The 90-Second Newbery relies on donations to bring 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.

This past weekend we closed out the 13th season of the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival with two shows in Washington state: a “Best-of-the-Best” screening at the Galaxy Theater in Gig Harbor, and another screening at Grant Center for the Expressive Arts in Tacoma! (I haven’t posted about our May 11 San Antonio show yet, though. Next post.)

The picture above is of the young filmmakers at the Tacoma screening. (No pictures of the Gig Harbor screening, unfortunately.) Thanks to Geoff Bullock from Harbor Stone Credit Union for sponsoring the event, and thanks also to Gig Harbor Film and the “Excuse the Intermission” podcast. And an extra big thanks to Bryan Johnson and Grant Center for the Expressive Arts for putting this all together, and Francis for helping out! We had a particularly energetic crowd in Tacoma, full of the young filmmakers from many schools and their friends and families. I got to do an author visit on Friday at Grant (talking about The Order of Odd-Fish), which helped prime much of the audience for the show.

And of course thank you to Tacoma’s own Doug Mackey, who once again joined me onstage as my co-host! Here’s our opening skit, in which we both meet “Lil’ Newby,” a redesigned anthropomorphic Newbery Medal who can’t stop fibbing about past Newbery winners . . . what, didn’t you know about E.B. White’s shoplifting? or Arnold Lobel’s fondness for arson? Doug and I bring up the whole thing to a climax with a song-and-dance number based on a rewritten version of Aladdin’s “Friend Like Me.” It’s a banger, folks:

Okay, enough of preliminaries, let’s get to the movies that were made by kids in Tacoma and the surrounding area! This first one is based on Maia Wojciechowska’s 1965 Newbery Medal Winner Shadow of a Bull, as adapted by Anders, Arthur, Eva, Garyn, Noah, and Wilson from Mr. Johnson’s 5th Grade at Grant Center for the Expressive Arts:

As the judges said on the 90-Second Newbery website (full review here), “In the original book, Manolo’s matador father is killed by a bull in the ring, and Manolo reluctantly attempts to become a bullfighter himself; here, Manolo’s father is killed by a toaster, and Manolo must face his fears of a toaster to be on a cooking show! The twist was well-executed and the story told clearly enough that the audience could understand it even if they hadn’t read the book—a difficult feat to pull off . . . A tight script, good cinematography and editing, strong performances, and resourceful special effects all combined to make an entertaining watch!”

Also from Grant Center for the Expressive Arts, we have this adaptation of Russell Freedman’s 1992 Newbery Honor Winner The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane. In this creative movie, by Gilbert, Kira, Mariana, Maya, and Morgen from Mr. Johnson’s 5th Grade, it’s about the Wright sisters inventing something else entirely:

As the judges said on the 90-Second Newbery website (full review here), “This was an ingenious comedic twist: instead of the Wright brothers inventing the airplane, it’s the Wright sisters inventing the spork! (Or, as they briefly considered naming it, a ‘foon.’) . . . A clever twist, good production values, and excellent script and performances made this a pleasure to watch.”

Grant Center for the Expressive Arts is also behind this version on Mary and Conrad Buff’s 1952 Newbery Honor Book The Apple and the Arrow, here created by Emmett, Judah, Klaire, and Martin from Mr. Johnson’s Fifth Grade. They re-imagine the story of legendary archer William Tell shooting an apple off his son’s head with an arrow in a Star Wars way, with a stormtrooper doing the shooting . . . but wait, don’t stormtroopers have notoriously bad aim?

As the judges said on the 90-Second Newbery website (full review here), “Stormtroopers are terrible shots, so in this movie, instead of hitting the mark in one zap, William Stormtrooper randomly blasts all over the place, while Vader and his son patiently wait . . . I appreciated the careful attention to the Star Wars details: the accurate John Williams soundtrack music, green screen backgrounds of various Star Wars locations (such as inside and outside a TIE fighter), the resourceful Darth Vader and Stormtrooper costumes (complete with masks!), the zapping and hologram special effects, and of course the Death Star blowing up at the end . . . Ambitious and entertaining!”

Here’s another movie from Grant Center for the Expressive Arts. It’s based on Patricia McKissack’s 1993 Newbery Honor Book The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural, and it’s by Brynn, Harper, Keaton, Rowan A., and Rowan M. from Mr. Johnson’s 5th Grade:

As the judges said on the 90-Second Newbery website (full review here), “The creepy music did a good job setting the mood, and I was impressed by the ‘ghost’ special effect of the son and mother as well as the effective use of green screen . . . The cinematography and editing were brisk and focused . . . Everyone committed 100% to the horror vibe of the story, and the performances really sold the movie.”

The final movie we received from Grant Center for the Expressive Arts is Carson, Dexter, Ela, Rumor, and Sam’s take on Jerry Craft’s 2020 Newbery Medal Winner New Kid, which here is reset in a school of fish:

As the judges said on the 90-Second Newbery website (full review here), “An amusing abbreviation of the book with a refreshingly silly twist . . . The blue tint on all the well-chosen backgrounds made it feel appropriately underwater, and the loose, casual performances sold the characters’ personalities and conflicts. Instead of attempting to tell the whole story, this movie focused instead on two or three representative scenes, giving them room to breathe. Laid-back and entertaining.”

But hey, Grant Center for the Expressive Arts isn’t the only source of Tacoma videos this year! We also received videos from this special Tacoma family who, every year, makes a video based on the Frog and Toad books by Arnold Lobel. Here is “A Lost Button,” created by Otto, Fletcher, Nigel, Simone, and Hansel:

As the judges said on the 90-Second Newbery website (full review here), “Another earnest, well-crafted visit to the world of Frog and Toad by Otto, Fletcher, Nigel, Simone, and Hansel! The expressive voiceover narration complemented well the onscreen action of Frog and Toad hiking through the beautiful outdoor locations: romping through fields, navigating dense woods, and traipsing alongside a rushing river . . . all the way to joining their friends around a campfire at the end . . . A gently amusing, refreshingly straightforward retelling of the story, with a fanciful and yet sincere atmosphere.”

Every year, this same family also makes a movie based on a poem from Nancy Willard’s 1982 Newbery Medal Winning book A Visit to William Blake’s Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers. This one is based on the poem “A Rabbit Reveals My Room”:

As the judges said on the 90-Second Newbery website (full review here), “As always with this group, the costumes are charmingly elaborate and rumpled, with a rabbit costume, a bear costume, and various others . . . and we are treated to the beautiful outdoor woodsy scenes as the players troop around, accompanied by excellent voiceover performances of the poem . . .The playful yet heartfelt tone of the performances, cinematography, and sound give the whole movie a beautifully dreamlike atmosphere.”

Rainier Elementary School at Joint Base Lewis-McChord adapted Laura Amy Schlitz’s 2008 Newbery Medal Winner Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village:

As the judges said on the 90-Second Newbery website (full review here), “This was an ingenious twist on the premise of the original book, which is a compilation of in-character monologues set in medieval times: update the text so that the situations are similar, but set in 2024! The ingenious and often funny modern tweaks to the stories, and the exuberant performances for the characters, combined to make this an entertaining and fascinating movie.”

Alyssa, Casey, Tanwi, Yana, Anya, Shriyansh, Megha, Daniel, Paige, and Narashima of Sunny Hills Elementary School in Sammamish adapted Robert C. O’Brien’s 1972 Newbery Medal Winner Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH:

As the judges said on the 90-Second Newbery website (full review here), “This was a swift, appealing, inventive retelling of the story! . . . The performances were engaging and convincing, particularly Mrs. Frisby’s earnest emotional reactions . . . Excellent work, entertaining and accurate to the orginal story.”

And finally, we received this adaptation of E.L. Konigsburg’s 1997 Newbery Medal Winner The View From Saturday by Asher F. of Port Orchard:

As the judges said on the 90-Second Newbery website (full review here), “Done entirely in Roblox with AI voices, this movie efficiently tells the story of the book mostly with spoken exposition. The script lays out the story swiftly and accurately, introducing each character by having them describe their function in the story. The computer-graphic avatars of the various characters looked like how the characters were described in the book. There were some amusing bits (like Ham Knapp with the burp) and subtle touches (the thought bubble ‘How would they have known?’). A capable and proficient use of Roblox to make a movie!”

And that was the 2024 Tacoma 90-Second Newbery Film Festival! Thanks again to everyone who helped make this happen . . . and thanks most of all to the young filmmakers who created the movies, and the teachers, librarians, and family who helped them!

I hope we get more movies from the Tacoma/Gig Harbor area for next year! The movies are due in January 2025, but you can turn them in any time. You can find complete details about the film festival, including tips on how to make your own movies, at the 90-Second Newbery website. Go and do it!

The 90-Second Newbery relies on donations to bring 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.