Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Movie

Production Team:  Disney/Jim Henson; Miguel Arteta, Director; Ron Lieber, Screenplay

Rating:  * (1 star out of 3 possible, C-)
              Recommended with Reservations

Audience:  4th Grade and up, PG

I couldn't pass up the chance to help families avoid this weak effort by Disney to adopt a beloved children's book.  My family sat through 80 painful minutes with barely a chuckle, waiting for the storyline to improve, for the actors to improve, for the writing to improve, for the movie to improve.  Really, I feel it is more of a "D" effort, but I gave it a "C" as the family at least comes together in the end to support each other.

It seems like Disney spent all their money on Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner to play the parents, and there was no money left to hire talented young actors to play the kids.  Steve and Jennifer did not have much of a script to work with, but if there are any laughs in the movie, they all belong to Pirate Steve. ("Look!  Me arms are okay!  ARGGHH!")

Perhaps it is cruel to draw attention to a child's speech impediment, but if you want a future acting career, Ed Oxenbould (Alexander), you'd better get that annoying lisp fixed.  Your older brother Anthony (Dylan Minnette), and older sister Emily (Kerris Dorsey) spent most of the film over-acting.  No complaints about cute-as-a-bug baby brother Trevor (played by twin girls).

The storyline was tedious and fakey.  Alexander is the family scapegoat, who wishes everyone else could understand how a horrible day feels.  His wish comes true, and the audience uncomfortably watches as the parents' jobs are jeopardized.  Meanwhile, we can find no empathy in our hearts for the teenage brother and sister who only seem to get what they deserve, after watching their selfish tantrums and immature choices for half the movie.

Crude language and teen attitudes make this a film to skip for most families.  Trust me, you won't be missing a thing.

If, however, your family would like a quality substitution, I recommend a film from 2012:  Parental Guidance, starring Billy Crystal and Bette Midler as grandparents trying to fit in with grandkids they barely know.

Wayside School Series

Titles:  Sideways Stories from Wayside School; Wayside School is Falling Down; Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger

Author:  Louis Sachar

Rating:  0 stars out of 3 possible, "D/F"
             Not Recommended

Audience:  Second grade and up

I was really hoping to find another fun and funny childhood series along the lines of Frindle (Andrew Clements), Soup (Robert Newton Peck), Henry Huggins (Beverly Cleary), or at least Junie B. Jones (Barbara Parker) or George Brown, Class Clown (Nancy Krulik).  Unfortunately, the two titles I read in this series were more ridiculous than funny, and not very clever.  I can handle silly and ridiculous, if there is a measure of clever thrown in.  But without the cleverness, you just have post-modern random-ness.

Of course, this can appeal to a lot of second graders, but parents who are trying to engage their families with more compelling, thoughtful materials might be disappointed.  This is especially true because we know the Louis Sachar who wrote Holes, which was both hilarious and clever/thought-provoking.  So, for your information, Wayside School is not Holes.

Andrew Clements

Titles:  The Report Card; Frindle; Extra Credit; No Talking; Lunch Money;
           Troublemaker; The Janitor's Boy; Lost and Found; Landry News;
           The Last Holiday Concert; About Average

Author:  Andrew Clements

Rating:  ***  (3 stars out of 3 possible, "A")
             Highly Recommended

It's not often I come across a series and writer who seem to fire on all cylinders:  smart, funny, important, creative, and unique are the adjectives I would use to describe Andrew Clements writing style and topics.  For this review I read Frindle, and the The Report Card.

Writers must write about what they know, and for Andrew Clements that includes teachers, schools and students.  He taught at elementary, junior and high school levels before writing full-time.  (For more information, see his website at www.andrewclements.com)

I read Frindle straight through in about 2 hours one Tuesday afternoon.  I wanted to immediately recommend it to my friends and their kids.  That's how good it was.  It mostly made me laugh and think, although I admit it made me a little teary-eyed as well.  If you never really cared for school, or even if you only had one really memorable teacher, you will find a lot to which you can relate in this book.

George Brown Class Clown

Titles:  12 including Super Burp (#1) and Trouble Magnet (#2)

Author:  Nancy Krulik

Rating:  *  (1 star out of 3 possible, "C")
             Recommended with Reservations

Audience:  1st-2nd Graders

This series is an option for families who are looking for easier chapter books that are funny and engaging, without being too tasteless or thoughtless.  I realize the word "burp" appears in the first title, but George Brown's Super Burp problem presents mostly harmless fun.  Hilarious plots develop while the main character tries desperately to control his new power.

Dan Gutman

Series: My Weird School (21 books in original series plus 12 more)
          The Kid Who Ran for President/The Kid Who Became President
          Baseball Card Adventures (11 books)

Rating: 0 stars out of 3 possible, "D"
           Not Recommended...yet

Audience: Elementary ages (My Weird School) (The Kid Who Ran for President)
                Middle School (Baseball Card Adventures)

Well, I know. It seems a little mean to give a guy whose written #117 books a "D," especially when he's already popular with kids. My main objections to Dan's books are that they cross the line a little too far into crass humor and sometimes have not-so-subtle political and environmental axes to grind.

In the My Weird School series, Arlo/AJ is a pretty typical 2nd grade boy: disdainful of school and girls.  I read #14 Miss Holly Is too Jolly to see how Christmas would be treated.  The language was a little rough and crude:  "crybaby," "I hate her" (in response to the girl, Andrea, in his class), "You're a dumbhead," "So is your face."  And, of course, Christmas was grouped in with Kwanzaa and Hanukkah as the class prepares for the holidays.  In Arlo's letter to Santa he asks for the "new video game where you get to kill zombies with machine guns."  In the end, a selfish gift exchange takes place, and AJ is certainly not thankful for the hat Andrea made for him:  "I hate hats."

Nothing new there.  It's simply a reflection of our current culture and that's not the standard I'm looking for with my kids.  You may see it as harmless, but then again, it's not really inspiring our kids to anything better or different.

Big Nate

Titles:  Over 20 including In a Class by Himself; Strikes Again; On a Roll; and Friends
            as well as comic strip collections

Author:  Lincoln Peirce (pronounced "purse")

Rating:  *  (1 star out of 3 possible, "C")
             Recommended with Reservations

Audience:  5th grade and up

After lambasting the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, I thought I should check to if the Big Nate series was any better or worse.  I read books 1 and 2:  Big Nate in a Class by Himself and Big Nate Strikes Again.

I'm happy to confess this series is better: a reasonable substitute for Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and not only because it's actually clever and funny.  What sets Big Nate apart from Greg Heffley is his sense of conscience and a certain amount of intellectual insight.

Soup Series

Titles:  Soup; Soup and Me; Soup for President; Soup's Drum; Soup on Wheels; Soup in the Saddle; Soup's Goat; Soup on Ice; Soup on Fire; Soup's Uncle; Soup's Hoop; Soup in Love; Soup Ahoy; Soup 1776.

Author:  Robert Newton Peck

Rating:  **  (2 stars out of 3 possible, "B")
             Recommended

Audience:  Third Grade and Up

This series was just what the doctor ordered for some fun and funny summer reading for our family.  If your child is having trouble getting excited about reading, try these short and engaging, as well as instructive books.

Written between the 1970s and 1990s, Robert Newton Peck takes us back to his rural Vermont upbringing during the 1940s for some mischievous, good-natured adventures.  He proves the straight man to his best friend Soup (don't call him Luther Wesley) who has plenty of wacky ideas.

A Long Way from Chicago

Author:  Richard Peck

Rating:  ***  (3 stars out of 3 possible, "A")
             Highly Recommended

Audience:  4th Grade and up

Part of the summer our family is reading books with serious themes (see reviews for Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963) and part of the summer we're spending on good, clean fun!

A Long Way from Chicago is set in rural Illinois during the Depression years.  Joey and Mary Alice take the train each summer from Chicago to spend a week with their unconventional Grandmother Dowdel.  Grandma can fix a mean breakfast and a mean gooseberry pie just as easily as she can wield a shotgun, trespass, brew beer at home or blackmail the local banker.  The townspeople are just as colorful and hilarious.  Visits generally find Joe and his sister slack-jawed at what will happen next in the usually sleepy hamlet.

Bad Kitty is Good Fun

Titles: Bad Kitty; Poor Puppy; A Bad Kitty Christmas; Happy Birthday, Bad Kitty; Bad Kitty for President; Bad Kitty Gets a Bath; Bad Kitty vs. Uncle Murray; Bad Kitty Meets the Baby

Author: Nick Bruel

Rating: ** (2 stars out of 3 possible, "B")

Recommended

Audience: K-3rd grades

Nick Bruel began his Bad Kitty franchise as creative, albeit lengthy picture/alphabet books. (Not all preschoolers can sit through four versions of the alphabet.) The best thing that happened to this series was giving that kitty a bath. That's when hilarious illustrations (one fang, really?) combined with cat personality to tickle our feline fancy.

Cats are funny. They're funny when they think too highly of themselves and they're funny when slobbering dogs cluelessly one-up them. We love them when they're curled up, harmlessly asleep, or when they're stampeding through the house at 11pm looking for domestic prey.

Nick Bruel's clever writing combined with entertaining drawings give the chapter books in the series a comic strip feel. This makes them accessible to struggling or talented readers and parents alike. Here's proof that graphics-based series can be smart and engaging, as well as downright fun!

Regarding the... Series

Titles: Regarding the Fountain, Regarding the Sink, Regarding the Trees, Regarding the Bathrooms, Regarding the BEEs

Authors: Kate Klise and M. Sarah Klise

Rating: * (1 star out of 3 possible, "C")

Recommended with Reservations

Audience: 3rd grade and up

The Klise sisters get an "A" for creative wit in these fun, clever stories communicated via memos, letters and news clippings. The reader gets lots of wordplay to help solve a little mystery in a very entertaining and intelligent fashion.

It is the subject matter that gets a "C" in some of the editions. For instance, in Regarding the Sink, Eastern philosophy is introduced and it may be helpful for some parents to be prepared to discuss this with their kids.

The Great Brain Series

Titles: The Great Brain; More Adventures of the Great Brain; Me and My Little Brain; The Great Brain at the Academy; The Great Brain Reforms; The Return of the Great Brain; The Great Brain Does It Again; The Great Brain Is Back

Author: John D. Fitzgerald

Rating: ** (2 stars out of 3 possible, "B")

Recommended

Audience: 3rd-6th grades

I had a fun summer reliving my reading list from 6th grade which consisted mostly of Great Brain books! It was one of the first series on which I spent my own babysitting money. I then passed the books on to some nephews, so I'm now re-acquiring them for my girls. A lot of the stories were just as I remembered them, but some were surprisingly rough and a little graphic. I guess my 12 year old brain conveniently censored the shocking parts.

The books consist of the (heavily enhanced) childhood memories and stories of John D. Fitzgerald from his growing up years in turn-of-the-century Utah. The youngest of three brothers (a fourth is added in the third book), John serves as the storyteller and writer for his conniving middle brother, Tom, the "Great Brain" of the title. Most of the escapades center around Tom as he maneuvers his way through town and through the pocket change of the other kids, including John. You'll have to be the judge if these schemes qualify as cheats and scams (John's version), or merely creative plots from a superior mind (Tom's version). Many times the Great Brain matches wits with adults and provides solutions to various town problems and mysteries.

In a nostalgic portrayal of loving family life, you can be sure Tom and John's upstanding parents provide the necessary discipline and boundaries in raising their energetic boys. Always fair, usually wise, but sometimes exasperated, the parents do manage to get in the last word.

I had forgotten some of the unsettling scenes from life in the 1890s. For instance, there is a fair amount of fighting between school boys. This is not solved with modern psychology, but with fisticuffs. Bullies are quickly put to rights and then manage to become friends.

Swimming takes place at the local (naked) swimming hole (no details provided) and lessons consist of being thrown in until you swim! Again, not the comfortable, suburban method you may be used to.

In a lesson about pride, dignity and compassion, the singular Jewish store-keeper in the town actually dies in poverty rather than advertise his needs. Rather shocking for young readers, but not historically inaccurate.

More graphic is the tale of a school boy who steps on a nail and loses his leg to gangrene. The boy is actually attempting suicide (in a sort of innocent, naive 10-year old way) when Tom intervenes to show him life is worth living. Helping the boy with primitive versions of occupational and physical therapy is a humbling experience for the Great Brain.

John has a similar experience when Tom heads off to boarding school. After having little success attempting to become his own Great Brain, he does rescue his youngest brother from criminals. In John's words: "It just goes to prove what a fellow can get out of life by being himself. Me and my little brain, with God's help, had saved Frankie's life."

That's a lesson boys and girls need.

For more series on bright, adventuresome school kids I recommend:

Henry Reed by Keith Robertson (Henry Reed, Inc.; Henry Reed's Journey; Henry Reed's Babysitting Service; Henry Reed's Big Show; Henry Reed's Think Tank)

Homer Price by Robert McCloskey (Homer Price; Centerburg Tales/More Adventures of Homer Price/More Homer Price)

Mad Scientists' Club by Bertrand Brinley (The Mad Scientists' Club; The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists' Club; The Big Kerplop; The Big Chunk of Ice)

Junie B. Jones Series

Titles: Junie B. Jones

Junie B. Jones, First Grader

(27 books in all, plus The Essential Survival Guide to School)

Author: Barbara Park

Rating: * (1 star out of 3 possible, "C")

Recommended with Reservations

Audience: 5-7 year-old girls

Most parents probably have a love/hate relationship with Junie B. Jones. Barbara Park was influenced by Beverly Cleary's Ramona Quimby, but Junie B. falls rather short of comparison for several reasons.

First of all, the plots are simple and singular. The reader really is not going to learn a lot about life in the real world from Junie B. Consequently, the reader will probably not identify very strongly with her, either. We will laugh along with some of her predicaments and her faux pas, but she will not really stick with us or influence us to any great degree.

Additionally, she is a pretty one-dimensional character. She tends to entertain us with one humorous line after another, but she doesn't spend much time in introspection or maturation. Along these lines, many parents will be disappointed with her language and behavior. She tends to be sassy and mischievous without a lot of the redeeming qualities (creativity, imagination, remorse, personal growth) one finds in a Ramona character.

However, on the positive side, she can engage kids with her antics, and they are, for the most part, harmless. Also, her books are short enough for shorter attention spans. So if you are having trouble finding books your 5 or 6 year old likes, this may be an option for you. As with so much of our pop culture, a little dab will do you. It's reasonable for kids to enjoy this along with their Garfield comics, as long as parents continue to supplement with the really good stuff! Of course, some families will choose to pass on these, and they won't be missing much.

Beverly Cleary

Henry Books: Henry Huggins; Henry & Ribsy; Henry & Beezus; Henry & the Clubhouse; Henry & the Paper Route; Ribsy

Ramona Books: Beezus & Ramona; Ramona the Pest; Ramona & her Father; Ramona & her Mother; Ramona Quimby, Age 8; Ramona Forever; Ramona's World

Rating: *** (3 stars out of 3 possible, "A")

Highly Recommended

Audience: K-5th Grade

Writing in the 1950s, Beverly Cleary was one of the first post WW-II children's writers to understand modern kids and modern childhood. While you may find an occasional long chapter or slow event, her characters and plots are standing the test of time. Parents who want their families to slow down, find good role models and share real-life stories and laughs must not overlook these series!

Henry Huggins was the first book Cleary wrote, specifically thinking of the boys who would come to her Yakima, WA public library looking for stories to which they could relate. What third-grader doesn't wish for a dog, not to mention hundreds of guppies in mason jars all over their bedroom? Henry's adventures with Ribsy continue and in later books we find Henry delivering newspapers and building a clubhouse. Through it all he has to navigate growing up in his busy Portland neighborhood. Henry works hard and saves his money for all the important things of childhood (footballs, bikes, sleeping bags) and he learns to think his way out of exasperating situations with Scooter, Ramona and Ribsy. He shows that boys need the freedom to pursue their projects and goals, resulting maturity and responsibility.

The "Ramona" books grew out of the Henry books. Ramona starts out as a 4-year old in Ramona and Beezus, but is probably best known as a Kindergartner in Ramona the Pest. Far from being a disobedient troublemaker, Ramona is simply a creative and energetic 5-year old. I've had one friend ask if she wasn't perhaps a poor example for children, but in fact the opposite is true. Ramona is a real person who experiences real 5-year old feelings and real 5-year old troubles. She certainly does not get away with disobedience, but is disciplined with patience, natural consequences, and occasionally stern reprimands. If you've ever had to discipline a child while laughing inside at some pretty funny situations, you've had some experience with a Ramona. I've learned a lot of parenting skills reading these books and often wish I could be as wise and patient as Mrs. Quimby or Mrs. Huggins.

These are characters who eat oatmeal, do chores, learn about the family budget, deal with family squabbles and small disappointments, solve problems creatively, make their own fun and even pray and go to Sunday School. I can hardly think of better way to influence our families than to laugh along together through these stories. I like to start Ramona the Pest when my girls are heading off to Kindergarten. Henry Huggins can be started as early as first grade, because all boys like to imagine themselves a little older than they are! Also, there is some dated language ("swell," "keen," "jeepers"), so you want to hook your kids on these books before they start to think they're too old for them! Older siblings will relate well to Beezus' challenges with Ramona in Beezus and Ramona. Younger siblings of course will relate to Ramona, and parents will relate to it all! The vocabulary is appropriate and challenging as well. The 2010 movie Ramona and Beezus is a well-done send up of several books combined.

Beverly Cleary continued to write for kids with her Mouse and the Motorcycle three-book series, Ellen Tebbits, Emily's Runaway Imagination, Otis Spoffod, Socks, Strider and others. While no character is quite as memorable as Ramona or Henry, her book, Dear Mr. Henshaw, about a 6-grade boy won the Newbery Medal. Ramona and Her Father and Ramona Quimby, Age 8 were Newbery Honor books. If you would like to know more about Cleary herself and her writing ideas, she has two memoirs: A Girl from Yamhill and My Own Two Feet.

There are several newer series that offer updated characters similar to Ramona, such as Judy Moody and Junie B. Jones. Judy Moody's author Megan McDonald admits she was inspired by Beverly Cleary. Look for me to review those series at some point, but expect lower marks for language, vocabulary, plot and character development. Ramona and Henry were the first and likely will remain the best!