Syosset Public Library TeenSpace Blog

The debate rages on: which one was better, the book or the movie? Hollywood loves to crank out movies based on best-sellers. As a librarian, it usually causes the following:
1. Everyone who saw the movie or anyone planning to see the movie wants to read the book. This is understandable, but not unique.
2. In addition, some people who have already read the book decide to re-read it before seeing the movie.
3. Everyone comes to the library requesting the book.
4. The book is out. Sorry. I can add you to the waiting list.
5. Everyone is sad.
It’s a fact, we cannot keep up with the mad rush when a very popular book is re-popularized and transformed into a movie. Especially when 9 times out of 10, the book is better. People want to compare it to the movie, see if parts were left out, changed, made better, or worse. But sometimes a movie really delivers.

I felt that way about the movie version of Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones, directed by Peter Jackson (director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy – another great adaptation.)
Without giving away too much, the plot centers around the life and untimely death of 14-year-old Susie Salmon in 1973. When the story begins, she is already dead, so I’m not giving away a major plot point here. The book is suspenseful and sad and yet retains a hopefulness throughout the story. As much as it is a book about Susie’s death and the aftermath, it celebrates life.
In this way, the movie version truly shines. Peter Jackson and his team of CGI wizards really knocked this one out of the park. The saturated colors and dreamscapes are really quite heavenly to behold. The acting was spot-on and the lead characters were well-cast. Every time Stanley Tucci’s character Mr. Harvey was on screen, he sent chills down my spine. And many of you are too young to remember Mr. Mark Wahlberg as the beloved Marky Mark with his Funky Bunch, but he was actually really sympathetic as a young father suffering the loss of a daughter.
Anyway, the movie is rated PG-13 and the book is on the summer reading list and I would love to hear if anyone agrees that the book and the movie were as well matched as I do.
In other news, I finally read The Time Traveler’s Wife – anyone see the movie?
Sharon Long
Teen Services Librarian