Remember the Hallmark Hall of Fame movies? I used to watch those with my parents all the time, and I don't know about anyone else, but my favorites next to Harvest of Fire was the Sarah, Plain and Tall trilogy. Based on Patricia MacLachlan's novels of the same name, they are prime examples of how to … Continue reading Page To Screen: The Sarah, Plain and Tall Trilogy
Page To Screen: The Three Musketeers
It's been a long time since we've looked at a literary leviathan, adapted countless times for the large and small screen, part of our cultural lexicon, and something we can't imagine life without. The 1844 Alexandre Dumas classic is an absolute titan in that regard, right up there with Robin Hood, King Arthur and Romeo and … Continue reading Page To Screen: The Three Musketeers
Page To Screen: The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings
As pretty much everyone knows by now, next month Amazon Prime will premier its new Lord of the Rings series, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Hi, my name's Fred. What's my name? Sorry, I think the series title looks redundant. Anywhoo, the trailers have been royally dragged by Tolkien fans and rightly so, … Continue reading Page To Screen: The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings
Page To Screen: Dick Tracy
Amidst all the capes, spandex, super powers, super weapons, and super heroes is the relatively unappreciated and underrated Dick Tracy. Sharp of chin and nose. Inscrutable stare. Cool head. Laserlike focus on rooting out crime and corruption. Always with the bright yellow fedora and the trench coat. And let's not forget Tracy's uber-cool two-way wrist … Continue reading Page To Screen: Dick Tracy
Page To Screen: Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew is iconic to say the least. She's OG. She's been a teenager way longer than Bart Simpson has been a ten year old and has been inspiring readers, boys and girls alike, for decades. She has a very deep bag of tricks at her disposal. Codebreaking? Nancy's on it. Deductive reasoning? No problem. … Continue reading Page To Screen: Nancy Drew
Page To Screen: Little Women
Few books have been as influential to women's literature and for that matter, American literature as Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. There's a saying among Englishers that the American literature canon is more than twelve dead white guys and Emily Dickinson, but I think it should be "more than twelve dead white guys, Emily Dickinson, and Louisa … Continue reading Page To Screen: Little Women
Page To Screen: The NeverEnding Story
I don't know about anyone else, but one of my favorite movies as a tween was 1984's The NeverEnding Story. Jolly pink Luckdragons. Racing snails. Cute young warriors. A geeky kid who loses himself in a book. And we can't forget that cool earworm of a theme song by Limahl and Beth Anderson, the latter of … Continue reading Page To Screen: The NeverEnding Story
Page To Screen: Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday
Who's been to Cannery Row? For those who haven't, it was a group of fish canneries, flophouses and dive bars on Ocean View Avenue in Monterey, California. It was a tough, wild, colorful place, and its king was marine biologist Ed Ricketts, best friend of John Steinbeck and collector of strange scientific samples. Of course, … Continue reading Page To Screen: Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday
Page To Screen: Anne Frank Remembered
Miep Gies was the last of the Secret Annex helpers to survive, passing away in 2010 just shy of her 101st birthday. She and Anne had a special sisterly relationship from the time Anne was four, and naturally people wanted to know more about that. In 1987, she published a book, Anne Frank Remembered, with Alison Leslie … Continue reading Page To Screen: Anne Frank Remembered
Page To Screen: The Song of Bernadette
1943's The Song Of Bernadette turned Jennifer Jones into an Oscar winner. She was twenty-five at the time and it was her first starring role. How this film came about is a story in and of itself, of course. A Czech Jew named Franz Werfel, who was fleeing the Nazis, sheltered for a time in … Continue reading Page To Screen: The Song of Bernadette
Page To Screen: Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
When looking at America's entry into the Second World War seventy-plus years on, it might be hard to believe how high the stakes really were in early 1942. The United States' armed forces were very small, we were still using cavalry horses and bayonets, and the Japanese dealt Americans heavy blows at Pearl Harbor and … Continue reading Page To Screen: Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
Page To Screen: The Little Prince
My son and I like to read aloud at bedtime, and recently we finished The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. This ethereal 1943 novella follows the title character as he crosses the universe looking for...something. We're not quite sure what at first. The Little Prince is told through the eyes of an unnamed pilot who crash … Continue reading Page To Screen: The Little Prince
Page To Screen: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Few YA books are as daring as E.L. Koningsburg's From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. It's a thinking book. It's also an unthinking book. For those who aren't familiar with the story, Claudia Kincaid is an upstate New York girl with three brothers who feels like there's nothing to set her apart from … Continue reading Page To Screen: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Page To Screen: The Black Stallion
Who else had to read The Black Stallion for school? I did. Fourth grade. I can't remember anyone complaining about it. In fact, Black Stallion books were kind of the rage in my class. For those who haven't experienced it, the novel follows New York City teenager Alec Ramsey and his friendship with a mysterious, very wild … Continue reading Page To Screen: The Black Stallion
Page To Screen: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
This month's "Page To Screen" was going to be The NeverEnding Story, but I made a last-minute decision to save it for later. As time would have it, over my break I saw a 2018 Netflix movie, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I liked it so much I bought the book it was based on … Continue reading Page To Screen: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Page to Screen: The Diary of Anne Frank
If she had lived, Anne Frank would be ninety-one this year. Her diary, technically known in English as Anne Frank: The Diary of A Young Girl, was first published in the Netherlands in 1947. The diary has been translated into sixty-five languages, sold over thirty-five million copies and is one of the most widely-read books outside … Continue reading Page to Screen: The Diary of Anne Frank
Page To Screen: A Night To Remember
The late Walter Lord is kind of a legend among Titanic buffs and historians. When he wrote A Night To Remember, which was published in 1955, he basically inspired the public fascination with the ship that continues today. Pretty much every book written about the Titanic uses Walter Lord's work as a source because he's that OG. How did Lord … Continue reading Page To Screen: A Night To Remember
Taking Up Room 