Pitifully behind: Fifty.fiftyme Challenge June Stats

Working on the fifty.fifty me blog challenge. Most reviews for this post forthcoming!

Majoring in: Japanese Fairy and Folktales

Minoring in: Steinbeck

June Books Read:

• Bookspeak! : Poems About Books by Laura Purdie Salas. (Please see blog post)
• Unspoken: a Story From the Underground Railroad by Henry Cole (Please see blog post)
• A Boy Called Dickens by Deborah Hopkinson. Illus. by John Hendrix (Please see blog post)
• Cameron & the Girls by Edward Averett, 2013. Cameron is a 14 year old boy with Schizoform disorder. It causes him to hallucinate, but this can be controlled by medication. Unfortunately, Cameron tries to experiment with going off his medicine, and begins to hear voices. One is familiar to him, the Professor, who helps remind him of the rules he should be following. Another is a nasty new voice who challenges him to take risks and is vaguely threatening. Most intriguing is "The Girl," who wants to be Cameron's girlfriend and speaks sweetly to him. While attending classes for special needs teens he meets and becomes friends with the new girl, who has a history of depression and also would like to be Cameron's girlfriend. This was not my favorite book, because as a reader, you can watch Cameron keep making bad decisions, and it's very frustrating. I had a hard time liking him.
• The Case of the Deadly Desperado
•  Teeth: I loved this one. It was odd but emotionally true. Boy and his family go to live on an island that has miracle fish to help rehabilitate their youngest son who is ill with, . Boy is the only teenager on the island, except for a girl with a mysterious mother, and a physically ugly merboy. The fish boy and boy bond.
• The Ice Queen
• On the Road to Mr. Mineo's by Barbara O'Connor (Please see blog post)
• The Last Little Blue Envelope  by Maureen Johnson
•  13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson. Shortly after Ginny's artistic and well traveled aunt dies, Ginny receives an unexpected package from her. It challenges the 17 year old to go to Europe and and follow the directions
•  Little White Duck (Please see blog post)
•  Giants Beware! (Please see blog post)
•  Doll Bones

Folktales: The Samurai's Daughter by Robert San Souci, Tanuki's Gift: a Japanese Tale by Tim Myers  (See my blog posts for extended summaries of these).

June Films watched:

• Stoker  (2013): This movie made me feel like I wanted to take a bath after I was done watching it and I wished I hadn't seen it. Ick. That said, it had everything to do with the plot and nothing to do with the quality of the film or its actors. India's (Mia Wasikowska) father dies on her 18th birthday, leaving her mother ( Nicole Kidman) a hot widow. On the day of the funeral, her mysterious uncle (Matthew Goode), who she never knew existed, shows up. Unsavory actitivities follow.
• Oz: the Great & Powerful: To be fair to this film, there is no way that it could compete with the wonder that I felt as a child  when I first saw The Wizard of Oz . There is also nothing as consistently menacing as those original flying monkeys. So, there was no competition. I generally enjoy Michelle Williams and James Franco. However, I disliked the wizard's character and his womanizing ways. I really didn't like the wizard kissing Glinda. Where is the pretty but powerful Glinda? She seemed passive  and I thought that that predictible kiss just rlegated her to the role of "the girl."Also, a certain witch's transformation seemed flimsily based. Is our terrifying Wicked Witch of the West really just the result of a spell and a romantic disappointment?  Well, what did I like? The China Girl. She really did seem magical. However, she wasn't enough to save this tedious movie for me.
•  The Great Gatsby (2013)
• Poirot: Taken at the Flood

Totals:

Books total: 69/50
Books minus folktale minor: 35/50
Movies: 21/50
Major: 36/7
Minor: 2/3