Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Paranorman / Elizabeth Cody Kimmel / 242 pages / December Challenge Apocalyptic Literature

Norman Babcock, a seventh grader, has seen and heard ghosts for as long as he could remember and he started talking back to them about a year ago.  "On the day he was born strange things happened.  All the lights in the maternity ward blew their fuses at the very moment the doctor announced, 'It's a boy!' Two dogs across town set up a strange chorus of howling at the same time.  And two guys coming off their shift at Witchy Weiner saw a rainbow in the sky - it was one in the morning and the rainbow was shaped like a huge question mark."  Blithe Hollow was teeming with phantom people and animals and Norman talked to every single one who found him - including the toad in formaldehyde in science class.  "If that made him an outcast, well, whatever, Norman had never really been too keen on being an incast in the first place.  As far as he could tell, most living people were vastly overrated."  It is now the three hundredth anniversary of the Blithe Hollow Witch trial and if Norman doesn't stop her, the witch will return, "raise an army of the Dead and they will devour everything in their path." The Apocalypse will begin right here.  This delightfully illustrated and entertaining tale has been made into a major motion picture dealing with friendship, bullying, acceptance of individual differences, mob violence/mentality, the paranormal, and the Salem Wtich Trials.

"By the time the Salem Witch Trials ended in 1693, more than 210 people had been tried for witchcraft and 20 of the had been put to death."

No comments:

Post a Comment