It’s official: the 2026 season of the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival has begun! It’s hard to believe this is the FIFTEENTH year of our film festival, in which kid filmmakers create short movies that tell the entire stories of Newbery-winning books in just a few minutes.

Our premiere show was yesterday (2/21) at the Treehouse Children’s Museum in Ogden, Utah. As usual, I hosted the Ogden show with my friend (and fantastic author for kids and adults) Keir Graff. We always start the show with a song; here it’s our rewritten version of “Be Our Guest” from Beauty and the Beast. Watch it above! (My goal is to inflict my terrible singing on audiences nationwide.)

I love kicking off the season at the Treehouse; it’s a special place to me. Every summer I work with the Treehouse’s Caden and Will teach a weeklong 90-Second Newbery moviemaking camp in which kids crank out 90-Second Newbery movies. These movies usually end up being good enough to feature not only at the Treehouse screening, but at shows across the country! Of course, many of the young filmmakers came to the screening:

We showed ten movies on Saturday, which made for a tight one-hour show: all killer, no filler. Let’s check out the three that we made at the Treehouse last summer!

This first one is based on William Steig’s 1983 Newbery Honor Book Doctor DeSoto, a picture book about a mouse dentist and his wife who do dentistry on other animals, with one rule: no dangerous patients. When a fox shows up on their door with a toothache, they bend the rules to treat the fox, even though the fox might eat them. But the mice outwit the fox in the end.

This movie retells the story in the style of an intense medical drama like E.R. or The Pitt. Instead of a mouse dentist, Doctor Desoto is a human, and the fox is replaced by a dangerous criminal attacker known only as “The Horsehead Chomper”:

Great performances! The actors nailed the hard-driving rhythm of a medical drama, rapidly barking technical data and instructions at each other. And every scene with the “Horsehead Chomper” is an absurd delight. Impressive work all around!

The next movie is based on Robert C. O’Brien’s 1972 Newbery Medal Winner Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, and it’s done in the style of a trailer for an action movie:

Brilliant! I love the premise of the rats of NIMH being a Dirty Dozen-style group of battle-hardened warriors. The performances really sold this one, as well as the flashy action-movie-trailer tropes, complete with stock combat footage, quick cuts, and snappy dialogue. Super original and enjoyable!

Another group did a movie based on the vignette “The List” from Arnold Lobel’s 1973 Newbery Honor Book Frog and Toad Together. Their twist? Retell the story in the style of a cheesy Hallmark Channel Christmas movie:

Do Hallmark Channel Christmas movies have hilarious chase scenes? This one does! I loved the daffy, anarchic spiritedness of this movie, and the tongue-in-cheek but oddly appreciative send-up of cheesy Christmas movies.

Here’s the complete set list of movies we showed. You can click the links to watch the movies again:

1. My Father’s Dragon (Ruth S. Gannett, 1949 Honor Book) by the Leland Street Players, Chicago, IL

2. El Deafo (Cece Bell, 2015 Honor Book) by Rolling Meadows Elementary, San Antonio, TX

3. Doctor DeSoto (William Steig, 1983 Honor Book) by the Treehouse Children’s Museum 90-Second Newbery Camp, Ogden, UT

4. Mr. Popper’s Penguins (Richard and Florence Atwater, 1939 Honor Book) by Budlong Woods Library + Ella and Joy, Chicago, IL

5. The Giver (Lois Lowry, 1994 Medal Winner) by Leo Lion, Brooklyn, NY

6. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

7. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (Robert C. O’Brien, 1972 Medal Winner) by the Treehouse Children’s Museum 90-Second Newbery Camp, Ogden, UT

8. Last Stop on Market Street (Matt de la Pena, 2016 Medal Winner) by The Harley School, Rochester, NY

9. The Eyes and the Impossible (Dave Eggers, 2024 Medal) by Grant Center for the Expressive Arts, Tacoma, WA

10. Frog and Toad Together (Arnold Lobel, 1973 Honor) by the Treehouse Children’s Museum 90-Second Newbery Camp, Ogden, UT

Thanks to Caden, Will, and all the young filmmakers the movies they made. Special thanks to Lynne, Rob, Wes, Courtnee, Mike, David, Sydney, and everyone at the Treehouse who make it so fun and rewarding to return year after year.

Inspired to make your own movie for the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival? Start working on it right now! The deadline is sometime in January 2027, so you have plenty of time. You can find complete details at the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival website.

Oh and one last thing: the 90-Second Newbery also relies on private donations and grants to keep going. It’s through your generosity that we can continue bringing our free public screenings and book-to-movie workshops to libraries and schools nationwide. You can make your (tax-deductible!) donation here. Donations are handled through our fiscal sponsor Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization.

The Wall Street Journal ran another one of my book reviews over the weekend. This time I took a look at veteran comic book writer Van Jensen’s debut novel Godfall. It’s about how a three-mile-long humanoid alien crash-lands outside a small town in rural Nebraska, swelling the town with thousands of new folks—scientists, journalists, grifters, even a cult that eats bits of the alien to hallucinogenic effect. Our hero Sheriff Blunt, the local lawman, is on the trail of a serial murderer who is killing people and carving them up to look like the alien. You can read the review here.

Did I like the book? On balance, yes! It’s a boffo premise. Mr. Jensen is an adept thriller writer in the plainspoken Lee Child style, and he deftly delivers the requisite brawls, twists, and capers. Sheriff Blunt is a stoic, capable lawman who is plenty likeable. I must admit, though, I was distracted that the celestial carcass remained a cipher. Our heroes never directly investigate the alien or even physically come near it. Instead, Mr. Jensen concentrates on the serial killer plot.

The following was cut from the review, so I’ll say it here: a gigantic alien falling to earth is the opportunity for something more out-of-the-way! You can explore the guts of an enormous creature, like in Daniel Kraus’ Whalefall (2023). You can do a hard-SF nail-biter about spaceborne infection, like in Michael Critchton’s The Andromeda Strain (1969). You can even wrestle with theological implications, like when the Almighty’s corpse is put on trial in James Morrow’s satirical Godhead Trilogy (1994-99). To be sure, this is the first book of a series, and Godfall is reportedly in development as a TV show by no less than Ron Howard. Hopefully these sequels and adaptations will more fully explore the extraterrestrial mystery. I’ll definitely check them out.

Anyway, I liked the book overall, and you can read my review here.

Want to read my other reviews for the Wall Street Journal? You can find them all here.

It’s the FIFTEENTH YEAR of the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival—an annual video contest I founded in which young readers make short movies that tell the entire stories of Newbery-winning books in just a few minutes. Often with a fun twist! For instance, check out the Leland Street Players’ retelling of Robert C. O’Brien’s 1972 Newbery Medal Winner Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, done in the musical style of the first scene of the 2016 movie La La Land. (You can read more about the making of this movie here, and check out more all-time best 90-Second Newbery videos here.)

Tickets are now available for our 2026 season! We’ll be doing live screenings in seven cities: Brooklyn, Chicago, San Antonio, Rochester NY, Ogden UT, Tacoma WA, and Minneapolis. These FREE screenings are raucous, bombastic affairs, co-hosted by me and other superstar children’s authors. There are often audiences of hundreds, so make your reservations now!

And there’s still time to make movies for this year’s screenings! The general nationwide deadline for entries is January 16, 2026, with a special later deadline for Chicago, Rochester, San Antonio, and Tacoma of March 20, 2026.

Love the 90-Second Newbery? Want it to continue? Please support us with a donation here. A lot of funding has dried up recently, so we’re running this thing on a shoestring lately. Every little bit helps!

Friday, January 16, 2026
GENERAL DEADLINE for submissions to the 15th annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival. Entries for the Chicago, Rochester, San Antonio, and Tacoma screenings have an extended deadline of March 20, 2026.

Wednesday, February 4, 2026
I’m hosting a “Best of the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival” screening at the Seymour Brockport Library (161 East Ave, Brockport, NY). 6-7 pm.

Saturday, February 21, 2026
The OGDEN, UT screening, at the Treehouse Children’s Museum (347 22nd Street). Co-hosted by me and Keir Graff (author of The Tiny Mansion, the Minerva Keene Detective Club series, and more). 6 pm. Get your FREE tickets here.

Saturday, February 28, 2026
The BROOKLYN, NY screening, at the Brooklyn Public Library Central Library (10 Grand Army Plaza) in the Dweck Auditorium. Co-hosted by me and Newbery Honor winner Rita Williams-Garcia (One Crazy Summer and more). 1 pm. Get your FREE tickets here.

Sunday, March 15, 2026
The MINNEAPOLIS screening, at the Minneapolis Central Library (300 Nicollet Mall) in Pohlad Hall. Co-hosted by me and Jacqueline West (author of the NYT bestselling Books of Elsewhere series and more). 2 pm. Get your FREE tickets here.

Friday, March 20, 2026
EXTENDED DEADLINE for submissions to the CHICAGO, ROCHESTER, SAN ANTONIO, and TACOMA screenings for the 15th annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival.

Sunday, April 12, 2026
The CHICAGO screening, at the Harold Washington Library Center (400 S. State Street) in the Cindy Pritzker Auditorium. Co-hosted by me and Keir Graff (author of The Tiny Mansion, the Minerva Keene Detective Club series, and more). 2 pm. Get your FREE tickets here.

Saturday, April 18, 2026
A special OAKLAND, CA screening of “The Best of The 90-Second Newbery Film Festival“. At the Rockridge branch of the Oakland Public Library (5366 College Ave) and hosted by me. 12:30 pm. Get your FREE tickets here.

Saturday, April 25, 2026
The ROCHESTER, NY screening, at the George Eastman Museum (900 East Avenue) in the Dryden Theater. Co-hosted by me and Bruce Coville (The Unicorn Chronicles, Aliens Ate My Homework, and much more). 2 pm. Sponsored by the Friends and Foundation of the Rochester Public Library, Irondequoit Public Library, Genesee Valley BOCES, Animatus Studio, and RIT MAGIC, RIT College of Art & Design and RIT K-12 University Center. Get your FREE tickets here.

Saturday, May 9, 2026
The SAN ANTONIO, TX screening, at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts in the H-E-B Performance Hall. Co-hosted by me and three-time Newbery Honor Winner Jennifer Holm (Turtle in Paradise, Penny From Heaven, Our Only May Amelia, the Babymouse books, and more). 11 am. Made possible by our partners at the Bexar County Digital Library BiblioTech and H-E-B Read 3. Get your FREE tickets here.

Friday, May 29, 2026
The TACOMA, WA screening, at Grant Center for the Expressive Arts (2510 N 11th St.). Hosted by me and Tacoma’s own Doug Mackey. 5 pm. Get your FREE tickets here.