Random Items: Slow Internet Edition

I'm in Los Angeles right now on a s-l-o-w internet connection, but I thought I'd stop in with a few items of interest I've found here and there online.

• I love the subtitle to this Guardian BookBlog item on the Famous Five movie: "Hurrah for updated Blyton! Lashings of organic, cane-sugared ginger beer is clearly the way to protect our children from reading anything new." How true is that? Now, don't get me wrong: I loved the Famous Five as a child. But we have so many better mystery/adventure titles available to kids now. Just off the top of my head I can think of Kiki Strike, Sammy Keyes, the Alex Rider series, Percy Jackson, etc, etc. Every one of these books--even the weak ones in the series--is miles better than the best of Famous Five.
• Are you looking for Easter books for the youngsters? Dinah Hall has some recommendations for you in the Telegraph.

I'll be back later when my speed is better with a review of Andrea Beaty's Doctor Ted.

The Famous Five are back...

and John Crace asks why in the Guardian's Comment is Free blog.

Disney has seized on the five for a new franchise, Crace reports. Here's the deal: "Disney is going to relaunch the Famous Five in updated cartoon versions for screen and print, with only Timmy the dog surviving unscathed. Out go the tweedy Julian, Anne, Dick and George and in come the archetypal 21st-century Gap kidz--Allie, Cole, Dylan and Jo. " Yuck.

I'll admit it, I had a Blyton weakness as a child, but only for the boarding school books. To me as an American public school child, they were exotica. Latin! Matrons! Midnight feasts! I'm with Crace here. Why bring back an old series? Isn't there anything new out there? Hey, Disney! I know plenty of people with good stories to sell. Send me an e-mail--I'll be waiting to hear from you.

And, as Crace rightly points out, "even middle-class kids recognise that an anodyne world where everything is always safely sorted out in time for tea has no relevance to their lives."