Jade Varden Official Blog

The holiday season is a special time of year, and plenty of writers have used that to their advantage. Stories about Santa Claus, believing and the holiday spirit are always going to be popular. But few are destined to gain the sort of love and popularity enjoyed by Miracle on 34th Street , one of my all-time favorites. You've probably seen the movie, but what do you know about the book? The Book Valentine Davies wrote Miracle on 34th Street in 1947, as a companion novelette for the film released the same year. It was actually published by 20th Century Fox, who also made the film, but it's managed to stand on its own and has sold millions of copies. The book introduces readers to Doris Walker, a rather cold career woman who works for Macy's. She's managing personnel for the famous Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and must fire the Santa Claus she's hired at the last minute when he turns up drunk. She hires bystander Kris to take his place, ...

Frances Hodgson Burnett published The Secret Garden as a serial in 1910, and it was an unwise decision. Though this has become one of her most-adapted and popular works, in the beginning Garden was not a hit with audiences. But it's always been one of my favorite books. When it comes to film...well, somehow this story has never translated well to the screen.  The Book But on the page, it's divine. Mary Lennox is not a likeable heroine. She's a spoiled little brat, actually, skinny and mean-faced and even nasty, on occassion. But in truth she's a lonely little girl, and her backstory shows a lot of neglect. It's heart-wrenching to get to know Mary at the beginning of the book, a girl who is "quite contrary." 

Pollyanna is a hundred-year-old book, but it's a classic story that left a mark you can still find in pop culture today. As you may know, Pollyanna has become synonymous with any overly-optimistic person who sees only sunshine no matter how much rain there is, a sheer goody-goody who always has something nice to say. But before it was a term to tease your friends with, it was one of the most memorable literary characters ever to grace a page. The Book Eleanor H. Porter wrote Pollyanna way back in 1913. It became so popular it launched an entire series of "Glad Books," and if you know the character you understand the title.

Petals on the Wind was the first follow-up book to the massively successful Flowers in the Attic . And like its predecessor,  Petals was picked to become a big screen adaptation. It was meant to happen about 25 years ago. It finally will happen this weekend. The Book POTW picks up right where Flowers left off, with the three surviving Dolls on a bus headed south. They plan to go all the way to Florida. They won't ever get there. Carrie is violently sick on the bus, and they're kicked (literally) to the curb. Also on the bus is Henrietta Beech, and though she can't talk she takes matters into her own capable hands.

"The Princess Diaries" is one of those ever-popular Disney movies everyone has seen. It introduced movie star Anne Hathaway to the world, reminded us that Julie Andrews is amazing and spawned a sequel. But before all that, it was the beginning of a 10-book series. The Book Meg Cabot's story revolves around Mia Thermopolis, ninth grader. She lives in Greenwich Village in New York with her single mom, a free-spirited artist. Mia has a crush on senior Josh, and she's pretty normal. Until her dad comes to town to drop a bombshell: he's secretly a prince. Mia is his only child, and the new crown princess of a little country called Genovia.  So she isn't so normal after all. Mia's life becomes even more complicated. Paparazzi show up at school, her mom is dating Mia's Algebra teacher, and she has a big fight with BFF Lily. As if that isn't bad enough, she has to take "princess lessons" with her grandmother (the queen). ...

Haven't we all been fascinated by dinosaurs, at one time or another? I remember that, as a child, I was always very concerned about what happened to them. It caused me great distress that scientists couldn't figure it out exactly. And I remember the very first time I saw Jurassic Park on the big screen. You wouldn't think that reading a book about dinosaurs would be as satisfying as watching them up there, but you'd be wrong. The Book Jurassic Park was a bestseller n 1990, and so popular it became Michael Crichton's signature book. For an author with a career like his, that's really saying something. The story was always destined to become a movie. Crichton originally envisioned it as a screenplay about graduate students who recreate dinosaurs. As the project developed, Crichton tweaked this original idea. As it stands now, the story opens in 1989 after a series of strange attacks on Isla Nublar in Costa Rica. In a different part of the wo...

I only watched the film Precious  once, because it was just so powerful I could never face it again. It's a gut-wrenching look at the life of an underprivileged girl, but before it made Gabourey Sidibe famous it was a book called Push . The Book Push was the debut novel for Sapphire, and she wasn't messing around. The novel focuses on Claireece Precious Jones, 16, who has the deck stacked against her. She's obese, she's illiterate, and it shows. The novel is written in her voice, so at the beginning it can be difficult to read. Saying the words out loud,exactly as they are spelled, helps.

I only recently learned that one of my all-time favorite movies was actually based on a book. It's not my fault for not knowing this; the book is French, and it was written in 1848. But the story itself is timeless. The Book Alexandre Dumas, more famously known for The Three Musketeers , wrote The Lady of the Camellias in 1848, before the United States ever waged its Civil War. The story is so popular, it became a stage adaptation almost immediately. Many film adaptions would follow. The book also inspired the opera La Traviata and a popular Broadway play. According to legend, the main character in the book was based on the real-life lover of Dumas, Marie Duplessis. That character is Marguerite Gautier, a courtesan. In other words, she lives off the kindness of stranger like so many great heroines (think Holly Golightly, in a far different time and place). She is known as the lady of the camellias because she wears white camellias when she is available to her l...

I found out accidentally that Where the Heart Is began its life as a book first. Until I was randomly searching for information on Wikipedia one day, I thought it was just a pretty good Natalie Portman film. Then I learned it's actually a really amazing story. The Book Where the Heart Is , by Billie Letts, was published in 1995. It became a film after Oprah singled it out as a Book Club selection. 

Frances Hodgson Burnett, one of the greatest children's book authors of all time, first conceived of "A Little Princess" way, way back in 1888. It got its lasting title and became a novel in 1905. A few years later, it became an iconic Shirley Temple film. And many years after that, I became familiar with the tale. It's still one of my favorites. The Book A Little Princess was serialized before it became a book. When the story was complete near the turn of the century, it was revised and richer in content. The book follows Sara Crewe, who is 7, as she arrives at Miss Mincin's boarding school in London. Sara is the only child of the well-to-do Captain Crewe. The two have been residing in India, but now it's time to go to school.  She fits in well with the other girls at the school, delighting them with tales of India. They begin calling her "a little princess" because she's ladylike and has lived such a lavish lifestyle. But ...

Groundhog Day is a film that doesn't really fit this category, though it is a movie based on a story...and perhaps it's based on more then one story. Either way, this movie tells a good story. Even if it is the same story over and over and over... The Film If you haven't seen Groundhog Day , I don't even want you to read this post. Go and watch it and then crawl out of that cave you're living in because how ? This movie is a true cult classic and it's earned every single cable broadcast it's ever been given. The amazing Bill Murray stars as weatherman Phil Connors, whose unfortunate duty it is to cover the famed Groundhog Day celebration in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Yes it's a real place and yes, they have a huge festival every year (at Gobbler's Knob) in order to watch a groundhog climb out of his hole. The movie does a fair job of showing this event (despite the fact that the movie was not filmed in Pennsylvania anywhere).

Anyone who follows me on Twitter knows that last night marked the world premiere of Flowers in  the Attic on Lifetime. Fans have been waiting 30 years for a decent adaptation of  this powerful book. Is the wait over?  Wilting  FITA became a bestselling book in the 1980s, so naturally a movie adaptation followed. Despite a strong performance from Louise Fletcher, the film was disliked by critics, fans and  anyone else who read the book. It became infamous for being bad.  Fans were thrilled when Lifetime announced their intentions to do their own adaptation, and I was chief among them. So how  does this new film stack up against the old one? More importantly, how does it compare to the book? In the Attic The movie began with the prologue from FITA, much to my delight. This introduction was changed a little. We found Cathy on film at age 12, not 7, and got thrown into the ill-fated birthday party pretty quickly.  The...

post originally published Saturday, August 11, 2012 When a book is very popular among a large group of readers, filmmakers generally like to take special care with the film adaptation. They consult the author of the work, they read the book themselves, they pay homage to the original material. This isn't what happened when Flowers in the Attic was transformed from a YA horror book that struck a strong note with teen girls...into 93 minutes of on-screen swill that you can't ever get back. Cringe if you like, but that description really isn't harsh enough for one of the worst book-to-film adaptations in the known world.   The Book Full disclosure: I'm a little biased. Flowers in the Attic is actually a very special book to me, as it inspired me to become a writer (the jury's still out on whether or not I am). It was written before I was born and published in 1979 by V. C. Andrews, known to friends and famil...

Unless you've come here from the planet Twilar, you've at least heard of The Princess Bride . And if you're like most people, you've seen the movie at least 10 times. After all, doesn't it come on cable like every day? But before it was a movie that everyone can quote, it was a book...though its origins still remain a mystery to many. The Book William Goldman wrote The Princess Bride in 1973, and the world was for ever changed. Now, the origins of the book are shrouded in mystery because Goldman is quite the jokester. At the top of the book he explains that it's an abridgment of The Princess Bride by S. Morgenstern, which does not exist. Morgenstern did not exist, either, until Goldman himself wrote a novel under this pseudonym (presumably to further his joke).

Susanna Kaysen published Girl, Interrupted in 1993. The book is based on her own life, experiences she had during the 1960s as a young woman. The best-selling book gained even more fame later in the decade when Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie, among an ensemble cast, made a movie about it. The Book Girl, Interrupted is well-written, but it's a bit hard to follow because it doesn't follow a linear story. The book details Susanna's stay in a mental hospital after receiving a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. She lived for nearly two years at McLean, and later obtained her file from the hospital.  The book is a collection of stories about her life in the hospital and before her admittance. The theme of freedom is a running thread throughout. She was 18 in 1967, a tumultuous time for many people in the United States. She was admitted to the hospital after a suicide attempt, and a stay that was meant to be a couple of weeks extended to 18 mont...

I've seen Doc Hollywood about 15 times, because I've seen every Michael J. Fox movie at least that many times, but this is one of his best. And if you're a fan of Disney movies, then you're probably already familiar with the plot. They've been widely accused of totally ripping it off.  The Book Doc Hollywood became a movie in 1991, but before that it was a book called What? Dead Again? about Dr. Benjamin Stone (Fox). He's going from Miami to LA to complete his residency. But before he can make it across the country, Dr. Stone breaks down in a rural area of Alabama.  That's when things get interesting. The town really needs a doctor, and Stone is compelled to help. What unfolds is a funny and touching story that pokes fun at small town life while still paying homage to it. Shulman is well-qualified to write the story because he is an actual doctor. What? Dead Again? was his second novel, and he's still writing today. But this is his o...

Electric train are a modern symbol of Christmas, so what could be more seasonal than a story about a train that takes kids to the North Pole on Christmas Eve? I'm talking about The Polar Express , of course, and if you've got a TV in December you've probably seen it. But have you read the book?  The Book Chris Van Allsberg wrote and illustrated The Polar Express , which was published in 1985. It's won several awards and it's a highly popular holiday book among kids and parents. If you've seen the movie, you already have a idea of what the illustrations look like.  The story in the book introduces us to a young boy who does not believe in Santa Claus. This begins to change when the Polar Express arrives on his front lawn, all set to take him to the North Pole. The Film The Polar Express finally became a film in 2004. The project had big names attached to it early (Tom Hanks, Robert Zemeckis), so it was pretty much a guaranteed hit. Li...

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is one of my favorite Christmas stories. I've read the book many, many times. But I balked at featuring this story as a Book on Film...because every adaptation I've seen has been worse than the one before.  The Book Barbara Robinson wrote a completely iconic holiday tale when she penned The Best Christmas Pageant Ever . It has all the right themes, a compelling cast of characters and so much humor it's impossible not to laugh the whole way through.  The story is told through the eyes of someone who isn't exactly a featured player, which is one of the things I find most compelling. You see, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is actually about the Herdman kids, but we're hearing about this from someone else who is only observing them. That makes me feel more like I'm there, watching it all unfold. It's just the first thing I love about this book.  The Herdman kids, by the way, are the worst kids in the wo...

 Rudolph is probably the most popular reindeer in Christmas culture. He's the only one with his own song, and it's a pretty popular one, to boot. You can't get through the holiday season without seeing Rudolph's special on TV or hearing his song. But both were actually based on a book. And here's the surprising part: Rudolph isn't even 100 years old yet. The Book Rudolph wasn't even a part of Christmas until 1939. The original story was written by Robert L. May, and today his little tale of a red-nose reindeer has become a part of the holiday celebrations around the globe. Pretty heady stuff, right?

It only takes four words to get me excited about a film: Tim Allen holiday movie. Even if he's not putting on the big red suit, I'm totally there. So I've seen Christmas with the Kranks like 8 times. What I just discovered recently is that it's a story...and it was written by John Grisham! The Book To be technical, the book is called Skipping Christmas . The title was changed for film; no one knows why. But in story form, this one's about Luther and Nora Krank. And yes, it was always written as a funny story. It became a bestseller when it was released during the holiday season of 2001.