Scholar's Blog Book Discussion Group

Just a quick reminder that the discussion of Louis Sachar's The Boy Who Lost His Face has now started. Feel free to pop over and participate if you've read it.

Scholar's Blog Book Discussion Group - Reminder

Just a quick reminder that on July 3rd, the Scholar's Blog Discussion Group will begin discussion Louis Sachar's The Boy Who Lost His Face - everyone who's read it is welcome to participate (and yes, this is the second non-fantasy novel in a row, but we'll make up for that properly in August and September by discussing the final Harry Potter book.)

Holes the movie

When I was raiding the library for books as usual this morning, I spotted the Holes movie, based on Louis Sachar's excellent book, Holes, so I snagged it as I've been wanting to watch it ever since I read the book, following advice from fellow children's literature Bloggers. Fortunately, because it is two and half months since I read the book, I don't remember all the small details, so I was able to watch and enjoy the film for its own sake, instead of picking up on everything they had left out or added to the movie (although, I'm sure Stanley Yelnats is fat in the book !) For me, this is the best way to view a film of a book - with a reasonable interval between reading a book and viewing the film (not a few days after finishing the book, as I did with I Capture the Castle !)

I've mentioned before that I have difficulty watching movies based on books, particularly if I know a book well; I think it's because I'm such a word-oriented person that a film version of a book, by its very nature a visual medium, is always going to be hard pressed to match my reading experience (although seeing a movie before reading the book on which it's based worked well for me with regard to the movie and book (by Joanne Harries) of Chocolat).

So those of you who mentioned you hadn't seen the film of Holes, I can recommend it. The historical scenes are intercut nicely with the present-day scenes, and Shia LaBeouf (as Stanley) and Khleo Thomas (as Hector "Zero" Zeroni) are very good in their roles.

The Boy Who Lost His Face - Louis Sachar

I happened to spot Louis Sachar's The Boy Who Lost His Face on the shelves of the children's library as I was looking for Jonathan Stroud's The Last Siege (which I did find).

The Boy Who Lost His Face is a supernatural tale, rather than the more straight forward realism of Holes. David Ballinger is just trying to be cool when he helps some other boys to steal an old lady's cane. But when the plan backfires, he is the one whom she curses and now David can't seem to do anything right. The cool kids taunt him and his only friends are the weirdest kids in the school: Larry, who always wears sunglassses, and Maureen (Mo), of whom even the boys are afraid. He even walks into his Spanish class one day with his fly unzipped, and when he finally gets up the nerve to ask out a cute girl that he fancies, his trousers fall down ! But is this the curse at work or is David simply turning into a total loser ? Larry, one of his friends, suggests that every time David fails to stand up to the boys who stole the old lady's cane, he loses face. But how can David regain face, when even his little brother hates him now ?

I liked this book - there was just enough of the supernatural element in it to keep me guessing and wondering whether David really is cursed or merely unlucky, without me feeling too unnerved to finish it.