Pop Culture Yay

So I was waiting at the doctor’s office last week, and I texted Lindsay to say that I was glad I had Coraline on my iPod Touch to keep me occupied. And she was like, “How do you have it on your iPod? Is it a bootleg?” and I explained that no, I had this text-only version of Coraline with few pictures and no video, so you had to imagine the action unfolding in your head. It’s a version of the movie that I call a wordy head-movie. So I thought I would post about a few other wordy head-movies that I have played on my brain-projector recently:

1. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. I feel like I posted about this young adult book a long time ago, but I can’t find the post, so maybe I didn’t. I LOVE this book, and it’s currently on the NY Times bestseller list for children’s chapter books. It has a great premise and is well-written…it’s sad and suspenseful and an overall great read.

2. Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. This is another children’s book (middle grades), and it’s not new, but I hadn’t read it before I read it with my fifth graders this year. It’s a great example of a children’s book that can be enjoyed by adults: poignant scenes, memorable characters, layers of meaning…this is the first book that I’ve read with kids where they’ve asked if they can take the book home so their parents can read it.

3. Born Standing Up by Steve Martin. It’s no secret that Steve Martin is a very good writer. This memoir of his years as a stand-up comedian is a quick but worthwhile read. It made me want to listen to many of his early albums.

And of course,

It’s awesome. Read it ASAP so you can see the actual movie before it loses 3D screens to the Jonas Brothers. (Or, sorry, just “Jonas Brothers.” Because it’s way better to look pretentious than to have people erroneously stick a “the” before your “band” name.)

Posted on February 21st, 2009 by Melissa
Filed under: Uncategorized