I just started reading Over Sea, Under Stone (the first book in the series) to Jeffrey, and while I love it, it's a bit slow-going. It makes me wonder if I've read too much "Hi, I'm Harry Potter and oooh, look, my hair grows at an enormous rate"-type children's fantasy lately. Or it could be that this story lacks a great deal of the overt magic in the series. Anyway, I'm reading it to the Bug and we're slogging through, because good things happen in this series.
(Pardon me while I make a giant, ungraceful leap over to a newish topic.)
Good things also happen in The Green Boy, by Ms. Cooper, although the story-telling is occasionally heavy-handed and, to be honest, I thought waaaay too much about some plot points that weren't maybe that important. (Please note, this is NOT a new book, but is instead one that I found on the shelf that I hadn't read yet and I thought, Yay! New Cooper!)
In a departure from her usual settings, the story takes place on a fictional Bahamian island, and centers around two Bahamian boys, Trey and Lou. Lou can't speak, but is really in tune with Nature. It's all a bit complicated, but developers are seeking to turn the island into a resort and Trey and Lou are horrified, as is their grandfather. (Mom works in another city and dad is splitsville, although he does show up in an unpleasant way.) The boys discover that their island is actually a portal to another world (or maybe Lou is...) and travel to this world, which has been stripped of wildlife except for some unpleasant areas where the genetic mutations bred by scientists live. Okay. Now, up until this point, the story reminded me heavily of A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle, which is not all bad. I'm down with that. Oooh, look, I thought. A new dystopia. But...no.
Instead, the book took a sharp mythological turn that made Lou synonymous in some way with Lugh, the Indo-European light-bringer. Oh, dear. This might sound small-minded of me, but it was jarring for me to have two native Bahamians become agents of an Indo-European myth, particularly when a disgorging Green Man made an appearance late in the book. (Hang on, I'm about to get nerdly.) The majority of folks (including Trey and Lou) in the Bahamas are the descendents of African slaves, and while I am not knowledgeable enough in African myth to be certain, I assume that there exists in the canon some kind of resurrection or light-bringing or nature-tending that could be utilized here.
Because, ultimately, that is what this book is about: the importance of man's connection to and reverence of Nature. The message is occasionally heavy-handed, but it IS a children's book, where sometimes subtlety can be lost. (This is also probably the reason why the Lugh thing tripped me up--it's actually a decent way to get kids interested in Irish and Celtic mythology, but maybe if you KNOW that stuff already, it feels all wrong.)
I would certainly recommend this as an easy, interesting read for children up to high school age, but if you're an adult fan of Cooper, you might want to skip it (or at least go into it with the knowledge that this is NOT The Dark is Rising.)
In a not very related topic, well...sort of. Sigh. Have I mentioned it's hot? Anyway, the other evening a friend and I were discussing the movie adaptation of The Hunger Games. I have been, for the most part, appalled at the casting (Lenny Kravitz as Cinna. Lenny KRAVITZ as Cinna? Lenny. Kravitz. As. Cinna. I love me some Lenny and I would most definitely go his way should he strut past, BUT CINNA? No.) and am concerned about how in the world Hollywood will take a book that is an intensely personal story of a heroine's inner struggle and turn it into a movie that is in any way in keeping with the book.
Hollywood, by and large, sucks when it comes to adapting my favorite books, particularly the children's books. I don't even want to get into what was done to The Grinch Who Stole Christmas or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (both versions, frankly, although at least the Gene Wilder version didn't feature a fricking dentist daddy issue storyline.) When Hollywood announced it was going to do The Dark is Rising, I wavered between happiness and sheer horror, and it turns out the latter was the correct emotion, because Walden Studios totally removed any bit of subtlety or Arthurian legend or Celtic myth or dark magic and instead turned the movie into a giant wad of crap, filled with explosions and young love and Americanisms that made me want to barf. Susan Cooper requested the script be changed because it was so blech, but apparently, that was a no go. If you go read that link, be sure to read where the writer knew the book had to be changed to adapt to film, because it was "... it was written in this quite lyrical, poetic, kaleidoscopic fashion." Yes, children just HATE that kind of thing. (Bangs head on desk.)
My fear for the movie adaptation of The Hunger Games is that the makers will see it as "ooh, look, there's explosions and death and kissing and mutants! With explosions!" when it's reality is a little more like "teenagers are capable of great emotional depth and the world is a fragile place, so cling to the things that keep you safe while embracing a different way of looking at your environment. Also, dystopias suck."
There is a difference there that is so, you know, subtle (CUE IRONIC SNORT) that I'm not sure if Hollywood understands. And if it doesn't don't...well, I'm not sure Lenny's hotness can save the movie, y'all.
I mean, even hotness of that magnitude has its limits.
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