From: Ginny Moore Kruse <gmkruse>
Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 14:46:01 -0500

I'd be rereading "Millions" by Frank Cottrell Boyce (U.S. ed: HarperCollins, 2004) myself if I hadn't already given it to my granddaughter.
  Film critic Roger Ebert is correct. He claims that the film "Millions" is one of the best of the year, and I agree. It's enjoyable for adults as well as for children. The film certainly warrants the praise & attendance it's been getting in this country. There's so much to enjoy in the film "Millions." It remains to be seen whether or not it will ever assume the popularity of the film adaptation of "Holes." Who knows more about the book's publication history? Was it published in the U.K. and then made into a film, or was the book written to accompany the film or as an afterthought to the film?
  Our six-year-old grandson was wiggly during the movie, and he needed his mother's lap even though he rarely took his eyes off the screen. As we left the theater, he announced loudly to everyone waiting in line to get in, "That was a really good movie!" Apparently he could have used a translator for some of the dialect! He's probably a tad young for the film, but on the other hand...
  I laughed out loud many times while seeing "Millions." For example I got a kick out of St. Francis advising the Damian & Anthony about a possible second good deed: "Find a leper," which was a direct reference to Damian's name, I think, because there once was a real Father Damien who was a missionary to people in Hawaii with leprosy. That, and so much more, was so clever.
  Thinking of books being adapted to films caused me at that instant to free-associate with "Howl's Moving Castle" by Diana Wynne Jones (U.S. ed: Greenwillow, 1986) which has been adapted in Japan by Hayao Miyazaki into what has become a very successful film there. The film will be released in the U.S. sometime later this year. Note to self: Find time this summer to reread "Howl's Moving Castle."
  I just finished reading two stunning novels published for adults:
"Small Island" by Andrea Levy and "Case Histories" by Kate Atkinson. Both were first published in England.
  So far "The Game of Silence" by Louise Erdrich (HarperCollins) is at the top of my list of new "bests" for children. So are "Oscar's Half Birthday" by Bob Graham (U.S. ed: Candlewick); "White Is for Blueberry" by George Shannon & Laura Dronzek (Greenwillow); "A Wreath for Emmett Till" by Marilyn Nelson & Philippe Lardy (Houghton Mifflin); "Poems to Dream Together / Poemas para So?ar Juntos" by Francisco X. Alarc?n & Paula Barrag?n (Lee & Low) - and many others, as well!
 Cheers, Ginny
 
 
 

Ginny Moore Kruse gmkruse at education.wisc.edu
Received on Wed 11 May 2005 02:46:01 PM CDT