MONDAY FUNDAY- November 28, 2016

It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date, and adapted by Kellee at Unleashing Readers and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts with a children’s/YA focus. The Sunday Post is hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer. These weekly roundups are a great way to discover new blogs and bloggers, share titles, and add to your ever-growing to-read list.

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It’s almost December!! Brace yourselves!

While visiting my parents last week, my mum lent me her copy of Good Poems for Hard Times, a poetry anthology edited and introduced by Garrison Keillor. Just listen to this introduction, and tell me if this doesn’t sound like the perfect poetry collection for today’s bruised and battered world:

“Chosen by Garison Keillor for his readings on public radio’s The Writer’s Almanac, the 185 poems in this follow-up to his acclaimed anthology Good Poems are perfect for our troubled times. Here, readers will find solace in works that are bracing and courageous, organized into such resonant headings as “Such As It Is More or Less” and “Let It Spill.” From William Shakespeare and Walt Whitman to R. S. Gwynn and Jennifer Michael Hecht, the voices gathered in this collection will be more than welcome to those who’ve been struck by bad news, who are burdened by stress, or who simply appreciate the power of good poetry.”

This really is a wonderful collection for both poetry aficionados and newbies alike – with its wide range of styles, themes, formats and tones, there’s likely to be something for everyone represented here. Perhaps most significantly, these poems are all rooted in everyday life – evocative yet understandable, elegant but still very real, these approachable poems hum with life, and are far removed from the esoteric, pretentious poems of your dreary high school English classes.

I shared an excerpt from one of my favourite poems for this week’s Poetry Friday write-up – you can explore The Longly-Weds Know on my blog here.

Also while visiting my parents I had a chance to watch the recent live-action The Jungle Book adaption, and as it’s based on a book, it seems like a natural fit for this post, wouldn’t you say?

All I can say is, my goodness! The Jungle Book is incredibly well made, and the final impression is stunning, to say the least. The visual effects are something to behold, and bring a lush, fantastical jungle environment vividly to life. The voice actors are uniformly fantastic, though I will admit that some of the film’s choices did surprise me. I was initially a bit disappointed with Idris Elba’s Shere Khan, who I felt lacked the suave sophistication I was expecting in the character (I suppose I was envisioning a posh tiger version of Scar from The Lion King).

Still, this new interpretation did grow on me, and by the end of the film I was an ardent Idris Elba convert.

Child actor Neel Sethi is a very charming young star, and his performance is all the more impressive when you take into consideration the fact that he is the only human performer in the entire film!  Christopher Walken is his normal wacky, wonderful self, and brings an enticing blend of charm and malice to his portrayal of the ridiculously enormous King Louis, while Bill Murray makes a predictably endearing Baloo.

Now, this is a live-action remake of the Disney film, so do keep in mind that it does differ significantly from the original Rudyard Kipling source material.  I did appreciate that although this isn’t a musical, they did work in a few references to the beloved The Jungle Book songs, which was a nice nostalgic touch for all of us who grew up warbling “The Bear Necessities”. All in all, this is a really lovely Disney film that the whole family is sure to enjoy.

And, since winter is just around the corner, what better time to explore Bear’s Winter Party, a strange and wonderful Canadian winter book?

It’s not easy being Bear. Being the biggest animal in the forest, all the other forest residents run and hide whenever he appears, and no one dares go near him. The other animals talk about him in hushed tones behind his back, but all Bear wants is a friend. Before settling in for the winter, Bear decides to throw a party in his cozy dens, and he invites all his forest neighbors to celebrate with him – but will any of them be brave enough to befriend a giant bear?

Bear’s Winter Party is a lovely, optimistic little story about looking beyond appearances and being open to making friends with those who might look, sound or act differently. It reminds young readers not to jump to conclusions or form opinons of others without taking the time to really get to know them. This important message is delivered with a gentle hand, and the story never comes across as preachy or moralistic. This is certainly a longer picture book, and some younger readers might find it a bit text heavy, but I think it would work particularly well as a soothing bedtime story. 

The illustrations in Bear’s Winter Party are certainly eye-catching, and while they will likely not be to everyone’s taste, I personally found them stunning. There’s an element of dreamy surrealism to Lisa Cinar‘s imagining of Bear and his forest friends, with strange colours and unusual shapes and proportions coming into play. In a sea of highly commercialised picture books with generic illustrations, it’s actually quite refreshing to come across a picture book that is willing to take a bit of a stylistic chance with its pictures and create and expressive work of art that breaks out of the conventional box.

And there you have it – a few of the things I’ve been reading and watching this week! Have a great week everyone, and thanks so much for stopping by!