Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)

Jack the Giant Slayer is a combination  of two fairy tales, Jack and the Beanstalk and Jack the Giant Killer. In Jack the Giant Killer, Jack kills a variety of giants in ingenious ways, not by just cutting down the beanstalk. In fact, beanstalks do not enter into the story at all. In this version of the tale, we have the magic beans and the beanstalk, but there is where the story veers into Jack the Giant Killer for we have no goose that lays golden eggs, no magical harp, all we have is Jack attempting to defeat the giants and win the hand of the fair princess. The movie is a fun romp through these more traditional fairy tales.

Ammie Come Home by Barbara Michaels*

Ammie, Come Home is one of the best ghost stories I have ever read, and I almost didn’t read it. When I was in the 2^nd grade I read a ghost story that scared me so bad, I swore I would never read another ghost story as long as I lived. Ammie is part of a trilogy, and I had read the second book, Shattered Silk, which is not a ghost story but just a good old fashioned gothic murder mystery (and wonderful in its own right). My mom kept telling me that I should read Ammie because I loved Shattered so much. I finally picked it up from my local used book store to shut her up! Now it is one of my favorite books of all time. It tells the story of Ruth and her niece Sarah that live in an old house in Georgetown. One night, as a lark, Ruth decides to hold a séance. This seemingly innocent activity turns sinister when an otherworldly voice does penetrate the ordinary, but it comes from Sarah and not from the medium! This in turn releases a terror in the house that Ruth, Sarah, and their friends Pat and Bruce must combat. I think what I like most about Michaels’ ghost stories is that there is a mystery to be solved and not just terror. Once they know the reason behind the haunting, the haunting stops. This book was also made into a really bad made-for-TV movie called The House That Wouldn’t Die.

Sleeping Beauty (1959)

One of my all time favorite Disney movies, of course there’s very few Disney movies I don’t like, especially the classics. Based on the ballet inspired by the classic fairy tale, the movie tells the story of Aurora, cursed at birth to prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and fall into a death like sleep until she is awaken by true love’s first kiss. She is raised by Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather in the forest until her sixteenth birthday. There she is kept away from Maleficent, the mistress of all evil. I always got the impression that Merryweather got stuck doing all the housework, cooking, and sewing since everyone else didn’t seem to have a clue. It has great music, the same music tunes as the original ballet, Disney just added the words! A true Disney classic.

The Gammage Cup by Carol Kendall

The Gammage Cup won a Newberry Honor. It is a fun book about a bunch of outcasts that end up saving their people from danger.

                The general minnipin population remind me of Tolkien’s hobbits. They never have  any adventures or do anything unexpected. They’re even smaller than the rest of humanity (although based on other descriptions I think they’re more the size of borrowers than hobbits). That’s why Muggles, Gummy, Walter the Earl, Curly Green, and Mingy don’t fit in. They have ideas that don’t fit with the mentality of the other Minipins and for that they are banished. But when the Hairless Ones of legend return to wreck ruin upon the Minipins, it is up to these heroes that think so far outside the box to save the day. A wonderful story about not fitting in, but finding your place in the world.