This past winter, Frozen, was the hit of the theaters. Everyone saw it, and I’m pretty sure everyone loved it. This is one of those movies you can’t see just once, and I know for a fact that we aren’t the only family who has seen it more than once – and bought the DVD the day it came out. You can’t watch movies every day, however, which is where Frozen: The Junior Novelization comes in handy.
The junior novelizations are some of the wee ones’ favorite books. It takes their favorite movies and makes them into bite size version of just over 100 pages that retell the movie so they can relive it over and over even when I’ve said no to watching the actual movie. The junior novelizations are fairly faithful to the stories with the same characters, scenes, and dialogue – which makes it easier for younger children to read the books if they are already familiar with the story, as well as a great way to get introduced to a movie before you’ve seen it.
Generally, we get and read junior novelizations before movies we’re excited about are released, but I’m finding that with Frozen, it doesn’t matter that we own the DVD. The wee ones are thrilled to pick up the book and read it or to page through it to find a favorite scene. They’ve even sat down with the book in hand while watching the movie, turning pages just like I used to do with my read along record player books.
The great thing about this is that although the language doesn’t tend to be overly advanced, it does help associate new words with their meanings. While they saw a huge lake or pond, before they read the junior novelization, they didn’t realize that it was a fjord – although I did have to correct their pronunciation of the word. Other words, like “grog” are defined within the book, making it approachable for those who aren’t the most confident readers.
With relatively short chapters, this is a great book to read aloud with your family and enjoy it together, something I personally love to do. The junior novelization also includes gorgeous stills from the movie in the center of the book that show some of the key scenes along with captions describing exactly what is happening to help bring to life the book for those one or two children who haven’t yet seen the movie before reading the book.
Written by Michelle who actually heard the songs from the movie “Frozen” each time she came to a scene that described the music. Fortunately, she still has her sanity – we think. You can check on her blog Honest & Truly! to make sure, and follow along with her on Twitter where she is also @HonestAndTruly.