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True story (5 more)
Quick read
Very humorous
Mark Sonna
Heart-warming anecdotes
"Where are they now" section
A true tale of how an American mom made a life in Mexico
Contains spoilers, click to show
A true tale of how an American mom moves from Illinois to Mexico with her two youngest sons in tow.
Lois Sonna (aka Batman) is tired of trying to be the kind of wife her husband expects her to be. She realizes this is not who she is and wishes to be free from the antiquated views of marriage and wifedom that her husband has.
She leaves her 4 children with her mother and heads for Mexico on Easter weekend and ends up securing a job and housing in Irapuato, Mexico.
She returns to the US to get her two youngest children and promptly heads back to Irapuato to move into their new apartment and report to work.
She soon discovers how different things are in Mexico from the battle to maintain more than 5 minutes of hot water, issues with plumbing, and the lack of American food choices to struggling to imbed some semblance of American culture in her childrens upbringing and making everything work out happily ever after in the end.
Due to unforseen (and not very well thought out) circumstances, she learns the Mexican ways of bribery and upcharging as well as taking advantage of the machismo culture of Mexico. This leads Lois to consider entering the world of smuggling goods from the US back into Mexico in order to make ends meet.
The memoir was written by Lois's oldest and only daughter, Linda Sonna, who recieved letters every week from her mother. The original manuscript was presented in letter form, but later changed to flow more like a story, with much of the writing taken verbatim directly from the letters.
This is a heart-warming, laugh out loud, and sometimes ridiculous story that can only be made sense of because it really happened.
  
    eReolen GO!

    eReolen GO!

    Book and Catalogs

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    Med eReolen Go’s app kan du låne e-bøger og netlydbøger for børn fra biblioteket. For at læse...

    Vennebyen

    Vennebyen

    Games and Entertainment

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    Games and activities for children 2-6 years, based on the successful childrens TV series “City of...

A Monster Calls (2016)
A Monster Calls (2016)
2016 | Drama, Fantasy
Despite the small budget, the effects are outstanding (0 more)
A Monster Calls is based on an idea by writer and activist Siobhan Dowd, who sadly died from cancer in 2007 before she could develop her story to print. Her ideas were developed into a book by Patrick Ness in 2011 and illustrated by Jim Kay where it went on to receive a number of childrens literary awards.

The story is set in a very dreary looking England and features a boy called Conor struggling to cope with his mother’s terminal cancer. His father is divorced from his mother and is living in the States with his new family. He’s bullied at school and he’s troubled by nightmares. And then he starts being visited at night by a monster who tells him 3 stories. It’s a bleak tale about the harshness of life, and I was kind of worried about how my 11 year old daughter might take to it when she said she wanted to see it with me.

J.A.Bayona, director of The Orphanage, handles the subject matter well, showing us how a child’s fantasy can make sense of the world and their feelings. The stories told by the monster occur over a number of days and are beautifully depicted in watercolour animation. Each one providing its own lesson to be learned in life. Liam Neeson is the monster, the large yew tree that Conor can see from his bedroom window, giving his best Aslan voice. Felicity Jones is the mother, gradually dying as each cancer drug fails. Sigourney Weaver is the grandmother who Conor reluctantly goes to stay with while his mother is receiving treatment.

The monster itself, the great yew tree, is a real triumph. Beautifully rendered and realistically interacting with its surroundings. When you consider the films meagre budget of 43 million dollars, it’s breathtaking what they’ve managed to achieve.

As expected, the movie really packs a punch with barely any humour or lightheartedness. There are times it’s a little too slow and gloomy, but it’s hard hitting thought provoking and intense. I don’t mind admitting that both me and my daughter found ourselves in tears towards the end too. Along with most of the cinema!
  
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
J.K. Rowling | 2016 | Children
10
9.1 (229 Ratings)
Book Rating
EVERYTHING (0 more)
Don't be so sirius ...
As much as I say I can't choose one of the Harry Potter books as my favourite ... this one possibly takes the biscuit! The humour, the mystery and of course the introduction of two of my (everyones?) favourite characters: Remus Lupin and Sirius Black.
The way Rowling manages to make us all panic and worry for Harry the entire way through the book to end up actually rooting for the 'bad guy' is probably one of her many talents (no spoilers but read the last book people).
The introduction of the Dementors who are supposed to 'protect' the school and pupils was chilling - no pun intended - and the actual meaning of them for Rowling's own depression was a real interesting twist to these 'childrens' books. Just adding more and more layers to these fabulous books. Introducing a concept such as 'depression' to young readers is a very difficult thing to do and Rowling achieves this with grace and tact. Introducing something as big as depression to young readers, she has managed to crack through the metaphorical glass roof in the way of mental health. Showing children that any person (Wizard or Muggle) can be effected by depression but there are ways to help combat it is something that is done beautifully in this book.
One of the main things I loved about this book was that she made a werewolf, in which horror has made us fear and distrust, into a character we all root for and adore. His backstory of how he has been mistreated by society and basically pushed to one side is respondent to what has happened to certain people in our society. Again, these are meant to be children's books - Rowling manages to put these points across in such a informative but almost gentle way for children to understand without directly shoving it down their throats. I believe in this way Rowling has managed to help the readers who grew up with these books understand the issues in our society and has helped people grow up to want to help end the stigma attached to certain groups and help make equality in our society.
Not bad for children's book.
  
    Timmy Tickle!

    Timmy Tickle!

    Book and Education

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    Timmy Tickle is an interactive story app for children that introduces a beautifully animated octopus...

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Jimmy Ray Davis (0 KP) created a post

Mar 4, 2018  
My official review of...

HELLRAISER: JUDGMENT (2018)

HJ is not a good movie. It is a flimsy slapped together hodgepodge of crazy almost inane visuals and the notion that Pinhead, the Cenobites and the auditor lounge about in a crumbling house luring folks off the street to analyze and then swallow their souls. What the hell happened to Clive Barker's wild, extreme vision of hell and the broad layering of Pinhead and his cohorts? The movie begins almost laughable as a lumbering creep is lured to the house by, get this, a NOTE slipped under his door. What are we in third grade again? Like a moron, he heeds the written summons and winds up at the house. When he disappears in the door, we hear what sounds like him getting jumped and his ass kicked. I almost laughed out loud for real, is this what Pinhead is reduced to? Paul T. Taylor plays the second replacement Pinhead and while he is better than Stephen Smith Collins he pales compared to the original, Doug Bradley. Pinhead has very little screen time and has just as little to do with the film. Throw in a trio of detectives that could have been lifted from the Saw formula of Arrogant guy, smart chick, timid guy and a storyline that seems so brief and abrupt it makes one wonder why it was even made.

HJ is not a bad movie. Sure it strangles Barker's creation and bastardizes everything we love from the early franchise but man oh man is this a visual feast of bizarro over the top crazy Clive Barker goodness. You have the jury made up of three nearly naked women with skinned faces, the cleaners three more naked women who apply their cleaning skills in a very offputting way, The disgusting assessor who pores childrens tears over paper confessionals and devours them only to puke their contents into a pipe system, The Surgeon, a latex masked monstrosity and a hulking baby-masked butcher who seals the deal. While some of the proceedings repulsed, I could not look away and the balsy output was a welcomed if reckless change. Two noteworthy cameos include the 80's scream queen, Heather Langenkamp in a painfully short scene as a sleazy landlord and Horror director John Guluger as the giggling, gnarly assessor. I also loved the twist at the end which turns the series on its ear and begs for another sequel.

All in all there is little to like if you go into this thinking you are getting a film that does justice to Clive Barker but if you go in as I did without expectations that it would be a homage to Pinhead and some kind of really good commentary on the universe of the characters. Go in low and strap yourself in. So bad it's good? Maybe but either way you will watch in morbid fascination, guaranteed!

2.5 of 5 stars