So you’re home for break. And it’s wonderful. But what are you going to do with all that downtime for the next three weeks?

How about do a little reading for pleasure? You know what I’m talking about, right? The kind of reading you can do without a highlighter. Without making annotations. Without a 12lb textbook that hurts your arms as you attempt to read it in bed.

Yeah, that’s right. The good kind. For a reader like me, winter break means catching up on all those books I’ve been missing out on thanks to the hundreds of pages of History reading my professors assign nightly. If you’re looking for some good books to pass that time at home (or on a warm beach somewhere) with the parentals, allow me to recommend a few of my favorites. If you do anything over this break (besides watch TV and eat leftovers) you must pick up at least one of these: Read More »

Back in February I reported that the new Spike Jonze/Dave Eggers film adaptation of everyone’s favorite children’s book Where the Wild Things Are was in a bit of trouble for being TOO scary for the young’uns.

According to New York Magazine (via Playlist), the film is still not doing well. Hot on the heels of Speed Racer’s big box-office upset, Playlist is reporting that Jon Vitti (of Alvin and the Chipmuncks screenwriting fame…Yikes!) has been hired to help out, and that the production is “deeply troubled”.

There were rumors that Jonze had been fired from the project after Warner Brothers scheduled re-shoots and ordered rewrites of several scenes. However, Jonze is reportedly still part of the project, despite not having final say on the end result. Read More »

Can’t wait for the release of the Spike Jonze-directed film version of Where the Wild Things Are? Well just make sure you leave your younger sibling at home: Slashfilm is reporting that early test screenings of the adaptation of everyone’s favorite childhood story are terrifying young kids, and parents are not impressed.

One test screener claimed Max, the young boy protagonist, is “weird and off-putting” and “not charming at all”, while the monsters are “not cute”.

Perhaps I’m remembering wrong, but Max was not exactly “charming” in the original book—he chased after his dog with a fork and told his mother he would “EAT HER UP” after she sent him to his room!

He retreats into his imagination, where he forces even the scary wild things to obey him. The book stirred up controversy when it was first released, as many parents thought the monsters were too scary for children. However, I think the book really touches on some difficult aspects of childhood, which is important for both kids and their parents to read and understand. Read More »