Book to Reel (2/25)

This weekly event is hosted by Lori at Escape Between the Pages. What Lori does is each week she posts a trailer for a particular movie and the description for the book that inspired it. Readers are encouraged to comment on the book, the movie, or both.

This week I'm going to be talking about one of my favorite books ever - Charlotte's Web. I don't care about all the other random things I read before this book, but I DO vividly remember this being the first nice hard cover my mother ever got me - as a Christmas present no less. I believe it's one of those books that stays with you forever, because the themes and emotions it depicts are timeless in their simplicity. I tried to find a good 'book blurb' to remind people what the story is about, but everything was too ridiculous or concentrated too much on the (newer) movie version and not about the book. For me, this book is about friendship and life. Wilber is born and has to learn to navigate the world as we all do, with all the challenges, hardships, and loss inherent to that journey.

The movie takes this basic story line and jazz's it up a bit with music, lights, and sounds. The basic story is the same, but due to the audience it was targeted to and the time it was made (1973) it might not seem quite as hard hitting as the original book. Still, the end is bittersweet and you become so attached and won over by Charlotte that you're still somewhat devastated when she's gone. I haven't seen the recent redo of the film, but I know that the first release is a movie I'll never forget, mostly because the book has such a hold on my childhood and my development as a person.

Book to Reel Wednesday (on Thursday)

This weekly event is hosted by Lori at Escape Between the Pages. What Lori does is each week she posts a trailer for a particular movie and the description for the book that inspired it. Readers are encouraged to comment on the book, the movie, or both.

Truthfully I don't think too often about the movie adaptations of books, because more often than not they're hideous reproductions that make me yearn for an ice pick with which to stab myself. But on my walk to work this morning I just started thinking about some of the ones I liked, times where either the the movie was a true representation of the book or it veered enough from the story to keep the spirit but exist as an independent entity.

**Disclaimer: Most of these will be movies based on books from my childhood, at least in the beginning, because those are my favorites.**


This is not a fairy tale. This is about real witches! Grandmamma loves to tell about witches. Real witches are the most dangerous of all living creatures on earth. There's nothing they hate so much as children, and they work all kinds of terrifying spells to get rid of pesky kids. A boy listens closely to his Grandmamma's stories of the evil witches, but nothing can prepare him for the day he comes face to face with The Grand High Witch herself!





I loved Roald Dahl when I was a child and love him now. I think he has some of the most unique and culturally pervasive children's characters ever - and those characters always seem to hang around. I haven't seen the movie in a while at this point but I still remember how scary it was! Angelica Houston was probably the scariest witch ever and that was before she started peeling off her skin and showing how grotesque she was underneath! If you get the chance I definitely recommend picking this up from Blockbusters (are those still around?) or NetFlix and reminding yourself how cool kid's movies were even before Harry Potter.