Monday, October 24, 2011

Mary Blair: an Eternal Little Girl

Full name:                                          Mary Robinson

Birth:                                                    October 21, 1911

Place of Birth:                                   McAlester, Oklahoma

Death:                                                 July 26, 1978

Place of Death:                                Soquel, California

                An imaginative color stylist and designer, Mary Blair helped introduce modern art to Walt Disney and his Studio, and for nearly 30 years, he touted her inspirational work for his films and theme parks alike. Walt connected with Mary's fresh, childlike art style. As Disney Imagineering artist Roland Crump once told animation historian John Canemaker, "The way she (Mary) painted - in a lot of ways she was still a little girl. Walt was like that... You could see he could relate to children - she was the same way."
                The inherently gifted artist won a scholarship to Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. After graduation in 1933, at the height of the Depression, Mary took a job in the animation unit of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) rather than pursue her dream of a fine arts career. In 1940, she joined The Walt Disney Studios and worked on a number of projects such as "The Three Caballeros" and "Saludos Amigos." Mary's unique color and styling greatly influenced such Disney postwar productions as "Cinderella," "Alice in Wonderland," and "Peter Pan."
                From 1964-65, Mary Blair participated in the design of It’s a small world attraction, for the New York World’s Fair.
                Mary Blair died of a cerebral hemorrhage on July 26, 1978.

Monday, October 10, 2011

The Boys Next Door/Endless Summer By Jennifer Echols

Synopsis: TWO IRRESISTIBLE BOYS. ONE UNFORGETTABLE SUMMER.

Lori can't wait for her summer at the lake. She loves wakeboarding and hanging with her friends--including the two hotties next door. With the Vader brothers, she's always been just one of the guys. Now that she's turning sixteen, she wants to be seen as one of the girls, especially in the eyes of Sean, the older brother. But that's not going to happen--not if the younger brother, Adam, can help it.

Lori plans to make Sean jealous by spending time with Adam. Adam has plans of his own for Lori. As the air heats up, so does this love triangle. Will Lori's romantic summer melt into one hot mess?

My thoughts: When I bought this book, I got so scared because of its size, but I read the first part in two days!!! I just loved it! Part 1 is really fun and dynamic. We are presented to Lori, a distracted girl that has been hooking up with her neighbors since she was a little girl. Now that she has sixteen and a crush on Sean – one of the guys – she will try everything to get him, even date his younger brother, Adam, who has been her friend for her entire life. But Adam has plans of his own for Lori. As the reading goes on, you realize that Adam is a very sweet guy and you start cheering for him.
                Lori really got on my nerve! Geez, how can she be so blind about a hot guy like Adam? If I were her, I would have definitely fainted when he kissed me! They were a really cute couple. The only thing that I didn’t like a little was the fact that he forgives her too fast. I would have tortured her a little(hehehe). But the rose path that he made for her was sooo adorable that I totally forgave him.
                The second part of the book, I liked it, but not as much as I liked the first. It seemed to me that Lori didn’t like Adam that much, otherwise she wouldn’t keep kissing all the boys in the neighborhood. Besides they were so complicated… It was much easier to go to Lori’s dad, say that they love each other and be done with it! If there is going to be a third, I hope that it’ll show us a much deeper relationship between Lori and Adam.
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Monday, October 3, 2011

Perchance to Dream by Lisa Mantchev

Synopsis: Beatrice Shakespeare Smith's search for her stolen companion has brought her travelling company far from the stage of the Théâtre Illuminata. With the power of her words, Bertie can reshape reality, but the magic is wild and defies her attempts to control it. The Pirate's time is running out and Sea Goddess will not give up her prize willingly.

My thoughts: In this one, we are presented to a new adventure and new characters like the sneak-thief, the scrimshander – that has a very special connection with Bertie – and The Sea Goddess that in the previous book had kidnapped Nate – the handsome and protective pirate from The Little Mermaid. In this book, they get out of the Théâtre and into the new world and this time, there are no scene changes, no plot nothing at all. She has as companions the four inseparable and hilarious fairies and the air elemental, all from Shakespeare’s works.

                She also finds out that her words have incredible powers out of the theater, and when she finds a journal about her story – the story that she has been trying to discover for more than fifteen years – everything that she writes there becomes true – most of the time in a very complicated and funny way. Her goals in this book are:

1)      She needs to save Nate from The Sea Goddess no matter what;

2)      She has to find her father and bring him to the theater;

3)      She needs to choose between the Nate and Ariel, the air elemental.

Most of them, she can get through with a few scars but one of them in going to require a lot more than just words, magic and blood to help.

                The only bad thing, though, was that during the reading, there were many scenes were it was very confusing, because you couldn’t know if she was imagining the Théâtre, if she was inside it, or if it was just your tricky imagination. Anyway, I loved it in everyway possible, even though I had a few difficult parts to comprehend.

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