The problem with reading beloved children’s classics as an adult, especially having not read them as a child, is that you tend to find the outdated bits. Not outdated in the form of technology, which is also apparent, but in character development. The children seem to do what they are told without questioning here. Today’s literative children are a lot more inquisitive, and also less trusting. And the female characters are stronger and more developed. Fantasy and children’s literature have both evolved since this was […]
Sports and baddies
Well, here it is. My eagerly anticipated (by absolutely no one) review for Oddly Normal: Book 3! Chapter 11: There are sports! And peer pressure! We get to see a wide variety of Fignation’s residents in the spectator section. And I noticed that Oopie looks quite regal when it is not talking. Chapter 12: And now, a pod race! On brooms! In orange! I do appreciate how much emotion is conveyed through the cat in this and the next chapter. It is a counterpart […]
Hitting my Cannonball goal before December 31st? Crazy!
With this review, I’ve hit my Quarter-Cannonball goal! And I did it before the end of December this time! Chapter 6: I notice something I’ve never noticed before. Oddly always wears a star on her shirt, as does her Auntie Oddly. The more “traditional” witches wear a crescent moon as their symbol. Auntie Oddly cements her awesomeness. She’s obviously very powerful, although she sometimes seems a little sad despite her effervescent personality. Chapter 7: We get to see something lovely. Auntie shows Oddly a memory […]
Oddly Normal is my gateway drug
I’m not much of a comic book reader, but I found the work of Otis Frampton at the New York Comic Con and fell in love with it. I searched out Mr. Frampton because of the preview of Oddly Normal I had found before attending my first Comic Con. I had spent the entire time I was there looking for an issue of Oddly Normal, and was delighted to find one (at the last minute!) at the table Mr. Frampton was manning in Artist Alley. […]
“Live every week like it’s Shark Week.” I will, Tracy Jordan. I will.
In the first season of 30 Rock, Tracy Jordan admonishes Kenneth the Page to “live every week like it’s Shark Week.” It’s an injunction that The Chancellor and I take very seriously. Shark Week is like a national holiday to us. My students have even suggested that I wear a GoPro the next time I watch Shark Week so that they can enjoy me watching it (um, never. I enjoy my sharks in private). This last weekend, I graduated school for the last time (no, […]
The first ugly cry of 2015
Kwame Alexander won the Newbery Award the same week that Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman was announced for publication. Of course, Lee’s news totally trumped Alexander’s achievement, so to show some solidarity, I requested his novel from the library. And I was blown away. The Crossover is a verse novel (that is, a novel told in poems) about Josh Bell, a tween boy who is a star basketball player on his middle-school team. His twin brother Jordan, or JB, is on the team with […]