Do you have one more person on your holiday shopping list? Need some help? I’ve got you covered with several recommendations of books that make great gifts.
Also in this episode, I give a little update on the drama surrounding those dolls from the Wicked film. It turns out there is a lawsuit over the unfortunate misprint on the box, with one family claiming that they were harmed by being directed to visit a . . . corn . . . website. I still don’t think that this is that big of a deal, and that parents don’t really need to stress about it, especially considering that the dolls were all pulled from store shelves.
What I am a bit more concerned about, though, is that the success of the movie version of the Wicked stage musical has led publishers to put out a new edition of the novel Wicked by Gregory Maguire. It features the images of the actors in the film:
It’s common for marketers to do this when a film is based on a book, but this time it’s pretty inappropriate as well as misleading to consumers. The book Wicked is not now a major motion picture. Because the book has very little to do with the stage show, which is the inspiration for the movie. I read Maguire’s novel when it first came out. It’s wild and weird and interesting . . . and absolutely NOT for children. I know some teenagers are more mature than others, but I still wouldn’t give it to an underage kid. By having characters from a PG-rated film on the cover and implying that the movie and the book have much at all to do with one another, it would be very easy for a well-meaning adult to give a book to a kid which they simply aren’t developmentally ready for. I strongly disagree with this misleading marketing and want to warn parents and teachers about it.