Read All About It!

In the midst of my scheming to take advantage of the Art Institute’s free days (Thursdays and Fridays from 5pm to 9pm during the summer), I came across this information about a new book-related exhibit that opened this month. It features award-winning artwork from picture books, done in vast array of different medias, including watercolor, oil, woodblock print, scratchboard, collage, ink, and pencil. Click here for more information about the exhibit, or just head over to the Art Institute to see both the artwork and the picture books that the artwork was created for!

Above art by Beth Krommes. Illustration from The House in the Night, 2008. Written by Susan Marie Swanson. Houghton Mifflin Company.

Hollywood has been flipping books into movies since its onset.

Normally, I would not think about discussing this subject, because, well, it’s nothing new. I don’t mind that good books regularly get turned into� movies. Even though every time it happens- big chunks get ripped out somehow! And in most cases the real moral of the story gets lost.

Yes, I am complaining now, but when a book comes to the big screen, I will most likely be there to watch it. Although, I’d like to add that it’s at the $3 theater.

And let it be known that I am the type of person who will often see a preview and make a point to read the book prior to seeing the movie. This path usually leads me to lose any desire to see the movie, because the picture that the author put in my head is just too good to shatter.

Why do I do this? Because, it took me until the second chapter of Fight Club to get Brad Pitt and Edward Norton out of my head. And they kept popping back in- no matter how hard I tried to make them stay away.

Ya, this guy!

Let’s face it, no matter how messy Brad Pitt’s hair is, he just isn’t the grubby, angry, quick witted, snappy dressing Tyler Durdin I imagined when reading the book. (You might notice his designer T-shirt with motorcycles printed on it in the adjacent picture–not very scuzzy at all! )

Last week I had the same trouble with Coraline, and I have not even� seen the movie.

A major pitfall of books as movies is that the reader has already been given images to use while reading. This takes away a great deal from what the author intended for the reader. And more importantly it discourages the activation of imagination.

Although on that note, I must say that Where the Wild Things Are, is very accurate– but there were pictures!

Alas, a particular preview that I saw this weekend has sparked something in me that just cannot be held back.

Current TV’s The Rotten Tomatoes Show previewed what is expected to be one of this summer’s box office hits: Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.

The Road

Apparently, the release date on this film had been pushed back by over a year, which I am mighty thankful for!

Two weeks ago, I read The Road. It is by far one of the most imagination jogging books I have read! I was so captivated by the book that I� refused to read the last 30 pages when it was dark outside. And I am now (as of my train ride to work this morning) reading No Country for Old Men, also by Cormac McCarthy.

Let’s discuss this a little, shall we?

First off, upon Googling The Road, the first two links to show up were in fact for the movie, NOT the book. The very same thing occurred with Fight Club, only worse! The actual book is not mentioned in the Google list, until the 9th link. And previews haven’t even been distributed in commercial form yet! My problem with this is very plainly, where the emphasis lies– the book came first!

Experiment with this for any book that has turned movie, and I guarantee you will get the same results as I did.

Back on The Road. The previews show more color than my imagination ever pictured! The very mere fact that there are leaves in the movie is in my eyes a horrible misrepresentation of the scenery depicted by the book.

The world was cold and gray, the brightest sun only ever shown through clouds, and the road was covered with ash… NOT LEAVES! This book was so amazingly vivid that I literally ran out last night in the pouring rain to fetch another book by Cormac McCarthy.

Another aspect to the book which I find will be difficult to transfer over to the silver screen is the lack of dialogue between the characters. The sparse conversations that do happen between the man and his son�� are short and spat.

Example:

“You have to talk to me.”

“I am talking.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”������ –end of conversation until 4� scene building pages later

So, I have not actually used my library card since my beginning as an intern at Open Books. With two weeks until my time is up and my sincere need for some more colorful imagery I decided yesterday was a good day to break it back in…

My goal was to rent Suttery, which, I was told by one of our CAUGHT readers is sincerely a laugh out loud, humorous read. My hope was to see the lighter side of the author whose work is still haunting my dreams.

Unfortunately, Suttery was not to be found. What was there were: three copies of No Country for Old Men, one The Road, and one copy of All the Pretty Horses.

From my brief research while looking for my current read, what I know is that All the Pretty Horses (also a movie) won The National Book Award, and The Road is a Pulitzer Prize winner. No Country for Old Men won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Now, with that information– do you think the fact that one of those books also happens to be a riveting film has anything to do with what I ended up bringing home with me?��������� I’d say it’s possible…

Either way, my moral is that Hollywood is no match for my imagination! No matter the film, I will always keep reading the books!

Today was my first day as a Marketing/ PR Intern at Open Books. After entrusting myself to some questionable directions, I finally found myself standing outside of a red brick building sparsely decorated by large windows that reflected the empty street and myself. As I skimmed the dense list of businesses and groups after snaking through the doorway after a key-bearing woman (thanks), I began to wonder…

Was I at the right place? Could this mundane collection of office lofts contain the youthful zest that was promised through the website?

By walking through the front door, I was enveloped by a Seuss-worth of colors, I was relieved to be in the right place.

Not to get side-tracked, but I’d like to take a moment and reflect upon my one of my favorite authors, Theodore Geisel. The majority of us fondly know him as Dr. Seuss. A Yertle the Turtle fanatic from an early age, I was surprised to find a similar turtle-stacking reference in one of his underappreciated political cartoons. Speaking of things being stacked in odd shapes, I also found that Dr. Seuss’ namesake (uninterestingly enough, the Geisel part of it) had been given to a peculiarly stacked library where Seuss donated a lot of money to promote literacy. Promoting an unconventional library to promote literacy? Sounds familiar. And that’s where the relevance kicks in.

From my initial experiences with Open Books, I am excited to work with such a creative and colorful team dedicated to a cause that they are passionate about. I hope to lend my current skills to the organization and am sure that my efforts will be rewarded with knowledge. And with a constant flow of generous book donations, it seems that I’m going to be doing quite a bit of stacking myself.

Most of our stacking deals with books rather than turtles (which tend to be much more inanimate) so perhaps we can build a substantial V out of books, instead.

-Matt Gilles

Hi everyone!

My name is Rebecca Witheridge and I am one of Open Books’ new Literacy Interns for the summer! I am going to be a a senior at Oberlin College in Oberlin Ohio (the same school Ava graduated from! What are the odds?). I am just so excited to begin my internship here, as well as a bit nervous since this is my first internship ever–but I know I will feel right at home in this colorful office. This is also my first time living in the Chicago area (well, as a grown-up anyway, since I was born here but moved away when I was three) and I am sure it will be an adventure learning my way around using the trains, since I am prone to getting lost…

My hobbies are reading, drawing, watching movies, hanging out with my friends, and when I’m at school, doing homework. I am currently going through withdrawal of my favorite television show Lost… and I am eagerly awaiting the next Harry Potter movie. I am excited to spend time with the family that is so generously letting me live with them this summer, and I am also going to be tutoring for Housing Opportunities for Women in Rogers Park. I know this will be a great summer and I can’t wait to do everything I can to support and promote Open Books while I’m here! Thanks to all of the awesome staff for being so welcoming and getting us newbies on our feet!

~Rebecca

“We’ve all encountered wicked wolves, found fairy godmothers, and faced trial by fire. We’ve all set off into unknown woods at one point in life or another. We’ve all had to learn to tell friend from foe and to be kind to crones by the side of the road. . . .

Our lives are our mythic journeys, and our happy endings are still to be won. ”

~Terri Windling

One upon a time there was a class who loved telling about … their Chicago Tales!  Adventures in Creative Wrtiting went on a magical journey today with a 6th grade class from CICS Washington Park.  The students experienced our pilot workshop on fairy tales, folk tales and tall tales.   The workshop was designed for students to reflect and recreate narratives of their own lives and retell their stories with an exaggerated twist.   Here is a few Chicago tales from today’s chronicles.  Remember, fairy tales only seem impossible.  Beware of magic and fantastical characters.

Malik Jones

Antwan and the Monkey Dragons Fairy Tale

Once upon a time there was a boy named Antwan, and the monkey dragons.  They went to Dave and Busters.  While Antwan was walking, he looked back and bumped into a monkey dragon.  So the monkey dragon said, “Hey, why did you bump me?”  But Antwan said it was an accident.  So Smash the king monkey dragon said, “Monkey dragons, attack!”  So Antwan ran as fast as he could.  He looked up in the air and when he looked down his right foot tripped on the front of his left foot.  So the monkey dragons caught him and they took Antwan to their house.  So he was missing.  His daddy called the police.  The next day Antwan’s daddy went next door to get some sugar.  So the monkey dragons said, “the sugar is in the basement.”  Antwan’s daddy turned on the light and there was Antwan.  He was united with Antwan.  They tried to go to the front but the monkey dragon was right there.  So they went up stairs and then jumped out of the window.  So they went home and lived happily ever after.

Dashia Wilson

The Best Day Ever

Once upon a time, downtown in 2005, a school called Washington Park went on a trip to Millennium Park, for a tour.  They were landing from an enormous hovercraft.  They started walking off the hovercraft and started walking around.  Then five girls found a fountain, she told the class and they cam over to the fountain.  I was next to the fountain then all of a sudden an evil weird looking dentist came out of no-where and pushed me into the fountain.  I was soaked and when I got out he was standing there.  Then he started coming after me and I started to run.  He started chasing me, so I came upon a post office shop and went to hide out in there.  Then this wise postman told me that he only wants you because of your perfect teeth.  I was thinking and thought of a plan.  I started eating chocolate and my teeth got ruined.  I went outside and he was ten feet behind me, so I ran, but he patted me on the shoulder and said, “Have you seen a little girl with perfect teeth?”  So I said no and smiled at him and he walked away.  I went back to catch up with my class and they were just getting back on the hovercraft.  My teacher said, “Did everyone have fun?”  So I said I had the weirdest day ever and looked out the window and loved Millennium Park for the rest of my life.

Juan Bratcher

Santa’s Big Break, Part #1

One dark, cold, winter night, gangs of mobsters and trolls roamed the streets in search of Santa Claus.  “Ho! Ho! Ho! I hear someone’s looking for me, is it you that I see.” said Santa.  “Yes we are looking for you,” said the trolls.  “Well it looks like you’ve found me,” said Santa.  The goblins quickly tied up Santa and hung him from the Sears tower, forcing him not to deliver the toys to the town.  And just when all hope was lost, it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s super Juan!
…to be continued!