Raimi to Direct Wee Free Men

Yep, the Spiderman director is going to direct a movie from the work of one of my very most favorite authors, Terry Pratchett. I'm very happy for Terry (at least I think I should be because I would hope this is lucrative in a number of ways for him) and hope the movie doesn't end up a complete disappointment.

Wee Free Men is the book that's going to be made into a movie. It's a YA book but I couldn't put it down and I also waited with great anticipation for the sequel, A Hat Full of Sky. One doesn't have to be fully acquainted with the Discworld series to appreciate these books, which makes perfect sense since at the target age the readers may not have read those. They are charming stories about a girl, Tiffany Aching, and her journey of self-discovery. She is accompanied on her journey by the Pictsies, aka the Nac Mac Feegle. You can get a wee flavor of the kind of folk the Nac Mac Feegle are by knowing that one of them is named No'-as-big-as-Medium-Sized-Jock-but -bigger-than-Wee-Jock Jock and the following list of sayings (courtesy of Wikipedia)

There can only be one t'housand!!

They can tak' oour lives but they cannae tak' oour troousers!

Ye'll tak' the high road an' I'll tak' yer wallet!

Nae king! Nae quin! Nae laird! Nae master! We willnae be fooled again!

While phonetically rendered dialect is usually a real turn off for me in the case of the Nac Mac Feegle it's essential to the story. You can't really get them unless you can imagine hearing them speak. If you're looking for fun, light reading and perhaps have a niece or know a young girl around 10 or 11 who maybe isn't quite fitting in grab a copy, read it and then pass it along.

TGIF, friends. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Dawno, Discworld, Terry Pratchett, Nac Mac Feegle