Books to Movies

Yesterday, the newest installment of one of my favorite books series came out, and I read it in a matter of five or six hours. The book is the latest in the Stephanie Plum series by the author Janet Evanovich. The series is about an inept female bounty hunter in New Jersey, with quirky and strange supporting characters. I find the novels hilarious and fun, and I can picture almost every character. This always makes me yearn for a movie adaptation of the books, and I consider who would make the best main characters, etc.. Then, I remember to be careful what I wish for. Case in point: the Nancy Drew movie that is in theaters now. Now, though it is true that I have not actually watched the movie, I did watch an extended preview a month or two before the movie was released in theaters. That preview told me all I needed to know: whoever made the film and wrote the scripts and screenplay never read a Nancy Drew novel.

This realization was quite upsetting. I counted the Nancy Drew novels as one of the more formative influences on my life. I wanted to be a detective for the longest time because Nancy Drew was SO FREAKING COOL! I did my best to develop the sorts of skills she had, like keen observation and careful analysis of facts. I carry a magnifying glass in my purse to this day, just in case. I know it sounds ridiculously nerdy, but I think the Nancy Drew series (both the 1930s series and the 1980s series) was great! Nancy Drew was a smart and quietly gutsy young woman, who was mature for her age and who had better things to do than worry about getting married and having babies (even in the 1930s!). She loved puzzles and mysteries, and she didn't usually wait for Ned Nickerson (her standby guy) to go and investigate some really creepy areas. While the movie may have got THAT right, what they didn't get right was everything else. They have made that series into a mockery of what it actually was, and I hate the fact that anyone exposed to the movie and not the book series will think I wasted much of my youth reading some sort of ridiculous bubblegum crap. The characters are shallow and senseless, and almost nothing like what they were in the series. Anyway, it won't help to rant now. I just wish that the people who make these movies cared as much about the books they're ransacking for ideas as the fans of the books. Why should Harry Potter be the only well-depicted series?

Um?

So. Michael was looking over the news on the internet today, and found this. I'm really not sure what to say, but....well. You'll see.

Mistaken Identity

I received something unexpected in my campus mailbox--a letter from a young girl who thought I was an author of a biography that she had read. It was a sweet letter, with questions about the author's present-day occupation, and a request for recommendations for other biographies written for the younger set. She also expressed some of her own goals and hopes, and it made me think that perhaps not all children will turn out quite like some of the kids I see in class. For the first time in a long time, I felt less cynical. I am trying my best to find information about the author, but I have some fears that the author may be deceased. I think this book was published for the first time in 1944....and I know for a fact that the illustrator is dead. The book is a Scholastic title, and one in a series of biographies. I sent an e-mail to the Scholastic publishing office, in the hopes that someone will have contact information for the author, or will at least be able to tell me if she is dead. In any case, I will be able to write the girl back and tell her of some sites that are loaded with information about biographies for younger readers, so I am happy about that, at least. I might even purchase one to send to her, by way of apology for being the wrong person. I was very touched by the fact that the girl was so inspired by the book that she took the time to try and contact the author. I wonder if this is what C.S. Lewis felt like, every time he received a letter from an adoring young fan? If so, I can understand why he felt compelled to try and answer every letter.