Random Rage Post

[connielane]

After seeing the Leaky article about the new Alan Rickman Celebrity READ poster now available at the ALA online store, I decided to poke around and see what their other posters looked like. I fondly remembered seeing the likes of Patrick Stewart, Mel Gibson, and my former TV boyfriend Andrew Shue (Melrose Place, for those of you who don't remember) on such posters when I was in college, and I wondered what celebrities (besides Orlando Bloom, who was the only recent one I knew about) had done these posters since then.

Imagine my astonishment to see a thumbnail of Britney Spears on one of these posters. Curious as to what book they chose to have her holding, I clicked. And what book is she holding?

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

I turned my eyes away, like Peter O'Toole in The Lion in Winter when he discovers his favorite son has betrayed him, as if closing his eyes will make it not true.

Why HP?! WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

Comments

[angua9.livejournal.com]

*stubbornly decides that Britney is secretly a HUGE HP geek and the main reason she wanted to have kids was to have an excuse to buy HP legos*


If you were doing a poster, what book would you choose? You can't choose any book those celebrities have already taken.

[connielane.livejournal.com]

Tom Jones, probably.

[nain.livejournal.com]

Anna Karenina, because I enjoy being a big fat literature snob at the ripe old age of 15.

But anyway, I had no idea Britney could read, especially in light of this video surfacing. You'll see what I mean when you watch it.

[laurel-potter.livejournal.com]

One of the Dragonriders of Pern books, which are my favorites after HP.

[angua9.livejournal.com]

Great choice!

I'm thinking Watership Down for me.

[rhrsoulmates.livejournal.com]

the main reason she wanted to have kids was to have an excuse to buy HP legos

Who says you need kids to have Legos? ;)

If you were doing a poster, what book would you choose? You can't choose any book those celebrities have already taken.

I haven't checked out all the pictures but I'm sure this hasn't been chosen. I'd go with a series my students love - the "Junie B. Jones" series by Barbara Park. They are chapter books about a kindergarten/first grade (in more recent books) student with text that's maybe on a second grade reading level. There are some parents who don't like the series because the author decided to allow Junie B. to sound like a 5-year-old might (at times) and so she writes "I runned away" rather than "ran".

My opinion? If 5-year olds are actively engaged in listening to the stories (which have maybe one little b&W picture per chapter), laugh when it's appropriate, and recall facts from earlier books then who cares if it's written in Pig Latin? Boys and girls alike LOVE it and beg to hear "just one more chapter please?!" How can you go wrong with that? (I do however, often correct the language while reading the stories aloud and we also discuss the consequences of Junie B.'s often immature/acting-out behaviors. But even there, it serves as a good example of what not to do and they actually *get* it too.)

[angua9.livejournal.com]

I love Junie B. Jones!

[rhrsoulmates.livejournal.com]

Yay! (Think I could have been any more defensive in that above post?) ;) I just hate it when people complain about the series since I see how much my kids enjoy listening to the stories and the ones who are already reading have even attempted to read the stories alone. That is awesome in my book!

The reason I had to explain all of that was because last year a parent of a student in another class called our school librarian to complain about her daughter being "encouraged" by the school (even though it was her own choice) to bring home one of the books. She thought we shouldn't have the series in our library at all! Wtf?

[angua9.livejournal.com]

In an amusing coincidence, I once complained to my kids' elementary school library because they didn't have Junie B. Jones on the shelves. It wasn't for my own kids' sake, because we had them all, but I was helping a little girl at library time and she really wanted to read more of them. At the next PTO meeting on the subject, I listed it as an example of the kind of books the library should have, but didn't.

[helianthemum.livejournal.com]

Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword. One of my all-time favorites.

And it's so true that you don't need kids to buy HP Legos...
*thinks about pulling out the Dumbledore's Office set after work*