The Red Balloon

When I was little I loved the story of The Red Balloon.  It was a short film by the French filmmaker, Albert Lamorisse.  The film was also made into a children's book that we would check out of the library countless times.  Most of the pictures were in black and white, but an occasional page would be in full color.  The story, as described by Wikipedia, has a music score but almost no dialogue and tells of Pascal, who, on his way to school one morning, discovers a large helium-filled red balloon.

As Pascal plays with his new found toy, he realizes the balloon has a mind and will of its own. It begins to follow him wherever he goes, at times floating outside his bedroom window as Pascal's mother will not allow it in their apartment.

The red balloon follows Pascal through the streets of Paris, and the pair draw inquisitive looks from adults and the envy of other children as they wander the streets. At one point the balloon enters Pascal's classroom, causing an uproar from the other pupils. The noise alerts the principal, who becomes angry with Pascal and locks him up in his office until school is over. At another point in the movie, Pascal and his balloon encounter a little girl with a blue balloon that also seems to have a mind of its own.

In their wanderings around the neighborhood, Pascal and the balloon encounter a gang of bullies, who are envious of his balloon, and they soon destroy his new friend.

The film ends as the other balloons in Paris come to Pascal's aid and take him on a cluster balloon ride over the city as the narrator states that other balloons took Pascal up to a magical world where balloons and children can be friends forever.

My mom actually gave me a copy of the book a few years ago for Christmas and I sometimes read it to my students at school when we learn about Europe.

You might be asking yourself, what is the big deal with the red balloon?  Well,  at my birthday party there were several helium filled balloons tied to the mailbox.  After the party was over I took the balloons home with me and one by one they lost their air and slowly fell to the floor.  All, that is, except the red one.  It seemed to have a mind of it's own and last night I noticed it following me around.  It even made it upstairs and was hanging out in my room with me while I got ready for bed.

Every time I turned around the red balloon was there!  Just to prove how this balloon did whatever it wanted, I caught it on video.

Summer reading

This summer I put my Kindle Fire to good use.  

Now we all know about my love of all things Harry Potter, but once you've read the series four times its time to move on to other literature.  I've always enjoyed the fantasy genre because it takes you away from the every day world into some place magical and totally different than your life.  That's one of the reasons I liked the HP books so much...they were just plain fun!
About two years ago J and I got hooked on an HBO series called Game of Thrones.  NOW...the HBO show takes it a little too far with the language and adult content but when I decided to read the books (a series of five so far with two more on the way) I was pleasantly surprised on how not graphic the books were when it came to said adult content and violence.  There is a tad bit of language, but it can be easily skimmed over.

 I am now on the third book of the series.  The interesting thing about this book is that I have no idea what is going to happen.  I watched two seasons of Game of Thrones, which covers the first two books, and now I'm reading what will become the third season starting in the spring.

On a side note...while driving to and from Tennessee for our camping week, J and I listened to what is being called the "next Hunger Games."  It's called Divergent and it was a lot like the HG setting and world, but of course different.  It's a series of three books but only the first two have been written so far.  We really enjoyed listening to the book on our iPhone in the car...it helped pass the time.

I'm still here

Man, is it mid January already?? 

I'm still around and busy as ever...as seen by my lack of blogging.  Christmas Break is over...school has started back again...and so has my grad school class.  My LAST grad school class I might add!!  So between work, my Afterschool job, and homework, I've gone back to my usual busy self.  Oh, and add the fact that J gave me a Kindle Fire for Christmas so now all my spare moments now are with my nose stuck in a book...err...looking at a tablet screen.

The Kindle has come in handy over the last four weeks.  It was perfect when I needed some car repairs done and I was at the car place for over an hour.  I've already read three books and just started the fourth over the weekend.

Here's what I've been reading...

I know I'm jumping on the band wagon a little late with these books but they are SO good!  A couple years ago a good friend told me to read The Hunger Games.  She was an HP fan as well and I usually like her book suggestions, but after reading the back cover I just wasn't so sure.  It sounded plain weird.  Then my sis-in-law read them and told me how wonderful and awesome they were so I decided to give it another shot.  I'm telling y'all...I read the first one in 4 days!  The second was amazing, and the third had a slow start, but got really really stinking good at the end.  These are complete page turners, folks!! And guess what?  The first movie comes out in March.  Who's coming with me?  :)
OK ok...enough about The Hunger Games.  I'm currently reading Water for Elephants, and its been entertaining as well.  I'm really into circuses right now because of it and tried to win tickets on the radio for the Ringling Bros. show that's in town this weekend.  Didn't happen though, maybe next year.