"Worth the cover price for sheer insolence alone... Essential reading for the gathering dark." —The Times Saturday Review

"A voraciously readable page-turner of a novel, part creepypasta, part thought-experiment." —Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother and Radicalized

"Explores questions of free will, psychology and human history in a fascinating, compulsively readable thriller."—The Guardian

“An entertainingly mind-bending read.”—Financial Times

"Audaciously clever and well written... [a] superb piece of storytelling: vivid, thought provoking and unsettling. After you finish it you’ll want to go back to the start and read it again." —SFX Magazine

"A razor-smart sci-fi corporate noir nightmare. Dare to Know is what happens when Willy Loman sees through the Matrix. A heartbreaking, time-bending, galactic mindbender delivered in the mordantly funny clip of a doomed antihero." —Daniel Kraus, co-author of The Shape of Water

90-Second Newberys from Sidwell Friends School, including a Claymation Island of the Blue Dolphins

October 28, 2011

Just a week until the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival screening in New York City, November 5! All details about the film festival are here, including information on the Chicago screening November 16.

I had the pleasure of receiving eleven, count ’em, eleven 90-Second Newbery films from Becky Farnum’s sixth-grade class at the Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. This gold mine included one of my favorite films so far, check it out above: a Claymation version of Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell, which won the Newbery Medal in 1961.

It’s one of the bloodiest Claymation videos I’ve ever seen! Set to the music of Debussy, no less! I found it nothing less than hypnotic, especially when the dogs dismember the guy. The movements put me in the mind of a 1980s video game. This will for sure be shown in the screenings in New York and Chicago. Great job!

But that’s not all I got from Sidwell Friends School! There are ten more great adaptations too. I can’t fit them all into one blog post, so I made their own page where you can see them all. Click here to watch all eleven 90-Second Newbery films from Sidwell Friends School.

Thanks a million, Sidwell Friends! Superlative job!

Bride of the Tornado

DARE TO KNOW

90-Second Newberys from Sidwell Friends School, including a Claymation Island of the Blue Dolphins

October 28, 2011

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« 90-Second Newbery, Chicago Style: The Great Fire and A Ring of Endless Light A Hodgman near-miss, plus 90-Second Newbery three-way for Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! »