I’m back, hello! *waves madly* So sorry I was away for so long, I have felt AWWWWFUL! And I’ve still got that knackered-after-an-illness feeling but at least I don’t actually feel ill any more (except for my throat, but that’s another story…) so can finally get back to work. Thank you for all your good wishes 
I read this article this morning about authors who’ve had their books turned into films. It’s very interesting how their experiences are so different from each other – one author was closely involved in the making of the film and really enjoyed being on set every day; another hated the way their novel was taken apart and put back together into something that bore very little relation to the original. All of the writers though did say how they accepted that a film is very different from a book and that being able to write one doesn’t mean you can write the other.
It got me thinking about books that have been turned into films. There are looooads out there – I mean, Harry Potter is the obvious one to think of (and what did you think, were the films good interpretations of the books?) and sometimes I have enjoyed a film far more than the book – the Lord of the Rings, for example. I actually liked the films a lot, whereas the book(s) I just couldn’t get on with. I’m keen to see The Hobbit when it comes out.
One film I have refused to watch on principle is the adaptation of Susan Cooper’s brilliant book The Dark Is Rising. The book is one of my favourite EVER; it’s a fantastic mixture of historical legend, myth and magic in a modern setting. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it – and it’s genuinely spooky in parts. Basically, it’s that age-old tale of the fight between good and evil (or ‘light’ and ‘dark’ as they’re called in the book) and one boy discovering he has special powers and is on a quest and all that. So far, so predictable, you might think, but Susan has such a vivid writing style she really draws you in, and it’s the perfect book to read in winter because it’s all full of snow and the cold and creepy crows and quiet country lanes and – ooh! It’s just wonderful, I must dig it out and read it again now 
plus it’s part of a series of five books so if you like it, you can read the others too!
Anyway, a few years back someone finally made it into a film – and I can’t bring myself to watch it, I just can’t. My brother, knowing my love for the book, bought me the DVD, and it’s still sitting on my shelf in its cellophane wrapper. Just by reading the blurb on the back cover, I know I’m going to hate it. The central character has been ‘aged up’ (in the book he’s 11) so that he can have a girlfriend, and that’s sort of missing the whole point about him as a character. Other things I’ve read in reviews also lead me to think I shall be horribly disappointed because it sounds as though the film-makers took the bare bones of the story and then just made up a load of stuff to suit them which bears no relation to the original. Maybe if I’d never read the book I might watch the film, but I can’t face sitting through it and shouting, ‘No! That’s all wrong, it’s not like that at all!’
What books-to-films have YOU seen? Which ones have you enjoyed and which ones did you hate? And can you add to my list of children’s books that have been adapted?
The Secret Garden: A Little Princess: Harry Potter: Holes: The Princess Diaries: War Horse: Stormbreaker: Twilight: Black Beauty…oh dear, there must be loads more but my brain has frozen!
Love from Jo
