"When I do not want to say things in real life I often say them here." — Mimi Smartypants
The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier Stories for and about adolescents follow certain established conventions. Brave young boys and girls stand up to social and peer pressure, buck conformity, and do the right thing. They look bullies in the eye and the bullies back down. The bad guys lose. The good guys experience adversity but […]
“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.” – William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984) The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet, by Reif Larsen The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet is an engrossing, impossible-to-put-down story of discovery and redemption, told by a child prodigy, a master cartographer at the […]
“Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.” — Humphrey Bogart (as Rick Blain), Casablanca (1942) The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008) Something about this movie bothers me. No, it isn’t that it plunges me into shame, anger, despair, horror, and sadness. No, it isn’t […]