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Freaks and Geeks Storytelling Tips
Freaks and Geeks is a coming-of-age drama made in the late 1990s, set in 1980. Though it was cancelled after one season, that’s not because it wasn’t good. Perhaps the audience assumed this was yet another high school drama done badly. This show did a lot of stuff you’ll have seen before, but did it […]
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TV Study: Stranger Things (2016)
Stranger Things is a Netflix series created by the brilliantly named ‘Duffer Brothers’, out this year but set in 1983. Though I suspect strong ‘recency bias’, season one scores a very high 9.2 on IMDb. **CONTAINS ALL THE SPOILERS** The show feels like a mixture of Twin Peaks (with the missing kids and small community), Freaks […]
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Olivia and the Fairy Princesses by Ian Falconer Analysis
Olivia and the Fairy Princesses is the third Olivia book I’m taking a close look at; the first was Olivia, which I really liked; the next was Olivia and the Missing Toy which I really didn’t and now for a story which has garnered Olivia a bit of a reputation among reviewers on social media […]
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The Very Hungry Caterpillar Picture Book Analysis
Along with others such as Goodnight Moon, The Very Hungry Caterpillar makes for an excellent case study into how simple can equal super-popular. I like this book because of its subtle healthy-eating message. So many picture books rely upon stock yuck, but here it’s the green food that saves the caterpillar. The “Book Will Turn […]
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Some Things Are Scary by Florence Parry Heide and Robert Osborn Analysis
Some Things Are Scary is a favourite from my own childhood, and now that my daughter loves it just as much, I appreciate its timelessness. This book would make an excellent mentor text for a classroom of young writers. They might use the structure to create their own story about scary things. I only have the […]
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Olivia by Ian Falconer Analysis
Starting with the cover, here we have a static picture of Olivia the pig, our main character. In picture books, the very best illustrators are able to depict motion very well, but you often get a character in ‘pose’ position when they are first introduced, or when the reader is meant to be contemplating the […]
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Comparative Children’s Literature: The United States of America
Best Loved Books
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Swine Lake by James Marshall and Maurice Sendak
Swine Lake is a 1999 picture book by James Marshall, illustrated by Maurice Sendak. The humour is an example of ‘hero wears a mask‘ transgression comedy. About the Author and Illustrator If you’re American, perhaps you’re familiar with the following series: The author and illustrator of the George and Martha series also wrote other books, and […]
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Inversion Does Not Equal Subversion: The Day The Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt And Oliver Jeffers
Daniel Craig says “why should a woman play James Bond when there should be a part just as good as James Bond, but for a woman?” “There should simply be better parts for women and actors of colour.” DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) September 21, 2021 The Day The Crayons Quit is a bestseller made by two picture book […]
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Gender Problems In ParaNorman (2012)
ParaNorman (2012) is an animated zombie flick, light-hearted in its intent, and follows the adventures of an outcast 11-year old called Norman, who sees dead people. They’re everywhere. I identify with Norman, I really do. These days, whenever I watch a kids’ film, all I see are anti-girl references and tropes. These tropes are like […]
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Problems With The Redemption Story
According to Hayden White (American historian), The Redemption Story is one of the Four Grand Narratives of the West. (The others are Greek fatalism, bourgeois progressivism and Marxist utopianism.)
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Million Dollar Baby Film Study
Today is Curmudgeon’s Day, according to Twitter. (Un)happy Curmudgeon’s Day! In that spirit I will take a close look at a film in which a curmudgeonly old man learns to soften up with the help of an earnest and humble young woman. I first saw this film around the time Million Dollar Baby come out and […]
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Film Study: Contact (1997)
I recently found a copy of Carl Sagan’s 1985 novel Contact at the second-hand store. I already knew that Carl Sagan was a brilliant thinker and that he wrote this book of fiction as a way of playing with some ideas he had about what might happen if humans were to make contact with an extra-terrestrial intelligent life […]
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Planes Trains and Automobiles
Planes, Trains & Automobiles is a thanksgiving comedy from 1987. The film has been given an R rating — not, as I expected, because of the pillow scene, but because of the cussy airport scene. [Hughes] is not often cited for greatness, although some of his titles, like “The Breakfast Club,” “Weird Science,” “Ferris Bueller’s […]
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Disneyfication Or Disneyization
Defintion of Disneyfication at Wikipedia Walt Disney, the dude, was an interesting and resourceful fella. I have respect for the man behind the mouse. I also have tons of respect for the digital artists and computer whizzes who make Disney’s visually breathtaking animated movies. Having known a few, I even respect those poor saps that […]