The Help Movie and Book

 

Katheryn Stockett's The Help Book
Details:  Skeeter graduates from Ole' Miss and decides to come back home to Jackson Missouri, and get a job as a journalist.  But her plans don't go the way she imagined.  Her special maid is gone, her mother is sick, and no one wants to hire her as a journalist.  But as she works on getting experience writing, she is inspired by her career contact in New York and finds a worthy cause to write about, if only she can get the Helps on board with her law-breakin', hair raisin' scheme.

My Review: Kathryn Stockett wrote this book in 3 years, because of her experiences with her own Help as she grew up in Jackson Missouri.  I love this story, and love how we as people who are many times blinded by what we don't know, don't want to see, and wish not to know, Kathryn gives us an open window view into the injustices that our Country has had to over come, through the eyes of those who lived those lives.

Pros: amazing realistic characters, loving plot, easy to find and buy a copy of this book

Cons: none

Tate Taylor's vision of, Stockett's, The Help Movie
Details:  This is exactly like the book Kathryn wrote, as Tate Taylor has been Kathryn's best friend since they were 5 years old.  The actress who plays Mini is Tate's other best friend.  When Kathryn wrote the book no one wanted to publish it.  In fact it was rejected 60 times before someone fell in love with the story.  Tate was able to have the screen play finished by the time Kathryn's book was published.  Tate and Kathryn kept most of the acting within the family, as both their mother's are in the movie, as is Tate's Maid, and Kathryn's daughter.

My Review:  I have been wanting to see the movie the Help since I heard it was going to be a movie.  It is so heart wrenching and warming at the same time everyone falls in love with the characters and the story.  My favorite parts of the movie only come on the DVD/ Blueray disc.  I watched all the commentary, deleted scenes, and extras and got to see Tate Taylor with his Maid, Kathryn and her family.  I got to see interviews with women who live in Jackson today and remember the time of house Maids and also got to hear some of those women tell of how they were house Maids to the white folk living in Jackson.

Pros: I love the actors and actresses they found the perfect fits for each character

Cons: I don't own a copy of this movie yet.

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Kid Kraft Bucket Top Train Set

  Details: A wooden train set, and wooden train.  Comes in a plastic bucket that holds all 61 pieces.  The mountain top of the bucket is part of the train set the trains can be pushed up and down.  This only comes with a 3 piece train.  This comes with a 8 piece airport with a plane, helicopter, tower and landing pad and runway.  There is a fire house with a truck and people, and a police department with people and a car that can ride on the train track.  There are lots of trees and signs.





Information: I bought this from Amazon.com for Christmas for my boys.  They love this!  The trees are more realistic than the other train set they have.  This came with no broken pieces or anything wrong with it.  I have posted a review on both Amazon, and Ebay.com.  This is super easy to put together for 5 year olds, but not very easy for 2 year olds.  My kids love to play with the train, the airplane and the helicopter all together.  Even though there is only three train cars in this set, the fire truck, police car, and air plane fit on the track. Which is really nice when more children are playing with this toy.  Train lovers and especially boys love this product!  There is only one thing that I will complain about: the magnets on the trains aren't very strong and barely keep the train cars together.  

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Iris and the Dragonflies

Details: This is a mid-grade fantasy novel.  The imagination of children is so sweet and precious.  So when Iris's family does everything to get her to grow up and stop being imaginative, she is torn and left alone in her own little world.  After a year of trying to figure out what is going on, and how to feel better about herself, Iris finds that she must be willing an able to trust in order to save her life, the lives of her family, and her new friends.  But how does one trust in something that no one else believes in?
Information: I love that this is clean, and easy to read novel.  I read this 322 page book in 3 1/2 hours.  I read it on the Kindle app on my computer.  One day I hope to get a real Kindle, but am glad I have options for my computer and or my phone.  I love all the little illustrations that are spread throughout the whole book it gives me as the reader such a beautiful head start to the images that I picture as I read the book.  I love books with magic, innocence, and especially dragons.  I love dragon flies and was able to do a science project on them when I was in 9th grade.  So to read a book with thousands of different types and colors of dragon flies was so magical to me!  I highly suggest buying this book any version you can get a hold of.  I love this book!  The author Rosemary Danielis is also a photographer, and artist, the first link listed below is to her website, I highly suggest you check it out, to see her beautiful work.  The second link is to her Facebook Fan page!

Important Link:
http://www.facebook.com/iris.and.the.dragonflies

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I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.