One of my favorite childhood books is “Where the Wild Things Are”, written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak. Not only did I have my mom read this book to me, practically every day of my childhood, but I also enjoyed reading it myself. “Where the Wild Things Are” is one of the reasons I love to read. Because of my love for the book, I recently watched the new movie by Spike Jonze, adapted from the book. Not only do I feel that the movie did not do the book justice, but it also completely strayed away from the book’s plot. This movie made me think about what would have happened had this movie been available when I was a child- would I have read the book at all?
With the increasing popularity of video games and other media, it is getting harder and harder to get children to open a book. When I was a kid, after school and on weekends, I either spent my time playing outside getting exercise or reading/doing something educational. Now it seems as though children rarely look at books as means of entertainment. Now that many children’s books are being made into movies, I fear that there are very few children still reading classics, such as “Where the Wild Things Are.”
As educators, we need to promote reading as much as possible while our students are young. The love for reading is something that stays with and becomes a part of a person over the course of their lifetime. If we encourage our students to read when they are young, more children will be able to experience the love for reading earlier in life.
In addition, I believe that if children’s books are made into movies, they should follow the plot to a T. Weston Woods does an amazing job of taking children’s books and adapting them into videos without straying away from the original plot. An example of a great Weston Woods video is “Happy Birthday Moon” by Frank Asch.
Happy Birthday Moon
VR Grade: Pre-k/2nd
Asch, Frank. Happy Birthday Moon. Weston Woods, 1985. 6:51 min.
Summary: Bear looked up at the moon and thought about how nice it would be to give it a birthday present. So, bear climbs a tree to get closer to the moon to try to ask it when its birthday was but the moon did not answer. Then Bear decides to cross a pond and climb a hill to get closer to the moon, but all he could hear was his own echo. Not knowing that the voice he was hearing was his own, the Bear thinks that the moon told him that they both have the same birthday. Bear told the moon that he wanted a hat for his birthday and the moon echoed back that he wanted a hat as well. Bear was very excited that he knew what to get the moon. Bear bought a hat for the moon and put it in a tree where the moon could find it. As the moon moved through the sky it looked as though he was wearing the hat that Bear had bought him. During the night the hat blew out of the tree and landed outside Bear’s house, when he awoke he discovered the hat and thought that the moon had given him a hat too. After he put it on though, the hat flew away. When she tells the moon she lost the hat, the moon tells her “I still love you.”
Evaluation: “Happy Birthday Moon” is a story of friendship and love, and while the moon isn’t really speaking to Bear, Bear still loves the moon and cares about it.
The visuals of this video truly helped my understanding of the story. If I had only listened to the video I would not have seen the journey Bear took to get close to the moon or the things he did to buy the moon its birthday present.
I like this video because it exemplifies children’s wonderful imaginations.
Uses: a) Friendship, birthdays, and love b) What kinds of presents do you like to give your best friends?
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