{"id":1281,"date":"2011-04-27T12:47:02","date_gmt":"2011-04-27T17:47:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/?p=1281"},"modified":"2011-04-28T09:40:36","modified_gmt":"2011-04-28T14:40:36","slug":"horton-halfpott","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/?p=1281","title":{"rendered":"Horton Halfpott"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"hortoncover1\"<\/a>It’s hard to know when to celebrate Horton’s book birthday. It’s due out May 1st, but it seems to be in stores NOW, and as we’ve already read the book in my house, I figured we’d get the party started.<\/p>\n

Horton Halfpott (or The Fiendish Mystery of Smugwick Manor or The Loosening of M’Lady Luggertuck’s Corset) is written and illustrated by the amazing Tom Angleberger, whose Strange Case of Origami Yoda<\/a> has taken the country by storm(trooper). There’s a sequel to OY coming out in August, but smack dab in the middle of the two Star Wars-inspired books we have Horton, which was inspired by … Charles Dickens<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I have to admit, I worried a bit about how quickly Origami Yoda fans would extend their allegiance to a kitchen boy who carried firewood instead of a light saber. <\/p>\n

I shouldn’t have.<\/p>\n

The second my elementary-aged son got a hold of Horton, he didn’t let it go until he’d turned the last page.<\/p>\n

The chapter titles are clever and the chapter lengths are short, which should give kids confidence in the face of corsets and tricky surnames. (\u201cTry saying this three times fast,\u201d my son wrote in his reader\u2019s response for school: \u201c’M\u2019Lady Luggertuck of Smugwick Manor.\u2019 Hard, right?\u201d) A reviewer somewhere is sure to dub this book “an engaging romp.” That same reviewer has probably dubbed a lot of things “engaging romps” over the years. This time, he’s right, though. <\/p>\n

In the tradition of Motherreader<\/a>, I thought my kid might be the best one to tell you about Horton Halfpott. Instead of hanging out on the virtual couch, we’re in his virtual bedroom. The bed isn\u2019t made. That hard thing you\u2019re sitting on? Probably a LEGO.<\/p>\n

Me:<\/strong> I wasn\u2019t sure, based largely on the use of the word \u201ccorset\u201d in the opening, that fans of Origami Yoda would snatch this up right away. But you really liked this one, too.
\n My Kid:<\/strong> I thought there was a lot of funny stuff that happened and funny stuff always makes a book really cool.<\/p>\n

Me:<\/strong> Do you know what a corset is?
\nMy Kid:<\/strong> Yeah, it\u2019s ladies\u2019 underwear.<\/p>\n

Me:<\/strong> What type of ladies\u2019 underwear?
\nMy Kid<\/strong>: No idea, but I think it\u2019s probably kind of aprony.<\/p>\n

We go on the internet and find a nice, G-rated corset<\/a>.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Me:<\/strong> So can you imagine having to wear something like that?
\nMy Kid:<\/strong> Yes, and I have to admit: it\u2019s not good. Imagining it makes it feel like I have a very tight, very thick belt on. Plus, it\u2019s LADIES\u2019 underwear. <\/p>\n

Me:<\/strong> My other worry besides the corset was that I didn\u2019t know if boys your age would go for a book that had a little romance in it.
\nMy Kid:<\/strong> Well, the romance makes it funny. In Star Wars there\u2019s a love part with Han and Leia but the movie is still really, really cool. Sometimes you can have love but you can have humor as well.<\/p>\n

Me:<\/strong> Who do you think would like this book?
\nMy Kid:<\/strong> I think anyone who likes funny stuff would like this book. <\/p>\n

Me:<\/strong> What was your favorite part?
\nMy Kid:<\/strong> Well, what I thought was really funny was when the Shipless Pirates \u2014 [CENSORED. It would be too much of a spoiler to say what the Shipless Pirates actually do so we\u2019ll just stop and say we dug the Shipless Pirates.]<\/p>\n

Me:<\/strong> What about the language?
\nMy Kid:<\/strong> Well it\u2019s very old fashioned but it wasn\u2019t a problem.<\/p>\n

Me:<\/strong> I know you\u2019re not supposed to judge a book by it\u2019s cover, but do you want to tell me a little about the cover?
\nMy Kid:<\/strong> I think the cover here is very interesting. As I told you earlier I think it looks a lot like the Mysterious Benedict Society<\/a> cover, because it focuses on the house and it\u2019s got the same sort of window silhouettes. This one glows in the dark and I thought that was a really cool thing.<\/p>\n

Me:<\/strong> Who\u2019s your favorite character in this book?
\nMy Kid:<\/strong> Well, Horton, duh. If you\u2019re saying besides Horton, I would have to say Bump.<\/p>\n

Me:<\/strong> Do you feel sorry for Horton, when you meet him?
\nMy Kid:<\/strong> Yeah.<\/p>\n

Me:<\/strong> Without giving too much away, did you have any suspicions about The Luggertuck Lump?
\nMy Kid:<\/strong> I was only positive that I knew who had taken it.<\/p>\n

Me:<\/strong> And what are your feelings about pickle \u00e9clairs? Because I’m sure we can get Tom to give us a recipe …
\nMy Kid:<\/strong> I think I’m interested in trying them to see what they taste like, even if they taste really gross.
\nMy Other Kid, who loves OY but has not yet tackled HH:<\/strong> I want to have a pickle \u00e9clair!!<\/p>\n

Happy Book Birthday to Horton Halfpott. You, too, can celebrate with a pickle \u00e9clair. You can also celebrate by visiting Horton at his new web site<\/a>, or by visiting origamiyoda.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n

And a P.S.: In Dickens-related news, as I was googling about for links I didn’t use I found this article <\/a>that talks about Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes as possibilities for a new version of Great Expectations! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s hard to know when to celebrate Horton’s book birthday. It’s due out May 1st, but it seems to be in stores NOW, and as we’ve already read the book in my house, I figured we’d get the party started. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kidlit","category-reading-with-kids"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1281"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1308,"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1281\/revisions\/1308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.squealermusic.com\/madclips\/wordpress2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}