Paddington 3: A Solid Follow-Up to a Perfect Movie

Return of the Jedi had this problem. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga has this problem too. How do you follow up a perfect movie? Paddington 2 is a perfect movie. For a long time it had a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, received the ultimate pop culture shout out in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and remains one of our favorite films. However, as an intellectual property, Paddington has the potential to tell many stories and movie theaters still need quality programming, so Paddington 3 was an eventuality. This is where we need to be reminded of the phrase, “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of (very) good”. Rest easy marmalade-loving people, Paddington 3: Lost in Peru is very good.

Paddington 3: Lost in Peru has the unenviable task of following up a perfect movie. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of very good, and this is very good.

It is a children’s movie, but it satisfies that description in the same way “Finally It’s Christmas” by Hanson is a Christmas song. In brief, The Christmas Song test is where said song reaches far beyond its intended time frame or audience to where it can be enjoyed regardless of when or who experiences it. As if to test this very unofficial theorem I just listened to that Christmas song by Hanson, as well as, others from that same album and was immensely entertained. If you haven’t heard that song before, stop reading for a moment and enjoy this sonic delicacy.

Paddington 3 is very good. In today’s hyperbolic quest for adjectives and review sites tripping over themselves for the perfect way to describe something for clicks and eyeballs, it can get overwhelming. Paddington 3 is beary good is a way to say it, but then some readers would think that the intention was to say ‘bearly good’, which is not what the title is meant to infer. And why say it’s very good? Isn’t great better than very good?

You’ll have to forgive me, I’ve been teaching high school ELA for the past two weeks. Their ability to make up excuses, feign ignorance or otherwise concoct a reason for not committing to something is infectious.  So to them, in addition to anyone else who just needs to unplug-but still be entertained, and do so in a family-friendly manner that’s still able to hold the attention of surly middle and high school students, check out Paddington 3.

Hold on, high school students will enjoy Paddington 3? Caveat: our high school and middle school student enjoyed Paddington 3. It could be because they have fond memories of us going to see Paddington and Paddington 2, which we’ve told them umpteen million times is one of the best movies ever. Who knows. They left their cell phones in the car, went into the movie theater with mom and dad and said that they enjoyed it. Paddington 3 for the win.

The story revolves around Paddington’s aunt disappearing from the retired bear home in Peru. Paddington convinces the Brown family to go there and help him rescue her from the trouble that he knows she’s in. Along the way they meet up with Antonio Banderas, a riverboat captain who knows the location of this supposed place where Lucy had a clue, but is also rife with rumors about an ancient treasure.

See, it’s a children’s movie, but let’s channel it through the timeless memories of family vacations. The teens in the movie start out typical enough being sullen or seemingly too eager to leave the family house in order to go to university. They encounter a quirky, albeit more handsome and charismatic than-average-man, who helps make their vacation unforgettable. Their younger brother makes several mistakes, but doesn’t do so in a jerky or self-centered manner. The entire family bonds over their comical adventures and is stronger at the end of it. The end credit scenes also reward viewers with a snippet of the main heel from Paddington 2 that reminds us why the series is so beloved.

Paddington 3 is a family movie. It’s not a children’s movie because it’s smarter than what you expect when something is described as “a children’s movie.” It also doesn’t have the same crossover as one of the Pixar movies that you might think it’s in league with. This requires more patience and doesn’t have the same madcap humor traditional upper-elementary ages are accustomed to. That is a good thing. Again, it’s not a great thing, it’s a good thing.

Is it better to have a joke that resonates with a majority of the crowd, but isn’t that clever, or a very sublime joke that is very clever, but isn’t caught by a majority of the audience? In a way, this is an unfair and incorrect comparession to Paddington 3 because it will connect with audiences. It’s so well made that, as a parent you want people to take away the joy and the fun that the film provides.  As the fake-out ending of the film was happening I thought to myself how many great stories Paddington could tell. To end the movies on a trilogy, just because that’s the way movies are done, would be unfortunate for younger audiences to come.

If you have children aged eight to 12, Paddington 3 is for you, see it in theaters. If you have a family that likes to have fun and doesn’t place bookmarks on its packaging, you’ll enjoy it. It’s unfair to compare it to its predecessor, and even when looked at as an individual movie, Paddington 3 is enjoyable and reminds us about how good a family can be.

Paddington 3 is rated PG for age-appropriate danger and thrills.

Bad Badger: A Unique Friendship Story for Young Readers

It’s easy to misinterpret a book; these are interesting times aren’t they? Bad Badger: A Love Story is the sort of emerging reader chapter book that has the potential to be loved, but can also struggle to find its people. At its core, Bad Badger is a sweet story about friendship, but tells the story through a very smart lens with a bigger vocabulary and a more mature, nuanced setting that will reward those who have the patience for it.

Bad Badger: A Love Story is actually one of deep friendship, replete with old-school charm, loving details and chapters for ages 8 and up.
Don’t look for hidden inferences, this is straight up charming

Teaching Resilience: Life Lessons from ‘The Girl Who Figured It Out’

When I teach middle school or high school I sometimes use the phrase “I don’t care” to reply to some students who are making excuses for them or someone else. They don’t speak. I/They never do their work. I/they am not/aren’t smart. After the student is done watering down my expectations I’ll tell them that “I don’t care…about that unrelated issue they were trying to distract me with and that they are capable of doing the simple, age-appropriate task that I’ve asked them to do. There are some students who get momentarily put-off by what they deem as a rude comment, but then they’ll think about it and hopefully internalize that they need to raise the bar of what they can do. The Girl Who Figured It Out got that message, albeit in a kinder, elementary-age package with colorful illustrations and a can-do message about overcoming obstacles that life throws your way.

The Girl Who Figured It Out is inspiring non-fiction that relates to any audience ages six and up.
More youth would benefit from adopting her manta

Bird Girl: Inspiring Young Minds through Nature and Art

Why should students care about the life story about a woman who lived more than a century ago and studied birds? Gene Stratton-Porter is well-known in ornithology, but outside of that arena you probably haven’t heard of her. This is one of the things about well-made illustrated books that make the genre so much more than it appears to be. Bird Girl: Gene Stratton-Porter Shares Her Love of Nature with the World doesn’t break any new ground in regards to the story, even though it’s one young audiences don’t know. At it’s core, the book is about finding your way and exploring what you love. Instead, this is a great book because of the unknown variable (Gene Stratton-Porter) and the illustrations by Rebecca Gibbon that are used to tell her life story.

Bird Girl is an illustrated book about a woman that kids won’t know, but whose topic they’ll love and is in a package they’ll enjoy.
Birds, passion, nature and photography

1001 Silly Would You Rather Questions to Spark Family Fun

I’m a substitute teacher and I was in a tenth-grade class the other day. They had finished the ‘work’  they had to do online and I was attempting to pry additional work out of their surly teen souls. I did get confirmation of needed assignments from one student, but they had already waved the white flag of surrender. It was just an essay on something, they wouldn’t tell me what it was on, but it was a paragraph of original thought that had stressed this student to the point of Tik Tok-removal despair. This brings me to The Ultimate Book of Would You Rather Questions: 1001 Family-Friendly Challenges for Kids, Teens and Adults.

The Ultimate Book of Would You Rather Questions is the silly, fun, left-field, impossible queries that builds friendships and families.
Conversation in the form of questions for kids that don’t want to talk

My Mummy Vs. Your Ghost continues the promise of the Versus Series

Why do middle school students read? A more accurate question to posit would be why don’t middle school students read more? I praise those in sixth-through-eighth grade who willingly read as it’s more commonly done under duress. It’s the kind of torture or discomfort that’s normally reserved for vampires who are shown sunlight as they climb the ceiling like a spider trying to escape its deathly rays. They just want that dark corner of the room, with the squinty whites of their eyes attempting to burn a hole through your conversation-starting soul; before they can revert to their dark, sullen place, much like an early teen. My Mummy Vs. Your Ghost is also known as Versus Series book 2 and manages to pull a Superman 2, Lethal Weapon 2 or The Empire Strikes Back.   

My Mummy Vs. Your Ghost is the second book in The Versus Series by Paul Tobin and cements this series at one of the tops in MGLIT.
This book is awesome. This book series is spectacular

70 Puzzles You’ll Get Wrong: Insights from Puzzle Me Twice

The subtitle to this puzzle book by Alex Bellos is so true. I’m a relatively clever person so I approached each of the set ups in Puzzle Me Twice with, what I thought was, a calm head and a clear mind….and I got most of them incorrect. I rationalized it by saying that they were incorrect because once I read the correct answer I realized my response was too quick. Had I really taken my time the book would have confirmed to me the genius that I think I am. However, in my self-imposed course of humble pie, I jumped in the rabbit hole of Alex Bellos’ other puzzles and have lowered my genius peg down to humble puzzle novice.

Puzzle Me Twice is jammed with 70 deceivingly easy puzzles you’ll get wrong, but have fun doing them.
This is not the bad puzzle book that you seek

Rube Goldberg’s Big Book: STEM Fun for Young Builders

For a children’s concept that’s seemingly so simple, it took me years to understand it. In theory I should love Rube Goldberg. I love books and the idea of engineering, tinkering with things, plus what’s not to love about Rube Goldberg? It’s like steam punk. You’ve rig up everyday objects and arrange them so that their energy will make an impact on something, like opening a door or squeezing toothpaste out of the tube.  It’s a simple act made needlessly, but entertainingly, complex. Rube Goldberg’s Big Book of Building solves the issue that I had with the process on the very first page.

It took Rube Goldberg’s Big Book of Building to finally get it through to me how it works. This oversized, reference book is funny and loaded with can-do, simple machines for all ages.
It’s rubetactular and done with things that already have in the house
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