Coraline Creators visit JPL

With all of the buzz following author, Neil Gaiman’s receipt on the 2009 Newberry Award for The Graveyard Book (check out this video tour) and the release of the motion picture adaptation of Coraline, it’s a good time to be a Neil Gaiman fan as new editions of his wildly popular, imaginative books  will surely follow.    Check out a few random things Caroline;  Wired Magazine blurb about Coraline in 3D which features a clip from the film,  Craft magazine article “Coraline brings Craft to the Big Screen” .  Don’t miss the local events listed below.

Though I certainly hold a close place in my heart for Coraline, my favorite Gaiman book is The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish.    For fans of Coraline, however, in case seeing the screen adaptation wasn’t thrilling enough, this month we have an incredible opportunity for you to meet two people who helped bring Gaiman’s nightmarish vision to life.

There will be two events:

Conversation with the Coraline Creators-  Saturday, April 25th  7pm @ Downtown Library

Coraline puppet creators Georgina Hayns and Mark Gaiero will discuss the making of the movie Coraline and their role as puppet creators for the animation.  

Caroline Workshop- Sunday, April 26th 1-5 pm @ Douglas Library

A 4-hour hands-on workshop making simple puppets, working with professional armatures and learning the basics of stop motion.  Film experience is suggested.  Registration is required as space is limited.  There will be a $10 materials fee.  To register contact JUMP at 586-3440 or email pat_at_jumpsociety_dot_org

Breaking Dawn may end the Twilight Saga

Shortly after the release of Breaking Dawn, the 4th book in the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer, the 5th book, Midnight Sun, which is still in the editing process, was leaked on the web.  Much to the dismay of her fans who eagerly awaited the release of Breaking Dawn making it #1 on Amazon for weeks leading up to the big day, because of the leak, Meyer appears to be considering ending the series with Breaking Dawn.  Read more here, or get the lowdown from the author’s site, here.

Metamorphosis Summer Reading Reviews

Juneau Teens participating in the Metamorphosis Summer Reading Program have been busy writing reviews of their summer favorites. Here are a few for those young readers who just can’t find anything good to read this summer.

____________________________

The Titans Curse by Rick Riordan. Atlas, the ancient Greek Titan, escapes from holding up the sky and leads a revolution of monsters against the Olympians. Percy Jackson, our modern day Greek hero, stops him by tricking him into going back to holding up the sky. It wasn’t quite as good as “The Lightning Thief.”

_____________________________

With Their Eyes September 11th–The View from a High School at Ground Zero by Annie Thoms. September 11th, 2001. People say it’s a day they’ll never forget, but how often do you really THINK about it? Not as much as these teens are forced to, after witnessing firsthand the terrorist attacks, just a few days into the school year. These are the monologues of Stuyvesant High School.

___________________________

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by Steig, William. A donkey was in the rain. He wanted to go. Hey! It stopped raining! Then it starts raining. The thunder goes, “Boom! Boom! Boom!” Then it stopped and a lion went, “Raaaarrrhh!” The donkey is a rock. He was not there. They could not find him. The donkey is still a rock. Then he turned into a donkey. They are happy and go to sleep.

Check back in later in the week for more Metamorphosis reviews….

Flight

Just got my hands on the latest Alexie book, his first YA book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and can’t wait to find a few hours to loose myself in Alexie’s worlds. But I realized I never posted my review of his last book, which I thought could have also been a YA book.

Flight by Sherman Alexie wow, what a page turner. Alexie’s protaganist, a fifteen year-old who asks the reader to “call me Zits, everyone does” finds himself transported through time at the moment he is about to commit a terrible act of violence. Landing at integral points throughout history like Red River, Idaho, the Battle of Little Big Horn, the evening before a U.S. calvary led slaughter of an Indian camp, in an airplane cockpit with a terrorist and as a drunk old Indian man in Seattle trying his best to die. Not for the faint of heart, this book’s magical moments are buried deep beneath layers of the pain and neglect that goes hand in hand with the historical treatment of Native Americans in the United States. Like Alexie’s other works, you will laugh and you will question yourself because of your laughter, but in the end you will be glad you picked this book up.

Reviewed by: Jonas