TWO RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PARENTS; ONE A MOVIE ABOUT BED TIME STORIES & THE SECOND: A BOOK SERIES CALLED “GREGOR THE OVERLANDER” & OOPS…DON’T LET ME FORGET TO TELL YOU ABOUT THE 12-YEAR-OLD GIRL DOING BLOG BOOK REVIEWS; IT’S CLASSIC

By Diana L. Chapman

I am not a big Adam Sandler fan. He’s a bit too crass, a bit too abrasive and rarely the big-hearted, teddy-bear-kind-of guy, that you’d ever want to hug. That was before Bedtime Stories.

This Disney entertainer released Christmas day reveals Sandler as a sort-of-consistent looser, hotel handyman, named Skeeter, with big dreams and aspirations to finally become the manager, but with no real way to achieve them.

It’s clear to the rest of us (the adults) that it’s never going to happen. – despite the promise the affluent hotelier gave Skeeter’s story-telling father who ran the place as a small Los Angeles motel and lost it due to bad business practices. The hotelier then built a giant, resort high-rise where Skeeter all day long fixes lamps, refrigerators, televisions and looks like that’s exactly where he’ll stay, forever.

That is until two children appear in his life. For him, it’s a miracle because they accidentally empower him and change his dull destiny.

The two elementary-aged cuties get stuck with their bumpkin of an uncle when his sister has to race to a job interview in Arizona. Skeeter hadn’t seen his niece and nephew for several years due to a family dispute over a wedgie.

Once Skeeter gets the kids, that’s when all the magic begins – because as we all know – many kids still believe in magic. For me, it starts as soon as Skeeter, the direct opposite of his elementary school principal sister who bans television, hamburgers and encourages meals of wheat germ, opens up a world of candy and fast food.

Not good. But the kids forgive him for just about everything (like trying to run out the door when he realizes there’s no television to help him baby sit). They do make him honor one request: he has to tell bedtime stories. Looking at a slew of health and environmental-conscious bed time books, the handyman tosses them aside and makes up stories of himself being a noble knight getting passed over to help the king run his castle.

What happens from then on is a shower of colorful gum balls, stories coming true, or partly true, a whirlwind of ridiculous magic that changes Skeeters’ life forever more. I’ve read the reviews that criticize Disney for “neutering” Sandler to do this movie. There’s not much I’m grateful to Disney for, but I am glad of this.

He did a stupendous job and so did his sidekicks. My mother, 80, my son, 14, and both my husband and I enjoyed seeing Sandler play in this role. Sometimes, you’ve got to let go of reality and seriousness and go with the story’s flow, which all four of us did here.

And we liked it. We liked it! It was creative and sparks the imagination’s juices.

As for Sandler, he took the role in the first place because it was perfect for it. Why?

Because he’s one big kid and probably always will be.
(Rated PG)

GREGOR THE OVERLANDER, a GOOD FAMILY READ, ACTION PACKED IN A TEEMING WORLD BELOW NEW YORK; A YOUNG BOY HAS TO RESCUE HIS LITTLE SISTER, BOOTS, WHO HAS BECOME QUEEN OF THE COCKROACHES IN a BIZARRE UNDERWORLD WHERE ONE JUST NEVER KNOWS FOR SURE WHO IS THE ENEMY

There’s not too many books out there where families can read them together with children of nearly all ages, but Gregor the Overlander worked exceptionally well for ours, especially with it’s unusual fantasy twist in the under world of New York City where bats “fly you high” and rats may be good or bad or otherwise.

At times, one just never knows, in this unraveling mystery involving prophecies that cleverly tied a poor young Gregor in an armed-grip to a fate he never wanted or expected in a world that is so different that it reaches far beyond other fantasies I’ve read.

This creative inspiration by author Suzanne Collins comes in a series of five books, starting with Gregor the Overlander and finishing up with Gregor and the Code of Claw, which devastated us all. We didn’t want the story to end.

The series was done and we were already missing Gregor and Boots, the toddling sister, who falls down a giant laundry chute from their apartment and – unfortunately for Gregor – he has to dive in after her to save her. He’s in charge of the beaming toddler, who constantly tells him she’s pooped and needs changing.

Gregor loves her, but he’s also become the adult in charge at about age 11, after his father simply vanished and his mother works full time to keep them in their apartment. He tries to do the right thing, but the right thing is not always clear.

In an endless spin, Gregor lands in a world that is ultimately dark all the time and filled with trash and gunk and the creepiest critters from rats to gnats that consume creatures like piranhas. When he at last finds his sister, he can’t even begin to fathom what to do next, but he’s sucked into an underground kingdom, where people have bluish skin and desperately need his help to survive.

What a stroke of Gregor luck! The whole world has landed on his shoulders due to a tumbling Boots. The story: funny (Boots keeps us laughing.); scary, but not overly so, and a series that provokes much thought in the sense of values, tolerance and learning that not everything is black or white. Even a bit of romance creeps in.

While my family wished the author had continued, she brought it to an end in her best novel yet, as we weave in and out of the black world on the backs of bats buried deep beneath New York. It becomes Gregor’s part-time – and often – unwanted home and leaves him in the turmoil of often misunderstood prophecies which seem to include him with every move he makes.

I will tell no more…My suggestion. Read it together as a family. Any kids from age six and up should be able to handle it.

Enjoy! And may you fly high.

A “Nerd” of a 12-year-old in Santa Rosa Starts to Critique Books on Her Wonderful Blog Which May Steer Parents and Kids to the Books They May Like to Read; She Even Has the Gumption to Tell Publishers to Send Her Their Books If They Want Them Reviewed

I like bravery. I especially like bravery in a 12-year-old. And I like it even more when a girl isn’t even a bit afraid to say she’s nerdy.

When my niece, Wendy, Righetti, told me about her friend Zoe Alea, and how she started up a blog to review young adult books, I was immediately intrigued.

On her site she wrote: “I am really obsessed with books, and I am a nerd.”

And a bit later, she suggests publishers send her books if they want her to review them.

Last year, she read 106 books starting out with a New Year’s resolution that she would read at least 50 books. Posted now, she gave an average review to “Frenemies” by Alexa Young which involved too much materialism for Zoe and “Someone Like You” by Sarah Dressen, another teen pregnancy story, a resounding must-read.

Hopefully, Zoe and I will do a story about how she came to do this incredible thing and take it upon herself to review books. But for now, you can visit her site at: http://www.booksaregolden.blogspot.com