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The Order of Oddfish

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90-Second Newbery: A Single Shard Double Feature

October 24, 2011

The 90-Second Newbery Film Festival is just around the corner! (New York screening 11/5, Chicago screening 11/16. Full details here.) I’ll be posting videos of the entries fast and furious until then!

Special treat today. We previously received a great 90-second version of Linda Sue Park‘s 2002 Newbery Medal winning A Single Shard from New Zealand (watch it here). Today I’d like to share two more versions of A Single Shard!

The first one, above, is by 12-year-olds Madison Ross and Olivia Summerville Farrar (who also played Potter Min and Tree-Ear, respectively). The twist: the girls wrote the script in an English approximation of Sijo, a traditional form of Korean poetry. Another amazing thing: they got Linda Sue Park herself to introduce the movie! What an honor, and very gracious of Ms. Park!

There were so many brilliant little touches in here. The fast-forwarded “Eye of the Tiger” montage. The witty, whiplash reversal of “it was awful” followed by the chipper “can I keep the job?” The reappearing “fox of doom” was funny too. I liked their use of musical cues like “Ramblin’ Man” and “Bad Boys” and how Potter Min glowers at the camera when she says “slave labor.” And that royal emissary has true gravitas! Secret in-joke: the backpack that they use for Tree-Ear is a 39 Clues backpack, signed by Linda Sue and three of the other 39 Clues authors. A super-excellent version of A Single Shard!

But wait, not to be outdone, we have another version of A Single Shard–this one by thirteen year old Olivia. Done in the style of stop-motion manga! Take it away, Olivia:

I loved the idea of doing the book in animated manga form. Olivia compressed the story very efficiently, and there were some really funny parts in there! (“Now?” “No.” “Now?” “No.” “Now?” “No!”) I also chuckled at the line “You dare bring me a single shard? Hmm . . . good name for a book . . . Anyhoo . . . ”

Two great 90-Second Newbery films of one great book. Thanks, everyone!