmakers maintained the integrity of the story. 

Let's start the discussion!  What books did you like better better than their movie counterparts?

And don't miss it week when we'll talk about instances when the movie was better!