All About "fantasy"

Video/DVD Review: Labyrinth

Surreal coming-of-age fantasy -- with Muppets.

Book Review: Matilda

Matilda is a genius: by age four she has read all the books in the children's section of her local library, and moved on to Dickens, Austen, and Hemingway. She can also do advanced math in her head and has a sophisticated understanding of the world. Unfortunately her crooked car-dealer father and bingo-holic mother, TV addicts both, don't appreciate her at all. In fact, they "looked upon Matilda ... as nothing more than a scab." Matilda spends most of her time reading, and the rest thinking up clever revenges on them for their atrocious behavior, such as putting superglue into her father hat brim, and swapping his hair tonic for peroxide.

Things get worse when she starts school, Crunchem Hall Primary School is run by the horrific Miss Trunchbull, "a gigantic holy terror, a fierce tyrannical monster who frightened the life out of pupils and teachers alike." Getting back at the Trunchbull will be much more difficult, and dangerous, than her parents, so Matilda's magnificent mind starts developing even more talents -- unbelievable talents!

Book Review: Howl's Moving Castle

Sophie is trapped in her life as the responsible eldest daughter who runs the family hat business and has nothing to look forward to. Everything changes when the evil Witch of the Waste bursts into her shop and, for mysterious reasons, turns her into an old woman. Wandering away from town she finds herself alone in the wilderness at night, and stumbles across the titular castle, owned by a wizard rumored to take the souls of young girls.

Once there she makes a deal with a captive fire demon -- if she breaks the contract between the demon and Howl, the demon will lift the spell on Sophie. There's only one problem -- no one can tell her what the contract is, or how to break it.

Review: The Akhenaten Adventure (Children of the Lamp, Book 1)

When wealthy New York twins John and Philippa have to have their wisdom teeth removed rather young (they're twelve), it triggers a series of events that reveal to them that they are djinn, descended from a powerful tribe of djinn, and just coming into their powers.

Sent to England to learn from their Uncle Nimrod all about being djinn, they are drawn into the age-old conflict between good and evil djinn, and travel with their uncle to Egypt to find the secret behind the disappearance of 70 djinn millennia ago. Now it's a race against the evil Iblis to rescue the missing ones and bring them to the side of good before the balance of luck in the universe is destroyed.

DVD Review: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Too scary for younger fans of the popular book.

DVD Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

Excellent, epic saga continues to get darker, more intense.

Review: Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them

This facsimile edition of Harry's textbook for his Care of Magical Creatures class (complete with his, and Ron's and Hermione's, margin notes) consists of an alphabetical listing of magical beasts with a paragraph or two of description for each. The listings also give the Ministry of Magic (M.O.M.) classification for the level of danger posed by each creature.

The book also contains a forward by Albus Dumbledore, and chapters on the definition of beasts, history of Muggle awareness, and other basic information.

Book Review: Breaking Dawn: The Twilight Saga, Book 4

Supernatural soap saga drags on way too long.

Book Review: The Secret Garden

Two cousins--one motherless, the other an orphan--are so monstrously spoiled that no one can stand them and they can hardly stand themselves. With the help of a boy of the moors and some natural magic, they discover an abandoned garden and return it to abundance. As the garden grows the children grow--into their own better selves.

Video/DVD Review: The Princess Bride

Witty, winsome fairy tale for the whole family.