This book didn’t really have a plot, but was more of a celebration of imagination. The illustrations are very colourful and magical and I really enjoyed the overall concept of the book. Each page has an illustration of a person and his or her dragon. One person’s dragon is very large, another’s is very small, another’s breathes fire, another ice, etc.
The objective of the story was more to impress on a kid that it is OK to have an imagination and it’s also OK if that imagination is different from everyone else’s. Ursula Le Guin wrote an essay called 'Why Are Americans Afraid of Dragons’ and it talks about how people are afraid to admit he or she plays with their imagination or has moments of make believe or are too embarrassed to admit to liking fantasy or make believe. For a kid, or even an adult, I think this is a nice little book to say just the opposite. That you should embrace your ‘dragon’ because it’s as unique as you are.
I never really saw the attraction of this book when I was a child so was a bit hesitant about seeing this movie, but it was pretty good, better than the book in my opinion.
The story loosely follows the book but only structurally. It leaves a lot of room for interpretation, which I think was a necessary choice to make this a feature film longer than ten minutes. Luckily, the interpretation was well done and really drew upon feelings people have about their childhood, but I'd like to say that this is not a movie for children. First of all, the characters on the island's heads are disproportionate to their bodies, which makes the facial features larger. While I enjoy this now in an artistic sense, when I was young the exaggerated facial features creeped me out a bit, and I could fore-see it intimidating small children, especially if there are large teeth and threats of being eaten. The overall tone of the movie has a threatening, uncertain sort of atmosphere, almost as if the viewer feeling like there isn't peace or that the peace won't last long. Also, I don't think this is a children's film because the mess Max created doesn't get resolved, he just leaves. There is unrest both when he arrives and when he leaves, but tough he tries he doesn't solve it or even clean up the mess he makes. Before he leaves one of the monsters says that Max is sort of insignificant, that he's too small to effect change. There's also a weird part where Max climbs into KW's mouth to hide.. and these kinds of things aren't usually what you'd see in your typical children's film.
As an adult film however, this movie was great. I thought that the way the movie was set up expressed an impression a person would have of their childhood when they were reminiscing about it. Max is childhood personified. He has an amazing imagination and lives his life from the perspective of this imagination. Everything is taken to the extreme, like when a child wants something but doesn't get it, it's the end of the world, or if a child is excited about something a whole new world is possible. The story was almost dystopian because of the fact that Max can't make the monsters happy. After a while he just stopped trying and went home to his mom so that he didn't have to deal with it anymore. It's almost like in Peter Pan where the lost boys need a mother, but there's no Wendy here. Max just sort of used the monsters to realize that he needed a mother, because he was as lost and as afraid as they were. The film finishes with a feel good moment as Max eats dinner with his mom after he comes home. There's a sense that everything worked out and he has love, which was the problem with the monsters, they didn't have anyone loving them.
Though I'd be hesitant to take someone under 6 or 7 to see it, it was a good movie about a child's imagination and search for love
This is a story about a girl in a ladybug- looking dress that goes about her day as ladybug girl. She tries to play baseball with her brother and his friends but he says she's too small, which kind of makes her a bit mad, so she goes about whimsical little adventures of her own because she is ladybug girl! And is not small at all. The girl is kind of free spirited and imaginative so it's fun reading about her. It isn't the best 'free spirited' children's book I've read, but it's decently done and worth the time put in.
Like it's predecessor, this book is a great children's book. Jillian is finished tidying her room and has now decided that she will make pigs! She makes a lot of pigs and then decides to sell them with her friends, but when people start buying her pigs she discovers that she's too emotionally attached to her pigs to sell them. So instead she gives lessons on how to make pigs. At the end of the book there is a little pattern that teaches you how to make a stuffed pig.
Like the first book it rhymes nicely and like the first book, the illustrations are very expressive and energetic. Great series.
This is a great story, both to read out loud and to read alone. It's about a girl whose mother wants her to clean her room, but her friends come over and they end up playing instead. Her mother tells her a few times to go clean her room and she seemingly goes to do it, but she takes her friends with her, as well as her baby sister, and they get distracted by their imaginations, so we get to see them pretending to be a bunch of different things. At the end though her mother puts her foot down and tells Jillian to clean her room, so she tells her friends to come back when her room is neater.
The book rhymes, which is amazing for reading out loud, or for singular readings, the flow is nice. The illustrations are great too, the characters look like they're having fun. The way they're drawn conveys a lot of energy and excitement, and yet the drawings are simple... I guess they kind of remind me of children themselves, not a whole lot to them, but invest your time and you'll have more than your share of fun.
