Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Jodi Picoult's *My Sister's Keeper* Movie-- They're Changing the Ending!


Mrs. Fritz just showed me an email written by a member of the Illinois State Library Media Association. This woman had recently attended a book signing by Jodi Picoult, who mentioned to the audience that she had just found out that the movie currently being made of her popular novel *My Sister's Keeper* will have an ending DIFFERENT from the one that she had written. When she tried to convince the producers to keep the original ending, she was told, "Readers don't matter." What!? I am outraged! Ms. Picoult encouraged the book signing attendees to write directly to the directors, asking them to keep the story's original ending. So here are their addresses, and I, too, encourage you to write to them and tell them that readers DO matter!


Mark Johnson (producer) producermark@granviaprod.com

Tony Emmerich (director) directortoby.emmerich@newline.com


Can you imagine what would happen if they had changed the ending to any of the Harry Potter movies? When they finally make the movie for *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*, what if Harry dies and Voldemort becomes Hogwart's headmaster? What if Ginny marries Draco Malfoy? The Readers of the world would revolt, and rightly so!
P.S. I haven't yet read *My Sister's Keeper*, so if you see me in the halls, don't spoil the ending-- I'll read it soon and would love to discuss!

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

The Year of Living Biblically

I just finished reading A.J. Jacobs' *The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible*. It was one of our Lit Club choices and was also recommended to me by a good reader friend. Jacobs' previous book is called *The Know It All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World*, which describes his effort to read the entire *Encyclopedia Britannica* from cover to cover, in one year. He must be crazy, right? As you can see from the book's cover, he actually went so far as to grow a beard, dress in clothing from Biblical times, and carry around a variety of props, musical instruments, etc. He didn't just jump into it haphazardly, however. He consulted lots of experts from many sects of the Jewish and Christian faiths; books; various versions of the Bible; websites; and even attended a Jerry Falwell church as well as a snake-handling church. He also visited Israel to meet a long-lost and vigorously shunned ex-member of his own family, a man he refers to as "Guru Gil". I liked this book a lot because in addition to being hilarious and different, it clears up some common myths about both the Christian and Jewish faiths.

As part of my new ranking system, I'll give this book 3 out of 4 bananas.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

*Nineteen Minutes* by Jodi Picoult


I just finished reading Jodi Picoult's *Nineteen Minutes*, which is about school shooting, bullying, and popularity. I think that everyone either in high school or teaching high school should think about reading it, even though it's not the most pleasant or comfortable experience because, let's face it, the topic hits pretty close to home. Jodi Picoult obviously took a lot of her material from the Columbine shooting as well as other school shootings that have been in the news in the past few years. One of the coolest things about Picoult is that she presents an issue from many different angles, so we are experiencing this event (a school shooting that took 19 minutes-- hence the title) through the eyes of the shooter, his friends, his enemies, his parents, his defense lawyer, and the detective working the case. Reading the details of the shooting itself made me want to put the book down and stop reading because it was pretty awful, but the book is so well done and the subject treated so honestly, that I'm extremely grateful I made it through the entire thing. Having said all of that, I highly recommend *Nineteen Minutes* because it provides a lot of food for thought, is well-written, and confronts head-on a subject that makes a lot of people (myself included, sometimes) want to bury their heads in the sand.
3 1/2 out of 4 Bananas
Has anyone else read it? Tell me what you think!
Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book Award 2010 Nominee

My Brand New Blog

Welcome to my new blog! I'm hoping to post what I'm reading, what's new in the library, and any random library-related ramblings I might have. Join me by posting your comments, suggestions, and questions!