Enough silliness. The Greek festival and the Camp Half-Blood shirt reminded me of a post I read at This Kid Reviews Books, a great blog run by a reader guy just like you. He wrote a post about the Percy Jackson movies and asked, " Book or Movie--Which One Is Better?" In it, he wrote:
“The book was SO much better than the movie” is a statement I hear a lot. It got me wondering, is the book always better? To me, the answer is an obvious yes, but I’m a book person.
For example, I LOVED the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books (Jeff Kinney), but I hated the movie. I think that Gregory’s self-centered character is much better as cartoon in a book than in the movie. In the movie Rowley wasn’t nearly as goofy as he should have been.
They also took one of my all-time favorite books, The Lightning Thief from the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series (Rick Riordan), and made it into an okay movie. I mean, they took out Clarisse, one of my favorite characters, and they even took out Ares, the god of war (how do you take out the god of war from a story about Greek mythology with fighting in it?!?). The fight between Percy and Ares has got to be my all-time favorite fight scenes from any book and it wasn’t in the movie.
Of course, the movie wasn’t horrible. It was pretty good and, I think, for someone who hadn’t read the book, it was probably great. There is lots of action, great special effects, and cool monsters.
He also ran a poll that asked whether the books were better than the movies. Some said that the books were always better and others took the line that movies are primarily visual experiences and so it's not fair to compare them.
So that got me wondering. I have not seen The Sea of Monsters movie and so I don't know. Is the book or the movie better? Or would the movie have been more fun if you had not read the book first? That's what I thought of The Lightning Thief movie--it was so different from the book that I was disappointed. But then I thought that the movie would have seemed really good to someone who had not read the book. Soooo--I want YOU to tell ME if you liked the Sea of Monsters movie better than the book. Or if you liked the book better than the movie. Or would the movie have seemed really good if you hadn't read the book first.
And to make it interesting, I'll give you some incentive. The first three guys who write and tell why or why not the book or movie was better--or if the movie would have better if you had/hadn't read the book first--will get a choice of one these three books.
That's right--you could choose The Indian in the Cupboard, Stone Fox, or Hatchet. All of them are really good guy books. BUT I don't want you to write something like, "Oh, yeah, the book was better." I want you to tell me WHY. Convince me! Make me believe the book or movie was better! OK--you got it? Then go ahead and hit that "Comment" button under this post and give me your reasons. Then I'll publish your comments on this blog. Then you can either come to the Myers Park library and claim your prize or, if you live too far away (even outside of Charlotte), then put your address and contact info with your comments and I'll get your prize to you. Don't worry--your address WON'T get published. No one will see it but me.
So send me your comments, guys! I and all the other reader guys out there are waiting to hear from you.
If you have any more questions on how to send your comments, see the instructions on the left-hand side of the page or call me at 70416-5800.
1 comment:
Cool shirt-- I have one just like it! I haven't seen Sea of Monsters, but I thought The Lightning Thief was okay as a movie... as long as you didn't compare it to the book. I had forgotten many details and enjoyed the movie, but my son (who reread the book in order to see the movie) complained about inaccuracies. See the movie if, like me, you've forgotten details! (And, of course, I don't need more books!)
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