I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: BEN FOLDS-“Rockin’ the Suburbs [Over the Hedge version]” (2006).

I love Ben Folds. And I love this song.  But it is not in any way kid friendly (he threatens to cuss on the mic and he does–a lot).  So I was surprised to hear these distinctive opening chords when Over the Hedge‘s credits rolled.

But Ben has nicely changed all of the lyrics to make it more relevant to the movie (it’s still funny for adults, and in fact, kids may not even get all the jokes: “around the block one more time…cause I can’t tell which house is mine”  “they got better looking fescue right across the cul de sac.”

It’s cool that he was completely able to change the song (the meaning is now entirely different) yet still have it retain that snarky attitude of Ben Folds.  True the grown-up version is funnier, but this one is still good.  Not least of which is from the crazy rant by William Shatner.  Shatner is the neighbor “Bill” who complains about their dog and threatens that he knows karate.  It’s quite funny (if perhaps a little exhausting to listen to more than two times).

I like that the end of the song includes the really heavy section (that really only makes sense with the original lyrics).  A perfect example of change that works.

[READ: April 2012] The Secrets of Droon: Books 26-28 & SE#4

As I mentioned in the last post I am completely hooked on Droon.  And my son is very excited that we are getting close to the end!  What will we do?  The series itself has always been good, but it keeps getting better, with the stakes getting higher and higher.  And with Sparr being a good guy now, everything is different!  There are only three books before the Special Edition this time–it’s a strange non-pattern he’s got going on.  The Special Editions are longer and SOME of them written in a different way, but sometimes they just seem like longer books.

Book 26 is called The Moon Dragon.  The moon dragon is of course Gethwing.  Gethwing is now in the Upper World and he has taken the children of Eric’s home town and now holds them hostage.  Gethwing always wanted to conquer the Upper World (as did Sparr).  When Sparr turned good, he fled to the Upper World to escape Gethwing.  But there was a prophecy (there’ s a lot of prophecies in Droon) that a boy would help Gethwing–so he followed young Sparr to the Upper World.

I don’t often mention the humor in Droon because the plot is so exciting, but there’s always some funny things in the stories.  Like the banter between the kids (my son loves Neal’s jokes).  Or sometimes there’s just funny concepts, like the kids and Queen Relna and King Zello all crammed into the little room under Eric’s basement stairs.  Or even better trying to picture these royal (and royally dressed) people fitting in in the Upper World.

Of course there can only be so much humor when the kids arrive in town and find no one around–the town is deserted.  Except for Meredith, the “new girl” who keeps following them.  And the stakes are incredibly high.  Gethwing has reawakened the Ancient Knights of Pim.  They are ancient but they are now under Gethwing’s spell and are incapable of stopping–and there are thousands of them.  Also, Gethwing believes that Sparr is helping him, but the kids believe that Sparr is good now.  How can Sparr avoid arousing suspicions.  This book also sees the return of Pikoo’s horn–see Neal does have magic powers after all–he can open and close the veil between hidden worlds.

Book 27 is The Chariot of Queen Zara.  The story takes the kids to the far side of the moon.  Literally.  Galen has been found on the edge of the moon in the city of Parthnoop.  But the first surprise of this book is that the Ninns, Sparr’s loyal band of kinda dopey red-faced warriors, are fighting against Ko’s beasts.  The Ninns worship Sparr but they don’t like Ko.  The kids believe in the “an enemy of my enemy is my friend” theory and join forces with the Ninns to attack the beasts in the city of Plud.  This introduces us to the Ninn named Bludge–an intelligent Ninn who knows how to help the kids fight Ko.

Parthnoop proves to be a home to genies. The kids meet Hoja again (the 7th Geneie of the Dove) who warns them that Fefferello, the 5th Genie of the Dove has gone crazy and made Parthnoop a dark place.  He was also the one who captured Galen in a wizard-proof tower.   Fefferello’s men (all possesed by the spell) are hard to defeat in their flying urns (I’m glad there was a drawing of that!).  The ending of this book is pretty outlandish with some time travel and chaos–most of which is not revealed until after the fact making it even more of a mind bender.  I’m not sure that Clark ever “got” what happened, but I loved it.  And, finally, at last, Neal is awarded with a special power.  He becomes Zabilac! the first Genie of the Dove! (really hard to avoid a spoiler there).

Book 28 is In the Shadow of Goll and it opens on a happy note with Neal exploring his new genie powers.  There’s a very funny joke played by Julie using one pf her secret powers to suggest that Eric’s parents are hip to Droon.  This book also has a lot of fun (at least I thought so) with jokes about the name of the creepy guy they meet in Droon.  When the kids do go to Droon they meet a man whom they believe cast a spell on them (Nyora).  Neal calls him Shadowface, but no one can get the name right so they say Shadowman, Shadowcloak, etc.

For this adventure the kids head to Agra Voor, the underwater city.   And they must deal with the Warriors of the Skorth, which Shadowface is definitely involved in.  The Warriors are a fearsome, almost unstoppable enemy–they are skeletons which no mortal can destroy.  Yipes. And when Shadowface gets them to come up.  Look out.  But it’s even more frightening when Shadowface reveals his connection to Sparr.  Things are going to change once again (I gasped!).

Special Edition Book #4 called Sorcerer really was special.  This one was told from Lord Sparr’s point of view.  And we finally learn a lot about him and his two-headed dog, Kem.  This is a surprisingly touching book as we learn about what happened to Sparr as a child, and how he became the person he is.  It’s especially enjoyable that in this book Kem, the two-headed dog, can not only speak (to Sparr), he also is sarcastic and cranky.

As Sparr tells his story, the Coiled Viper has worked his magic on him and he is no longer a good little boy.  He is trying to get back to his old self but the Golden Wasp crashes in the sea.  Kem rescues him and they wind up being helped by a troll named Beffo.  And this is where Droon begins his tale about his childhood (the whole book is told (mostly) in flashbacks).  It’s a great story, where we learn so much about what happened with Zara.  And the ending finds Sparr lost once more.

Tony Abbott piles more and more interesting things into this book.  And with just a dozen books left in the series, the stakes keep getting higher and higher!