About reading children's stories from Richard who remembers

I just watched “Polar Express” for the very first time. There are a few edits that I would make, and I’ve never been very fond of Tom Hanks – but, I LOVED it! I have been a fan of Chris Van Allsburg’s books from the beginning… and, but, I really like/prefer the idea of telling the same story in 18 pages of minimal text and didactic illustrations…

<>And, now they are making a movie of one of my very favorites: “(H)-arlott’s Web”… “Charlottes’ Web”… I just remember looking forward, as did all of my classmates in 4^th grade, to hearing the next chapter read, out loud, by my teacher… and that was a whole different experience – a whole different “imaginative” experience… I began to “know” those characters, but I also had to put some of myself in the whole proposition as well… <>

Way before “Winnie-The-Pooh” was bought out by Disney and animated and voiced by that wispy actor that my mother hates, we sat on the couch, Jennifer, with her thumb in her mouth, and, her other fingers twisting, and getting caught in my mother’s hair, Chuck on the other side -- and me on the other side of Jen and listening and “imagining each character: Piglet, Rabbit, Owl, Tigger, Kanga and Roo… and of course, Eeyore, the curmudgeonly ass… but, "Brains first and then Hard Work," he would mumble as he ate his daily regiment of thistles… (Remind you of anyone?) <>

I did imagine myself as Christopher Robin, but then, he became my brother Chuck… I was much better at the bumbling, “Pooh” character… <>

And then, Disney bought the rights and “solidified” the characterization of the stories…. They animated them -- and “placed” them… they “voiced” them… and forgot about, well, everything… I happen to remember the “betweens-after-the-lines,” …but my nephews and nieces and their offspring will never be able to experience that… and that makes me sad. Now they are doing the same with “Curious George”…. (The only monkey I ever liked.) <>

Can you imagine, “Catcher in the Rye” ever becoming a film? Actually, I can… But, it’s my own…. Those are the images that the “text” lets ME become a “part” of… <>

Of course there is an exception… of course that would be, “To Kill a Mocking Bird”, but that was filmed in a “dream-like-black-and-white”, and actually worked to “enhance” the story… I still want to produce a version of Rachel Carson’s, “Silent Spring” -- I would do it in black-and-white/maybe even pen and ink… I think that people would now be more receptive to hear her “scream for sanity”. Yes, DDT is gone, but there is so much more… This, I think would be a very important film... Has it been done? Something so simple, yet with a story that explains the “consequences” of how one seemingly insignificant part, affects everything… <>

That makes me feel “special”… <>

I still worked at the bookstore when the “Harry Potter” phenomenon began... All of a sudden, kids wanted to read books… These where kids that couldn’t wait for the next installment… My landlord, Bill, divorced and had custody of his two sons for a limited time. They would read chapters aloud at bedtime, and occasionally, I would be invited… The kids couldn’t wait for the next book to come out…. And then the films came out, and, great as they are, some of the lazy ones decided that they would just wait until the next “movie” comes out to see what happens… rather, than turn the pages… <>

“It’s not the same thing,” Andrew (13 years old), one of my landlord’s kids told me, between moments of reprieve from his X-Box controls… “I used to think of myself as ‘Harry Potter’ … but that was before the movies.” <>

“I really thought that I could be “magic”… Now, I know its just ‘fake”, who cares…” <>

His brother, Eric, (16 years old), hit him in the shoulder and fought for the controls… “Just wait for the movie’” he said. <>
Kid’s still line-up for the next installment of the books... But, now that the “characters” have been introduced and “solidified” and “positioned” by the films, in each pre-adolescent-reader’s mind, they seem to be unable to “place” themselves in the story anymore, and instead, are just waiting for a “vicarious” story to be brought to them… <>

Through marketing, many will buy the book that they’ll never read, and wait until the “MOVIE” appears to find out what happens. <>

There were a couple of pen-sketches of an idea for the characters from the “community/neighborhood” of the “Winnie-The- Pooh” books… but that was all… there was still plenty of room left for imagination. <>

“Harold and his Purple Crayon”, comes to mind... and of course, Max (tattooed on my left shoulder) from, “Where the Wild Things Are”… and the willful determination from, “,,,carrots grow from carrots seeds…” or even, “Conduct Your Own Orchestra...” I planted it, I’ll grow it..., and then, “Chicken Soup with Rice”… for instance…

Anyway, I loved the movie, “Polar Express”, and I’m sure it will become a classic. But, what Chris Van Allsburg did with 18 drawings and 18 pages with minimal text, was the real “magic”…

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I have to go back to my patch of “thistles” now, but I do still believe!<>