Hey guys, hope you are all having a marvelous Presidents Day and are celebrating in grand fashion. Eight presidents (Lay off William Henry Harrison Virginia, he may have been born in your state, but he called Ohio home. Deal with it) have come from the State of Ohio, making us the “Mother of Presidents”. While there hasn’t been an Ohio president in quite some time now (Warren G. Harding 1921-1923), my dream, dear readers, is that one of you will ascend to that lofty title, where you can credit me as your inspiration and appoint me as an ambassador to someplace awesome like the Bahamas.
BOOKS!!!
So I finally read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children 
by Ransom Riggs and I thought it was excellent! This book has gotten mixed reviews, but to me, the problem is obvious: It suffers from M. Night Shyamalan syndrome (MNSS). For those who don’t know what this means (and that’s probably all of you since I made it up), MNSS means that something was advertised as something it’s not, thereby disappointing people who were expecting it to be as advertised. For example, The Village and Lady in the Water were both advertised as horror movies, but they most certainly were not. The Village was a psychological thriller while Lady in the Water was a fantasy. Understandably, those who were expecting horror from these movies were disappointed, which is probably why they were so widely disliked. Like these films, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children also pretends to be a horror story. The cover looks eerie and uses a creepy font, there are strange photographs throughout the book, it’s set in an abandoned orphanage and for some reason, Amazon has it listed third in its “Spine-Chilling Horror” section (as of 2-20-12). However, there is one, maybe two scary scenes throughout the whole book, so those expecting a horror story were let down. Instead I would classify this book as an adventure fantasy mystery. It’s closer to Big Fish than Children of the Corn. So with that in mind, you’ll probably enjoy this book much more. The book follows the life of a teenage boy named Jacob. When Jacob was a boy, his grandfather told him fantastic stories of his childhood at an orphanage off the coast of Wales. As he grew older, Jacob brushed these stories off as tall tales from his grandfather. But after his grandfather’s mysterious death where Jacob is able to receive his dying words, Jacob begins to investigate his grandfather’s past. Pretty soon, he discovers that some of his grandfather’s tales maybe weren’t so tall after all.
MOVIES!!!
I probably could have just written this in the previous section but I'm super excited to finally use the “MOVIES!!!” heading. I thought I had the chance earlier when I went to go see the movie The Grey, but I didn’t realize it was rated “R” going into it and with all the violence and gore and whatnot, it most certainly was rated “R” (also it was kind of a depressing movie). Anywhoo, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is apparently going to be made into a movie with Tim Burton directing. This seems like the most obvious fit and couldn’t think of a more suitable director for this movie, if it actually happens, that is.The talks are preliminary, but there IS an IMDB page for it already, so I’m banking it as a done deal. Speaking of great books being adapted to cinema, we are a mere 31 days away from The Hunger Games movie's release, that’s only a month to some months (thanks January, March, May, July, August, October & December)! I hope you guys are all emotionally and physically prepared for it, I know I am. Is anyone doing anything special for the release? Let me know in the comments!
