Will Strong Recommends - Bookie Woogie

A blog you should know about:  http://bookiewoogie.blogspot.com/

The Bookie Woogie blog is one of the most clued in reviewers of children's lit around.  Why is that?  Because the reviews are done by actual children (with some assistance from their illustrator father.)  Isaac, Gracie, Lily and Elijah (assisted by Aaron Zenz) post conversational reviews that give some fantastic insight into what kids really like in their books.

If you create stories or illustrations for children I highly recommend their site.

Also check out Chicken Nugget Lemon Tooty for some fantastic art created by these kids.  Super creative and fun stuff there.  Honestly it's one of my very favorite blogs.

Will Strong Recommends Danny The Champion of the World

The book that Tiff assigned to her 5th grade class as summer reading this year is Danny the Champion of the World.  I hadn't ever read it so I picked it up.  And this book is fantastic.  One of Roald Dahl's many great works, I think Danny gets overshadowed by James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which is a shame.

There aren't any giants or special powers or magic of any kind in this book.  All this book really is, is a simple story of a boy and his father.  They are simple folk.  It's a simple story.  But it's so well written that it's incredibly endearing and heartwarming without being preachy at all.

One of the assignments that Tiff had her class do was to draw a picture of Danny's home.  One kid in the class, Mary, told Tiff, "I don't think I did the assignment right.  I painted it."  Well let me tell you Mary, that you did it more than right.  You rocked it.

Keep up the good work kids.

Will Strong Recommends - Super Mario Bros. Crossover

I'm a big fan of the internet. It brings me things that I would never find through normal (see legitimate) means. My favorite piece of the internet is currently to be found at http://supermariobroscrossover.com/

Some mad genius took the very first Super Mario Bros and inserted other classic NES era characters into the game. Samus, Mega Man, Link, Simon Belmont and more are all playable. Each of the characters behaves just like they do in their own games. Link has his sword. Samus has her blaster. It seems like it shouldn't work but it does. Brilliantly. Watch the video and you'll get the idea.

If you're a fan of old school NES games (or video games in general [or mad genius creativity]) then do yourself a favor and check it out. Do it quick before somebody gets sued and this game disappears forever.

Will Strong Recommends UP

Unlike any other movie I've ever seen.  I almost never get to say that.

Pete Doctor has come a long way since he directed Monsters Inc. and the mix of comedy, action, drama, adventure and pathos in his new movie is amazing.

Just go see it.

Will Strong Recommends: A Talk With Hitchcock

This one is a bit different.  "A Talk with Hitchcock" is nothing more than both halves of a two-part interview with Alfred Hitchcock that was given in 1963 (as near as I can tell) for a Canadian television program called "Telescope."

The best part of the interview involves Hitch explaining his theory on film editing.  He thinks the word "cutting" is completely inappropriate.  Cutting implies separating and disjoining things.  He likes the term montage or assembly better as they imply construction.  He then takes scenes from his movies and explains exactly why he put them together this way.  Good stuff.  If you have any interest in Hitchcock or the mechanics of how film is put together then this is a must see.  

This DVD is not easy to find.  It's not even on IMDB which has just about everything else.  I found it on Netflix.  It's a good rental.  (The DVD was published in 1994 by Image Entertainment.)

Anybody interested in visual storytelling could benefit from this DVD.  Good luck finding it.

Will Strong Recommends: "Lawn Boy" by Gary Paulsen

Most people know Gary Paulsen for his wilderness themed books like "Hatchet" and "The River."  I'm pretty ashamed to say that I've never read any of his wilderness books.  They just don't interest me much.

 

A few weeks ago Tiffany (my beautiful wife who teaches 6th grade) brought home "Lawn Boy" from the school's book fair.  I decided to read it on a relaxing, post-final-exam afternoon and I'm glad I did.

 

The titular lawn boy receives for his birthday, a busted and rusted old riding lawnmower from his eccentric granny.  He gets hired to mow his neighbor's lawn and after a while is mowing all the lawns on the whole block.  In a bizarre turn of events he ends up running his own lawn care business with dozens of employees working under him.  He also ends up buying a bunch of stocks that really take off and before he knows it he's running a big business.  And he has no idea what he's doing.  It sounds like a bad lesson in economics but it's quite entertaining.  I'd rather not say how but his investments in the stock market end up being very amusing.

 

The chapters all are named with titles like "Capital Growth Coupled with the Principles of Production Expansion" and "Economic Expansion Combined with Portfolio Diversification."  The chapters do discuss each of these topics but in a very loose and easy to digest way.  

 

"Lawn Boy" is very short, only 88 pages.  It's a quick read and would appeal to kids from 10 years+.  Fun Stuff.  Now maybe I'll have to take a stab at "Hatchet."

Will Strong Recommends:

I never was much of a reader as a child; it always felt like work to me.  Many years later I love reading.  I'm not sure when the switch occurred but now I can't get enough books to satisfy my appetite.  

I like to tell my friends and family about books that I love because I believe that good things are meant for sharing.  Any entry into my blog entitled "Will Strong Recommends:" will be just that, a recommendation for some book I like.  So if you are crazy like me then you might just like what I like.  Please feel free to ignore all recommendations for any reason.

PS: What you won't find here is criticism.  There are far too many critics in this world.  I say, "Stop criticizing, go create something instead."