An Unnecessarily Detailed Account of my Journey into Books for 8-12 Year-Olds.

So recently I read Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson (a book that tells Peter Pan's origin story) because I received it as a gift last year for my birthday and hadn't gotten around to reading it. And I loved it.

Peter and the Starcatchers is a book with a target audience of probably 8-12 year olds. (Does anyone know what that level of book is called? Middle Grade? Young Reader? It's like the one that comes in between what I will forever know as "chapter books" and what everyone knows as "young adult". I don't know.)

Anyways, I really enjoyed it because it had pirates and adventure and to be honest I often feel like by the end of the day my brain can no longer process anything at a higher reading level than that, so I returned to my bookshelf to decide where to go next. 

I picked up a book called Cold Cereal by Adam Rex, which... did you ever see the Dreamworks movie Home? The one about the purple aliens? Well if not, you should, because it's the best movie ever, and it was based on one of my favorite books that I read in middle school, The True Meaning of Smekday, also by Adam Rex. Since I originally purchased Cold Cereal because I assumed it would be another nonsensical journey just like his other book, and I was correct. 

So I took a trip to Half Price Books and hit up the Young Reader section and I left with a copy of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein, which was also amazing, and with that, I was hooked forever. 

Then, I went online to thriftbooks.com to find the sequel to Cold Cereal and the sequel to Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library and made the mistake of scrolling down to the "You May Also Enjoy..." section, and, well, I may or may not have several shipments of books coming my way over the next two weeks. 

Moral of the story, books for 8-12 year olds are just so much more fun. 

And you can probably expect several upcoming posts about said books in the near future. 

Procrastination Time: Trees

Sometimes I try to get work done but end up just looking at pictures of trees. 

I posted a very similar sentiment on Facebook one time and received a very positive response, which makes me think that it may be a habit I share with others, and it's definitely a habit I would like to encourage. 

The best trees to look at are the unexpected ones with fun shapes or colors. Otherwise I could just go outside or look out my window. 

To start you off on your tree journey, look at these trees I found on flickr: 

Now, since you're definitely not ready to be done looking at trees, go do a Google images search for "trees". Then start exploring the different suggested modifiers like "maple" or "cherry" or "rainforest" or "strange". But first probably contact your friends and family and let them know where you are so they don't worry when they don't see you for days. 

A Pixar Adventure

Sometimes, I tell people that I really like Pixar movies, and then they ask the dreaded question, "which one is your favorite?" So I set out on a mission to find my answer to this question.

First of all, let me just apologize in advance for the ridiculous length of this post. If you want to just skip to the end to see my final ranking, I would not be offended. Also, there might be some spoilers. 

I decided I would watch all the Pixar movies in chronological order and then grade them on a 27 point scale based on the following 3-point categories:

Funniness: 1-funny 2-contains specifically memorable moments that made me laugh 3-I laughed the whole time

Animation: 1-obviously great 2-contains specifically beautiful moments 3-it's one of the most noticeable parts of the movie

Nostalgia factor: 1-new/not as memorable 2-I have a specific memory about it 3-I grew up with it

Plot: 1-nothing special 2-enjoyable and creative 3-life-changing

Characters: 1-like them 2-love them 3-I want to be their friend

Message: 1-positive 2-important 3-perfect

Concept: 1-great 2-wonderful 3-beautifully original

Heart: 1-beautiful 2-pulls at the heartstrings 3-I cried

How much I like it: 1-like it 2-love it 3-would watch it every day

Bonus points can also be awarded. 

Clearly this is very subjective criteria, and the lowest possible score is a 9, which is still excellent if you read the descriptions of what one point means, but it works for my purposes.

Here's what I found:

1. Toy Story (1995)

Funny: 2 Animation: 3 Nostalgia: 3 Plot: 2 Characters: 3 Message: 1 Concept: 3 Heart: 2 Like it?: 3

Total: 22/27

I love Toy Story. I have Toy Story sheets, a toy Buzz Lightyear, and I recently bought Toy Story Vans, which are real shoes you can actually buy, you should check it out. I don't really like Woody though. He's kind of a jerk. I mean the entire first movie is just Woody freaking out because he may not be the favorite toy anymore. Buzz Lightyear makes up for it though, so it's characters score remains a 3. As for animation, it's only a 3 because Toy Story was the first ever feature length computer animated film, which is awesome. 

2. A Bug's Life (1998)

Funny: 1 Animation: 2 Nostalgia: 1 Plot: 2 Characters: 2 Message: 2 Concept: 2 Heart: 1 Like it?: 3

Total: 16/27

A Bug's Life is definitely an under-appreciated movie and I really enjoyed watching it again because it's probably the Pixar movie I've seen the least, but it definitely doesn't meet my Pixar standards that I have developed through years of watching Pixar movies constantly.

3. Toy Story 2 (1999)

Funny: 2 Animation: 1 Nostalgia: 2 Plot: 1 Characters: 2 Message: 1 Concept: 1 Heart: 3 Like it?: 3

Total: 16/27

Toy Story 2 is the first to receive a 3 in the "heart" category. I feel like it's the first movie where Pixar decided that their mission was to make their audience cry. Jessie and Emily get me every time. Woody is still a jerk in this movie though. I mean he decides with not much convincing to leave all his friends behind and join some strange toys on a journey to a museum in Japan because he likes being famous.

4. Monsters Inc. (2001)

Funny: 3 Animation: 2 Nostalgia: 3 Plot: 2 Characters: 3 Message: 2 Concept: 3 Heart: 3 Like it?: 3

BONUS +1 because I had the Gameboy game, the board game, and the play set. Total: 25/27

A near perfect score. It has always been one of my favorites though, so this doesn't really surprise me. When I was a kid, I had the Monsters Inc. Gameboy game, the Monsters Inc. version of Life the board game, and a super cool play set. 

5. Finding Nemo (2003)

Funny: 3 Animation: 3 Nostalgia: 3 Plot: 2 Characters: 3 Message: 2 Concept: 2 Heart: 2 Like it?: 3

Total: 23/27

Finding Nemo is an excellent movie. It's also just super quotable. I found myself reciting a lot of the lines along with the characters as they said them, a movie habit that many find irritating. I remember when Finding Nemo first came out because I went to see it with my brother, who saw it six times in theaters. 

6. The Incredibles (2004)

Funny: 3 Animation: 2 Nostalgia: 2 Plot: 1 Characters: 2 Message: 2 Concept: 2 Heart: 1 Like it?: 3

Total: 18/27

Another quotable one. The kind of movie that makes me laugh at things before they happen. When I was in middle school I once watched The Incredibles with a friend of mine in his basement and we ate Pop Rocks and laughed so hard we cried. "NO CAPES." 

7. Cars (2006)

Funny: 1 Animation: 1 Nostalgia: 1 Plot: 2 Characters: 1 Message: 2 Concept: 1 Heart: 1 Like it?: 1

Total: 11/27

Now I know that I lot of people have really strong feelings against Cars, but I honestly still like it. I stand by the criteria for a 1-point score in each category. My main problem with it is that I don't like Lightning McQueen as a character, which makes it hard to care about his story. 

8. Ratatouille (2007)

Funny: 1 Animation: 2 Nostalgia: 1 Plot: 2 Characters: 2 Message: 2 Concept: 2 Heart: 2 Like it?: 2

Total: 16/27

Ratatouille, like A Bug's Life, is one of those movies that is truly excellent, it was just never a big part of my life. Leave it to Pixar to make you love a rat. To be fair, I used to have pet rats so it wasn't really so much of a stretch for me, but I do have friends who dislike Ratatouille because they're disgusted by the idea of rats in a kitchen.

9. WALL-E (2008)

Funny: 2 Animation: 3 Nostalgia: 1 Plot: 3 Characters: 2 Message: 3 Concept: 3 Heart: 3 Like it?: 3

Total: 23/27

WALL-E is in my opinion one of the most stunning things that Pixar has ever created. They took a bunch of robots and made you care about them and root for them, and at the same time they made some startling statements about environmental awareness. It feels very important and beautiful, like watching a piece of art.

10. Up (2009)

Funny: 3 Animation: 2 Nostalgia: 2 Plot: 3 Characters: 3 Message: 3 Concept: 3 Heart: 3 Like it?: 3

Total: 25/27

Up has also always been one of my favorites. It's unique and beautiful and full of emotion. Pixar created yet another work of art. I always forget how funny Up is. I always remember it based on the first ten minutes that make everyone cry, but once I get through that part, I'm laughing pretty much the rest of the movie. 

11. Toy Story 3 (2010)

Funny: 1 Animation: 2 Nostalgia: 1 Plot: 1 Characters: 2 Message: 2 Concept: 2 Heart: 3 Like it?: 2

Total: 16/27

I have mixed feelings about Toy Story 3. In theory, I love it, but the actual experience of watching it was more than anything just upsetting. It's so dark. The good ones are in serious trouble and the bad ones are truly evil. There are very few light-hearted moments. The ending is worth it though, I cried. Pixar did the thing where they aged the characters realtime, which was a great move because all the kids who watched Toy Story growing up were going to college just like Andy when this movie came out. 

12. Cars 2 (2011)

Funny: 1 Animation: 1 Nostalgia: 1 Plot: 1 Characters: 1 Message: 1 Concept: 1 Heart: 1 Like it?: 1

Total: 9/27

Again, not a bad movie, just definitely a movie for little kids who like cars and Cars. I'll be honest, I didn't actually watch it this time around. I had seen it recently enough that I could rate it accurately, and I just really didn't want to watch it again. Trust me, this was a very hard thing for me to admit. 

13. Brave (2012)

Funny: 1 Animation: 3 Nostalgia: 1 Plot: 1 Characters: 2 Message: 3 Concept: 1 Heart: 2 Like it?: 1

BONUS +1 for a prince-less princess who saves herself Total: 16/27

Brave is a weird one, because even though Disney has owned Pixar for a long time now, this movie feels very Disney princess movie, and Merida is even one of the official Disney princesses. Pixar's take on a Disney princess though involved her being a badass so I'll take it. I always enjoy it more than I think I will. But again, super weird. 

14. Monsters University (2013)

Funny: 3 Animation: 2 Nostalgia: 3 Plot: 3 Characters: 3 Message: 1 Concept: 2 Heart: 2 Like it?: 3

Total: 22/27

I saw Monsters University nine times in theaters, three of those times were within the first 24 hours it was released. It gets three nostalgia points because it came out the summer before I started college. I think that's why I liked it so much.

15. Inside Out (2015)

Funny: 1 Animation: 3 Nostalgia: 1 Plot: 3 Characters: 2 Message: 3 Concept: 3 Heart: 3 Like it?: 2

Total: 22/27

Inside Out is another of those amazingly original and creative works of art that Pixar seems to generate. It only gets two points in the "how much I like it" category though, not because I don't think it's amazing, but because it's so emotionally involved that it's almost overwhelming to watch. 

16. The Good Dinosaur (2015)

Funny: 2 Animation: 3 Nostalgia: 1 Plot: 1 Characters: 2 Message: 1 Concept: 1 Heart: 3 Like it?: 2

Total: 17/27

This is another one of those movies that people tend to have negative feelings about, because it really isn't that remarkable. It is, however, a visual masterpiece and I love it because of that. 

17. Finding Dory (2016)

Funny: 2 Animation: 1 Nostalgia: 1 Plot: 1 Characters: 2 Message: 2 Concept: 1 Heart: 3 Like it?: 2

Total: 15/27

Finding Dory is lovely and incredibly heartfelt, but it did feel very sequel-y. Sequels can be hard, but I do love that Pixar doesn't seem to make sequels just for the sake of making a sequel (with the exception of maybe Cars 2 and Cars 3, coming soon, and Toy Story 4?). Finding Dory came out 13 years after the original, which makes it at least seem like they actually put some thought into what kind of sequel to make, as to not mess with a good thing. 

Final Results

Without further ado, I would like to present my completely subjective and only mostly accurate ranking of all 17 Pixar movies released to date. The list is subject to change.

1. Monsters Inc. - 25/27

2. Up - 25/27

3. Finding Nemo - 23/27

4. WALL-E - 23/27

5. Toy Story - 22/27

6. Monsters University - 22/27

7. Inside Out - 22/27

8. The Incredibles - 18/27

9. The Good Dinosaur - 17/27

10. Ratatouille - 16/27

11. Toy Story 2 - 16/27

12. A Bug's Life - 16/27

13. Toy Story 3 - 16/27

14. Brave - 16/27

15. Finding Dory - 15/27

16. Cars - 11/27

17. Cars 2 - 9/27

This has been one of the hardest things I've ever done. I don't know that I really even feel much better about the situation now that I have a real answer to such a hard question. I honestly probably would've guessed Monsters Inc. from the beginning, since I loved it so much as a kid. It definitely wasn't a waste of the time though. If anything, it gave me an excuse to watch all the Pixar movies and I loved every minute of it. 

Some Thoughts on Calvin & Hobbes

I decided it was just unreasonable for me to have a blog inspired by imaginary friends without addressing Calvin & Hobbes at some point, so here it is. (It's also technically for a class, so, two birds with one stone on this one.)

For those of you who are unfamiliar, Calvin is an excessively intelligent and expectedly imaginative six-year-old boy, and Hobbes is his imaginary tiger friend. Calvin & Hobbes is a comic strip by Bill Watterson. And it is wonderful.

A frequent conversation I have about Calvin & Hobbes addresses the existence of Hobbes, the imaginary tiger. Hobbes when he is with Calvin is represented as the tiger seen above with Calvin in a wagon, but whenever anyone else is around, he is a stuffed tiger toy. Does Hobbes actually turn into a real tiger when he's alone with Calvin, or do Watterson's comic strips represent reality as experienced by Calvin, a small boy pretending his tiger toy is real?

Some people argue that he's just a toy, that's why no one else is able to see his animated form. Others argue that Hobbes must be real, as he often helps Calvin do things that he would not be able to do on his own, like climb over a tall fence, for example. I would argue that it doesn't matter.

For a six-year-old, imagination and reality are not two separate realms, but rather intertwining perceptions of the world around them. It is my understanding or interpretation that this is why kids are able to have imaginary in the first place.

When I was six, I had an entire imaginary world of my own. When I went there, I knew I wasn't really going anywhere, but at the same time, I could spend hours exploring all the surprises it had in store for me. I would make new friends, meet mysterious new creatures, and play among the blue trees and giant flowers, and those experiences were just as real to me as my first day of school or my mom's tuna hotdish. For Calvin, Hobbes is a real experience. Whether or not he actually exists within the reality of those around him is irrelevant.

In conclusion, you should read Calvin & Hobbes if you haven't done so already. It's excellent.

Ubbe Eert Iwerks

So I'm taking this class about Disney (awesome, right?) and I just want to take a minute to give credit where credit is due to a man named Ubbe Eert Iwerks, commonly known as Ub, for creating Mickey Mouse.

Now I know you're probably thinking a couple of things. The first is, "What kind of name is Ubbe?" Fret not, I have the exact same question. I mean, Ubbe Eert? It's a great name, but not one that I would wish upon any child. His dad was called Eert Ubbe Iwerks, if that helps. Personally, I don't think it does.

The second thing you are thinking is probably, "I've never heard of this 'Ub' character, I'm pretty sure Walt Disney is the one who invented Mickey Mouse," and you're not entirely wrong. See, Walt and Ub were friends, and they worked together closely for years. Together they created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, who was an instant success. (You can watch this video if you are so inclined. It was homework for Disney class, so shoutout to those who have made that class possible for providing me with the inspiration for this post.) Long story short, Oswald was essentially stolen from our pals Walt and Ub, so they left the company with the rights to their rabbit friend, and decided to create their own character.

A striking resemblance to Mickey Mouse, no?

Oswald was not a success without Walt and Ub. Poor Oswald, what did he ever do to deserve getting lost in the business of the animation world? (Let's take a moment to appreciate that Disney finally bought back the rights to Oswald, within the last 15 years. Welcome home, buddy.)

There is quite a bit of debate of who originally created Mickey Mouse, and it was certainly a collaboration of sorts, but I personally choose to give the credit to Ub. I'm pretty sure he's at least the one who originally animated Mickey, even if they worked together to create him. Regardless, we can all agree that Ub deserves at least some credit, right? I mean everyone knows Walt Disney's name, but no one goes around talking about good ol' Ub Iwerks. 

The thing is, back in the early days of Mickey Mouse, Walt was still getting more credit than Ub, and Ub was not happy about this, so he left to start his own animation company, but was unfortunately not very successful. There was just something about Walt and his mouse... 

This has been the rather unfortunate yet fascinating story of Ubbe Eert Iwerks, a creatively named man with a creative talent who never got the credit he deserved. 

We love you Ub, thanks for everything. 

For more about Ub, click here

Nature is green

You know what one of my favorite things about working with kids is? They're usually willing to go along with my nonsense.

Last year when I was teaching Spanish at a summer camp, a couple friends and I were given a group of six 10-year-olds and two hours to fill. Our only guideline was "nature activity". As we started off down a path on our nature walk, we pointed to some grass, or some ferns, and made all the kids repeat, "es naturaleza". When we asked them why they considered these plants to be nature, one kid said, "...because it's green?"

"That is exactly right."

And with that, our two hour nature walked spiraled out of control as we led these poor kids less on a journey through the woods and more on a journey through our own nonsense.

Shortly after we established that nature is green, we came across a plastic chair in a clearing in the woods. My fellow staff members and I pointed at it and asked, "is this nature?" Since these were fairly smart kids, they looked at us like we were crazy and told us that this plastic chair couldn't possibly be nature. "But it's green," we pointed out, and we made them all repeat, "es naturaleza".

In the same clearing, there were some raspberries growing on a bush. "Is this nature?" Their intelligence remained resistant to our game, as they informed us that these raspberries were obviously nature. "But they aren't green," we responded.

At this point they were beginning to understand. As we continued our nature walk, they would point to things like rocks and sticks and declare, "no es naturaleza", or they would indicate their own green t-shirt, which was obviously the most natural thing around. Now we were all playing the same game, and we were having a blast.

About an hour in, one of my friends stopped and picked up a fallen branch. "No es naturaleza!" we all yelled in unison. My friend's only response was, "this is my wand." We proceeded to spend the rest of the activity using our stick wands to cast spells on our imaginary enemies.

When we got back to camp, the kids immediately informed their friends that their green shoes were nature but those purple flowers were not, and then they used their newly acquired magic wands to turn everything into Jello, because they had deeply internalized our very important life lessons.

Teen Celebrity Secrets from 2008

I own a lot of crazy nonsense. I've recently been going through all the things I own and I've found some torn out pages from teen magazines I used to have, like, for example, a Corbin Bleu trading card and a tiny quarter-page poster of Chad Michael Murray. I have a lot of other posters (I know I used to have one of Shia LaBeouf fully clothed in a bathtub, I can't imagine why I got rid of that one) but what's more interesting are two pages that feature "actual content" according to teen magazines.

I bring you, "things you didn't want or need to know about teen celebrities from like 2008, but apparently I felt I would still need to know 8 years in the future". 

Something called Yikes! Magazine printed this photo of Taylor Lautner eating lasagna

with the caption, "Taylor, werewolves don't use forks!" just to give you an idea of what time period we're talking about. It also features Miley Cyrus eating ice cream and Demi Lovato eating a shark shaped gummy candy. 

Some vitally important celebrity secrets revealed on the bag of this page:

Robert Pattinson's sisters used to dress him up like a girl named Claudia. 

Zac Efron has show tunes on his iPod. Or at least, he did 8 years ago. 

Ashley Tisdale likes to listen to "Bye Bye Bye" by NSync, but then again, who doesn't? 

And then some other stuff about some other celebrities that I don't recognize. 

J14 asks, "Growing up, who was your invisible friend?" 

Now this one I understand why I tore it out and saved it. This is super important information. 

Selena Gomez answered, "My stuffed animals!" Underneath this response, J14 confirms that she got two turtles for her 16th birthday! Wow! 

Ashley Tisdale's invisible friend was a mouse. So... I mean was playing with an invisible mouse even fun? Was it just a regular mouse, or was it magic or giant or talking or something? I have so many questions.

Sterling Knight's invisible friend was "a woman named Lockey." She sounds delightful. 

And finally, Jason Dolley said, "I made friends with the towels in my bathroom." I mean, wow.



So... you're welcome for sharing. Honestly, I wish I kept more of my teen magazine stuff, because these pages entertained me thoroughly. And yes, I am going to keep them for at least 8 more years. 

Now back to cleaning my room.