The New Kid by Temple Mathews

Thanks to BenBella Books and Netgalley for allowing me to read this.  I guess it isn't that new of a book, looks like it's been out for awhile, but it was available so I asked to read it because it sounded pretty good.
It wasn't bad, kind of predictable, but again, not bad.  The main character is Will Hunter, his last name is perfect because he is basically a hunter, kind of like Sam and Dean on Supernatural.  Will is the "new kid" or as it is always written in the book "the New Kid" a lot.  Turns out he travels from town to town, basically hunting demons.  This all began because of what happened to his father when he was about 9 years old.  He also learned all about how his father had been hunting demons, and although he was unable to hear the demon speak, he knows that it took his father.  And since then he has been searching for that same demon to try to find his father.  He lives with his mother and stepfather, the stepfather is kind of a crappy guy, reminded me a bit at first of the mother's boyfriend in The Lightning Thief series by Rick Riordan.  Somehow, I think I remember it is because of how good he is with computers, he has been able to make a lot of money, so much that he is in control of the company that employs his mother and stepfather so that when he needs to move on to a new town in search of more demons after he's taken care of the problem in one town, he can have them transferred.  Now, when he meets the principal at the new school, I'm again reminded of another tv show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and when she met with the principal at the beginning of the series.  Part of Will's being good with computers has led to him creating a video game that is very popular, and this video game is basically all the fights he's had with demons, he also keeps track of how many demons he's killed in the game.  The girl who will be the love interest is named Natalie.  Natalie lost her twin sister a while back, and she is sure it was something weird that happened, and so when Will shows up, Natalie seems to sense something different about him, to the point that she spies on him, and sees him setting up his fancy room in the basement.  The class nerd also befriends them and finds out.  So now Will has something he normally doesn't have to worry about, friends.  And of course, there is something going on in this town, and it may even be leading up to something bigger than Will is expecting.  Will learns something about his past and his family that will shock him, and really change the way he looks at things.
Okay, this story had a LOT of action.  I actually got a bit bored with it myself at times, especially at the end, when I kind of started skimming through that part.  But, along that line, I can see that this could be a popular thing for boys to read.  So I would definitely recommend it to many of my male students.  Because it was told in 3rd person sometimes we'd kind of get a look at Natalie's viewpoint.  But it didn't flow that easily for me.  It was like it was thrown in just at certain parts.  I'd have like to have seen maybe every other chapter or something from her side, that would have made it make more sense maybe.  Not sure.  All in all, not a bad book.  Not a top choice for me, but not bad.

My Favorite Books to Movies/Television Shows

Today I'm going to talk about the books that I love that have been turned into movies and what I thought of them.  So there are going to be some good ones, and some bad ones here.

1.  I loved the Twilight series.  The books I mean.  Loved, loved, loved them!  I know many people out there do not, and that only bothers me when they have to insult me because I do.  There are books I don't like, but I don't insult the people who like them.  I figure to each his own, and that is why there are so many different books out there to read!  Which is a good thing!!!  Okay, off my little soap box about this.  The movies, especially the first one, were okay.  Not great.  The actors didn't match what I had pictured in my head really.  But there are some good things.  I could still enjoy the first one I think because I had read the book, and so the things left out, like why or how did Bella and Edward fall in love, so not shown in the movie, I already knew how it happened from reading the book.  And the first movie got my sister to finally read and fall in love with them like I did.  And I feel the movies have been getting better and better.

2.  I was a late starter in the Harry Potter series.  I started after the first four books were already out I believe.  I am often not interested in joining into the latest bandwagon, often figuring I'll be disappointed, (case in point, 50 Shades, 'nuff said).  But I had recently started working at the B.Dalton store in our local mall, and another employee gave me a stripped cover copy of the first one to try it out.  And of course, I was hooked.  I sped through the first 4, and then was eager for the 5th one to be released.  I think the movies, especially the early ones, were really good.  I know that I was disappointed though as they left sooooo much out of the Goblet of Fire, and then The Order of the Phoenix, I was so mad that they left out the parts about Ron and Hermione being prefects, and Ron playing Quidditch!  I believe the movies then got better for the last 2 books (3 movies).

3.  The Lightning Thief series by Rick Riordan also is a favorite book series.  I started reading them the first year I went to my state librarians' association conference, and the author was one of the speakers.  I LOVED them!  And then I began reading them to my students, and they loved them!  One of my favorite memories as a teacher is having the parent of one of those students come and say how thankful they were to me because now their son was loving the books, and at one point he got so into reading, that they bought him a Nook e-reader!  I even took one of his copies of the books down to get autographed when I saw the author.  Now, onto the movie.  It was horrible!  Percy was too old, he was supposed to be a middle schooler!  So much was wrong!  And I loved having my students that I had read the book with come back and complain to me about it!  Students that hadn't read it loved it.  If I had continued teaching that book, I would have shown the movie just to see the kids have the same reaction.  And now I hear they're making the sequel?  I want to know how?  They ended the movie in a way that didn't leave it open for the sequel!  Will I go see it?  Maybe, in the hopes that maybe they can fix what they messed up and be able to make them all into movies.

4.  The Hunger Games is another series I started because of the library association book awards.  I read it a couple years ago when they were deciding whether to nominate it for that years possible award list.  And of course, was immediately hooked.  The movie, well, I have two differing opinions on it.  When I went to the midnight show to see it, this was a book I had been teaching in my classroom for about 2 years, and I knew it inside and out from discussing characters and plots and settings, etc.  So seeing it the first time I was a little disappointed.  Some major things I didn't like about it, people and details I felt were important and shouldn't have been left out.  But then, I went back and saw it again, without thinking about those things, and I thought they did a really good job.  It was a great movie.  Although again, I had students I'd read it with that were a little disappointed like me.  (Is it wrong that secretly makes me happy?  Or maybe not so secretly?)

5.  Now, off of YA books, to one of the BEST movies made from a book EVER!  The Green Mile by Stephen King.  This was originally published in little mini-books, about a month apart for each of the 6 parts. I really liked this book/series, and I am a huge Stephen King fan, and I can name so many of his books they ruined in movies, such as Cujo.  But this movie, at the beginning, when they're leading Michael Clarke Duncan's character down the "green mile", before the movie even tells what has happened, I was already in tears, because it totally made me remember the book, and what happens.  They did an awesome job.

6.  I am also a huge Dean Koontz fan, and one of my favorite of all his books is Watchers.  And at the time, one of my favorite movie stars was Corey Haim, but he was not the right person for this movie.  Especially since the Travis character was supposed to be a grown man.  Changing the main characters to teens, and man, changing so much more of the story, the movie was horrible.  I can only hope that one day someone will decide to do a remake and do it right.

7.  I hadn't read the books when the True Blood series started.  I decided to wait and read each book after each season.  And that worked well, at first.  The first couple seasons were pretty good, even with some of the changes.  But then, I couldn't wait anymore and had to read on in the series, and so as seasons would start, so NOT where the next book was supposed to go, it made it harder to watch.  And while I still watch the show, it is hard not to be irritated at a lot of the changes.  I don't mind some of the outside stories that get added, what I hate is when they change things about the main characters and their stories.

8.  The Vampire Diaries.  I was so excited to hear about this show!  And then, I watched the very first episode and the things that were changed, well I was already OUT!  The color of Elena's hair, wrong.  Her aunt she lived with, was supposed to be an elderly woman from the way I read the book.  So just, no.  Also, I really loved the Secret Circle series by this same author, I used to read it over and over.  So when I heard the CW was going to do a series on it, I knew there was no way I would even give it a chance.

9.  Now this is a kind of backwards entry, Buffy the Vampire Series, the tv show with many novelizations.  A lot of time novelizations are cheesy, don't really capture the essence of the show.  But not in this case!  There are some awesome books, ones that aren't just a written version of a specific episode.  One of the authors that did this best was Nancy Holder, and I've recently reviewed her Teen Wolf series novel, and she's done it again!

10.  Hmm, I'm debating between 2 books for this one, either Shopaholic, or 20 Times a Lady.  I'll quickly brief both.  Shopaholic, love the books, the movie, also good, but I think didn't quite do justice to what could have been done.  20  Times a Lady, or What's Your Number for the movie title, I haven't read in a while.  But I loved the movie, thought it was funny, so guess it was okay!  Plus it has Chris Evans, who, HOT!!!





What about you?  Are there any movies from books that you hated?  Or ones that you thought were perfectly done?  I'd love to hear about it!

First Impression of The Hunger Games Movie

Okay, as this is a book blog, and The Hunger Games movie is based on the book, I feel I can go ahead and give my opinion on the movie.  I'm not going to make a big deal about how the book is always better than the movie, because that just goes without saying.  First, let me say the movie was a really good movie, I'm not saying that it wasn't.  This post is just to discuss my experience and feelings about how it was done.  So I want to start with the good things.  The fact that all the actors cast really fit the characters in the books is a huge accomplishment to me.  So often the person just isn't who I imagined when I read, or doesn't quite conform to that when I see the movie.  Not so in this case.  They stuck right to the story, anything added did not ruin the story, in fact a lot of the stuff added really enhanced the movie experience.  For instance, the book is told from Katniss's point of view, so there is so much we don't get to see because of that.  I liked how the movie showed us the Gamemakers' working on the arena, setting up President Snow's role for later as well.  I like that they kept in things that you might have thought would be too hard to do, like the Tracker Jackers, and the muttations.  Even though neither were quite as horrible as in the book.  I loved the interview with Cesar Flickerman and Peeta.  I think someone who has not read the books will totally enjoy the action and imagery.  Now I was really tired, I'd worked all day, and then only took about a half hour nap before the movie.  Plus, I went and saw another movie about 3 hours before it started.  And, they kept the theater so dark when we were sitting in there, I was having some trouble staying awake.  So I'm guessing there are some details I need to watch the movie when I'm more alert to catch.
Okay, the bad things.  I want to preface this with this statement.  I am going to compare this to some other movies from books, but I'm not comparing the actual movie content or quality, just my experience with them in comparison to the books and being familiar with the books.  Okay, I feel that they did a Twilight movie mistake in not really putting any of the relationship building between Peeta and Katniss in the movie.  If you haven't read the book, you don't really understand the whole "boy with the bread" thing because you don't know how bad off Katniss was, you don't really see what happened to Peeta because of that.  Time with Peeta and Katniss in the cave was left out, so we don't get to see how Katniss must play this relationship, or how much she is playing.  I still HATE that they left out Madge, the mayor's daughter, the REAL way Katniss gets the Mockingjay pin.  We don't know the whole story of what happened to make Katniss even go out and start hunting.  And wow, Rue, we don't get all the time she and Katniss spent together and so when she died, I didn't even tear up in the movie, and I was soooo sure I would! I think this experience also compares for me to when I went to see The Lightning Thief movie.  Let me assure you that this movie, The Hunger Games, was a really good movie, while The Lightning Thief was horrible.  But my comparison here is that I have taught both of these books in my class, and so I have dissected so much about the stories, the symbols, the characters, and I know them in so much detail.  So that makes going to see the movie and having so many things left out hard to take.  Talking about symbolism, the lessons I got to use with The Hunger Games has a huge activity about all the food in the book, and what it could symbolize and how it fits in with the story.  And yet in the movie, none of that.  We don't get to hear about what Katniss says she likes most in the Capital, the lamb stew, that gets sent to her and Peeta for a feast in the arena.  We don't get to hear Peeta describe all the different breads from the districts, tying in so well to his boy with the bread image.  Haymitch doesn't do his dive off the stage at the beginning, such a big part of the book.  And Haymitch is just not the drunk he is supposed to be.  One last complaint, I'm glad the muttations were there, but I tried looking so close to see that they had the characteristics they were supposed to, and they didn't.  Oh yeah, and I think they were trying to keep it to a PG-13 rating, and so the violence was almost completely skipped over, barely in the background. 
In conclusion, I will go see it again.  I do think they did a good job with the movie for what they did, and I would definitely show it when it is on video for my students to compare a book to a movie and see what they think.  I do recommend it, go see it, I did like it!