Page 6 March 23, 2017 EL SEGUNDO HERALD Entertainment Check It Out Film Review The Data Set Series: March of the Mini Beasts By Ada Hopper and Space Taxi Series: Archie Takes Flight By Wendy Mass and Michael Brawer Reviewed by Katrena Woodson, Teen and Young Reader Librarian, El Segundo Public Library This week’s review covers two science fiction books geared towards second to fourth grade readers. March of the Mini Beasts is the first book in The Data Set series by Ada Hopper. The main characters are three very intelligent second graders named Gabe, Laura and Cesar. The story gets really interesting when these kids meet Dr. Bunsen, their strange mad scientist neighbor, while they are fundraising for their science club field trip. Dr. Bunsen tries out his growth machine on Gabe’s plastic animals and the results are quite unexpected. The animals come to life! The kids must try and find a way to solve this problem…what can they do with these cute, but fast-growing animals? The story is fast-paced and filled with entertaining dialogue as well as a surplus of appealing drawings. The emphasis of the book is more on the plot than STEM, but the plot is STEM-infused. The story is kid-friendly and sure to capture the interests of young readers and leave them wanting to go on another adventure with Gabe, Laura and Cesar. The second book is by the New York Times bestselling author Wendy Mass and teacher Michael Brawer. Archie Takes Flight is the first installment of the Space Taxi series, an interplanetary science fiction chapter book series. In this book, Archie Morningstar discovers a family secret: His dad is an intergalactic space taxi driver! Archie goes on to fight crime alongside his dad and Pockets the talking cat all across the universe. The plot moves along at an active pace, which is helpful when trying to ensure that newly independent readers stay engaged. As you can probably tell from the title, the adventures are zany and the plot is laced with slapstick humor that make this series such a quick and enjoyable read. Additionally, Mass and Brawer include science facts at the end of each installment of the series that add an educational element to the books Space Taxi Series: Archie Takes Flight by Wendy Mass and Michael Brawer. as well as being a pleasant surprise. Young readers will be left anxiously awaiting their next intergalactic space taxi trip! The El Segundo Public Library offers access to its collection of titles in a variety of formats, including traditional hardback, e-books and books on CD. To check out, The Data Set March of the Mini Beasts by Ada Hopper and Space Taxi Archie Takes Flight by Wendy Mass and Michael Brawer or any other title on your to-read list, please visit the library to apply for your library card, or please contact the reference staff for further assistance. • Go Out and See Horror Satire Get Out By Ryan Rojas for www.cinemacy.com By now you’ve probably heard that the suburbia-horror satire Get Out is worth seeing in theaters, standing as one of the first big movie events of the year. In its fifth week in release, the genre-pic, with a budget of only $4.5 million and a total gross of (as of this writing) just north of $133 million, has found its legs by being a horror movie for the 21st century. Get Out is not only an edge-of-your-seat nutso head-spinning story, but a socially conscious movie that adds to the national conversation of race and safety championed by the Black Lives Matter protesting of post-Obama America. Get Out is written and directed by comedian Jordan Peele, better known as one-half of the comedic duo of Comedy Central’s former hit show Key and Peele (along with partner Keegan-Michael Key). The Universal Pictures release, produced by veteran horror producer Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions (Split, Insidious), has more than connected with audiences--this time being “Certified Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes at 99 percent and opening at a record-setting 100 percent. Get Out follows a typical horror film template, but Peele makes it fresh by slotting the perspective of the current African-American experience of living in a predominantly white middle-class America into the framework, and then corkscrewing that premise into a full-tilt satirical terror. The story of a young man of color (Daniel Kaluuya) meeting his white girlfriend’s (Allison Williams) family for the first time starts out as a movie send-up of the classic meet-the-parents awkwardness before dovetailing into the dread of discovering her family’s possible secret (or secret society) that feels like Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner meets The Stepford Wives. When young photographer Chris (Kaluuya) is brought by Rose (Williams) to meet Daniel Kaluuya and Allison Williams in Get Out. Courtesy of Universal Pictures. her parents at their country estate for the weekend, he asks her if they know that her boyfriend is black—it’s an early temperature reading that sheds light on those things that are still on the forefront of nonwhites’ daily living. Rose lovingly reassures Chris and the two are off to her parents’ house in the backwoods, putting in motion the familiar story of horror movie-isolated helplessness. At Rose’s warning, her neurosurgeon father Dean (Bradley Whitford) and psychotherapist mother Missy (Catherine Keener) only evoke slight cringe-worthy conversations that mildly substantiate Chris’ worries of meeting her all-white family, and it doesn’t help when he notices that the grounds worker and house staff are all African-American (and act a little more than odd). However, the little tensions go fully bonkers when it’s remembered that their weekend stay is also during the annual Armitage family gathering, where an entire drove of upper-class whites drive in for the afternoon and even odder occurrences reveal themselves to a freaked-out Chris, who begins to wise up to the fact that things are definitely not what they seem and that his safety may or may not depend on his “getting out.” It should be said now that Get Out, as was this reviewer’s experience, is best watched with little to zero pre-knowledge of the movie and no knowledge of what you’re in store for (which makes writing a review of the film in which to sell the movie a trick in its own right), as its effect is fully felt in the surprises that come around every corner. What can and should be said about the movie is that while Get Out may technically be Jordan Peele’s first credited feature film (and only his second writing effort next to 2016’s Key and Peele-starrer Keanu), one shouldn’t be surprised that he has executed a vision that so successfully blends all genres--horror, comedy and wickedly welcome surrealism. He cut his teeth arguably making hundreds of original short films with wacky jokes and even wackier characters that made up his Emmy-Award winning television series. Past the early year’s stuffy Oscars season and now with the start of early summer blockbusters, Get Out has proven that it connects with audiences and has tapped into a very real message, both recent racial injustices as well as this country’s history with slavery. It’s an original scary movie that flips a script on the traditional scary set-up and will take you out of your comfort zone in more ways than one. Get Out is now playing everywhere. Rated R for violence, bloody images and language including sexual references. • The Data Set Series: March of the Mini Beasts by Ada Hopper. Katrena Woodson. Visit us online: www.heraldpublications.com
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