half magic by edward eager

- what was your favourite part of this book?
- i don't really know. i liked the whole book.

- quick! make a wish!
- i wish i had twice as many tickets for screen time and could do twice as much of all the things i love to do. and i wish it twice.

- of the four children, which are you most similar to?
- mark. because we are both boys. he treats martha like i treat daedae.

- would you have tried to explain everything to mr smith like martha did?
- yes. actually, i wouldn't have, just to make the time more interesting.

- which was the most disasterous wish?
- if the wish for four noses would have worked out, that would have been disasterous. martha being half-there was pretty bad. and all the wishes that involved the cat were funny and ridiculous. really disasterous.

- what are your feelings about the mom?
- i think all of her decisions, especially the one about hiring miss bick [the nanny], were terrible. so was thinking she was crazy. and how could she be so completely wrong about everything to do with magic?

- of the places they traveled to, where would you most want to go?
- medieval times. i would especially like to fight with swords. i've wanted to be a knight ever since i heard about knights and jousting and swordfighting.

- would you like to read the sequel, with the same characters?
- yes. partly because we own it, and partly because i like all this guy's books. read half-magic! and if you like it, read knight's castle! but if you didn't like the medieval part, don't bother.

- ok mr. advertizer, convince me to read this book.
- half magic is awesome! the medieval scenes will just cut you to pieces! partly because the characters themselves are being cut to pieces! if you love anything magical, it is all here. all these books are woooEEEEE! and if you liked this book, read everything by edward eager, because he wrote billions (actually only seven) of magical books. and stay tuned to my blog for other fantastic amazing chapter books and you should read all of them. and also go to forest dot awesome dot com for video games, tv shows, character lists and comics to amaze you all!

bone by jeff smith

- we spent almost a year reading all nine books in the bone series plus bone tall tales. was it worth it?
- yes. because they are the best comic books i've ever read in my whole life.

- i'll split your favourite parts into categories. what was the funniest scene?
- when lucius and phoney bone have a bet about who can run the tavern the best and phoney advertized by calling himself the dragonslayer.

- what was the most intense part?
- the final scenes of treasure hunters when thorn and fone bone are trapped in the dungeon. also when mermie frightens the armies with visions. then in the first book when we see grandma ben fighting the rat creatures as they are clawing her and biting her head. another intense scene was when rock jaw had them trapped in the cave.

- anything that made you angry?
- not really.

- let's talk characters. who was your overall favourite?
- smiley because he was really funny. phoney because he was really angry. and fone bone because he always knew everything was going to be okay.

- do you have a special place in your heart for any minor characters?
- roderick the racoon and the baby possums. and bartleby. they are just all really cute and great.

- you wanted to tell me about characters you hated.
- phoney bone, lord tarsil and the venu, queen mim (the locust) and of course briar.

- wait a second. you just told me that phoney was one of your favourites. AND you hated him?
- he is also kind of troublesome. all he cares about is treasure. and he didn't help at all, with anything. ever. and then there was that time he stole gramma ben's bloomers and nailed them to the side of the barn to make it warmer. [laughing] can we tell people what bloomers are? giant UNDERPANTS! ha!!

- what do you feel about kingdok? for me, briar is more purely evil, but i can't say that about him. . .
- i think kingdok was just poorly taken care of by briar. he trusted her and he shouldn't have.

- why would kingdok rather die than help thorn?
- he just wanted to because he was so hurt he didn't want to live anymore. it was just too hard.

- how well did jeff smith balance serious and funny?
- i think he should have done a little more funny. but it was really just one pebble more on the serious side of the scale. i think he did the best job with tall tales, especially when tyson vomited all the heroes and big johnson bone kept calling mr pip mr plop.

- you love the funny parts. tell me more.
- when the possums called the two stupid rat creatures "quiche munching old ladies". soleil loves that. also when the winter comes suddenly in the very beginning and at the very end. and when phoney realizes that smiley took all the treasure out and replaced it with stale bread thingies.

- speaking of the very end, did fone bone make the right decision?
- his decision was completely wrong. he should have stayed with thorn. and they probably never came back to visit because they don't know how.

- the "quest for the spark" books take place in the same world. are you interested in going back?
- YES! we need to request them from the library.

- write some ad copy for me - sell these books to the world:
- this amazing adventure will blow your head off! i don't mean literally, but when you read these your heart will start pumping. this is serious folks, the funny parts are very funny, the sad parts are very sad - all this ten times as much as it would normally be.

Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel by Hope Larson

- are there any characters that you feel are similar to you?
- calvin.  i just feel that i had to say that.  i get the same feelings.  i feel things before they happen and after they happen.

- by the end, did you feel like most of the mysteries were answered, or were you still confused?
- only some of the mysteries were answered.  i still have questions about the black thing and about IT.

- speaking of IT - let's say for a moment that you were in the room with calvin, meg, charles wallace and mr. murry.  how would you resist IT?
- i would say some of my weekly memory verses and sing some of the junior choir songs that i learned.

- would you trust mrs whatsit, mrs who and mrs which if you met them today?
- yes.

- if they were staying in charlottetown, where would they be?
- the holiday inn.  they wouldn't even have to pay.  they could just tesser into a room and everybody would suspect that they had already paid.

- why do you think meg and calvin are falling in love?
- because i just think it was meant to be.  and i think mrs whatsit, mrs who and mrs which, since they are magical creatures, they just made it happen.

- dennys and sandy get left out of the whole adventure, seemingly because they do not have the special abilities that meg and charles wallace have.  is this fair?  would you have sent them?
- why were they even in the book if they didn't even go on any crazy adventure?????????????????????????????

- how do feel about the pictures?  is there anything you would have drawn differently?
- meg looks too young for her age.  and i think calvin should look more like me - just a teenage version of me.

- aunt beast thinks that vision, or the sense of sight, is very limiting.  do you agree?
- i do not agree.  i think vision is the most important sense of all.  why would there be figurines, decorations or anything without vision.  the world wouldn't be anything.  everything would be grey and dark with no colour at all.  you wouldn't even need colour.  why would you even have a pet?  if you don't have sight a pet is useless.

- pretend that i don't get the book at all.  describe for me the man with red eyes.  what is he?  why is he important to the plot?
- his function is helping you understand that IT is very powerful.  he is a zombie, basically, but he never died.  he just doesn't have a brain.

- the book makes a big deal out of a verse in the bible that talks about God using the foolish and the weak things in the world to defeat the wise and powerful.  does this happen in real life?
- yes.  it does.

- would you recommend this book to others?
- i would recommend it to everybody in the whole world who likes mysterious, magical, serious books.

- do you think you will eventually read the novel, without the pictures?
- probably not.  maybe when i am the kind of person that doesn't need any pictures anymore.

Oz [graphic novel series] by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young

Oz - Nomes from the Nome King's palace.

Cowardly Lion, Toto and Dorothy from Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Jim and Eureka in the land of the Mangaboos, from Dorothy and the Wizard.

We usually don't do interviews about shorter books or comics. But I felt we needed to make a special exception for the Oz comics. Why do you think that is?
- Because the Oz comics are adaptations of chapter books. Novels, actually. And they aren't called graphic novels for nothing. They are pretty long.
It takes us at least eight hours to read an Oz novel, but right around three hours to read a comic, even with all the extra discussion and explaining. Do you think we are somehow missing out?
- No, because I think we should read both of every one.
So far we've read The Wizard of Oz, Ozma of Oz and Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. Which was your favourite?
- Ozma of Oz, the one with the Nome King. The pictures were particularly exciting - and the nomes were pretty cute. One of my favourite parts is when everyone has to guess what objects everyone got transformed into and they they guess wrong and they all get transformed. Then I loved how Billina the chicken was the hero.
I'm happy that Soleil is able to read graphic novels with us. She just doesn't have the attention span for chapter books.
- I like it too.
Next on our list is the The Road to Oz. Should we read the novel or the comic first?
- The comic.
The illustrator has made some bold choices. Which characters have surprised you, in a good way?
- Scarecrow. I love the Tin Woodman, but I wish he would have done him like in his first sketches - more robotic. I love the nomes. And Ozma.
Has the illustrator made any mistakes?
- Denfinitely with the Hammerheads. They should be bigger, with grass skirts instead of skin-clothes, have longer necks and more rectangular heads. They don't have arms!
How much do you think Oz can teach us about the real world?
- Two percent. I mean six percent. First of all, the characters had lots of courage and brains and heart before they got all that stuff from the Wizard. Like that kind of learning.
Pretend you are thinking of working together with a team to create a graphic novel version of something we've read. What is it?
- The Dog Who Wouldn't Be by Farley Mowat. Because it is one of the funniest things I've ever read.
Of the four main jobs (writer, illustrator, colorist, letterer), which would you pick?
- I'd take three of the jobs - illustrator, colorist, letterer. Somebody else can come up with the script.

the dog who wouldn't be by farley mowat

what would be a more accurate title for this book?
this book should actually be called "my life while we had a dog" because it is not all about the dog. in fact it is mostly not about the dog.

what was your favourite part?
when the man went camping with the family and stayed in farley's tent, where farley was starting his own zoo.

this book is advertized as a comic novel rather than a true story. how much do you think is just made up?
less than half of a quarter. it all seems pretty real to me.

it took us quite a while to make our way through this novel, because there was so much to learn and discuss. what was the most interesting thing we learned about?
the difference between shotguns and rifles. it was funny how he fell back into the pit of stinging nettles when he shot the gun.

do you want to go hunting?
i would rather try shooting clay pigeons. i just don't think i would know which birds were right enough in season.

are you more excited about camping now, or less?
more because i know that all those ridiculous things would never happen to me.

are you interested in sailing?
yes.

what kind of pet are you interested in next? would you ever capture a pet from the wild?
i would definately not want a pet baby cormorant for a pet because they vomit fish guts in your face. but i would certainly like to try a great horned owl.

all of farley's great memories in this book are of time spent outside in nature. what do you feel about that?
well, i like to spend a little more time inside than he does.

legend of super smash brothers

daddy helped me make a stop motion video.

legend of super smash brothers from jenny josh forest soleil on Vimeo.

mountain treasure hunters

i made my own board game called 'mountain treasure hunters'. here are the rules.

mountain treasure hunters
a board game for two or three players

included:
board
three micro-figures
three power-ups [wands]
twelve monsters
one crystal

first mission - retrieve the crystal
place your microfigure on your camp at the edge of the mountain. youngest player goes first. on your turn, roll the die, and go the rolled number of spaces in any direction except diagonal. you do not have to follow a straight line. players race to the top of the mountain to get the crystal. if you land on a monster, you roll the die again in battle mode. if you land on a power-up, add it to your camp.

battle mode
here is what each number means in battle mode with a monster.
1 or 2 = monster is defeated and removed from the board.
3 or 4 = monster wins, go back three spaces.
5 or 6 = monster is defeated but you are wounded. go back two spaces.

power-ups and player battle mode
you can only land on another player if you have a power-up. if you have a power-up and the other player doesn't, you automatically win and they must go back to their camp. if both players have power-ups, they must both roll. highest number wins, lowest must go back to their camp.

second mission
once a player gets to the crystal, they must race back down the mountain to their camp. while they are doing that, the other players attempt to defeat as many monsters as possible. game ends when the player with the crystal makes it back to camp.