Books & Movies

Last night I was watching one of my favorite tv shows - Jon & Kate plus 8 - the show makes me feel thankful that I 1. don't have preschoolers anymore and 2. don't have 8 kids - LOL!

But something on there REALLY bugged me last night - they were doing a show at St Jude's hospital - good thing - BUT in the middle of the show it shows Kate reading the book Tale of Despereaux to her kids then showing the kids all with their own stuffed Despereaux.

What bugged me the most was the shameful plug that the movie company OBVIOUSLY paid the show/Kate to read the book and show off the toys. Of course there were commercials for the movie during the hour long show also. I think I was bugged by the fact that I don't think that I have ever seen Kate or Jon make such a big deal about a book before, and now here they are doing it because the book is now a movie.

Now, while I do LOVE Despereaux and have since the book came out, I hate when people get on the bandwagon of a book just because of the movie. I see it happen EVERYDAY (and I am not exaggerating) at school and maybe I should just be glad that they are reading, but it still bugs me. In fact this week, I am reading The Polar Express - one of my favorite books of all time and you cannot BELIEVE how many kids had never heard of the book, but had seen the movie.

I wish we could do prime time tv commercials for books like they do for movies - or better yet, have Jon & Kate plus 8 read a book and make a big deal about it BEFORE it becomes a movie (or before the THOUGHT of it becoming a movie happens!!) I even offer to be their BOOK consultant, think TLC is reading????