Bridge to Terabithia - a book and movie review

 I'd never heard of this book until recently when the movie was shown on TV here in Australia.  We saw the trailer and liked the look of it, so we recorded the movie for our girls to watch sometime.  I also looked the book up and found it in our local library. I think it's always nice to read a book before seeing a movie. Books have more detail in them and it lets you create the pictures for the story in your own imagination. We were also looking for a new book to read together as a family, and this seemed to fit the bill well.
The book is a best-seller, won the Newberry Medal in 1978, and is studied in English study classes around the world.

Here's the trailer we saw for the movie:
After watching this, I expected an adventure story set in a magical world. However, when we started to read the book, we found this wasn't exactly what the book was about. The book tells of a friendship that develops between a boy and girl, around 10 or 11 years old. It explores school life, bullying, family relationships, imagination as a form of escape, and also death.
Although the book was totally different to what we had expected, we all really enjoyed it. We took turns reading chapters. At one stage I had to hand the book to my elder daughter to finish the chapter as I was crying at the story and couldn't speak!

After finishing the book, we then watched the movie.  As always there was the discussion about the parts that had been left out, and the extra little bits that were added, but overall we enjoyed it.
Our eldest daughter said afterwards she preferred reading the book as you get to know what the characters are thinking as well as saying. I agree with this!
I would definitely recommend this book as a great read for kids (ours are 8 and 10 years old and it was perfect for them). And read the book before seeing the movie too!
Have you read this book or seen the movie? What did you think?

Messages in movies - Mary Poppins

These days kids movies are slick, fast paced, full of impressive special effects and amazing animation.  But can kids still appreciate the older style movies?    Today our girls have been watching Mary Poppins.  The interest came about after a discussion I had with our elder daughter yesterday about finding the fun in chores and homework to make them more appealing and less of, well - a chore!  In other words, "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down."

I have always tried to find the fun in things.  I believe in a positive approach to life. A good attitude is so important to teach our children.  We all have the ability to chose whether or not to enjoy things or not.  When our girls don't want to do something that they have to, I tell them that they can choose to be grumpy and miserable or they can choose to be happy and enjoy the experience.

I love the movie Mary Poppins, as it really promotes this positive outlook on life.  There is magic and fun in it, but also discipline and respect.   It may be set over 100 years ago, and made nearly 50 years ago, but it is still a very watchable and enjoyable movie.

The setting of London in 1910 also brought up an interesting talking point. At the beginning of the movie, the children's mother is wearing sash that says, "vote for women" .  We recently had local elections here in Cairns, and explained a little about voting to our girls.  This was a great opportunity to explain that it was only just over 100 years ago that women couldn't vote at all!

Another part of the movie that made me stop and think, was the part when the traditional banker father takes his children to see his work one day.  His son has taken tuppence from his money box with him, and asks along the way if he can use his money to feed the birds.  His father point blank refuses and then takes his children into the bank and tries to persuade his son to put his tuppence into the bank to do the sensible thing and  invest for the future.   The boy does not want to be persuaded - it's his money and he wants to feed the birds!

It made me think of the times I've been out with our girls and they see something they want to buy with their own money, but I try to dissuade them because I think it's a waste of money.

Seeing something like this shown in black and white terms on a movie, does make me feel bad for not just letting the girls enjoy the pleasure of spending their own money on what they want to.  My idea of what is a waste of money is not necessarily the same as what could bring pleasure to little kids!

The girls really enjoyed watching this movie - even though it doesn't have any slick, modern special effects.  It has a great story, magic and lots of songs and dancing too. I must say that I enjoyed seeing it again too and watching it with my daughters!

Are there any older movies that your kids have enjoyed watching?  or do they just prefer modern slick ones?

And what messages do you think movies have taught your kids?

 Do you think kids are aware of the messages there?