Summer Fun Day 7 - Kicking off Our Summer Reading with The Pagemaster

Image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pagemaster

It might seem strange to start the children's summer reading program with a movie, but that's just what we did tonight, watching the 1994, live action/animated flick - "The Pagemaster" in preparation for our library's summer reading kick-off.

The story, starring Macaulay Culkin and Christopher Lloyd, as well as the voices of Patrick Stewart, Whoopi Goldberg and many other Star Trek favorites, follows a young, fairly phobic, boy as he takes shelter from a storm in the local library. On the way to find the public telephone (a novel idea for today's children) he slips on the wet floor, hitting his head, and tumbling him into an illustrated (rather than animated) dreamscape, where the books on the shelves come to life to draw him into their stories of horror, adventure and fantasy.

Somewhere along the way of struggling through the home of Dr. Jekyll, facing the white whale with Captain Ahab, escaping from Long John Silver and his band of pirates, and standing tall to defend his new found friends from a fire breathing dragon, as well as glimpsing pages from a plethora of other stories on the shelf, the young protagonist finds the courage to face his own fears in the real world, as well as gaining a lifelong love of literature.

The story excites an interest in "the books".  So many are mentioned it would be difficult to read them all in one summer, though I think we might try.  But first, there is one book the children have already asked me to put on hold for them, tonight.

It's great to be a homeschooler.