By Dan DeNeve and Maggie Villalobos
While every year books are made into movies and TV shows, we are especially excited about direct translations and indirect relationships between the page and the screen. Come in and check some of these examples out.
Even before the movie was announced, Wonder by R.J. Palacio had been a popular book for older elementary and middle school readers. The book starts with Auggie Pullman, a 10-year-old who is going to school for the first time in his life. He was born with extreme facial abnormalities and was not expected to survive. While mostly told through Auggie’s point of view, Palacio includes chapters narrated by two of Auggie’s new school friends, Auggie’s sister and his sister’s former best friend. Set over the entire school year, readers go on an emotional and at times funny journey with Auggie. The movie is set to be released in April. Readers can borrow the book and the audiobook with three narrators from the Dana Point Library.
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon is the story of a teen girl, Madeline Whittier, who’s literally allergic to the outside world. When a new family, including Olly, an inventive teen, moves in next door, Madeline begins a complicated romance that challenges everything she’s ever known. While it seems like a traditional romance, Madeline has a rare condition—severe combined immunodeficiency—and Olly must live with his violently alcoholic father. The relationship between Madeline and Olly does become intimate but the author treats it well and appropriately for a teen audience. The story is told in short paragraphs, emails and chat exchanges as well as book reviews with diagrams, cartoons and illustrations provided by David Yoon. The movie will be in theaters in May. Dana Point has a copy of the book in the Teen section.
For those fans of Dan Brown or HBO’s The Young Pope, then Richard Harris’ Conclave is for you. Fans of Harris will remember his Fatherland and Pompeii. While not his best work, this is definitely a fast and compelling read. The pope has died and conclave begins. Four cardinals start out as frontrunners. However, information about each one comes to light and their candidacies fail. Eventually, another gets serious consideration, but he truly doesn’t want the position. Then a mysterious outsider no one has ever heard of before the conclave gets some consideration. But who is this cardinal? Where is he from? How did he become a cardinal? What other secrets does this stranger have? Several votes are taken throughout the conclave and while the story is good, one drawback is the ending. One final secret is revealed on the last page that at the same time left me wanting more, but feeling like it was rushed. This doesn’t detract from the entire story, but readers should be warned. The library owns a copy.
The Seaside Book Club meets every fourth Monday of the month from 10:30-11:30 a.m. All are welcome. We will be discussing Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (optioned for a movie, but no other news). For a list of future featured titles, call the library at 949.496.5517.
Our Foreign Film Movie will continue on March 26 at 2:00 p.m.
For more information about upcoming events across the OC Public Libraries system, visit www.ocpl.org. The site also provides access to online research, tools, digital magazines, PDF copies of historical sheet music, ebooks, eaudiobooks, jobseeker resources and more.
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