More Peter Pan

Another favorite part of Peter Pan:

The wretched prisoners were dragged from the hold, all except Wendy, and ranged in a line in front of him (Hook). For a time he seemed unconscious of their presence. He lolled at his ease, humming, not unmelodiously, snatches of a rude song, and fingering a pack of cards. Ever and anon the light from his cigar gave a touch of colour to his face.

"Now them, bullies," he said briskly, "six of you walk the plank to-night, but I have room for two cabin boys. Which of you is it to be?"

"Don't irritate him unnecessarily," had been Wendy's instructions in the hold; so Tootles stepped forward politely. Tootles hated the idea of signing under such a man, but an instinct told him that it would be prudent to lay the responsibility on an absent person; and though a somewhat silly boy, he knew that mothers alone are always willing to be the buffer. All children know this about mothers, and despise them for it, but make constant use of it.

So Tootles explained prudently, "You see, sir, I don't think my mother would like me to be a pirate. Would your mother like you to be a pirate, Slightly?"

He winked at Slightly, who said mournfully, "I don't think so," as if he wished things had been otherwise. "Would your mother like you to be a pirate, Twin?"

"I don't think so," said the first twin, as clever as the others. "Nibs, would--"

"Stow this gab," roared Hook, and the spokesman were dragged back. . . .

Peter Pan is Correct!!

See? it wasn't even a little bit hard. I could say Keshia had an unfair advantage as she listened to it with us in our car this past weekend, but as Jesse points out "captain" and "codfish" can only mean one guy! Here is the scene:

"Spirit that haunts this dark lagoon to-night," he cried, "dost hear me?"

Of course Peter should have kept quiet, but of course he did not. He immediately answered in Hook's voice:

"Odds, bobs, hammer and tongs, I hear you."

In that supreme moment Hook did not blanch, even at the gills, but Smee and Starkey clung to each other in terror.

"Who are you, stranger, speak?" Hook demanded.

"I am James Hook," replied the voice, "captain of the Jolly Roger."

"You are not; you are not," Hook cried hoarsely.

"Brimstone and gall," the voice returned, "say that again, and I'll cast anchor in you."

Hook tried a more ingratiating manner. "If you are Hook," he said almost humbly, "come tell me, who am I?"

"A codfish," replied the voice, "only a codfish."

"A codfish!" Hook echoed blankly, and it was then, but not till then, that his proud spirit broke. He saw his men draw back from him.

"Have we been captained all this time by a codfish!" they muttered. "It is lowering to our pride."

They were his dogs snapping at him, but, tragic figure though he had become, he scarcely heeded them. Against such fearful evidence it was not their belief in him that he needed, it was his own. He felt his ego slipping from him. "Don't desert me, bully," he whispered hoarsely to it. . . .


I love Peter Pan. It is such fun listening to it again.

Can you guess?

I'm going to try something new-- As I was reading today I read a line in my book that made me laugh, and I decided I would like to share it with my readers, BUT there is a catch!! I want you to guess what book this comes from!! You are probably thinking this will be hard, but I think you can guess this even if you haven't read the book-- its should seem pretty familiar. In fact, I would guess everyone has seen some version of the movie or play, even though this line isn't in any that I remember.

Here it is:


"Have we been captained all this time by a codfish!" they muttered. "It is lowering to our pride."


Sooooooo, in a week or so, or if someone guesses correctly, I will come back with the answer, and probably type out a good part of the scene. I'll see if this becomes a new series of blogs for me or not, but it will be interesting to see what happens anyways.

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

First, our family loves Hayao Miyazaki's movies- I was first introduced to Hayao Miyazaki in my high school Japanese class with My Friend Totoro. It was a little hard to get what was going on because it was in japanese for class, obviously. Then a while ago (10 years or so?) Pixar and Disney started translating the movies into English and its so awesome!

Our Family Favorites: Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Porco Rosso, The Cat Returns, Castle in the Sky, My Friend Totoro (the dakota and elle fanning version is the best, but we've had a hard time getting it--netflix employees don't realize there are two different versions so you might get the older version, which is still good), and Kiki's Delivery Service.

And there are a couple we haven't let the kids watch, but Kurt and I love: Lupin the 3rd: Castle of Cagliostro (there are tons of Lupin the 3rd movies, but this is the only one Hayao Miyazaki was a part of) and Princess Mononoke.

And Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea was released in Japan in 2008 but hasn't been released in the US yet.

Get them, watch them, love them-- enough said. (Note to reader- yes they are all a little weird, quirky, whatever, they are still fabulous)

Anyways, this brings me to the Second part of my post-- The totally great, awesome, fabulous, delightful, enchanting, non-stop action book Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. I have been in a reading slump the last few months, but I have been snapped out of it by this wonderful book (and a couple other new series I'm in the middle of reading and will post about when I'm done). The movie is an excellent adaptation as far as those go, but the book has so much more to the story, characters, and my own enjoyment. PLUS, there are more Howl books by Jones, which means my hold list at the library is now full. My only warning is that you can't go into this book thinking about it seriously- its not going to have complete character development or describe everything down to the last detailed speck in the corner. Don't analyze it-- ENJOY IT!!

Books I forgot to mention, but meant to

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo- We loved this book! Adventure, suspense, love, honor, courage, it was wonderful. Very like a traditional fairy tale. As for the movie, half of it was completely made up- I have no idea what the idea was with the vegetable man, because there wasn't anything even remotely close to that in the book. And the wonderful story was mixed up or completely missing.

The Princes and the Hound by Mette Ivie Harrison- This was weird. People able to talk with animals I can handle, but animal and people subconsciousness' being put in the other's body was creepy. As a whole, the story is an intersting premise, but, yeah, a little weirdness.

The Ranger's Apprentice Series by John Flanagan- as previously mentioned the libraries of all Salt Lake county only have through book 5, which ends with a heroine in the clutches of the bad guy and the hero without a plan to rescue her. I had enjoyed the series up to this point, but this is one of the annoying things about a series.

Catching Up

I don't know if I am going to keep doing this blog. I have a number of books I've read this year that I've never blogged about, and I don't think I care to, not because I didn't like them, but it would be time consuming and I seem to have less free time each new day.

Here is a sampling:
Hot Lunch by Alex Bradley
Chicken Friend by Nicola Morgan
Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande
Esperanza Rising and Paint the Wind by Pam Munoz Ryan
The Thief, The Queen of Attoila, and The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner (Did I blog about these? I don't remember, but I highly recommend them)
The Aurora County All-Stars, Each Little Bird That Sings, Love Ruby Lavendar by Debbie Wiles (One of Wiles' main themes is death so be warned and have a box of tissues handy)

That being said, here are my books from May:

The Sisters Grimm series by Michael Buckley- There are currently 7 books in this series with an 8th on the way, and that is probably the one thing I don't like about this series. By the last book it felt like I was really being dragged around. And book 7 ended with the characters in a bad place which is always super annoying. But I also love this series becaiuse its so creaetive- there are characters from all kinds of fairy tales- the wizrad of oz, jabberwocky, little red riding hood, 3 little pigs, and so on. They all live in Fairyport where they are kept from leaving by a barrier that will only disappear when the Grimm family dies off. Some of the fairy tale creatures are okay with this- not wanting the world human population to know there are real fairy tale creatures, and some are part of the Red Hand, an underground rebellion trying to get rid of the Grimm family.

The kids and I listened to The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy and The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall- both of these were pretty fun, but the 2nd one was about the girls' widowed father starting to date so it wasn't as interesting to the kids. We also listened to The Rescuers, which is nothing like Disney's movie (they never are). I get a kick out of the book being about the Prisoner's Aid Society- rescuing a poet from prison, regardless of his crime, because he has a poet's soul and should therefore be free. Mouse logic I guess.

I read You Don't Know Me by David Klass for Jesse's book club, with discussion going on here . We are currently reading my pick, Persuasion by Jane Austen. I love Jane Austen and read through her books about once a year.

And I read a bunch of parenting themed books because I was in a rough spot with Nyah. Positive Discipline and others by Jane Nelson are my favorites, if you can have favorite parenting books.

April Blahs! & Sisterhood of Traveling Pants

For the month of april I went through the reading blahs- I didn't want to read anything, nothing sounded good, I didn't even read the book for Jesse's book club. Blah blah blah. Then at the end of the month I decided to read the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series after I watched teh 2nd movie for the 1st time. These are by Ann Brashares. They were fun enough to perk up my reading interests.

Book 1 is very much like the 1st movie. The writers of the movie followed the story line very closely, but I always think the characters are better developed and represented in books. So that was enjoyable.

The 2nd movie is a modge-podge of the next 3 books, which I thought was pretty weird. I liked the books tons better than the movie, not just because of better character development, but also more extensive plot lines.

I give these books a Thumbs UP!!

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
The Second Summer of the Sisterhood
Girls in Pants: the third summer of the sisterhood
Forever in Blue: the fourth summer of the sisterhood