Melissa Explains It All written by Melissa Joan Hart

     Remember growing up in the 80s and 90s watching your favorite TV show on Nickelodeon, such as, Hey Arnold, Cat Dog, All That, Kenan and Kel, Rugrats, and finally, Clarissa Explains It All?  Well here is a book that Melissa Joan Hart wrote herself. She was known for playing two iconic roles, one on Nickelodeon’s teen show, Clarissa Explains It All and the other on ABC’s TV show Sabrina The Teenage Witch. If you remember Melissa Joan Hart entertaining you on TV then I would recommend that you read her story.

        Melissa Joan Hart first started her acting career by the age of four years old appearing on TV commercials. By the time Melissa was twelve years old, she appeared in over a hundred TV commercials! Such as: Twinkies, Life Savors Fruit Flavored Snacks, Barbie, Tylenol, and the first commercial for the Chrysler Minivan! She even worked on a Jell-O TV commercial with Bill Cosby as the director. Besides working the camera for TV commercials, Melissa also modeled for catalogues and ads. Later, she went on to act in small roles for featured films, live stage, and guest staring on TV shows.  One TV show that Melissa was a regular in was called The Adventures of Con Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, which starred the famous Hollywood actress, Drew Barrymore. The TV show was similar to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but plot was about a girl named Con. Two examples of a TV shows that Melissa guest stared in were, The Equalizer and Touched By An Angel.

       After filming dozens of TV commercials, modeling, acting in films and TV shows, Melissa did get her own TV show on the hit children’s TV network, Nickelodeon, in Clarissa Explains It All. It was the network’s first teen sitcom and Melissa played a teenager named Clarissa who tried to explain to the rest of the world how teenage life can be a difficult life at times.  Several examples that Clarissa explained on her show were: juggling with school drama, homework, family drama, and other “adult” responsibilities with a twist of her own sense of humor. Clarissa Explains It All first aired in 1991 and it ran for four consecutive seasons.  One interesting fact that Melissa mentioned in her book was before she got the part of playing Clarissa she knew that the executive producer, Mitchell Kriegman, wanted any girl that was a brunette to play the part of Clarissa, until he decided that Melissa would make a wonderful Clarissa even though she was blonde. Crazy! Finally, in 1995 when Clarissa Explains It All was finished filming, CBS wanted to do a spin-off TV show called Clarissa Now, but Mitchell and Melissa thought the show wasn’t right and the audience would despise it, so in the end no such plan was mentioned again.

        Besides Clarissa Explains It All as being on of Melissa’s iconic characters, the character that Melissa Joan Hart was most known for was the role of Sabrina Spellman on one of ABC’s hit show, Sabrina The Teenage Witch.  How Melissa got the part of Sabrina was an interesting story. First, Melissa’s mother created her own film production company called HartBreak Films (Hart-Break) because she didn’t want Melissa to be in films that were not appropriate for her age. Next, Melissa’s mother bought the rights of the comic book series and the characters from Sabrina The Teenage Witch. Finally, she later sold the rights to Showtime so they could make the movie, Sabrina The Teenage Witch. Melissa did play Sabrina in the movie along with teen hottie Ryan Renolds as one of her costars. After the movie, ABC wanted to do a TV series and behold! Melissa played the role of Sabrina in the hit TV series Sabrina The Teenage Witch that premiered in 1996. During the later seasons, Melissa did not only play the role of Sabrina, she also became an executive producer and one of the directors in some of the episodes. Finally, Sabrina The Teenage Witch TV show ran for seven seasons on two networks, fist on ABC from 1996-2000, then on WB since ABC would only renew their contract for one more season, for the last final three seasons from 2000-2003.

          Finally, since Melissa’s mother owned the rights to Sabrina The Teenage Witch and also has a film production company (that Melissa helps run as well). Hartbreak Films created a TV animated series of Sabrina The Teenage Witch but changed the title to Sabrina: The Animated Series, which tells the story of Sabrina being a preteen witch living with her Aunt Hilda and Aunt Zilda. Anyways, the voice actress who did Sabrina was Melissa’s little sister, Emily, and Melissa did the voices for Sabrina’s aunts, Hilda and Zilda.  Two words: Mind blowing! Oh! By the way, I loved watching both Sabrina shows growing up.

      In concluding, besides talking about her life acting as Clarissa and Sabrina, Melissa Joan Hart also talks about her family life, dating life, married life, and her motherhood life raising three boys.  So if you were a fan of either Clarissa Explains It All or Sabrina The Teenage Witch, then I recommend that you read Melissa Explains It All so you can know the full story from Melissa Joan Hart herself.

Trivia Questions: 

1) How many siblings does Melissa have? 

2) Where did Melissa's mother meet her second husband?

3) How much money did Melissa's mother spend on to get the license for the characters for Sabrina The Teenage Witch? 

Hart, Melissa Joan. Melissa Explains It All: Tales from My Abnormally Normal Life. St. Martin's Griffin, 2015. Print. 

Artichoke's Heart written by Suzanna Supplee

            Do you love to read teen romance novels? Well here is a teen romance novel that I would recommend and it is personally one of my favorite teen novels to read.

            Artichoke’s Heart is written by Suzanne Supplee in which she tells a story about high school student name Rosemary Warren.  Like most high school students, they face the typical high school drama, self-confidence, and family drama. Rosemary’s biggest high school drama that she faces all the time is her classmates calling her an artichoke based on her appearance of being over weight. Rosemary’s family problems at home are that her mother and Aunt Mary (her mother’s sister) keep on nagging her to lose weight, which makes her emotional eat more often, But despite being call an artichoke and being nagged by her mother and aunt, Rosemary has a huge crush on the school’s star football player, Kyle Cox. Throughout the book, Rosemary goes through some family struggle when she finds out that her mother has been diagnosed with cancer. Despite the struggles that Rosemary faces, she becomes determined to lose weight and show everyone that she just a person with a kind heart, not an artichoke, and that she is the type of girl that can get the man of her dreams.           

I personally love this book because I thought Suzanne Supplee did a great job with character development and introducing the characters’ and their own unique personality throughout the book. Also, I love the plot of the story as well because it is about how Rosemary falls in love with a guy who she thought he deserves someone better, but realizes that they are prefect for each other. Also, I love how Rosemary becomes beautiful after losing weight and finds ways to love herself and others in friendship and family.

            In concluding, if you love to read teen novels about a girl overcoming challenges and finding love in all the right places, then I would personally recommend Artichoke’s Heart written by Suzanne Supplee.

Trivia Questions: 

1) When Rosemary tells her friend, Miss Bertha, that she needs to stop by the drug store to purchase a get-well card, what is she actually purchasing? 

2) What are three ways that Rosemary did to lose weight? How weight did she lose? 

3) When Kyle Cox called Rosemary for the first time, what did he ask her to do? 

Supplee, Suzanna. Artichoke's Heart. New York, Dutton, 2008.Print. 

The Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle Treasury written by Betty Macdonald

      For those of you who do not know Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, she is a short and stout woman who lives in a strange house by herself in a neighborhood that is full of children. Now, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle loves these neighborhood children dearly, even though she doesn’t have any children of her own she seems to always have a solution to help parents cure their children from their bad habits.

       The Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle Treasury written by Betty MacDonald contains the three Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books into one giant book.  Betty MacDonald created Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle as a woman who knows how to solve all of the parent’s problems with their misbehaved children.  For example, Hubert Prentiss, a character in one of the stories, had a hard time picking up his room. His parents would always nag at him to pickup his toys. Thankfully, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle had a solution for the Won’t-Pickup-Toys habit, have Hubert play with his toys in his room and have his parents to not ask him to pickup his toys unless he eventually does clean his room himself. Eventually, Hubert did pickup his toys and his family was happy that Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle cured their son.

            In my opinion, the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle stories are classic stories that I grew up with.  Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is a woman with a good sense of humor who knows how to turn a misbehaving child into a perfect one.  She is the woman who all the doctors and parents turn to for help solving their children’s horrible habit.

            In concluding, if you are the sort of person who wants to read a book that is full of hilarious stories of parents with misbehaving children and a funny woman who comes up with funny ways to cure the misbehaved.  I would highly recommend Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle written by Betty MacDonald.

Trivia Questions: 

1) How did Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle cure The Answer-Baker? 

2) How did Mrs. Piggle Wiggle cure The Slow-Eater-Tiny-Bite-Taker?

3) How did Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle cure The Crybabyitis? 

MacDonald, Betty. The Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle Treasury. New York, HarperCollins Publishers, 1957.Print.

Comparing Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire written by J.K. Rowling

                                                     (left book UK cover right book US cover)




     If you want to see past comparisons of the Harry Potter books 1-3 here the dates that I have published them on my blog. Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone - 4/8, Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets - 5/4, and Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban - 7/21

     All right then, this blog is going to be short and sweet since I have compared the same description  numerous times about the UK and US of the Harry Potter books in my past blog posts so here is the differences of the UK and the US version of Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire. If you look through these posts you will notice that they have been compared by the same similarities and differences constantly. Such as, the font, the spelling, and the artwork. So just to let you know that nothing as changed with those in this book and the reason I am not mentioning the font, the spelling, and the artwork is so no one will comment, "OMG Laura! Stop saying the same stuff all the time!". Ok? Ok! :)

UK- 636 pages long: font is still different from the US version and the pages are smaller.

US- 733 pages long

The story is the exact same and the writing is pretty much word from word in both UK and US. Except for one tiny scene.

Scene: When Harry, Ron, and Hermione found out the house elf Dobby (character introduced in book 2) was working at Hogwarts along with his house elf friend, Winky. Dobby loved to collect clothes since he is a free house elf and he told Harry and friends that he wanted to buy a sweater one day.

UK - jumper
US- sweater

Well that's all I have for you on the comparisons of Harry Potter And The Goblet of Fire.  Thank you so much for reading my blog. I will be posting the fifth book in the Harry Potter series sometime in the future.

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire. London, Bloomsbury, 2000. Print. 

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire. New York, Scholastic, 2000.Print. 


                                                     

Toys! written by Don Wulffson

Growing up everyone had a favorite toy as a kid, right? But do you know the story behind your favorite toy? Such as, do you know who, why, or how your favorite toy got invented? Well here is a book about how several favorite toys that were invented back in the old days.

Don Wulffson wrote the book, Toys!, explaining how some favorite children toys creative people invented back in the days.  The toys that Don Wulffson mentioned in his book were, The Slinky, Seesaws, Lego, and Mr. Potato Head. Along with, Silly Putty, Windup Toys and Automations, Hobbyhorses, and Bicycles. Further more, Remote Controlled Toys, Raggedy Ann, and Toy Soldiers. Along with, Magic Rocks, Super Ball, Toy Trains, Play-Doh, Kites, Dolls. Hot Wheels, Pokémon, Skateboards, Wiffle Ball, and Novelty Gags (i.e. the Whoopee Cushion). The games that Don Wulffson mentioned in the book are, Twister, Parcheesi, Checkers, Trivial Pursuit, Monopoly, Scrabble, Table Tennis, Playing Cards, and Pin Ball Machines and Video Games.

Now I know there are a lot of toys and games that are mentioned in Mr. Wulffson’s book, so I will be describing my three favorite toys that I thought were interesting in the book.

First, I loved playing with Play-Doh as a kid, I loved the smell when it first comes out of the bottle. The way it feels between my fingers and I loved to shape them into food and pretend to eat it, I just overall loved Play-Doh! But did you know when Play-Doh was first invented it was white and used for cleaning wallpaper? That’s right! The original name was Magic Wallpaper Cleaner created in the 1950s by Joe Mcvicker, who was in the wallpaper business. One day Joe was talking to his sister, who was an elementary school teacher, she mentioned how her students were having a hard time working with clay because their hands were small and the clay was tough. Joe gave her a sample of his Magic Wallpaper Cleaner, and behold! Play-Doh is now popular in classrooms and at home because children have fun making things out of soft clay. An interesting fact about Play-Doh that I learned while reading is that there is a hint of vanilla scent in Play-Doh, incase you’re wondering why it smells so good. Finally, if you have children drawing on wallpaper, get the white color Play-Doh and scrub off the mess. Your Welcome!

            My second favorite toy that I had a huge passion for growing up as a kid was Pokémon! Pokémon was originally invented in Japan by a man named Satoshi Tajiri, when Satoshi was growing up he was an avid bug collector and gamer. At the age of seventeen, Satoshi and his friend, Ken Sugimori, created a magazine called Game Freak. Next, Satoshi and Ken created a game that is similar to an arcade game called Quinty, which they sold to a gaming company. Years later, Satoshi worked for the gaming company, Nintendo.  Satoshi told Nintendo about his idea of creating Pokémon, the company loved the idea of living in a world with little creatures and the goal is capturing them in order to become a Pokémon Master. Pokémon was first introduced in Japan before it was introduced to the United Sates in 1998. Personally, I have stories of when Pokémon first came to America since I was around seven years old at the time. So my fellow friends, that is how Pokémon became a franchise to the world with its video games and trading cards. I still have the original trading cards! Oh! If you’re wondering how Pokémon got its name: first, take the word Pokémon second, separate the word apart until you get pocket and monster. Mind blowing! Gotta catch ‘em all Pokémon!

My final toy that I thought was interesting to read about was the birth of the classic doll Raggedy Ann. Now, I never owned a Raggedy Ann myself but I remember my older sister owned Raggedy Ann doll once (at least I think she did).  But anyways, I like the story about how Raggedy Ann came to life in 1914 when John Gruelle’s eight year old daughter, Marcella, found an old doll with red yarn hair and no face in her grandmother’s attic (the doll belonged to Marcella’s mother). When she showed her father the doll, he thought it could use some love. Once the doll’s hair and face was sewed on, Marcella’s mother sewed on a heart that said, “I love you”. The name for Raggedy Ann came to be the Marcella’s doll’s name after her parents named her after   two poems that were written by James Whitcomb Riley, The Raggedy Man and Little Orphan Annie. Anyways, since John Gruelle was a cartoon artist he wrote many stories and was a great storyteller. When Marcella became sick, he told her stories with Raggedy Ann as the main character and she loved her father’s stories. Unfortunately, Marcella passed away at the age of ten due to an unknown illness. John decided to publish the stories of Raggedy Ann that he once told to his daughter along with the doll so everyone can have the same experience of loving a doll just like his daughter. So, whenever you come across a Raggedy Ann doll, you can see her heart under her dress that says, “I love you”, and remember that a little girl once cherished the doll that you know of today.

In concluding, I did enjoy reading Toys written by Don Wulffson because I thought it was interesting reading a book about how various toys that either my parents or I grew up with playing and now I am watching my adorable little nieces playing with them (such as Mr. Potato Head).  I also love the cartoony pictures that are illustrated in the book (good job Laurie Keller). Over all, if you want to read a book about how your favorite childhood toy or game became about, then I would suggest you read Toys.

Here are some of the cartoony pictures that were in the book (Illustrated by Laurie Keller)

  

 Trivia Questions:

Out the toys/games that  Don Wulffson had mentioned: 

1) Which toy was originally used for as a synthetic form of rubber since there was a shortage of  natural rubber during World War II?

2) Which toy was mistakenly invented after the inventor was trying to find some sort of way to stabilize ships when they are going through the sea? 

3) Which board game did inventor stole the idea from another board game that already had a patent on it and claimed that he was the original creator? 

Wulffson, Don L. Toys!:Amazing Stories Behind Some Great Inventions.New York, Square Fish, 2014. Print. 

The Glass Castle written by Jeannette Walls

        We all heard the phrase “every family has problems” before. Right? Right! Well, that phrase does go well with Jeannette Walls’s family. Why? Because in her memoir, The Glass Castle, Jeannette describes her life being raised in a dysfunctional family who do the best they can to be a “normal” family.

            Jeannette Walls was born as the second child in the Walls family, in Arizona, from Rex and Rose Mary Walls. Jeannette’s siblings were Lori, her older sister, Brian her little brother, and finally her little sister, Maureen. Basically, the Walls family was a poor family. Rose Mary was a creative mother who loved to paint but never sold any of her artwork. Rex, on the other hand, was the kind of dad who did some temporary odd jobs here and there but was also a huge drunk.  Rex and Rose Mary did love their children but they always had a hard time taking care of them. For example, when Jeannette was three years old, she knew how to cook hotdogs on the gas stove (unsupervised). She was wearing a skirt while cooking the hotdogs, and before Jeannette knew it the fire from the stove got caught of her skirt and was covered in fire! After her mother took Jeannette to the hospital, the doctors couldn’t believe that a three year old was still alive after being severely burned while cooking hotdogs. But since Jeannette loved being at hospital for several weeks because she gets to eat whatever food she wants, the medical bills were expensive for Rex to pay them.  Instead of paying the medical bills, he went into the hospital, took Jeannette, and drove away from the hospital and started heading somewhere where the police or social workers can’t find him.

            The big reason why reason the Walls family moved from place to place because Rex was in some sort of trouble with the law. Some of the places that the Walls were: Nevada, California, and West Virginia. Where ever the Walls traveled to, Rex would get a job, make some money, buys beer, lose his job, and then moves the family somewhere else because he doesn’t want the police or the social workers to come after him and take his kids away.

            One particular place that Jeannette talks about the most is living in Welch, West Virginia with her family. Rex was born and raised in Welch, his parents and his brother, Stanley, still lived there and he thought that since the family needed some help with money, they could stay them even though the children never met them. Sadly, Rex’s mother and Uncle Stanley was not a good people because Rex’s mother molested Brian and Uncle Stanley molested Jeannette. Unfortunately, Rex and Rose Mary were the sorts of parents who did not care about their children’s safety and let their children deal with it themselves. Thankfully, Rex and Rose Mary eventually found a home that they could afford to own, in Welch, it was a shabby looking house with no indoor plumbing and electricity but it was home.  

Through out the book, Jeannette mentions some of her darkest moments in her life.  Such as, being molested several times, living without food and starving to the point where she had to dig through the trashcans at school just to find food. Along explaining life living with her father who is the town drunk. Jeannette does mentions some happy times in her life with her father. Such as, giving her the planet Venus as a   Christmas present. Jeannette also remembers touching a cheetah at a zoo while on a family trip. Finally, Jeannette loved working on the school newspaper at Welch High School until she had the money to move to NYC to be with Lori and became a reporter for a newspaper company.

The reason why Jeannette Wall’s memoir is titled, The Glass Castle, because her father, Rex, knew a lot about engineering and mathematics, he wanted to someday find gold and build a house made out of glass for his family to live in. He wanted the family to dream big even when there are moments when the family feels like they are falling apart.

Personally, I came across this book when I was in eleventh grade and my English teacher assigned this book to the class. I reread this book again when I noticed that it was becoming a movie. After rereading the book, it is sad to imagine four children trying to stay alive and looking after each other since their parents did not take of them properly. Finally, the way I see it is that anyone can have a better life through bad experiences.

 In concluding, if you want to read a book about a dysfunctional family that Jeannette Walls grew up in even though there is a bit of child molestation, domestic violence, and drug use. I do think the book is good to read if someone thinks that their family life is messier than another family.

Trivia Questions: 

1) When Rose Mary finally got a job as a teacher, how did the children help her in the classroom or at home? (just name one thing that they did) Was Rose Mary a good teacher or a bad teacher?

2) When Jeannette first started school, where did the teachers place her in? 

3) When living in Welch the family dug a hole for the Glass Castle project, what did they use the hole for instead of building the Glass Castle? 

Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle: A Memoir. New York, Scribner, 2006.Print. 

Wonder written by R.J. Palacio

   

           Have you or someone you know ever befriended a person who is labeled, as retarded, ugly, or they don’t fit in because of a disability? Ever wondered what the person who is deemed as retarded, ugly, or disabled might be going through in their everyday life that includes getting constant stares and being ignored. Well here is a fiction book that I would recommend for you about a boy that is deformed and is considered a freak by those who see him.

The book, Wonder, written by R.J. Palacico, is about a boy name August (Auggie).  Now, Auggie is not your typical average fifth grade boy. Why? Auggie was born with a cleft lip. Basically, after Auggie was born with deformed face, the outcome was having a lot of face surgeries to make the face look normal, unfortunately for Auggie, his face looks like a zombie due to surgical scaring. Sadly, throughout Auggie’s life, he was constantly stared and ignored from children his age to adults who could not stand to look at his deformed face. During summer break, Auggie’s parents decided to stop homeschooling him and decided to admit their son to a regular school in  fifth grade (middle school). Basically, Auggie’s world has turned upside down for two reasons. First, he knew if he attended regular school for the first time where he  knew he would not look like the rest of the kids. Therefore, there would be constant staring, being ignored, and bullied. Second, he knew he would not have any friends because of the way that he looked.  Overall, that is the whole plot of the story to Wonder.

Now on to how the story was written, the story is broken up into eight parts. First, in Part One, Auggie tells his story about how he was born with a cleft lip and went through tons of face surgeries as a kid to make his face look “normal”. Next, Part Two Auggie’s big sister, Olivia (Via), tells her story about how her life is like living with Auggie. Via has always been labeled as the girl with a deformed brother at school. When she entered high school and how life is slightly better since hardly anyone there knows about Auggie.. After that, Part Three one of Auggie’s classmates and friend, Summer, tells her story about Auggie. Basically, Summer tells her story about how she met Auggie and how she sees Auggie as a great friend. Following that, Part Four is told by another classmates and friend of Auggie’s, Jack Will. Overall, Jack Will tells his story about how he and Auggie met and how they eventually became friends. Right after that, in Part Five, Via’s boyfriend, Justin, tells his story about dating Via and meeting Auggie for the first time.  Afterward, in Part Six  Auggie tells more about himself, again. Towards the end, Part Seven, Via’s ex-best friend, Miranda, tells about how she lied at summer camp (as a junior counselor) about how Auggie was her brother. Also, how she and Via were no longer friends. Last but not least, in Part Eight, Auggie tells is story about how his first  year went overall attending regular school.   

Overall, I really enjoyed reading Wonder because I loved how R.J. Palacio developed each character into her book. Each character had their own way of telling their own version and story of Auggie and how he has made an impact in their lives. Therefore, if you enjoy an overall feel good book about the main character that looks different from everybody else but can make a huge impact on them, then I suggest you buy/borrow this book, read it, and then wait for the movie to hit theaters this fall. 

Here is a link to IMDB about the movie Wonder: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543472/

Trivia Questions: 

1) What happened at Auggie's school that made him want to quit going to school? Why did he go back? 

2) Why didn't Via not want to tell her family about being in the school play? 

3) What was the number one personality trait that everyone liked about Auggie? 

Palacio, R. J. Wonder. New York : Knopf, 2012. Print.

"Wonder (2017) ." IMDB. IMDB.com, 21 Feb. 2017. Web. 27 July 2017. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543472/>.