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EL SEGUNDO HERALD August 16, 2018 Page 9
The Explorer:Skate Kitchen Brings Female Focus Katherine Rundell
Reviewed by Katrena Woodson,
Teen and Young Reader Librarian,
El Segundo Public Library
This week, I chose to review The Explorer
by Katherine Rundell. Rundell is an awardwinning
author who is supremely talented
at conjuring a sense of place in her novels.
In this novel, that place just happens to be
a lush Amazon rainforest. Due to Rundell’s
rich and extremely descriptive prose, readers
will find themselves effortlessly transported
into the Amazon where it is possible to
do extraordinary things such as swimming
with river dolphins, eating a tarantula and
discovering a ruined city.
The reader is sent plummeting into the
Amazon rainforest right alongside the four
children who serve as the main characters of
the book due to the crash landing of the plane
on which they were traveling. The children
are stranded in the wilderness, alone and at
the mercy of the jungle after the pilot dies
of a heart attack. The action and adventure
doesn’t stop there! Around every corner,
there is some new danger or challenge for
the children to try and overcome. When
the children discover a map, they begin to
think that they are not the first humans to
have been there.
The story is set in the early 20th Century,
which means the absence of most things we
would consider to be modern technology. The
absence of such technology adds a sense of
timelessness to the novel. The four children
embark on an epic journey of self-discovery
as they traverse the rainforest and find the
bravery as well as ingenuity they need to
survive. But this book is not only a gripping
survival story. It is also a tale of the resilience
and tenacity of the human spirit filled with
hope, love and courage. This book is perfect
for fifth through eighth grade students who
are looking for a thrilling tale of adventure
and exploration.
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 Explorer by Katherine Rundell, 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. •
Entertainment
Film Review Check It Out
The Explorer by Katherine Rundell.
Katrena Woodson.
to World of Skateboarding
By Morgan Rojas
for www.cinemacy.com
In director Crystal Moselle’s highly anticipated
sophomore film, the fierce young females
of Skate Kitchen show that heroes come in all
shapes and sizes, ethnicities and ages. Known
in real life as skateboarding collective “The
Skate Kitchen,” these newcomers to the big
screen take commanding roles that champion
not just women, but women skaters who are able
to kick-flip boards as easily as they kick butt.
Growing up in the New Jersey suburbs with
her single mother and no close friends, Camille
(Rachelle Vinberg) is a lone wolf searching for
a community of like-minded chicks to skate
and hang with every day. When she stumbles
upon an Instagram profile called “The Skate
Kitchen” –an all-girl skater group – Camille
is intrigued: they are all talented, tough and
only a short distance away. She leaves her
hometown for the unknown skate parks of New
York City’s lower east side and is immediately
enamored with the girls of “The Skate Kitchen,”
as each has her own vibrant style. Camille
feels right at home with her new chosen family
and the girls proceed to skate around the city,
experiencing the highs and lows that make up
budding female relationships.
With her second feature film, Crystal Moselle
proves that one of her biggest strengths
as a director is her ability to blend into her
surroundings and capture the essences of her
real-life subjects, which she did in 2015’s
award-winning documentary The Wolfpack.
And here, Skate Kitchen feels no different.
While Moselle infuses a loose script into Skate
Kitchen, the strengths of this movie are the
more observational and improvised moments
that straddle the line between documentary
and narrative.
Impressively, where The Wolfpack showed
a group of young brothers claustrophobic
in their apartment-confined existence, here
Moselle is let loose in the city and flexes her
artistry even further, displaying a visual style
that captures the electricity and grittiness of
the concrete jungle bustling with danger and
possibilities. Seen from the point of view of
these young women, there is a high energy
and honesty that especially shine in the skate
sequences and hangout sessions that evoke
feelings of Kids and Lords of Dogtown for
this generation.
However, for all of the aesthetic praise
that Skate Kitchen receives – which is entirely
due – I feel like there are a few missed opportunities
in not developing the story even
further, which ends up largely getting through
by cashing in on its currency of cool. I was
hopeful that Skate Kitchen would set out to
provide more insight and hardships into what
being a female skater is like in the maledominated
sport of skateboarding. We do see
moments like this, such as when the girls’ spots
get overtaken by the boys at the skate park,
but more personal moments of womanhood
feel awkward and out of place (for example,
a hangout that turns into the girls discussing
their menstruation cycles feels weirdly slotted
into the movie).
That said, it’s undeniable that Moselle has a
magic touch when it comes to finding the subjects
for her films. Just as she struck cinematic
gold when she discovered the Angulo brothers
of The Wolfpack, Skate Kitchen sees Moselle
bring a new set of fresh female talent to the
screen in this energetic and entertaining film.
Skate Kitchen is rated R. 100 minutes.
Opening this Friday at ArcLight Hollywood. •
Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Morgan Rojas.
“Skateboarding is a poetry of motion.”
– Stevie Williams