Top Shelf

Have you seen the trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince? Looks like lots of special effects and action. The movie comes out July 15. I’ll be there – will you?

This trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will be running before showings of Twilight this weekend. Enjoy!

Jen Robinson’s Book Page blog reviews the fourth and final book in the City of Ember series, The Diamond of Darkhold by Jeanne Du Prau. Sounds like another book that I need to put on my “to read” list!

Other books in this series are: The City of Ember (of course), The People of Sparks, and The Prophet of Yonwood.

Oh, and it you’re a fan of these books – there is a movie in the works, scheduled to be released October 2008. Watch the trailer here.

The Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer has become a teen phenomenon. With a movie version coming out in December and the next and final installment, Breaking Dawn, set to debut in 10 days, Twilight fever is everywhere!

Last week’s Entertainment Weekly cover story called author Stephenie Meyer the “next J.K. Rowling” and featured the cast of the new movie. EW.com’s top feature of the day is a sneak peek at Chapter One of Breaking Dawn.

Somehow I don’t think the movie version will live up to the novel, but I’ll let you judge for yourself. Watch the trailers here.

Wow – I’m finding all kinds of stuff about popular books that are being made into movies today! USAToday has a first look at Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, due in theaters Nov. 21…

A movie version of Cirque du Freak, a popular series of books by Darren Shan, is currently filming. It stars Willem Dafoe, John C. Reilly and Salma Hayak. No release date has been set yet, but firstshowing.net says that it should be out in late 2008. Here’s a still from the movie:

Looks like The Tale of Despereaux, Kate Dicamillo’s sweet Newbery Award winner, has been turned into another slapsticky cartoon. This is not the Despereaux I remember. See what you think – watch the trailer here. Or better yet – do yourself a favor and read the book instead.

SLJ reports that The Invention of Hugo Cabret, the Caldecott winning book by Brian Selznick, will be coming to a theater near you – maybe by Christmas 2009! The screenplay will be written by John Logan (Sweeney Todd, The Aviator, Gladiator) and the film will be directed by Chris Wedge (Ice Age, Robots), making his live-action directing debut. Brian Selznick was in Dallas earlier this month for the Dallas Museum of Art’s BooksmART program. Read more about that event and what he had to say about the upcoming movie here.