Also, you can tell it's not gonna have a happy ending when the main guy's all bumpy.

Tara ,'First Date'


We're Literary 2: To Read Makes Our Speaking English Good  

There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."


Aims - Jul 07, 2004 10:54:12 am PDT #4702 of 10002
Shit's all sorts of different now.

Superfudge

Did you read Superfudge first?


Miracleman - Jul 07, 2004 10:54:12 am PDT #4703 of 10002
No, I don't think I will - me, quoting Captain Steve Rogers, to all of 2020

Hey, Hec...you and Emmett ever read The Great Brain series?

If not, I recommend it. Emmett is so like the title character.


P.M. Marc - Jul 07, 2004 10:59:21 am PDT #4704 of 10002
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear

Hey, Hec...you and Emmett ever read The Great Brain series?

Dude, I was just trying to remember the name of that series in the shower on Monday.

THANK YOU!

Also, trying to remember where mine were stored so I could re-read 'em.


Miracleman - Jul 07, 2004 11:00:59 am PDT #4705 of 10002
No, I don't think I will - me, quoting Captain Steve Rogers, to all of 2020

Also, trying to remember where mine were stored so I could re-read 'em.

I have to buy them, meself. Read them in school lo these many moons ago, but they've stuck in my head e'er since.


Polter-Cow - Jul 07, 2004 11:01:07 am PDT #4706 of 10002
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!

I was not aware that it was a movie. I'd think that'd be pretty scary.

Starring Anjelica Huston! Also, small role by Rowan Atkinson! I suppose it'd be pretty scary for the young'uns. 6-8 seems a little young, unless they already like this kind of stuff.


JZ - Jul 07, 2004 11:01:39 am PDT #4707 of 10002
See? I gave everybody here an opportunity to tell me what a bad person I am and nobody did, because I fuckin' rule.

Maybe I am forgetting what I liked as a child. I am thinking this would be for an early elementary age 6-8, right?

I think so. I'd never read it as a kid and found the ending extremely jarring -- but I can also remember reading a lot of terribly bloodthirsty stuff as a child that I really couldn't tolerate now. My sense of Dahl after reading 5 or 6 of his books in one great gollop was that he was consciously writing for a very young and bloodthirsty audience. There was stuff structurally that didn't fully hang together or wrap itself up the way my grown-up brain expected novels to, but it clearly didn't bother Emmett at all.

And now I've made myself curious to go seek out an adult Dahl novel and see how it feels alongside one of his children's novels.

The BFG is such a charming, massively splendiferous book in so many ways, almost as many as the BFG himself.


Calli - Jul 07, 2004 11:08:33 am PDT #4708 of 10002
I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul—Calvin and Hobbs

We have a regular freelance writer on the journal I work on named Richard Dahl. So I've been reading the above, waiting for references to Dahl's articles on perchlorate and the environmentally appropriate disposal of computer equiptment.


Gris - Jul 07, 2004 11:12:06 am PDT #4709 of 10002
Hey. New board.

Woohoo! Kidlit discussion!

I think Witches is probably the most disturbing of Dahl's books, in a lot of ways. Which doesn't mean that his others aren't disturbing (there's a reason Tim Burton is remaking Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in his signature style), but it went far beyond the norm.

In my opinion, the best Roald Dahl book is Matilda. But that may be because, as with all really smart kid characters, I identified with her a lot, and admired her, and wanted to read as much as I could about her. James and the Giant Peach was also a favorite.

The Great Brain was one of the best series ever. My favorite was the one when he was at school, that was brill.

Superfudge and related were hilarious.

I was a big fan of Cam Jansen, too. Though, looking back, I'm not really sure why.


Connie Neil - Jul 07, 2004 11:29:01 am PDT #4710 of 10002
brillig

Bizarro title of the day:

"Edward IV., a play in four acts, with swimming instructions."

published 1868 in London. Available in the libraries of Cambridge University if you're close by and want to check.


Tam - Jul 07, 2004 11:32:11 am PDT #4711 of 10002
"...Singing their heads off, protected by the holy ghosts, flying in from the ocean, driving with their eyes closed." - Patty Griffin "Florida"

Roald Dahl freaked me out! I used to think that because I didn't like his stuff I must not have a a very good imagination. I realize now that everything I read (and imagined) was very real to me and most of Dahl's books have some pretty crappy stuff hapening to nice kids and that made me sad. Anyone else have that problem?

Saw Witches the movie in my early teens and I thought it was scary then. I also thought the movie of Harry Potter 2 was rather scary at 23 so I may not be the best judge...