(Chosen as the 3rd book to be turned into a movie)
This is classic tale of the miserly Grinch who breaks into the homes of all the residents of Who-ville and steals from them mercilessly on Christmas Eve. He takes their presents, their decorations, and worst of all, the very food from their kitchens, all in an attempt to make Christmas go away. What he discovers after stealing everything is that all the people down in Who-ville get together, hold hands, and sing on Christmas morning anyway. He has a realization that Christmas isn’t about the presents, the food, or the decorations. Christmas is about more than the things you buy. Overcome with emotion, the Grinch decides to give everything back, and for the first time in 53 years, he celebrates Christmas with them.
The movie version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is completely over the top, as one might expect from any film starring Jim Carrey. In his adaptation, The Grinch is a monster who picks on little kids, eats glass, and lives in a dungeon-type lair on top of the mountain. The movie shows how the Grinch came to be, floating down from an umbrella and landing in a tree, and also how he grew up and was teased as a young boy for having a beard.
The original theme of the book, of how Christmas may very well be out of hand and commercialized, but that the true meaning is still there, is portrayed in the movie as well. I feel, however, that they strayed too far from the original story and added in too much that isn’t relevant to that theme.
Also, this will probably not scare children, but it definitely scared me that the narrator of the story is Anthony Hopkins, the voice of the famous fictional serial killer Hannibal Lector.
Geisel, T.S. (1985). How the grinch stole christmas!. New York, NY: Random House.
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