SOUNDTRACK: JACKIE EVANCHO-Tiny Desk Concert #130 (May 23, 2011).
I’d never heard of Jackie Evancho, even though she apparently was viral for a while. Jackie was (at the time of this taping) 11 years old. And she has an amazing operatic voice. Not like, oooh, the 11 year old can sing, but like holy cow, that voice comes out of an 11 year old?
Her voice is beautiful in the audio format, but you really have to watch that voice come out of this adorable little girl (while she sings Handel’s “Ombra Mai Fu”) for it to really blow your mind. Especially when she giggles at the end.
For what I am sure are licensing reasons, there is only one video available, but there are three songs available to download. “Lovers” comes from The House of Flying Daggers (one of her favorite movies). If you have watched her sing, it is staggering to imagine her singing this song (which is intensely grown up).
The third song is Sarah McLachlan’s “Angel” and she sounds so much more “mature” than McLachlan’s more passionate version. It is uncanny to watch this girl sing.
[READ: December 6, 2015] Serafina and the Black Cloak
I saw this book reviewed and it was talked about as being the next big franchise for Disney. Since our library had it in I thought I’d read it before it took off.
To my knowledge it hasn’t taken off yet, but I’m glad I’m ahead of the curve.
This book has many dark elements including a very violent, scary opening that I feel makes this an unlikely children’s book series. Maybe tweens, but certainly not for young readers.
I brought the book for Sarah because it is set in Biltmore Estate (Sarah’s mom had just visited there and Sarah would like to go). I think she was intrigued until I read the next paragraph which talked about a lot of supernatural elements (she was intrigued for different reasons then).
So Serafina is the daughter of the man who works on the “Edison machine” in the basement of Biltmore. He doesn’t want the Vabnderbilts’ to know he lives there and doesn’t want them to know about Serafina at all. All Serafina knows is that her mother is dead and her pa is all she has left. So he hides her and tells her she is the CRC, the house’s chief rat catcher. Despite her living conditions, she doesn’t feel any ill will towards the Vanderbilts. She has never really interacted with them so she has no opinion of them. She just thinks they are fascinating.
Serafina has very keen senses, especially in the dark–she can catch mice an rats like no ones business and she thinks that everyone else is loud and clumsy. She also has amber eyes and only four toes and she is able to move her body into uncannily small spaces.
Her father, protective of her and of his livelihood, tells her to never go out except at night. And she must also never go into the forest which is magical and dangerous. But Serafina is constantly drawn to the forest,
Then one night she hears someone walking around and a little girl scream. The man is in a black cloak and she watches as he grabs the girl, says she won’t be hurt and then proceeds try to…do something to her. Serafina tries to help, but she is thwarted and soon the little girl screams and is gone.
She tries to tell her pa but he doesn’t believe her–he doesn’t want to hear anything about supernatural nonsense. He even gets mad that she was out and about. Finally when word gets out that the girl is missing, the house organizes a search party and Serafina runs into a boy, Braeden (a terribly unlikely name for the time, I must say). Braeden is the nephew of the Vanderbilts. Braden is an orphan , and his aunt and uncle have taken him in. But he is a loner and spends more time with his horses and dog. He is intrigued by Serafina because she is obviously a loner too.
They wind up going on a coach ride together only to get trapped in the woods. That’s when Braeden believes what Serafina has seen (because he has seen it too). And they know they have to capture this man in the black cloak.
But how can the two people who aren’t even supposed to talk to each other work together on such a thing. And who can the evil person be? An outsider or one of his uncle’s friends?
The mystery wasn’t set up as a mystery–we learn who we think is the bad guy about half way through the book. But there’s still the matter of catching him. And then learning the secret of the cloak. And the secret of the forest.
I also enjoyed the part about the catamount. I have a personal funny story about catamounts and have never seen them in a story before. I’ve also never heard of them as having mystical powers (or that the name was derives from Cat-a-mountains) either. Which was cool.
Although there were elements of this story that were kind of samey to other stories like this, there was much originality. And by the end of the story I was totally hooked.
And best of all, the ending feels like an ending, not a set up for a part 2. I can’t quite imagine how they will make a series out of it, but I’ll certainly read book two if it comes out.
I Just Read About That... 