Summer Cinema Spinoffs: Toy Story 3 and Marmaduke

If movie makers can take children's books and make them into movies, why not try going the other direction with the product? Well, book publishers have wasted no time moving into summer hit movie spinoffs, and Random House's Toy to Toy (Disney/Pixar Toy Story 3) (Step into Reading) is a good example.

With text by Tennant Redbank set at the lowest (Level 1) beginning reader format and illustrations faithful to the characters in the Pixar movie, this book briefly sketches out the first third of the movie as loyal toys Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie the Cowgirl, and the rest watch their beloved Andy packing up to go to college and find themselves recycled into a questionable home at Sunnyside Daycare. There they are introduced to the powers-that-be, Lotso the boss teddy bear, Sparks, the electronic action figure, Big Baby, and the rest. "Will Andy's toys like their new home?" the text reads as this segment of the story concludes. This one and its follow-up sequels in the Toy Story 3 sequence offer the youngest a chance to reminisce about a favorite movie as they hone their emergent reading skills.

I saw the movie with another adult, a three-year-old, a five-year-old, and a sophisticated eleven-year old, and all of us found something to like. The youngest ones loved the fantasy action, the older child got the humor aimed at adults and older viewers, and I myself responded to the familiar pathos of the empty nest syndrome. The book should prove popular with kids who have seen all the movies and those just moving into the age to enjoy them.

Not to be outdone by Random, Harper has their own entry into the easy-reader spinoff market, based on this summer's Marmaduke movie, Taking a page from the premise of Susan Meddaugh's successful Martha Speaks PBS cartoon series, this venerable magazine cartoon character has been reborn as a talking dog in the movie and its Level 1 emergent reader titled Marmaduke: Meet Marmaduke (I Can Read Book 1) (Harper, 2010).

In this entry into their classic I-Can-Read, series, the gigantic Great Dane ("Call me Duke"), cast here as the lonely guy shunned because of his enormous size, seeks friends at the dog park. There he is rescued from Bosco the bully and a trio of turf-guarding Dobermans by a sympathetic pack led by the thoughtful Maizie and her sidekicks Raisin and Guiseppe. Invited over to party with them, right away Marmaduke knows that he has at last found his own buddies to hang with at the dog park daily.

Both of these short and easy books for the earliest readers make use of the incentive that a popular movie offers for kids who need to keep their skills up during the summer. And if you are among the three or four families in the country who haven't already seen these popular movies, you can also work that popular parental ploy, "Read the book first and then we'll take in the movie!"

Cyber Shopping: Some Book-Linked Tips

If the kids you shop for are anything like the ones I know, toys have proliferated since baby days and threaten to take over the house. With the space-eating syndrome in mind, here are some space-sparing gifts, all with links to popular books, for holiday shopping which will be appreciated by their parents.

Based on the popular I Spy picture riddle books by Jean Marzollo and Walter Wick, these computer versions really do provide hours of skill and vocabulary building fun. The games are officially rated for ages 6-10, but my youngest grandson, now four, has been playing these on his own for over a year. I've sat in on these games with him and find them intellectually challenging, fun, and surprisingly engrossing, teaching concentration and attention to detail in a highly rewarding way.

The I SPY games are cleverly designed to make them non-frustrating for young users. Each page reads the picture riddle clues aloud whenever they are clicked on, and clicking on objects in the pictures provides a sound effect and a re-reading of the clue which matches it. The program saves the player's place when he or she stops, has the player accumulate bonus tickets which entitle him or her to put together clues to solve the final mystery and play additional games not available in the books. A clever touch puts the player's login into some of the interactive pages as headlines on newspapers or locations (Joseph's Cafe', Jules' Bait Shop, for example). And when the player completes all pages, he or she can put in a new login and play again, with new riddles for each screen.

In addition to I SpyTM Fantasy DVD Game (shown above) others in this outstanding series include I Spy Treasure Hunt DVD Game, and I Spy™ Spooky Mansion DVD Game.

For younger players or those less practiced with the mouse, there are beginner versions also, especially I Spy Junior Educational Computer Game.

Favorite Fiction--Boxed Sets :

For series readers, there's nothing like a boxed set to keep those pages turning, and what's better than a good book or two or three over the holidays when the grownups get boring or the snow turns to drippy slush. Here are a variety of some kid-tested top sets:

Junie B.'s laugh-out-loud kindergarten adventures continue in Junie B. Jones's Fourth Boxed Set Ever! (Books 13-16), as the irrepressible Junie B. swings into the spring of her Kindergarten year, keeping her teacher Mrs. and her mom on their toes as farm field trips, Valentine's Day, family weddings, and field day roll around. A great beginning chapter book or hilarious family read-aloud experience for all ages!


In a light-hearted fantasy series which combines exciting adventures with lessons in geography, science, and history, Mary Pope Osborne's Magic Tree House Boxed Set, Books 5-8: Night of the Ninjas, Afternoon on the Amazon, Sunset of the Sabertooth, and Midnight on the Moon takes Jack and Annie from prehistoric days to a walk on the moon in four of their most suspenseful trips in their magic tree house. One of the most popular of all beginning chapter series, these short and highly readable novels are often used, with their classroom guides by the author, as curriculum drivers for grades 2-5. (Ages 7-10)


Megan McDonald's loyal readers of her Judy Moody series demand equal time for pesky little brothers! Well, it's Stink Moody's turn, with a set of his first beginning chapter books now available as Stink: The Super-Incredible Collection: Books 1-3 (Stink), featuring STINK: THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING KID, STINK AND THE INCREDIBLE SUPER-GALACTIC JAWBREAKER, and STINK AND THE WORLD'S WORST SUPER-STINKY SNEAKERS. (Ages 7-10)


Funny and on target with middle elementary readers, Andrew Clements' set of school stories, Back to School (Boxed Set): School Story; The Report Card; A Week in the Woods provides three fast-moving stories of fifth- and sixth-graders who embrace the challenges of middle childhood with verve and good sense. (Ages 9-12)


Part thrilling adventure, part deep-rooted English fantasy, part spiritual allegory, the children's novels by master C.S. Lewis, known collectively as The Chronicles of Narnia Boxed Set, have been universally popular for decades and should be part of every child's reading experience, whether read independently or read aloud. (Ages 9-14)


No fantasy series is better known or loved than Madeleine L'Engle's Newbery classics, Wrinkle in Time Quintet Boxed Set (A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, An Acceptable Time), a sequence which spans two generations of Meg Murray's and Calvin O'Keefe's family story. Suspenseful, magical, and meaningful, these five novels are truly stories for the ages, to be savored, read, and re-read. (Ages 9-14)


Set in the near future, when government forbids, upon pain of death, the birth of third children in any family, this fast-paced, suspenseful series, Shadow Children Boxed Set: Among the Hidden, Among the Impostors, Among the Betrayed, and Among the Barons, deals with themes of government and personal responsibility, law and freedom, as third-born Luke, himself one of the "shadow children," fights for their right to exist in a corrupt and closely controlled society. (Ages 9-14)


Ann Brashares' four best-selling young adult and teen novels are brought together here in Sisterhood 4-book boxed set, in which a well-traveled pair of jeans keep best friends Tibby, Carmen, Lena, and Bridget, the famous Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants connected and together over a significant period of their lives. (Ages 12-18)

For hard-core fantasy lovers, young adult readers have flocked to this serious, imaginative, and thrilling series by Christopher Paolini. Inheritance 3-Book Hardcover Boxed Set (Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr) includes the first three books in this best-selling series, in which fifteen-year-old Eragon raises a young dragon and takes on the powers and responsibilities of a Dragon Rider in a time of great turmoil and promise. (Ages 12-18)

Movies from Books:

Not all good books become good movies of course, but some hold their own despite their filmmakers, who often can't resist juicing up the monsters or slipping in some slapstick. Here are some books-to-movies which have succeeded without abandoning the heart of the books upon which they are based.

The latest movie versions of the Narnia novels have been hits, thanks to their strong young players and spectacular cinematography. Now available are The Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Full Screen Edition) and the most recent, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

The Water Horse - Legend of the Deep (Two-Disc Special Edition), Dick King-Smith's novel of a Scottish boy who finds a large egg in the loch and hatches it into a water horse--a baby Nessie--features beautiful scenery and an exciting adventure tale of a family who must hide their unusual and fast-growing pet from both curious neighbors and invading Nazis.

Emma Watson (Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies) stars in a charming remake of Noel Streatfeild's classic 1930's novel, Ballet Shoes, the story of three stage-struck orphan girls whose understanding adoptive family helps them realize their dream to dance en pointe.

Based on The Agony of Alice, one of the 23 Alice McKinley books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Alice Upside Down has been praised as a film about a real, likable, 'tween girl without the attitude which spoils most teen girl flicks. Alice (Alyson Stoner) finds herself entering a new school for her first year of middle school--finding new friends, including a boyfriend, and adjusting to a unique teacher played by Penny Marshall.

Kit Kittredge: An American Girl - The Movie: A Review

Mortgage defaults, home foreclosures, car repossessions, job layoffs as businesses fail--sound familiar? No, it's not a docu-drama about the current financial crisis--it's a nostalgic movie about the make-do, brother-can-you-spare-a-dime days of the Great Depression.

It's 1934 and the great hard times have settled over the land like a dark cloud. In Cincinnati, Kit Kittredge's family is not exempt. Her father loses his car dealership to the local bank and leaves the family behind while he searches for work in Chicago, and to take up the financial slack, her mother gamely opens their large. comfortable house to boarders.

Ten-year-old Kit loses her comfortable bedroom to a renter and has to make do with a corner of the attic, where she sets up her most prized possession, the typewriter upon which she plans to write her prize-winning newspaper stories. Would-be newspaper reporter Kit soon comes to know the watch words of the time "Use it up, wear it out, make it do." up close and personal. Refusing to let tight times get her down, Kit throws her considerable energy into making sure that her family will make it and her dreams will be realized, come what may.

Based on the popular six-book American Girl series, the movie which opens today, Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, produced by Julia Roberts and starring Abigail Breslin, makes the most of its period setting to present a strong girl character who is determined to make her own way in the world. When Kit learns that the Cincinnati Register will pay a penny a word for publishable news features, she immediately sets to work on her article "A Kid's View of the Depression."

And Kit doesn't have to leave her own neighborhood to begin her reporting. Her next-door neighbors' house is foreclosed; she helps out at the local soup kitchen; and she and her mom befriend a couple of young hobo boys, Will and Countee, who show up at her door asking for work in return for food. Although Kit's mother kindly lets the boys work in the Kittredge's vegetable plot in return for their meals, resentment and suspicion of the nearby hobo jungle spreads through town as holdups and robberies are blamed on the vagrants.

When Kit's mother's lock box with her rent receipts is stolen from her pantry, all clues point to Will as the thief. With their savings gone, Kit and her mom are now faced with a possible foreclosure of their own house. Refusing to believe that Will and Countee would steal from them, Kit and her friends Ruthie and Stirling set out to track down the real crooks, clear Will's name, and retrieve her mother's hard-earned savings. It's all in a day's work for Kit Kittredge, girl reporter, who finally sees her article in glorious black and white Times Roman in the Cincinnati Register.

Filmed in golden-oldie retro color, this is a spic-and-span, starched-and-pressed version of the Great Depression which admittedly comes up a bit short on gritty realism. Kitschy (no pun, um, intended), it has its over the top moments in the slapstick department, but its theme of hanging tough in tough times is a refreshing change from the non-stop diss 'em/sock 'em scripts of so many kid movies. The moments of old-fashioned schmaltz practically come across as a breath of fresh air here.

Abigail Breslin (of Little Miss Sunshine fame) turns in a perkily perfect performance as Kit, and the rest of the talented cast carries the sometimes lightweight screenplay, playing their minor roles with just the right touch of broad humor. Several featured boy characters, a car chase, and a couple of near captures by the suspected bad guys make this a summer movie which boys will sit still for as well.
As I always seem to say, the movie is good, but the books are better. And if your girls like the movie, skip the American Girl dolls (pricey) and for great summer reading buy them the original Kit books* by Valerie Tripp --(cheap and priceless!)

*They are Meet Kit: An American Girl 1934 (The American Girls Collection, Book 1), Kit Learns a Lesson: 1934 A School Story (American Girls Collection), Changes for Kit: A Winter Story, 1934 (American Girls Collection), Kit's Surprise: A Christmas Story, 1934 (The American Girls Collection, Book 3), Happy Birthday Kit: A Springtime Story, 1934 (American Girls Collection), and Kit Saves the Day: A Summer Story, 1934 (American Girls Collection).

And for my review of Kit's more recent mystery adventures, see my post of June 20 here.