Alex Flinn report

I've been meaning to post about how the Alex Flinn signing I went to went for about a week now! She came to speak at The Little Shop of Stories in Decatur in February. In short, it was fantastic. It was a smaller crowd than I anticipated. I guess not a lot of people wanted to make it out on a chilly February evening. Still, it was really nice to be able to hear her talk in an intimate setting, she's a great public speaker... and the teens who attended all had such thoughtful and interesting questions for her. She read a chapter from her newest book, Cloaked.

As I expected, sales of Beastly were quite high... the shelves were wiped out of the original cover version. The new movie cover didn't seem to sell as much. One of the main things that she talked about was how she had read several different versions of Beauty and the Beast, and one of the things that struck her, was in the original, Beauty's father steals a rose from the Beast's garden. When he's confronted by the Beast, he gladly offers to send his daughter to stay in the Beast's castle in his place. Flinn said, that as a parent, this seemed like a fairly horrible thing to do. And the other thing that made her curious was if the Beast is supposed to be the former prince of the land, why is he off in this castle all by himself? Where is his family? Did they just ship him off to a remote castle somewhere to get him out of the way? That seems pretty cold, too. So, she decided Beastly should be about two teens with horrible parents finding each other. What an interesting way to look at it. 

Of course, plenty of people wanted to hear behind the scenes info from the movie, and she shared plenty of those stories as well. Flinn confessed that she was worried about the film when it was initially put together because she didn't have a lot of creative control with it. But, she was very pleased with what they came up with. The producers had initially cast Zac Efron as the Beast... and Efron had suggested that they change the script so that the Beast is closer to his father, which made Flinn roll her eyes, as the whole point of the book is that they don't get along. But, then, Efron dropped the project, and Alex Pettyfer was brought on board, and they reverted back to the original script. Flinn was also surprised when they cast Mary-Kate Olsen (a famous anorexic) to play the part of the witch, Kendra, who inspires the Beast's scorn in the book because she's overweight. Flinn even wondered if they were going to get a fat suit for Olsen, something which the producers nixed. But, she said Olsen did a great acting job and she was pleased with the results. 

Someone asked why the Beast in the movie was all scarred instead of furry, and Flinn kind of dodged the question, saying that she understood that Pettyfer was in the makeup chair for hours just to get the scar makeup done, and putting on fur would have taken even longer, so it might have been impractical to do. Privately, I thought the producers must have been going for an "ugly beautiful" look - scary looking, but still with a hint of attractiveness, something which might have been impossible with a hairy Beast. 

Afterwards, Flinn signed some books, mine is inscribed with, "To Madigan, Have a beastly time reading this! -Alex Flinn" It was a great talk, I'm glad that I went.

Hogwarts visit

Last weekend I went to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at the Universal Islands of Adventure in Orlando. I went on a few rides, explored Hogsmeade and sampled the butterbeer. What a fantastic mini-vacation. The park really did a phenomenal job of bringing the whole world to life. It was awesome!

Upon first entering the park, attendants take your fingerprint, which seemed a little creepy... but the reason become clear, when I found that the free lockers (for storing your bag and other items when going on turbulent rides) are opened and closed using your fingerprint scan. The scan also prevents park tickets from being stolen or transferred. The park was broken into several different themed "Islands" of which Harry Potter was one. Entering that section, the first thing you encounter is the Hogwarts Express with signs for Platform 9 ¾. 

It was surreal to look around in the muggy Florida heat and see snow-covered rooftops. It was very crowded, as you can see. (Note the butterbeer wagon in the distance.)

The whole street was laid out with plenty of attention to detail. You can even mail a postcard from the park, and they'll postmark it, "Hogsmeade" 

The Harry Potter portion of the park was actually quite small... just three rides, plus the street for shopping. Obviously, I wanted to see the main attraction first... I headed straight up to wait in line for the Forbidden Journey ride at Hogwarts Castle. 

We're all familiar with this sign: You must be this tall to ride. 

But, I found another sign throughout the park, a sad testament to America's weight problem. The full text reads, "Notice from the Department of Magical Transportation. Test This Seat Before Riding. The attraction's seat restraints may not accommodate guests with certain body dimensions. Please use this test seat to ensure your ability to ride." I guess this is to spare overweight park-goers the embarrassment of being asked to leave without riding if they prove too fat to fit in the seat. 

The line for the Harry Potter ride reminded me of the Indiana Jones or Star Wars lines at Disney, in that they've attempted to make waiting in line as fun as possible. Mercifully, most of the time spent waiting was in the shady covered greenhouse just outside the castle. Once inside, you pass through several rooms, with a few special effects. The Portraits Hall, including the Fat Lady who guards the entrance to Gryffindor's section, Dumbledore's office (his pensieve is close enough to touch), and the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom are probably the most memorable. As you enter, the Sorting Hat gives some instructions. The actual ride is a motion generator which combines animatronics with full screen flying experiences. The first portion of the ride, I really enjoyed... you are flying to meet up at a Quidditch match, soaring over the towers of Hogwarts, when you are attacked by a dragon. An animatronic dragon roars hotly at you, causing you to fly into the Forbidden Forest which is full of spiders. This was the part where I was ready for the ride to end. I was so afraid that they might dangle string or somesuch to simulate a crawling sensation, I shrank into my seat in fear for the rest of the ride. Unfortunately, there was a lot more flying, swooping, falling and whatnot before the ride was over. When the ride finally ended, I stepped off into the giftshop where they'll post pictures of you on the ride. My companions were all smiling, "thumbs-up" and clearly enjoying themselves. I, on the other hand, had the most ridiculously terrified expression that one can imagine. Words fail me. I can't express how miserably craven I looked. I kind of wish that I had bought a copy of the picture, because it's so over-the-top. But, I wasn't willing to pay $29.95 or however much it was for such a thoroughly unflattering photo of myself. Ah well, perhaps it's for the best. 

After that, I decided to steady my nerves with some butterbeer. It was quite good! I had been expecting something a little more exotic... more alien, and British tasting i.e, not incredibly delicious. It was a very, very sweet, non-alchoholic beverage. Basically, if you took a cream soda and added just a drop of butterscotch flavoring, I think you'd have it. 

Next, I tried the much tamer Flight of the Hippogriff, a kiddie coaster, decorated in a wicker motif, with a few drops and sharp turns, but no upside down movement. Just outside the ride is Hagrid's shack, where you can hear mysterious growling noises, and a bemused Hagrid trying to calm the creature. 

There's a third ride, The Dragon's Challenge, a more intense roller coaster, which after my spectacular show of cowardice on the Forbidden Journey ride, I decided to skip. So, then it was on to do some shopping! As I mentioned before, not a single detail was overlooked on the entire street, and by this point the crowds were really in full force. There were lines to get into the stores. But, when you see how amazing they looked, perhaps you'll understand why. The longest line was for Ollivander's Wand Shop. They had all these beautiful boxes of wands, many of them reproductions from the movies, but many original ones as well. They even had a wall of animatronic owls and "overstock" of wands piled to the ceiling. 

 

Here's a picture of me, in front of Hogwarts during a less panicked moment. The whole experience was really neat! I would definitely go again.

Dr. Seuss's Birthday

In celebration of Dr. Seuss's birthday today, I thought I'd share this Wordle. It's the full text of Green Eggs and Ham.

Read in February

This month I read the following books:

1 Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict - Laurie Viera Rigler
2 Minder - Kate Kaynak
3 Slice of Cherry - Dia Reeves
4 Across the Universe - Beth Revis
5 XVI - Julia Karr
6 The Great Wall of Lucy Wu - Wendy Wan-Long Shang
7 Trickster's Girl - Hilari Bell
8 Delirium - Lauren Oliver
9 Angelfire - Courtney Allison Moulton
10 Jenna & Jonah's Fauxmance - Emily Franklin & Brendan Halpin
11 Season of Secrets - Sally Nicholls
12 Athena: Grey-Eyed Goddess - George O'Connor
13 Infinite Days - Rebecca Maizel
14 The False Princess - Eilis O'Neal


Picture credit: The Missal by John William Waterhouse

In My Shopping Bag

This isn't exactly an "in my mailbox" post per se... but I did hit up my local Borders this week to take advantage of their 20-40% closing sale. So, here is what was in my shopping bag.

I picked up a few novels that I've been meaning to read, as well as some promising looking picture books.

Square Cat review

Square Cat
by Elizabeth Schoonmaker
Aladdin
January 2011

In this tale about fitting in, Eula the square cat longs to be round like her friends. Looking forlornly around,  she finds that mouse holes are impossible, tipping over is a constant problem, and that she looks terrible in stripes. Depressed, she loses her purr, and two of her friends set about cheering her up. They try out wearing some cardboard boxes to give Eula some solidarity in her squareness and point out that while stripes don't work, she'd look fetching in checkerboard, that cubist paintings of cats are priceless and that mouse holes are difficult for any cat, no matter their shape. The next time Eula tips over, she realizes that only a square cat could have this view and begins to purr again. 

Plenty of white space is used in the ink and watercolor illustrations, lending a spare, clean look to the book.  Eula's orange fur and Greek-key shaped tail stand out sharply from the plain white background. This is a strong debut by Schoonmaker, with a nice message about self-acceptance and how the power of friendship can lift one out of a bad mood. Recommended for cat-lovers of all ages and for anyone who's ever felt like a square peg in a round hole.

I borrowed this book from the library.

Poetry Magnets

I'm rather fond of poetry magnets, and have collected several sets over the years. Here's a grouping from my Jack Prelutsky Awful Ogre's Awful Day set. Somewhere I have a "ransom letter" set from Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events, as well.

Several years ago, I had a set of poetry magnets at the library, and the teens loved them. Maybe it's something I should try again. They're not too expensive, either. The original website, Magnetic Poetry, still offers lots of different word collections.