Page To Screen: Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo

When looking at America's entry into the Second World War seventy-plus years on, it might be hard to believe how high the stakes really were in early 1942. The United States' armed forces were very small, we were still using cavalry horses and bayonets, and the Japanese dealt Americans heavy blows at Pearl Harbor and …

Page To Screen: The Little Prince

My son and I like to read aloud at bedtime, and recently we finished The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. This ethereal 1943 novella follows the title character as he crosses the universe looking for...something. We're not quite sure what at first. The Little Prince is told through the eyes of an unnamed pilot who crash …

Page To Screen: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Few YA books are as daring as E.L. Koningsburg's From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. It's a thinking book. It's also an unthinking book. For those who aren't familiar with the story, Claudia Kincaid is an upstate New York girl with three brothers who feels like there's nothing to set her apart from …

Page To Screen: The Black Stallion

Who else had to read The Black Stallion for school? I did. Fourth grade. I can't remember anyone complaining about it. In fact, Black Stallion books were kind of the rage in my class. For those who haven't experienced it, the novel follows New York City teenager Alec Ramsey and his friendship with a mysterious, very wild …

Page To Screen: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

This month's "Page To Screen" was going to be The NeverEnding Story, but I made a last-minute decision to save it for later. As time would have it, over my break I saw a 2018 Netflix movie, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I liked it so much I bought the book it was based on …

Page to Screen: The Diary of Anne Frank

If she had lived, Anne Frank would be ninety-one this year. Her diary, technically known in English as Anne Frank: The Diary of A Young Girl, was first published in the Netherlands in 1947. The diary has been translated into sixty-five languages, sold over thirty-five million copies and is one of the most widely-read books outside …

Page To Screen: A Night To Remember

The late Walter Lord is kind of a legend among Titanic buffs and historians. When he wrote A Night To Remember, which was published in 1955, he basically inspired the public fascination with the ship that continues today. Pretty much every book written about the Titanic uses Walter Lord's work as a source because he's that OG. How did Lord …

Page To Screen: Minority Report

We all know how Phillip K. Dick's work is a fixture on the big screen. He's like Jane Austen that way, only with computers and big chase scenes. One of his more underrated stories is The Minority Report, which first appeared in the January, 1956 issue of the sci-fi magazine, Fantastic Universe. Then in 2002 it was …

Page To Screen: Tuck Everlasting

Living forever is an interesting idea. What would you do if you had all the time in the world? I would think it would get boring after a while because you would see history cycle around and cycle around with people and nations making the same mistakes over and over again. If a being isn't …

Page To Screen: Christy

One of my favorite books in high school (and today) is Christy by Catherine Marshall, and when the series with Kellie Martin came on TV, I watched every episode. Who else can relate? For those who aren't familiar with the story, it takes place in 1912. The titular character is Christy Huddleston, a nineteen-year old woman from …

Page To Screen: Julie & Julia

It's been ten years since Nora Ephron's swan song, Julie and Julia. It was an ambitious film for her and it also wasn't, because it features expected and loved Ephron trademarks of witty dialogue and deft character development. What's unusual for the Ephron canon is that Julie and Julia juxtaposes the lives of two unique …

Page To Screen: Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen's single most famous novel is, of course, Pride and Prejudice. All six of her novels are famous, but there's something about P&P that puts it above the others. It's been adapted more than any other Austen novel, that's for sure. I toyed with the idea of asking the Twitterverse which versions of Pride and Prejudice were their …

Page To Screen: Sherlock Holmes

Like Robin Hood, Ebeneezer Scrooge and Ichabod Crane, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes is another literary heavyweight with a lengthy filmography. Holmes is not only a captivating character, but is widely credited with influencing today's use of forensic sciences. The first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study In Scarlet was published in Beeton's Christmas Annual …

Page To Screen: The Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy

Thus speaks the cover of The Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy. The book within Douglas Adams' novel of the same title, it is the guide to anything that anyone might want to ask about life, the universe, and everything, and a lot that they don't think to ask. Arthur Dent didn't know that he would have to ask …

Page To Screen: A Christmas Carol

When the Yuletide season rolls around, indulging in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is almost as much of a tradition as putting up the tree or hanging stockings. First published on December 19, 1843 as a stand-alone novel, it followed Dickens' relative flop, Martin Chuzzlewit. Chapman and Hall, Dickens' publisher, thought he was losing his touch, so Dickens paid …