John Carter of Mars and Darren Sheffer of Richfield

Whenever I hear that a book I love is going to be made into a film, I get a little  nervous.   Rarely, the movie maker gets it right, such as with the Lord of the Ring  movies.   Sometimes, it is a complete disaster, such as with the movies The Scarlett Letter and Jim Carrey's How the Grinch Stole Christmas.   Most often, the movie tries to capture the magic of the book and while it has some enjoyable cinematic moments, I am usually left feeling like something was lost in the translation.  I felt that way about the recent Narnia series. I have enjoyed the movies... they weren't terrible... but they could have been GREAT movies and simply were NOT.  I even feel that way a LITTLE about the Harry Potter movies.  They are close to the greatness of the Lord of the Ring movies. The casting was brilliant and the cinematic effects were wonderful.  It's just that parts of the book that meant so much to me were left out.  And if you had not read the books, I don't know if you would necessary understand the movies fully, either. 

My favorite series HANDS DOWN as a child were the Narnia series by C.S. Lewis.  Ever since Mr. Tumnus met Lucy under the Lamppost that snowy evening, I was hooked.  These books were the first "fantasy" type books I had ever read, and I enjoyed them immensely. I was introduced to a genre of books that I have loved ever since.

Darren's favorite books were the John Carter of Mars series by Edgar Rice Burroughs.  The books consist of the following:  A Princess of Mars (1917), The Gods of Mars (1918), The Warlord of Mars (1919), Thuvia, Maid of Mars (1920) and The Chessmen of Mars (1922).  He also wrote the Tarzan series.  Darren reads so much of what I recommend, that of course I had to read these books at his request, too. While I enjoyed them, I have never felt the need to read them again. Most of our children have read them as well, although we have had to put sticky notes over the pictures on the front of the books as they look like the following:

 
I joke with Darren that this is probably part of the reason why he liked the books as a young man.  He actually agrees....and always adds a comment like, "but it's so HOT on Mars, what would you expect them to wear?"

When Darren heard that Disney was putting out a movie called "JOHN CARTER" which was based on the book, "A PRINCESS OF MARS", he was excited and nervous.  He was glad Disney was making the film, but didn't want to see a beloved story destroyed.  We went and saw it at our local theatre Friday night.  He made me promise to keep my mouth shut and not engage in my very annoying habit of making snarky comments through the entire movie.   
In the end, he felt the way I did about the Narnia movies.  It was OKAY but not great. I thought the special effects were really well done. It had a distinct "Star Wars" feel to it.  It was also fun to see scenes from Utah throughout the movie.  Like most books made into movies, the story had been changed quite a bit and the depth of emotion was missing.  The biggest change in the story was how John Carter got to Mars, although Darren didn't seem to mind this change.

The whole time I was watching the movie, I was thinking how N would LOVE this movie.  And if that is what it takes to get a kid reading, I'm all for it.  J.K.Rowling will always be one of my heroes, not just because she wrote a series that is much loved by me personally, but that she got MILLIONS of people reading again.  All four of our children have learned to read on Harry Potter.   I would start reading them "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" and they would get so engaged that they start reading it on their own. It was HARD as they were all emerging readers but they are so into the story that they don't give up. By the end of the first book, they are excellent readers.  This seriously has happened four times in our family. Nathan had all seven books read by the end of first grade.

The book market for Tweens has exploded since Harry Potter as well.  And maybe this movie about John Carter will get another group engaged in the literary world.

As for books being made into movies,  while most of the time they are somewhat of a letdown, I can't complain about it because if Lord of the Rings had not been made into a movie, I would never have been introduced to Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn. And now wouldn't THAT have been a shame.