This past Saturday was the second show of our fourteenth season of the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival! We did it at the Treehouse Children’s Museum in Ogden, Utah, co-hosted by me and Keir Graff, author of The Tiny Mansion and many other great books for kids and adults. Check out our opening skit above, with our hectoring and demented version of “Phantom of the Opera”!

The locally-made movies that we featured this year were made back in July 2024 at the Treehouse Children’s Museum’s weeklong 90-Second Newbery camp, which you can read about here. Some of the young filmmakers joined Keir on me onstage after the show:

Let’s check out those movies made at the Treehouse! They are always particularly enjoyable not only because of the talent of the young filmmakers, but also because the Treehouse has so many sets and costumes available to make the movies look really good.

The first movie is based on Louis Sachar’s 1999 Newbery Medal Winner Holes. The original book is about Stanley Yelnats, a boy with a curse on his family. One day expensive shoes fall out of the sky onto Stanley’s head, and he is falsely arrested for stealing the shoes. He is sentenced to Camp Green Lake, a desert prison camp where the warden makes boys dig holes all day looking for lost treasure. Stanley makes friends with a boy named Zero. They rebel against digging holes and run away into the desert, where they break the curse afflicting Stanley’s family, and dig up the treasure the warden had been searching for . . . which rightfully belongs to Stanley!

We always encourage kids to put a twist on their retellings of the story. So in this movie, instead of the boy Stanley Yelnats, it’s a girl “Starley Yelrats.” Instead of shoes falling on their head, it’s a fancy dress and a teacup. And instead of going to a work prison camp where boys are forced to dig holes, Starley is sent to a young ladies’ finishing school where the girls are forced to drink 50 cups of tea a day. It’s by the group of Bennett, Crewe, Beatrice, and Hannah, with help from the rest of the campers. I give you: TEACUPS!

As the judges said in part on the 90-Second Newbery website (full review here), “Another movie with an original twist that is executed with thoroughness and wit . . . and there’s a lot more swordfighting in this movie than in the original book! An original premise, hilarious performances, and masterful fencing all combine to make a winner of a movie!”

The next movie is based on E.B. White’s 1953 Newbery Honor Book Charlotte’s Web. Now, the original story is about a runt pig, Wilbur, who is saved from the ax by kind farmgirl Fern. Wilbur has self-esteem issues, and he is eventually sent to Fern’s uncle’s farm, where he doesn’t fit in with the other animals—and he’s terrified he’s going to be slaughtered and made into bacon. But a kind spider named Charlotte sees the worth in him, and she weaves words into her web above Wilbur’s pigsty, like SOME PIG and RADIANT and TERRIFIC, that convince everyone Wilbur is indeed a special pig. But at the end, Charlotte dies . . . pretty sad and dark for a kids book!

This one is done in the style of a cheesy 90s sitcom like Friends or Seinfeld, and it’s by the group of KateLyn, Kaitlyn, Georgia, Ethan, and Beau, with help from the other campers.

As the judges wrote in part on the 90-Second Newbery website (full review here), “An original and fun premise! . . . There were very funny performances from everyone. I loved all the classic sitcom touches, like the canned audience reactions, the Seinfeld slap bass for scene transitions, and the opening credits with the Friends theme song . . . with rewritten lyrics! I was also very amused by the meta touch of the shell-shocked studio audience at the end.”

The third 90-Second Newbery movie from the Treehouse this year is based on Richard and Florence Atwater’s 1939 Newbery Honor Book Mr. Popper’s Penguins. The original story is about Mr. Popper, who sends a fan letter to an Antarctic explorer, and unexpectedly receives back a shipment of a male penguin as a surprise gift. This leads to the zoo sending the Popper family a female penguin, which results in lots of baby penguins. To make ends meet, Mr. and Mrs. Popper train the penguins to dance and do tricks, and they take their show on the road.

This movie tells the story from a different angle: as a 1940s detective noir movie in which a private eye is trying to figure out where all the penguins are coming from . . . complete with black-and-white camerawork, hardboiled voiceover, a plot with lots of double-crossing, and one of the weirdest covers of Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean” that I’ve ever heard. It’s by the group of Parker, Jacob, Delphine, and Wren:

As the judges wrote in part on the 90-Second Newbery website (full review here), “A crackerjack premise, tight script, brilliant and funny performances, and great camerawork and editing made this one shine. It really nailed the noir tone, and those CGI penguins dancing are both goofy and strangely ominous to me!”

If you want to check out the other movies we featured that day, here are links to all of them:

1. In The Beginning: Creation Stories From Around the World (Virginia Hamilton, 1989 Honor Book) by Tristan Stephan

2. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (Robert C. O’Brien, 1972 Medal Winner) by Elephant and Worm

3. Bridge to Terabithia (Katherine Paterson, 1973 Newbery Honor) by Alannah, Gretchen, Isabella, and Catherine of Saint Mary Magdalen School

4. Holes (Louis Sachar, 1999 Medal Winner) by Bennett, Crewe, Beatrice, Hannah, and Friends at the Treehouse Children’s Museum

5. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White, 1953 Honor Book) by Emily Bonilla, Emily Berry, Alithea G., Aylin C., and Michelle P. of North Bergen S.T.E.A.M. Academy

6. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White, 1953 Honor Book) by KateLyn, Georgia, Ethan, Beau, and the other Kaitlyn, and Friends of the Treehouse Museum

7. The Old Tobacco Shop: A True Account of What Befell a Little Boy in Search of Adventure (William Bowen, 1922 Honor Book) by Portland Community Media

8. Millions of Cats (Wanda Gag, 1929 Honor Book) by Leland Street Players

9. Mr. Popper’s Penguins (Richard and Florence Atwater, 1939 Honor Book) by Parker, Jacob Delphine, and Wren of the Treehouse Museum

10. An American Plague (Jim Murphy, 2004 Honor Book) by Max Lau and Jennings Mergenthal

11. Island of the Blue Dolphins (Scott O’Dell, 1961 Medal Winner) by Adalynn, Crewe, Cy, and Friends of the Treehouse Museum

12. Frog and Toad Together (Arnold Lobel, 1973 Honor Book) by Fletch and Otto

Thanks so much to the Treehouse for putting this on and supporting the film festival. Thanks especially to the support and energy of Lynne Goodwin, Wes Whitby, and Rob Goodwin, and everyone at the Treehouse Children’s Museum. Thanks particularly to Caden and Will for helping make all these movies at the Treehouse 90-Second Newbery workshop this past summer.

And thanks most of all to the young filmmakers who created the movies! I hope you’re inspired to make a movie for next year. Anyone can do it. The movies are due in January 2026, 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.

And by the way, the 90-Second Newbery relies entirely on private donations and grants to keep going. It’s only 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.