DLC match #9: Disney vs. Titus

Disney Literature Challenge:

BASIL OF BAKER STREET

by Eve Titus

Just when I'd become accustomed to berating Walt Disney for draining the delicacy out of the finer characters of children's literature, along comes Basil of Baker Street.

In Eve Titus, Disney's animators found an author who was no slouch at mapping out a tight, straightforward story. And then they proceeded to invent a plot of their own. Okey-dokey, then. Moving on.

But Titus's characters, however endearing in their mousiness, aren't much more than servants to the plot - perhaps an unfair criticism in a mystery series geared toward lower el reader, but for once, Disney took the opportunity to expand on those personalities instead of stripping them down. So while both versions of the rodent detective have equal sleuthing abilities, Disney's Basil doesn't just sweetly emulate Sherlock Holmes, he's cast in the same mold as his human counterpart, right down to his ego, moodiness, and disdain for social niceties. Yet the folks at Disney managed to squeeze some emotional growth into the little hard-nose, accentuated by the charm of the supporting cast.

And if that's not enough to sway you, consider that the movie boasts the voice talent of Mr. Vincent Price as the villain Rattigan. Case closed.

Verdict:
DISNEY

Score:
Disney - 5
Authors - 5

********************

Currently re-reading:

Dandelion Wine
by Ray Bradbury

Autumn re-reads

In the last week, I have dusted and/or washed every accessible inch of my personal living space. Which means that I've handled every one of my 751 books. Consequently, I've gotten the itch to revisit some stories that have strayed dangerously close to the edges of my radar. The list, more or less in order of shelf-position:

The Moorchild, by Eloise McGraw

Spitting Image, by Shutta Crum

Wise Child, by Monica Furlong

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, by Robert C. O'Brien

East, by Edith Pattou

Beauty, by Robin McKinley

Elske, by Cynthia Voigt

A Curse Dark As Gold, by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Larger-Than-Life Lara, by Dandi Daley Mackall

Aurora County All-Stars, by Deborah Wiles

Dandelion Wine, by Ray Bradbury

Heavy on the fantasy, for whatever reason.

And you? Any old favorites you'd like to cozy up with this fall?

********************

Currently re-reading:

Wise Child

by Monica Furlong

State of the TBR pile

Finished:

Princess of the Midnight Ball, by Jessica Day George

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll

Alice Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll

Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery (audio)

Next:

Pollyanna, by Eleanor H. Porter

Wise Child, by Monica Furlong

The Moorchild, by Eloise McGraw

Dandelion Wine, by Ray Bradbury

How silly is this?

I have read all five of these super books:

Once Was Lost, by Sara Zarr

A Season of Gifts, by Richard Peck

Fire, by Kristin Cashore

Forest Born, by Shannon Hale

Stitches, by David Small

And I further have ARCs of all five of these super books sitting on a shelf not three feet from me right this very minute.

Yet Pooh's Corner has just called to tell me that the real-live hardcovers editions I've ordered are all in stock and will be shipped Monday, and I'm so excited I need to bounce a little. *bookswoon*

****************

Currently reading:

Here's How I See It,
Here's How It Is
by Heather Henson

Poetry Friday

Some nights stay up till dawn,

as the moon sometimes does for the sun.

Be a full bucket pulled up the dark way

of a well, then lifted out into the light.

~Rumi

*****************

Currently reading:

Alice Through the Looking Glass

by Lewis Carroll

DLC match #8: Disney vs. White

Disney Literature Challenge:

THE SWORD IN THE STONE

by T.H. White

I fully expected to find that Disney had massacred the Arthurian legend, what with dancing sugar bowls, wizards' duels, and snarky talking owls. In fact, White's version is a bit ambly, but not so different from the movie as I'd expected. Turns out Merlin's bungling habits and outlandish references to modern culture and conveniences are the author's invention, not Uncle Walt's - right down to "Blow me to Bermuda!" Although as usual, Disney's guilty of assembling his characters out of those quirks and eccentricities and little else; these aren't characters so much as caricatures of the personalities White created.

What you gain from White's subtler character nuances, however, you lose in pacing, and now and then the dialect gets thick enough to stumble over. So truth be told, even though the book is superior, I personally enjoyed the movie more.

Verdict:
WHITE

Score:
Disney - 4
Authors - 5

Отлично!

Behold, Long Awaited Russian Book #2 -- a full 5 weeks ahead of schedule!

Not only is it rare as heck (original 1927 print run: 1,000 copies) but it's also the cutest little dang thing. Just the right size to cradle half-open in one reverent palm - so as not to break the binding, of course.

THE ROCK AND THE RIVER, by Kekla Magoon

THE ROCK AND THE RIVER

by Kekla Magoon

(Aladdin/Simon & Schuster)

Say it with me: Kekla Magoon. Kekla Magoon. Now when you hear someone mention this ground-breaking debut novelist, you won't make a huh-face like I did. (Same thing happened to me the first time I was told to read 'Pinkensay.' Um, that'd be Pink and Say.) Trust me, when something like this comes along, you don't want to be the last nitwit standing.

Promise not to laugh? Just about everything I knew about the Blank Panther Party prior to this novel came from a 30-second clip in Forrest Gump. So while I've yet again managed to inexplicably dodge the emotional clutches of a powerful story*, I can't miss the significance of what Magoon's done here. Because the Civil Rights Movement is getting to be a stereotype of its own in children's lit: solid, united people marching steadily toward righteousness. Usually singing. Enter Kekla Magoon, who's got the moxy to show the tension and conflict within the Movement itself, and the talent to do it with a subtlety. Don't you dare be confusing subtle with boring though - believe me, when your father's on a first-name basis with MLK Jr. and your brother's climbing out your bedroom window to meet with the Black Panthers, there's going to be some fireworks. The finale just might knock you sideways.

*Honestly, this is the fourth book in just over a week that's lit hardly a flicker in my emotional fuse box. The heck?

******************

Currently reading:

Princess of the Midnight Ball
by Jessica Day George

State of the TBR pile

Finished:

A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett (audio)

The Sword in the Stone, by T.H. White

Basil of Baker Street, by Eve Titus

Next week:

Princess of the Midnight Ball, by Jessica Day George

The Black Cauldron, by Lloyd Alexander

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll

Alice Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll

A big sister for the Wendy House

In the backyard of the house where I'm dog-sitting:

And inside, there's this cute little fireplace/oven, which makes me think oh-so-wickedly of Hansel and Gretel...

*********************
Currently reading:

Basil of Baker Street
by Eve Titus

Poetry Friday

Sea-Wash

THE SEA-WASH never ends.
The sea-wash repeats, repeats.
Only old songs? Is that all the sea knows?
Only the old strong songs?
Is that all?
The sea-wash repeats, repeats.

~ Carl Sandburg

DLC match #7: Disney vs. Norton

Disney Literature Challenge:

BED-KNOB AND BROOMSTICK

by Mary Norton

In the book you will recognize:

• a witch named Eglantine Price
• three children: Carey, Charles, and Paul
• an unsuccessful magician named Emelius
• a magical bed-knob
• a town called Pepperinge Eye
• poisoned dragon's liver...

...and not much else. No Nazis, no Isle of Naboombu, no Correspondence College of Witchcraft, no Star of Astaroth. Not much plot, either -- more a small collection of meandering adventures. There is a trip to London, a harrowing visit to a South Seas island, and something called "intrasubstantiary-locomotion" that saves the day in the end, but under entirely different circumstances than Disney concocted.

Maybe I'll be flogged for saying so, but I think what Disney's storymen did to this novel constitutes a definite improvement. Grabbing hold of a single passing sentence that referred to the benefits magic might have for the "defense plan," they strung a hodgepodge of elements into a cohesive whole. Suddenly, there's tension and motivation and it's all centered around one simple thing: the war.

If, like me, you prefer a plot with some verve and/or characters with concrete desires who develop over the course of the story, stick with the movie. Because frankly, as a premise, Golly-we've-got-a-magic-bedknob-so-let's-go-do-neat-things-with-it doesn't deliver enough punch for my taste.

Verdict:

DISNEY

Score:

Disney - 4

Authors - 4

Happy camper

Long-awaited Russian book #1 has finally arrived. According to my Austro-Russian online buddy, in spite of the annoyingly reverential tone of the biography, it's supplemented with "many precious documents" which you will find "only after a very big search." Well I've been searching for at least four years, and now it's mine-all-mine.

By November, there should be another Romanov trophy on my bookshelf.

The Great Goldfinch Rescue

On the way to the field where Xander the poodle and I have been learning to play catch, I happened to look down and spot a fuzzy little nestling on the pavement. Ignoring everything I'd ever heard about thou shalt not touch baby birds (which turns out to be an old wives' tale anyway) I scooped the little bugger up and stuck him under a bush. And commenced fretting.

He was still huddled under there when we walked home. Fret, fret, fret.

Online, I discovered that you can feed nestless birdies temporarily on water-soaked dog kibble (so I guess this bird owes Xander as much as me if it survives this ordeal). After waiting another hour or so to see if Mother Nature would resolve things on her own, I drove back up to deliver some lunch, just in case. And I brought it in a miniature china bowl with pink flowers painted inside, because I run a classy Victorian-themed bird rescue mission, yo.

Eventually, my feathered friend ended up inside the bowl while I attempted to convince the skittish mama goldfinch to lead me to her nest. You can hear her calling:

No luck. Despite tracking a suspicious collection of bird guano from the sidewalk to the leaves above, no nest. Not even a peep from brother and sister nestlings to clue me in. Meanwhile, Mama Goldfinch's call has morphed into something that sounds to my distraught ears like My-ba-bee, my-ba-bee!

After an hour of that, I'd pretty much had enough. Time to sigh and resign the little chickie-poo to survival of the fittest. (Thought about bringing him home, but what's worse in the grand scheme of things: slow death by human ineptitude, or one quick gulp from the neighborhood cat?)

And then I remembered this:

An abandoned robin's nest on my front porch post. I drove home, climbed the rail, commandeered the nest, and marched it two blocks up the street and around the corner. Voila:

Tucked that little fellow into the crook of a cedar bush and went on my merry way. Dunno what the birds think about it, but I sure felt better. So, now what? Check up on my feathered friend tomorrow, or just presume the Goldfinch Family will adapt to the nest transfer and live happily ever after?

RAGE: A LOVE STORY, by Julie Anne Peters

RAGE: A LOVE STORY
by Julie Anne Peters

(Knopf/Random House)


Prepare for a vague review, because I refuse to pull the rug out from under this story. Attempting to describe the intensity - life & death! love & violence! - comes off as melodramatic. Address the issues it tackles directly and I'll sound like an after-school special. So let's just put this out there for starters: Rage is fueled from start to finish by Johanna's rampant crush on the most volatile girl in school. If that setup makes you squirmy, this book isn't going to help you overcome that tendency because Julie Anne Peters sure doesn't squirm when it comes to portraying the ardor of GLBTQ teens.

As for the subject, well, sometimes you don't know there's a hole in the literature until someone plugs it. And if I point out the gap, you're going to focus on the architecture of the bridge that spans it instead of enjoying the view. So just step onto that bridge and don't look down. It's going to lurch and sway something fierce, but I promise Julie will get you safely across.

********************

Currently reading:

The Sword in the Stone
by T.H. White

State of the TBR pile

Finished:

The Hundred and One Dalmatians, by Dodie Smith

Rage: A Love Story, by Julie Anne Peters

Bed-Knob and Broomstick, by Mary Norton

Next:

The Sword in the Stone, by T.H. White

Sphinx's Princess, by Esther Friesner

The Black Cauldron, by Lloyd Alexander

Which way to Narnia?

In the upstairs front room of the house where I'm dog-sitting:

Sadly, this wardrobe harbors no fur coats, nor Turkish delight. Instead, there is a rather large flatscreen TV which has taken me on a few vicarious journeys to France (Ratatouille, Beauty & the Beast) while my hosts are off enjoying the real thing.