A Slice of Megan Pie: February 2012

Thursday, February 23, 2012

The Book of Three

While reading The Book of Three I couldn’t help but constantly be reminded of The Lord of The Rings. There were so many similarities it was almost a little unsettling. I did, however, quite enjoyed it because of that fact. I thought the story was exciting and well delivered. I do wish there was more description of that the actual Book of Three was, they just talk about it when Taran is meeting people that are in it such as Medwyn and Gwydion or when Dallban is reading or writing in it.

I was very fascinated with the tunnels underneath the Spiral Castle. I liked how they just came up, Taran was sitting on the wrong stone all the time. This seemed to be the only original thought in this book that was not so similar to The Lord of the Rings. Seriously, as I read the book, I kept saying, “what’s next, a glowing sword?”, then low and behold, a GLOWING SWORD! I really started to get irritated, but I did enjoy reading the story, ebcuase I really liked the ones it seems to be based on.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

I read The Invention of Hugo Cabret as an assignment for my class. When I first borrowed the book from my mother, I said, “This thing is HUGE!” She told me that it was mostly pictures and that it doesn’t take long to read, so I got started. I finished it pretty quickly, it has a ton of pictures. While I was reading it, I would sometimes flip through the illustration pages quickly, my boyfriend would ask, why are you flipping the pages so fast, don’t you have to read them? But when you read this book, you realize that the movement on the illustration pages sometimes makes you want to turn it quickly as if is it a flip-book, other times, you want to study the drawing. One example of when I couldn’t wait to turn the page was between pages 240-250, waiting to see what the automaton was drawing!

I loved how the story was based in a train station, the way it was described through pictures and words, made me feel like I could picture it and it was back in the early 1900’s, which I am not even sure when the story was supposed to be based. I really enjoyed how the view that you were given, again through pictures or words, had you looking through things, like clocks or waiting for curtains to open.

When I looked at the book again, after reading it, I realized how mesmerized I was right away. The first 45 pages are just images and they make you want to know what is going on. I had no clue what the book was about, then I looked at those pages and I had some idea, but I wanted to know more. I thought it was great that I sort of got the option to create my own story right away.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Harlequinade Books

Harlequinade books are similar to the flap-books we know these days. They usually consisted of two sheets of paper that were stitched together and one was over the other. You would read the story and look at the pictures, then you would be instructed to lift the flap to reveal the rest of the story and the other part of the picture.

In one paper I read, the author says he thinks that these books became popular because of the demand for the stage performances of pantomimes and clowns. He thinks that the pop-up books were sort of an extension of the stage show that people loved seeing, now they could in a way have their own piece of it.

In another article I found, they described this type of book as a “grey area” between books and art on paper. It is also said that the harlequinades were tough to read unless you opened the flaps to reveal the full story or picture.

This type of book was harder to find information about that I thought it would be. When I would search harlequinade books, I kept being taken to romance novels, which was kind of funny. I liked learning how they seemed to have been inspired by the stage performers, that makes the books sound fun back then, as if you could act out the shows yourself with these books.