Staff Picks Blog

Last week I had the privilege of attending the Public Library Association 2008 conference with other staff from ICPL as well as over 6,000 librarians from around the country.  It was a remarkable meeting and I believe we all benefited from the new ideas presented.  One of the highlights was attending a premiere of the new movie, Nim’s Island, based on a book by Wendy Orr.  Nim’s Island, directed by Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin, opens in theaters on April 4. 

The premiere was very exciting.  We surrendered our cell phones (they were worried we would film the movie on our cell phones and post it on YouTube) and went through a security check.  There were guards posted at the front of the theatre to assure that nobody was covertly filming the movie.  The author, Wendy Orr, was in the audience with us, although we did not know this until the end.  It felt a lot like I would imagine a Hollywood premiere would be, except we were in Minneapolis and Librarians generally don’t wear fancy clothes …

Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) stars as Nim Rusoe, an independent adolescent who lives on a remote island with her father, scientist Jack Rusoe (Gerard Butler).  Nim and Jack will not tell others where their island is because they don’t want the outside world to ruin their South Pacific haven.  Nim loves adventure stories about Alex Rover, written by the reclusive author Alexandra Rover (Jodie Foster).  A series of eMails connect Nim and Alexandra and together they must face and overcome their worst fears.

The movie was wonderful and I highly recommend it!  I’m planning to take the kids and go see it again this weekend.  I also purchased the book Nim’s Island and Wendy Orr’s new book, Nim At Sea, and am anxious to read both.  ~~Enjoy~~