Go go, Gryffindor!

So Mr. Richards and I went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 2 last week and it was fantastic! I wore my Gryffindor house scarf:

I was very impressed with the number of people dressed up in line at the theater. Most were dressed as Hogwarts students. Speaking of the line, we happened to line up right behind the library clerk from Forest Hill who was there with her daughters and their friends. At the same time, I was texting my daughter who was in line for a theater in Oregon, where she lives now. She wore the Quidditch sweater I had made for her. It made me happy that she wore it but sad that we weren't together.
Back to the movie. My expectations for this movie were pretty high, as were the world's. I was not disappointed! It was very satisfying. Harry finally steps into his hero role and defeats ulitmate evil. (I don't think this is a spoiler at all because even if you haven't read the books, you know this is coming.) I think it's important, when critiquing the movie, not to compare it to the book. One of the biggest complaints I hear about the movies is how much of the story is left out. But that's why books are always better and you just have to take the movies for what they are. They have limitations in storytelling. Putting words on a page costs nothing. Sets, costumes, actors, special effects, etc., cost millions of dollars. So accepting the fact that some things are left out due to time or budget constraints, I feel like they left all the important stuff in. I thought Harry's final conversation with Dumbledore was handled beautifully. Everyone in the theater cried when the fatalities were revealed. It was so quiet you could hear the sobbing (I'm sure it wasn't just me). Likewise, everyone cheered when Molly confronted Bellatrix and for Neville's big moment. The epilogue was also very nicely done. The aging effects were perfect and it was a lovely, quiet goodbye to these characters we've been following for 10+ years. Really, a very satisfying close to the franchise.

So, I know your next question is, Mrs. Richards, what have you been knitting? Well, it's round two of the Nerd Wars tournament and I've finished one project so far:I submitted these fingerless gloves with a fishtail lace pattern for the Mythology challenge. The are supposed to represent mermaids and they are linked to Harry Potter because mermaids live in the lake on the Hogwarts grounds. I'm also working on a large piece of illusion knitting for the Big Nerd Love challenge. We are supposed to knit something from one of the other nerderies in the tournament. It's hard to explain what the illusion knitting is so I'll show it to you when it's finished. It's pretty cool though.

I hope you all are enjoying your summer and reading lots of books. I've been reading and listening to lots of different things, but I'll tell you about it next time because this post is already too long! Leave me a comment and tell me what you've been reading.

Harry Potter Harry Potter Harry Potter

The final Harry Potter film opens next week, bringing to a close the story of the boy who lived that began 14 years ago. I'm going to miss ol' Harry Potter. Reading the books and seeing the movies played a significant role in my kids' lives, especially my eldest daughter who has been a big Potter nut since the 4th grade, about 12 years now. I'm a little sad to see it all end. But wait. There's this: pottermore.com I don't know exactly what this is yet, but it looks like it's never going to end after all! Yeay!

In the mean time, I can still participate in Nerd Wars* on Ravelry.com on team Dumbledore's Army and relive the glory days! Here are some of the projects I've completed so far:

In this photo, we see a first year Gryffindor scarf, Mrs. Norris - Filch's cat, and a miniature first year Gryffindor scarf for Mrs. Norris. This is an elf hat for a baby. One of the challenges is called "Giving Geeks" and in June, we were to make baby hats and donate them to needy babies. I made two more hats in addition to this one and donated them to an organization which distributes them to homeless families. And this is a Golden Snitch.
There are three rounds in the tournament, each round is 1 month long. There are 6 challenges per round. In June, I could only complete 4 of the 6. I don't think I'll be able to complete all 6 this month either. It really is a challenge!

*Nerd Wars is a knitting/crocheting tournament with a nerdy theme.

Closing for the Summer

The book shelves are getting pretty tight as all those fabulous books are coming back to the library to hibernate for the summer. I'm going to miss my little library regulars but I'm sure they'll be enjoying plenty of books over the summer. In fact, the Saratoga Library children's librarians came to Marshall Lane today to present their Summer Reading Program. You can find out more about it here. If you click on the orange "kids" button, you can find lots of ideas for what to read next. There are lists by grade level or you can subscribe to Next Reads to get recommendations by email. Another great place to find out about books is Kidsreads.com. At Kidsreads, they have a team of reviewers reading and reviewing lots of new kids books. They keep archives of their reviews so you can read about older books. They also have author interviews, previews of coming releases, plus contests and giveaways.

As for what I'm doing this Summer, I'll be heading to New Orleans to attend the American Library Association's annual conference later this month. There will be some authors there (Jeff Kinney!), so I'm hoping to add to my author shrine and get some books signed. Then, as soon as I get back from that I'll be heading up to Berkeley to see Neil Gaiman on his American Gods 10th anniversary tour. Last fall I went to an American Gods event at the House on the Rock in Wisconsin. You can read about that here and here. And you if haven't read American Gods yet, grown ups, I highly recommend it.

The last Harry Potter movie will be coming out in July so I'm kind of nerding out over that. In fact, I'm participating in a knitting challenge on Ravelry.com called Nerd Wars. I'm on Team Dumbledore's Army and I'm currently working on knitting a year one Gryffindor house scarf for the team spirit challenge. If you want to learn more about Nerd Wars, you can read about it here. And, of course, while I'm doing all this knitting in anticipation of HP7P2, I'll be listening to books 1-7 on my nano.

Finally, I'm thinking of another project for the Summer, having to do with books, but it's kind of super secret right now. If it gets off the ground, I will let you know and share it with you, but if not, I will let you in on my failure. In any case, getting it out of my head and into other people's expectations will surely motivate me to act on my idea.

Well, Mr. Richards just told me it sounds like I'm writing a paper over here so I must have written enough by now. One more quick thing: the Fabulous Room 3 is working on a 90 Second Newbery film of Charlotte's Web! They have been working very hard and I can't wait to see the results!

Have a great last 3 days of school! Don't forget to check the blog over the summer, I'll be here!

New York Times follow up and current obsessions.

In the last few days, I've received a lot of positive feedback on my post 'In defense of the picture book,' for which I'm very pleased. I meant everything I said in the post, however, after going back to the Times article and reading some of the comments, I felt I needed to bring some new information to the discussion. I used a quote from the article and criticized it in my post. It turns out that the woman attributed with that quote believes she was misquoted and that what she had said was taken out of context. You can read her response here.

I had said in my previous post that I was 'horrified' by the quote in question, and I remain horrified, but not at the woman who supposedly said this, rather at the Times for putting this forth as the prevailing attitude among parents and the likely reason for the decline in sales of picture books. And shame on me for not getting both sides of the story before making comments of my own. Aside from that, I stand by my post and I do feel strongly about letting kids enjoy all kinds of reading materials and allowing them to self-select. The lesson learned is to not take the news at face value. It's important to dig deeper, think critically, and make sure you have all the information before you put in your $.02.

On to the fun stuff. The first installment of the final Harry Potter movie will be out on November 19. I'm very excited to see the movie. I'm a big Harry Potter fan, of both the books and the movies, although I wasn't into it early enough to see Jo Rowling at Hicklebee's back in the day. But the fun thing about it was watching my daughter grow up with Harry. She began reading the books in fourth grade. I had already read the first one and couldn't get her interested in it. Then one day, she came home from school and asked for the book because one of her classmates had done an oral book report on it and it intrigued her. She was instantly hooked. At this time, the first two books were out so she gobbled up the second one as soon as she finished the first. Then we waited for each successive book release. And as she got older, I thought she would leave Harry behind as part of her childhood, along with Barbie dolls and Pokemon. But as she got older, so did Harry and his story matured along with him and she didn't have to give him up. Instead, she loved him all the more. And so did I. She preferred to read the books to herself so we would have to keep two bookmarks in the book and we would race each other through the books and ask each other "have you gotten to that part yet?" She went to a couple midnight book releases with her friend, though she wouldn't wear a costume. When the last couple movies came out, we went to the midnight showings on the first day of release. When the last book came out in 2007, I read the book in a day and a half. It made me cry. My daughter didn't start it right away. She put it off. And waited. Until more than a year later. I asked her why she wasn't reading the book, she looked wistful and said she didn't want to say goodbye. She wasn't ready to let Harry go. But finally, she did read it. And now all we have left is the last movie in two parts.

She's away at college now so we won't get to see the movie together on opening day. She'll go with her friends, I'll go with mine. I suspect we'll see it again when she's home for Thanksgiving. Also, I'm knitting her a Quidditch sweater. Here's how it looks so far:

True confession: I started this post two days ago. About the same time I started listening to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on audio book. I couldn't put it down long enough to finish this post, until now. I just finished listening to it. I can't wait to see it on screen. Also, I'm much further along with the sweater.

In other book news, I'm currently reading a collection of short stories called Zombies Vs. Unicorns. I'm only three stories in and this post is already long enough so I'll tell you about ZVU next time.

Also, I'm thinking of doing a Nobody Owens/Harry Potter Venn diagram.