A Brief History On September 14, 2008, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins was published by Scholastic Press. Digging Deeper This initial novel about a dystopian American/North American future is only one of many such works of fictional dystopian futures, but while this particular genre of novel has long captivated Americans and other readers, the Hunger Games franchise spawned four other novels in the same literary universe, sequels Catching Fire and Mockingjay, and two prequels, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and the 2025 release, Sunrise at the Reaping.. Excellent novels all, not surprisingly each of the first four novels in…
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A Brief History On July 8, 2025, Hour of the Pumpkin Queen: Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas by Megan Shepherd was published by Random House/Disney, a sequel to the popular novel, Long Live the Pumpkin Queen: Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. Digging Deeper After recently seeing the uprated version of the iconic film, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, we were anxious to read the novels that continue the tale from the perspective of Sally, who becomes the Pumpkin Queen. Having thoroughly enjoyed the first Sally book, Long Live the Pumpkin Queen:, we were eagerly awaiting the second Sally…
A Brief History On July 1, 2025, Long Live the Pumpkin Queen: Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas – The Graphic Novel by Liz Marsham was published by Disney Press, an adaptation of the popular novel, Long Live the Pumpkin Queen: Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. Digging Deeper Obviously, the story we enjoyed in the novel is the same in the graphic novel version, and since we found the story in the novel to be highly entertaining the same analysis remains true for the graphic novel. In fact, the graphic novel version flows smoothly much like a regular novel, with appropriate…
A Brief History On August 17, 1945, George Orwell published his novella, Animal Farm, a cautionary tale that amounts to “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss!” An allegory about the siren song of communism, Animal Farm was proven right when almost all the communist countries in the world reverted to at least somewhat of a market system. Digging Deeper Other authors have foretold the future, such as Jules Verne with his tales of submarines and space travel. Orwell himself struck again with Nineteen Eighty-Four in 1949, forecasting our descent into universal surveillance of the population and the…
A Brief History On August 2, 2022, Long Live the Pumpkin Queen: Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas by Shea Ernshaw was published by Disney Press, a sort of sequel to the popular Tim Burton movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas. Digging Deeper The story is told from the perspective of Sally, a rag doll that marries Jack Skellington, aka The Pumpkin King, thus becoming the queen of Halloween Town, a title and job she is not too sure she either wants or can handle. The story takes Sally out of what she believes is her native Halloween Town to other…