Series. Books. Book series. Movies. Book series made into movies. BSC. Alice. HP. Confessions.
In my elementary school heydey, it was all about The Baby-Sitters Club (BSC forever!). My days of hanging out with Kristy Thomas, Claudia Kishi, Mary Anne Spier, Stacey McGill, and the rest of the gang were endless. A and I would even put on a summer camp, have club meetings, decorate our Kid-Kits, and think of activities and such for our charges. Then it came. The day when my favorite book series at the time hit the big screen. The Baby-Sitters Club: The Movie. It instantly was a classic. A and I must have watched this movie more than a hundred times. Every day during summer was a movie day and every movie choice was the BSC movie. We memorized the lines. We incorporated the lines into our daily dialogue. We even made our own audio recording of the movie! (As a side note, A almost lost her voice at the end of this audio project.) There hasn’t been a movie since that has made such an impact on my life as the BSC movie did.
Alice McKinley entered my literary consumption during fifth grade and still adds a book to my bookcase each year. I’ve previously mentioned my affection for these books in a past post so all I will say here is that this was another one of my favorite books to make it to the big screen or, in this case, a straight-to-DVD movie. I’m happy that Alice was given the chance to be made into a movie, but it failed to live up to my expectations and I can only hope that the next movie (if there is one) is better.
We all know about Harry Potter and the cash cow it became and still remains to be. I began the Potter series during the second semester of eighth grade. It was the only good thing that came out of having library practice as an elective. At first, I was so confused (a reason why I don’t read fantasy-type books), but then as I stuck with it I began to love it. When it was announced that HP was making its way to the big screen, I was excited. This air of excitement quickly evaporated and watching the HP movies became an obligatory thing I have to do like going to family events. Is it just me, or do you have to read the books in order to fully comprehend Dumbledore’s explanations and events in the movie? There is no way the movies could do justice for the HP books, but at least the movies are getting better each time. (Question: Is it written in Rupert Grint’s contract that he has to do so many exaggerated facial expressions?)
And now the time has come for Confessions of a Shopaholic. I actually acquired my first Shopaholic book through my two member book club. E gave me the book for Christmas and I am very happy she did. Like with HP, I had to struggle to make it through the first few chapters of the book. And like with HP, I stuck with it and I began to love it. Rebecca Bloomwood is one of the most hilarious (fictitious) people know and reminds me a great deal of A. The movie comes out in just four weeks (February 13th)! I have high hopes for this movie as the books have been a part of my life for the past five years. Judging from the trailer, it doesn’t seem like the movie follows exactly with the book, but it does seem to have the same spirit of Confessions, which is fine by me. I’m not too picky, but as long as the movie leaves me with a satisfying feeling (even if it doesn’t follow exactly like the book), then I’ll be okay.
Other stuff about books making it to the big/small screen:
- Gossip Girl: picked it up during senior year of high school, liked it at first but then it got weird when Chuck Bass got a monkey (still ? about that one), couldn’t finish the series, the show makes it work even though it strays away from the books
- Twilight: wanted to know what all the fuss was about and the movie trailer made it look interesting, read it a week before the movie came out so I wouldn’t be confused when I watched it, would have been confused if I didn’t read it when I watched it, movie was only good for the intentional and non-intentional laughs, twilight was a good read, new moon was painful to read, not sure what to make of eclipse, breaking dawn was a reminder of why I don’t read fantasy-type books
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