Today, I am aided by my daughter Amanda and my son Kevin, who wanted to discuss some of their favorite things, new and old. We discuss Kung Fu Panda, the Spore Creature Creator, Portal, Star Wars Galactic Hero figures, iCarly, The Wizards of Waverly Place and Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

Big thanks and hugs to Darcy Low, who has kept us going with content on the web page during my break. Please check out her book and movie reviews! We love you Darcy!

Thanks so much to all of you for hanging in there and waiting on me! Between being sick, painting the basement (which didn’t help my being sick) and going out of town, it has been a busy month of June! We plan to be back on schedule now, and hope you are still liking us. Let us know what you want to hear! You can also send us your family-friendly reviews, just like Darcy!

Please email me with your own comments at howtogrowyourgeek - at-gmail -dot-com, or call my voicemail number at 206-202-7309 and leave your thoughts. You can also visit our forum at the Farpoint Forums.

I would also love your comments, family stories and questions!

Logo Art by Tim Coffey

Theme music courtesy of Jonathan Coulton
Sound effects and other music courtesy of pacdv.com

hi hi guys!!
i wanted to write and tell you guys about one of the best movies i seen this year. prince caspian. i saw the first movie and was like wow, this is like lord of the rings with kids my age. hehe. then this came out and i think i like it even more than the first one. I still need to read all the books.

okay so here is what prince caspin is about. and i wont spoil it for anyone not seen it yet. its a year later for the kids that went though the wardrope and discovered narnia. but in narnia its been 100 years! and so much has changed. prince caspin is the next in line to take over the throne from these humans that live in the world of narnia. he has been told that the mythical creatures of narnia are evil and have all been extinx. the stuff of fairy tales and legends. his uncle i guess it is is the one that told him this, eh is evil and wants to be the king. But of course prince caspin is in the way. he trys to have the prince killed but he escapes into the forest where where he meets a dwarf. and atfer some fighting and running he blows this horn that he was told never to use unless it was a dire emergency. This is where it calls back the four kids, the sons of adam and the daughters of eve. (i just love that, sounds so cool.)

after they all meet, it is explained what has happen in the last one hundred years. and prince caspin ask for help to gain the kingdom back. at first the older boy from our world seems like he does not like him, i guess he thinks he wants the throne but doesnt want to help the magical creatures. so they fight a lot. (boys, go figure.)

in the end things work out, but before then there is a lot that is different from the first movie. first off, this is a much darker movie. than first one. alot of people and creatures die and the kids arent afraid of like making war and killing people themselves. which i can understand becuase they are warring against evil persons. but still, kinda left me going wow, maybe theres a better way to do this.
second, and i kinda didnt get this until dad talk to me about this. when the kids left 100 or one year ago, depending on how you want to look at it, aslin left too. so all these creatures were left on thier own for one hundred years to make due for themselves. dad explained it so ill tell later what he said.
okay third part. parts of this movie is so depressing. people getting killed, lies being told to people, and one part someone you think is cool turns out to be a traitor and someone almost comes back from the first film. alot has to do with politics of the humans, but over all its just gets to you how bad things are on both sides of the war.

Still this was by far the best movie I have seen. the story is really good! the acting is great, you really care about all the characters. the speacil effects are good, but they dont take over the movie if you know what i mean. they are believable and the makeup, wow!! i want to know how long it took for them to do the centars. i bet hours and hours. i recommend this movie to anyone, if you not seen it rent dvd when it comes out or if still at movies go go go see it!!

Darcy

Almost immediately weird things start happening, and it begins with something scratching inside the walls and scurrying all over the house. Simon wants to find out what it is because he thinks it’s a squirrel, and he’s the pet lover in the group. Jared tends to be the one who fights because he hasn’t quite adjusted to the idea of Dad leaving. Mallory is interested in fencing (with swords, not wooden barriers around yards!).
Together, they begin their investigation and quickly find a dumbwaiter inside the wall that leads up to a secret room with no doors. The room is filled with books – and it also has a threatening note (written in rhyme) that tells them they should all leave. Of course, the kids have nowhere to go and they’re not going to just walk away from a puzzle.
The story continues to get more creepy and intense (Mallory wakes up with her hair tied in knots to her bed and Simon gets beaten black and blue). Worst of all, Mom blames Jared for everything, and his brother and sister aren’t sure that he didn’t do it. (i didnt get that part. why she would blame him for that stuff.)
This first book deals with them exploring the house, find this way cool old book, and finding out what the scratching is. Is it a squirel or something else?? You’ll just have to read to see. hehe.
What I liked best about this book was how they figured out what was going on and what they needed to do to stop it. it was a puzzel, the rhyme and I love puzzels. I also liked the pictures in the book and the map. it heped me picture things better.
What I’ll always remember about the book is the old house. Sounds like there are many many rooms still left to explore and all kinds of adventures yet. ( read all of these and yeps, LOTS of adventures.) We have a house down by where i go to school thats one 200 years old. And the people that own it added on to it a lot, more rooms, a sun room in back, a balcony all kinds of things. Its now HUUUUUGE!! So now after reading these books it makes me think of wow wouldn’t be cool to live there and explore that place?
I don’t want to tell you what they find making the scratching noise in the walls. That would spoil it.
If you looking for a short book to read that’s really good, then check these out!! They are 107 pages so it won’t take long. but they are very good!!!
Sometimes something small is best! Like me!
See you guys later. Get to reading!!
The Field Guide (The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book One)
Written by Holly Black, Illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi
Published by: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing (May 2003)
ISBN-10: 0689859368
ISBN-13: 978-0689859366
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Have a great week, and we will talk to you all soon!

Thanks to the lovely and talented young Darcy Low, for sending in our first book review. She is a great judge of YA fantasy, and will be sending us a few more reviews soon! Please send in reviews of any material you think is great for younger geeks, and I will be glad to add it to our lists.

From the back of the book:

Citizens of Ember shall be assigned work at twelve years of age. Lina Mayfleet desperately wants to be a messenger. Instead, she draws the dreaded job of Pipeworks laborer, which means she’ll be working in damp tunnels deep underground.

Doon Harrow draws messenger, and asks Lina to trade! Doon wants to be underground. That;s where the generator is, and Doon has ideas on how to fix it. For as long as anyone can remember, the great lights of Ember have kept the endless darkness at bay. But now the lights are beginning to flicker……

Have you ever read a book that is SO good, that you can’t wait to read the next one? That’s this book. It’s the best book I have read so far! The City of Ember is far underground. Which I thought, wow this be really cool to read about. The city itself is falling apart. Things are breaking down and the supplies are running out. But no one knows why things are breaking, or what to do about it. So everyone in the city has started making due, with trading with each other, and keeping everything from string, to paper off of cans to use for writing.

When the kids turn twelve, the mayor comes to all the schools and everyone picks slips of paper with jobs writing on them. The worst and most dangerous is working in the pipeworks. Its far under the city, and sometimes people don’t come back from there. Since the city is underground, all of the lights are made by a giant generator. But the lights don’t always work, and the darkness all around keeps getting closer. All of the people in the book, fear the darkness. I guess because of in the dark, there is the unknown. No one knows how far the darkness goes, or what is in it. People that have gone out in search of another city or a way out of Ember, have come quickly back and are know kind of crazy from it. So with the lights starting to flicker and break down more and more, you can feel that it is important to find out what’s going wrong and a way to change things.

Doon is able to take things apart and put them back together. So he thinks if he can get down to where the generator is, he could look at it and maybe find a way to fix things. So he trades with Lina. Lina loves to run, so getting the job as a messenger is like a dream come true for her. Starting their jobs though, they find out things about Ember that they were never supposed to know. Some people in Ember are doing very evil things, and not everything is as it seems. Doon and Lina find a note with some words that are missing. They think it is a way to fix the generator, but it turns out to be so much more!

This book deals with so many things, like poverty, growing old, politics, and helping one another. These are things I never seen writing about in a teen book, and I really wish more books did this. This stuff is important. Sure I guess getting a boyfriend and stuff is important to us too. But we kids worry about the world too, and this lady that wrote this book gets that. I will always remember that about this book. Also another thing that is cool about this, is how when the generator starts breaking down; the older people start to remember there is something important they need to do. But they can’t remember what it is. It’s like they are breaking down just like the machine is.

This is by far the best book I ever read. And I hope people will go out to get it! Even adults will like it a lot. Its good sci fi!! This is the first book in the series, and the second book picks up right where the first one stops. Will Lina and Doon fix the generator in time? Can they help save the city from the unknown darkness? Will they get caught by the people who don’t want things to change?

Hehe, I am not telling. You’ve just got to go out and get the book. You’ll like it a lot!

Darcy Low

City of Ember
by Jeanne DuPrau
Published by: Yearling (May 25, 2004)
ISBN-10: 0375822747
ISBN-13: 978-0375822742
Genre: YA Fantasy

The more off-the-beaten-path, the better! Let me know what you love to watch!

<SPOILER ALERT> I give a brief synopsis of each movie!

Here is the list of movies:

The Sword in the Stone (1963)

Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)

Escape to Witch Mountain (1975) and Return from Witch Mountain (1978)

Sky High (2005)

Minutemen (2008)

And, last but not least, The Incredibles (2004) , which is my personal favorite “movie to have to listen to over and over again.”

I finish up with another great voicemail from Darcy’s Dad, Tim, who tells us a great story on his lovely daughter. Thanks so much to you both for being such supportive fans!

Please email me with your own comments at howtogrowyourgeek - at-gmail -dot-com, or call my voicemail number at 206-202-7309 and leave your thoughts. You can also visit our forum at the Farpoint Forums.

I would also love your comments, family stories and questions!

Logo Art by Tim Coffey

Theme music courtesy of Jonathan Coulton
Sound effects and other music courtesy of pacdv.com

I always think of my Granddaddy, who fought in WWII. He didn’t die in the war, but he died on Memorial Day weekend 9 years ago. I think of him landing on the beach at Normandy on D Day, and am grateful he survived and came home, thanks to the other soldiers who died to protect him. That is what Memorial Day means to me.

Then, I review the tile-based board game Carcassonne, which is an inexpensive classic that is great to play with everyone ages 5 and up.

Thanks so much to Darcy for her kind email! Please email us with your own comments at howtogrowyourgeek - at-gmail -dot-com, or call my voicemail number at 206-202-7309 and leave your thoughts. You can also visit our forum at the Farpoint Forums.

I would also love your comments, family stories and questions!

Logo Art by Tim Coffey

Theme music courtesy of Jonathan Coulton
Sound effects and other music courtesy of pacdv.com

Here is a link where you can find out more about how you and your family can help.

Impact Your World at CNN.COM

On a much lighter note, I wanted to thank Darcy’s Dad for calling in with my first voicemail! Please email us with your own comments at howtogrowyourgeek - at-gmail -dot-com, or call my voicemail number at 206-202-7309 and leave your thoughts. You can also visit our forum at the Farpoint Forums.

I would also love your comments, family stories and questions!

Logo Art by Tim Coffey

Theme music courtesy of Jonathan Coulton
Sound effects and other music courtesy of pacdv.com

Maybe I will have some help this afternoon, if she feels up to it. Talk to you all soon!