2023 Media

Review of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (Movie VS Book)

By Audrey Lorenz

Warning: Spoiler alert!

My name is Audrey, and I love the Hunger Games. I have read all of the books and watched all the movies. I look at Hunger Games memes and I was Katniss Everdeen for Halloween in 2023. Naturally, I was excited to read The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes- and THRILLED when I heard the movie was coming out. Without further ado, here is my evaluation...

BOOK

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a great book - if not the best book- in the series.

To those who are unfamiliar with it, Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is the 'origin story' of President Coriolanus Snow, the villain/antagonist of the Hunger Games series. This story takes place 64 years before Katniss Everdeen is born, and young Snow is about to graduate high school at 'The Academy', where he is covering that his once wealthy family has been reduced to poverty. He, his older cousin Tigris, and his “Grandma’am” are barely scraping by, which meant that he jumped at the chance to be a mentor in the Hunger Games (assisting the children from the districts to help them win the Games) for the monetary prize that could help him take care of his family and go to university. He is assigned the girl from district 12, whose name is Lucy Gray. They fall in love, so he cheats to help her win. Then, he is sent to be a “Peacekeeper” (My Dad calls them stormtrooper wannabes because of their uniforms and what they do) in the districts, and he chooses 12 to see if the gamemakers let Lucy Gray live after they both cheated. She lives, and they are in a relationship until her district 12 past starts to come back, and Coriolanus starts to turn to the “dark side’’ (second star wars reference).

The main literary devices in this book are inner thinking (Snow is always manipulating people and hardly ever says what’s on his mind) and symbolism (Lucy Gray is a songbird because of her singing and survival instincts, and Snow is a snake, because of his dishonesty).

I thought that the book also explains background characters like Tigris (whom you might remember from the movies) well and discusses human nature. The ending was slightly confusing, but much clearer than the movie ending. That still knocks down a star though, so:

My rating is 4 out of 5.

MOVIE

The movie of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes had both pros and cons. I will skip the summary because it is basically the same story as the book, and I’m just reviewing the way the story is told.

Casting and Acting: The movie had pretty great casting and acting! Rachel Zeglar played Lucy Gray and her voice is fantastic, and Tom Blyth was Coriolanus. Peter Dinklage was Dean Highbottom, and Viola Davis played Dr. Gaul, the villain.

Songs: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes isn’t a musical, but a couple of musician characters sing through the duration of the film. I especially loved when Lucy Gray sang “The Old Therebefore” in the arena, because it was a powerful performance and she sang very well.

Storyline: I found that the story was a bit unclear towards the end, and if you had not watched the other films and read the other books you would be confused. I felt like they left out some important parts of the story as well, like when Coriolanus is stuck in the cage at the zoo with the District children. They do get some things right, like what happens in the arena was very accurate and the epilogue is great. You also definitely understand why Snow hates Katniss so much if you read the books: He hates her because she reminds him of his old flame Lucy Gray.

Visual Effects and Set Design: The visual effects were pretty good, especially the snakes in the arena (which is no small feat). Also, the set of the arena is well made and accurate, although Dr. Gaul’s lab looked very different than I imagined it to be. District 12 was very industrial compared the original movies, but I did like the propaganda posters and the factory backgrounds that were almost definitely visual effects. Overall, pretty good.

In the end, I would give the movie 3 out of 5 stars mostly because my expectations were very high and not always met, but I highly recommend you read/watch it for yourself and see what you think. (Just make sure that who you watch it with is not sensitive to violence as the arena is pretty violent). As Katniss Everdeen would say, “Thank you for your consideration.”

If you are are curious, here is what is what some other sources though about the movie:

Rotten Tomatoes (rating site): 63% fresh, 37% rotten

Common Sense Media: 3 stars

My brother: 3 stars (“The plot was cool and and I think they should make another one." -Dylan Lorenz. Also, “It was scary and I felt bad for the kids."-Dylan Lorenz)

My Dad: 3 stars (“It exceeded my low expectations.”-Eric Lorenz)

My Mom: 3.5 stars (“3.5 is good.”)

Ms. Kim's Favorite Recent Read:

That's Not My Name

by Megan Lally

A Review by Kimberly Nazario-Markus

Are you a true crime junkie? Or do you just really like a good mystery? Either way, you'll enjoy this book.

I picked this up at Barnes & Noble one day out of pure curiosity. I like to shop in the YA section (since it's my favorite), but I rarely see interesting mysteries like this. I also just really like the song of the same name by the Ting Tings, so I thought this would be a fun read.

Boy, oh boy... you think you know what you're getting into when you start the book, but you really don't. You don't know anything, really. This was difficult to put down. I would be in the middle of teaching a lesson, and all I could think was, "I wonder what's going to happen next."

The premise of the book is that a young girl in a small, quiet town goes missing. Her boyfriend is suspected of being the murderer. He's on the hunt to find her... but meanwhile, a father is trying to find his daughter. That's all I will reveal.

The story is a wild ride from start to finish. The way it is written feels like you could easily picture it as a movie. Honestly, I hope it becomes a movie. The end will punch you in the face and make you cry.

Overall, I give this a solid 10/10. Highly recommend.

Good pizza, Great pizza

By Kimberly Nazario Markus

In my free time, I like to consider myself an iPad Kid. I love sitting on my bed, legs kicking in the air, playing random cute games on my iPad for hours. I have several games downloaded (mostly cat-related), but I recently came across a fabulous game (that was not cat-related). The game? Good Pizza, Great Pizza.

In this game, you are the owner of a pizza shop in a pizza-obsessed world. The shop across the street has beef with you, much like in Bob's Burgers. He tells you that you can't make good pizza. But he's obviously wrong, because you are a skilled Pizza Master.

Throughout the game, you gain money and pass festivals that allow you to buy new toppings and sauces. Every day begins with a news report provided by the Pizza News Network (PNN), where you learn about how your restaurant is doing and other current events in this Pizza World. The news, as well as some guests, can be incredibly hilarious.The most interesting people come to your shop. A vampire, a homeless man, people who speak in riddles, monks, and more. Speaking of riddles, everyone's order is like a puzzle you must solve. For example, they may something like, “Did you know the ancient Egyptians might have worshiped onions? The sphere shape and concentric rings can symbolize eternal youth.” What this means is that the customer wants an onion pizza. Trust me... they get weirder.

The reason I love this game is not just because of its funny riddles and weird customers, but also because the aesthetic is adorable. It is incredibly satisfying to make the pizzas, visually and sound-wise. Speaking of sounds, the people also speak in an adorable way, which I wish I could mimic for you via text (it's impossible... think like meep mep me me me me).

I highly recommend this game. I am obsessed with it and cannot stop playing. I look forward to getting more and more toppings (I really want to unlock garlic). It is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play. That's all for today. Good Pizza, Great Pizza.

Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza: Recommendation and Review

By Audrey Lorenz, reviewer extraordinaire.

Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza (We’ll call it TacoCat) is an awesome game that was introduced to me in the summer of 2022 by my cousin, June, on vacation. It is a wild, hand-slapping party card game. I recommend it for ages 8+, because you need to be able to handle A: Losing and B: Getting your hand slapped. Between 2-8 people can play at a time.

Here are the rules:

There are 8 different types of cards in TacoCat. The Taco card, the Cat card, the Goat card, the Cheese card, and the Pizza card, plus the 3 “special” Narwhal, Gorilla, and Groundhog cards.

Each player has a stack of cards they cannot look at. The players take turns putting down cards in the middle of the table, picture side up. When you put down the first card you say, “Taco”. If the card is a Taco card (meaning it has a picture of a taco on it), then you slap it. The last person to slap the card takes it. You continue this process in the order of Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, and when the cards match you slap.

This is trickier than it sounds, especially because some of the cards look alike. If someone says “cat” and you slap a goat card, you have to put it in your pile. The goal of the game is to run out of cards first.

If you don’t want to buy it before you try it, I recommend going to the Sip and Play cafe. They have a wide selection of games, bubble tea and snacks.

Book Review: The Girl Who Drank the Moon

A Review by Audrey Lorenz & Lachlan Koechley-Williams

Do you believe starlight is magic? Do you believe a world of power exists that surpasses even your wildest dreams? Then pick up this book.

Genre: Fantasy

Author: Kelly Barnhill

Age range by common scene media: 10+

The Girl Who Drank the Moon, a fantasy by Kelly Barnhill follows a young girl (Luna) as she grows into her ever-strengthening powers one fateful night when an old witch (Xan) enmagicks her as a child. This book includes fantasy, action, love, an excitable adolescent, dragons, philosophy, and the meaning of family. It is about a town surrounded by a benevolent bog where one can make a living collecting bog-medicines and a dangerous forest where the witch lives. Each year the youngest infant in the village is left in the woods to be sacrificed to the witch, with the belief that the witch would punish them if they didn’t. However, they don’t know that the witch is actually kind and saves the children, feeding them starlight which makes them lucky and happy (but certainly not magical) and gives them to families in the village on the other side of the woods. But when Xan feeds one of the babies moonlight instead of starlight, infusing her with powerful and possibly dangerous magic, she decides to raise the child herself and names her Luna. I can’t give too much away, but Luna’s birth mother goes mad with grief, and uses her own magic to try to find Luna. Here are our reviews!

Audrey’s Review: I highly recommend this book to anyone, because even if you think that fantasy is corny or boring or weird, this book will change your mind with its enchanting plot and descriptive language . I read it first when I was about 10 ½, and loved it. It has great imagery, it is often funny, and it has some deeper themes like the meaning of family, the weight of society, and death . I would give this book a 4 ½ out of five stars, only because it has no sequel!

Lachlan’s Review: Like Audrey I highly recommend this for ten year olds or up. However, any younger is stretching it a little. There are some dry parts in the book but, all-around, this book is a piece of gold. It is hilarious, riveting, and you don’t even have to take this from us! You can have it from numerous reviews from adults and kids:

“Wonderful fantasy that will need parental explanation for independent readers.”

“EXCELLENT fantasy with wonderful life lessons. There is some violence but mostly there is the threat of violence, so it may feel more violent to some readers than to others. The author paints pictures with her words, which read like poetry. If your child is going to read this book independently, have a discussion about this in advance and they will enjoy it EVER so much more. The ending of the book made me feel the way I did at the very end of The Chronicles of Narnia. WONDERFUL!!!”

An unnecessary essay on Quacks of Quedlinburg

A Review by Clark Scheihagen

Introduction

Quacks of Quedlinburg is a very fun board game, not about ducks, but about potions. You are a fake doctor (a.k.a. a quack) selling “remedies“ to townspeople. You buy various ingredients that have different effects, and try not to explode by getting too many explodey-berries. In my opinion, this is the best board game, so let me tell you why.

Setup

Place a cauldron-shaped board in front of each player. Put the potion on the silver plate, the rat token in the wooden bowl, a single ruby in the sack, and a droplet token on space 0. Place the scoreboard in the middle, and the flame in the oil lamp with the number 1 on it. Place an envelope flipped to say 0 in the outlines for each player. Place the stack of fortune teller cards out next to the scoreboard. Put the ingredient books out in the sets of your choice. Finally, place the tokens shown in the bottom left of your cauldron in each player's bag.

The Rules

The turn goes as follows. Move the flame to the next oil lamp (except on the first round). When you reach a lamp which has an image on it, you either put the yellow ingredient book out (round 2), put the purple ingredient book out (round 3), or put one white one chip into each player's bag (round 6). Then, draw a fortune teller card. This should be visible to everyone. The purple card goes into effect immediately, while the blue card goes into effect during or after the round. These cards can have many different effects.

After you look at the fortune teller card, you may start drawing. As you go you draw pieces from the bag and put it as far away from your droplet or last piece as the number says. Repeat this until you decide to stop drawing or you explode by drawing more than 7 in total numbers on your white pieces. These are explodey-berries. They are bad and you do not want them in your cauldron. Exploding comes with a penalty, so it's a good idea to stop drawing before you explode.

After all players have stopped or exploded, you go to the evaluation phase. The first step is to see who went the farthest. They roll the victory die, which provides the bonus shown. In case of a tie, all players that are tied roll. The second phase is to evaluate green, black, and purple pieces. Normally, chips have their effect when they are placed, but these chips only go into effect after the round. The next step is to give out rubies. If a player has their last piece before a space with a ruby on it, they receive a ruby. The next step is to evaluate points. The number on the parchment that is after the last chip you placed is how many points you receive; move your token this many spaces forward on the score board.

The next step is the buying phase. The number on the bubble that is on the first space after your last chip is how many coins you get to buy ingredients. Each ingredient has a determined cost, which is listed below the picture of the chip. You can buy up to 2 ingredients and you can not buy multiple of the same color. The penalty for exploding is that you have to choose between coins and points in the evaluation phase, and you don't get to roll the victory die. The next phase is the ruby exchange phase. You can exchange 2 rubies to move your droplet forward one space or refill your flask, which can be used to place the last chip drawn back in your bag (You can only use this for white chips but you wouldn't want to use it for anything else).

The final step is to calculate the rat tails. Rat tails are a very important part of the game. They come into play on the second round and they are determined by how many rat tails there are between your token and the first place token. This acts like a second droplet, and your starting chip is placed in relation to the rat stone instead of the droplet. There is also a different side of the boards, which has test tubes on it. In this variation of the game, you put a droplet on the leftmost test tube. Whenever you have an opportunity to move your droplet, you can also move your test tube droplet. This can give you various bonuses, like rubies, points, and chips. That's all for the rules, so let's move on to the complicated math. Yay.

The Math Part

In Quacks of Quedlinburg, almost every chip has multiple books that have their own rules and effects. Four of these have 2 different books, each with 2 sets, so in total four sets for four ingredients. The black chip has a side for 2 players and a side for 3-4 players, and the orange chip only has one effect (which is nothing). This can make 2,048 combinations of ingredients. But it goes further. If you're playing on the test tube side, this number rises to 4096. But even that isn't all. We're getting into the very big numbers now. If you take into consideration the possible combinations of the 24 fortune teller cards in the 9 rounds, you have 35672555520 possibilities. That's a big number! This is a big reason why I think this is a really good game. There are tons of variations! I also like the fact that it is based on both luck and strategy, as well as the fact that there are tons of possible strategies that work well. I really recommend this game, and you should definitely buy it if you enjoy board games.

(EDIT: I previously did the math for this wrong, and I ended up with a much lower number.)

WHY THE PLANTS VS. ZOMBIES FRANCHISE DIED

By Clark Scheihagen

Intro

You might be familiar with the Plants Vs. Zombies games. These are a series of games where you create a team of plants to fight against the zombies that are invading your town. They were originally very well received, however recently the creators of these games have been getting a lot of backlash from the community. How and why did this happen? What is the future for this franchise? Look no further for these answers.

The Original

In May of 2009, the original PvZ game was released. It was pretty small at first, however, considering how well it was made, it ended up being groundbreaking for the tower defense franchise. The game consisted of around 50 plants, and 5 worlds, each with their own specific gimmick. There's a lot more about this game that I could say, but there is a lot more to talk about.

Pvz2

Between the release of the original game and the sequel, the Plants Vs. Zombies rights, originally owned by PopCap, were bought by Electronic Arts (or EA). This would eventually prove detrimental to the franchise’s success. Pvz2 was arguably better than the first game, but with one major difference. There were now in-game purchases. There are a select group of plants in the game that can be purchased for $5 each, for a total of $85. This was a fairly minimal thing, as the game was èasily beatable with all the plants that you unlock by completing levels. But EA wasn't done. They wanted more.

Garden Warfare

In 2014, the first Garden Warfare game was released. It was a third-person hero shooter, where you would play as one of the eight characters, and out of those eight characters there were lots of variants that would slightly change the character. For instance, the toxic pea made the normal peashooter do toxic damage overtime in exchange for less base damage. In 2016, Garden Warfare 2 was released, which added three more characters to each side and lots of more variants. The game also had a lot more features than the original Garden Warfare, including a story mode, unlockable characters, and many more game modes. This was probably the most well-received game out of all of them, and it has rarely received any major criticism from the community.

Pvz Heroes

Pvz Heroes was also released in 2016, and this marked the downfall of the Pvz franchise. It was riddled with ads and in-game purchases. Many people also felt the game was just a cash grab by EA targeted to younger audiences, seeing how unbalanced the game really is.

Battle for Neighborville

Battle for Neighborville is the most recent installment in the Garden Warfare series released in 2019. You could even argue that this is not a Garden Warfare game at all! This game follows suit with Garden Warfare 2, adding three more characters to the plants and zombies teams. However, this game entirely removed variants, which was the main complaint. Lots of people were also put off by the visual appearance of the game. It looked very different from the previous game, and many did not like this change. This is what upsets many people about the newer Pvz games, they say that they change the visuals for seemingly no reason.

Pvz3

Pvz3 is the most recent game in the series, and probably the least well-received. This game is somewhat of a strange one, never having been officially released. It has been uploaded in various extremely different beta versions, none of which got good reviews. Many people felt that this game had too many unnecessary visual changes. There were also a lot of complaints about how short the levels were and that there were ads after each one. This game really shows that EA no longer cares about what their older fans think, and are instead trying a “cleaner” design to make the games more appealing to children. However, the games would likely have terrible reviews, causing younger kids to be less inclined to install and play the game. Overall, this game really makes it clear why and how the Pvz franchise died.

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