Monsters and Vampires and Werewolves, OH MY!

The popular “Twilight” series has spawned an entire genre of literature now known as Paranormal Romance or what I like to call “creatures of the night and the women who love them”. Apparently these novels entail the ultimate in forbidden love. However, loving a monster, vampire or werewolf is anything but new. Women referring to a certain man as a wolf, demon, monster, blood-sucker all go back to the dawn of time and this name-calling obviously continues today throughout all forms of media.

If your teen is “into” paranormal romance, he or she is old enough to also read the originals of paranormal romance: Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”, Mary Shelly’s “Frankenstein”, and Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde”. Amazon offers all three together with a very insightful Introduction by Stephen King.

As Mr. King refers to these novels as the “personification of evil”, this makes for a great topic for sharing thoughts and concepts of evil with your teen, maybe even starting a family-version of a book club to discuss these works of literature around the dinner table. For example, questions for discussion could include: “Who is the depiction of evil? Dr. Victor Frankenstein or the monster he created?”; “Do you think scientists today play God?”; “Where should science draw the line?”; “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is the first novel to explore evil as internal force and part of human nature rather than an external force such as the moon, a bite from another creature, creatures from the underworld sent to plague mankind, etc. What do you think? Is evil internal or external? Was Dr. Jekyll justified in trying to rid his DNA of evil?”

I’d love to read your thoughts on the above questions. Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section of this blog!

Fresh Eyes For Harry Potter

Want to share the captivating magic of Harry Potter with your children (and re-live the magic for yourself)?

Well, it’s not easy but it can be done! Family friends, The Mornewecks, laid down the law among friends and relations that sharing the Harry Potter series with their children was a family event and under no circumstances were the children to see the movies before they had read the books. Fortunately for The Morneweck’s, everyone respected their wishes.

We were not so lucky. One of our nephews became introduced to the movies before the books and even thouh he fell in love with the series, it has been difficult to get him interested in the books. Meanwhile, his 12-yea, older brother, Michael, was too busy with other things and never saw any of the movies. What luck!

At least with the latter nephew, we are getting to re-live the magic of the series again through his fresh eyes. What fun! The magic is coming alive all over again.

Upon encouraging his younger brother to read the books, he said, “Just keep reading “Sorcerer’s Stone ‘til you get to Diagon Alley – then you’re hooked and you can’t put it down.” A truer word has never been spoken but unfortunately, it has yet to take with the pre-read, movie-watcher but we keep hoping.

So the moral of this particular blog is:  Avoid the movies until after the children in your life have a chance to read the books and experience the magic for themselves – you’ll be happy you did!

"Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" Did Tim Burton and I Read the Same Book?

After the release of the controversial film “Hunger Games”, my sister – the mother of two betweener boys - asked me to start reading and reviewing teen literature and to set what I determined to be the appropriate age-level. A quick search on popular teen novels, listed, among others, “AbrahamLincoln: Vampire Hunter” written by Seth Grahame-Smith who also authored “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”.

A quick, enjoyable read, the NOVEL: “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” proved to be a page-turner of real history intertwined with an ax-wielding Abe Lincoln turned action-hero saving the nation from Confederate vampires. The novel can make even the most bored history student intrigued by the events surrounding the Civil War and light a flame of academic curiosity to search for what was ‘real’ versus ‘twisted’ history.

My recommendation for age-appropriate for the NOVEL would be 13 or 14, not because of violence or vampires but because the children should be old-enough to understand and enjoy spoofs, parodies and even dark comedies. I was envisioning the film version to be something along the lines of a Civil War version of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". After all, Mr. Burton and Seth Grahame-Smith had just collaborated on the spoof of the television series, “Dark Shadows”.

So imagine my surprise to see that the film version of “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” was not a PG-13, tongue-in-cheek look at history, but an R-rated, blood and guts, slasher movie. So I ask again, Did Tim Burton and I read the same book? I know he is Hollywood’s artsy, creative darling but I wish someone should have stood up to him on this one. The great thing about Seth’s books is that they encourage teens to learn and become fascinated by history and literature without even realizing that they are doing it. I hope this journey to la-la land doesn’t detract Seth from his true purpose of drawing teens into a lifetime of learning.

Meanwhile, here's my advice: Read the book. Skip the movie.