Enola Holmes: Page and Screen

If watching Stranger Things made you a fan of  Millie Bobby Brown, if you love rebellious female heroines, or if you devour all things Sherlock Holmes, then Enola Holmes may be the character for you. A film adaptation centered on Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes’ younger sister is now available on Netflix, so there’s no better time to discover the mystery book series by Nancy Springer.

The series is six books in all, starting with The Case of the Missing Marquess, first published in 2006. As in the recent film, the book’s action starts when Enola discovers her mother is missing. It’s up to her to travel to London and find her, while solving a few other mysteries and avoiding her older brothers at the same time.

I am excited about this series and its film adaptation for a number of reasons. Nancy Springer wrote some of my most favorite books when I was younger, full of fascinating, sympathetic characters, plenty of action and humor, and covering a wide range of genres and situations. Secondly, I am a self-confessed Anglophile, and I love the Sherlock Holmes character and universe. Throw in a spunky, clever, determined heroine, and I am 100% on board. The fact that the Enola character is played in the film by Millie Bobby Brown, whom I love in Stranger Things, is just a bonus. If you like mysteries, historical fiction, and comparing books to their film adaptations, I definitely recommend you check out the Enola Holmes series by Nancy Springer.

A Day In The Life of Marlon Bundo

Every once in awhile, you come across a book that is not only well-written, but that had the potential to be revolutionary. A Day In The Life of Marlon Bundo is one of those books, especially because it is a bold, humorous, and heartening tribute to “any bunny who has ever felt different”.  Similarly, it is also a jab at the “Stink Bugs” of the world who don’t understand how others can lead lives unlike their own.  Check out this video of the reading, too!!

Most appropriately, this book is hot-off-the-press and just in time to hit the shelves for Pride Month, a national observance during the month of June. I am proud to work in a public institution that not only celebrates but encourages people to learn about and embrace people whose lives look differently from theirown. This wonderful book acknowledges and honors the LGBTQA community and its allies through recognizing same-sex marriages as legitimate and valid, in spite of  public figures and politicians who use their platform to discourage them.

In short, Marlon Bundo is a hula-hooping male rabbit who happens to favor the company of Wesley, another male rabbit. Marlon Bundo also lives with his Grandpa — the Vice President–who happens to be Mike Pence,  the current Vice President of the United States. When Marlon Bundo and Wesley decide that they would like to marry,  they are scornfully told that their relationship would not be recognized by law or by “The Stink Bug”, who is depicted as a lead decision-maker who is “In Charge” although he is “very stinky.” The Stink Bug tries to proclaim that “Boy Bunnies Have to Marry Girl Bunnies”; but Marlon Bundo and Wesley knew differently, that the Stink Bug’s vision is simply near-sighted and skewed.  To the astonishment of Marlon Bundo and Wesley, many of their peers come forward and begin to share how they are different from what the Stink Bug says is “normal.”  For example, Pumpernickel, the badger, eats his sandwiches crust-first while a hedgehog, Dill Prickle, reads the end of the book before the beginning!

By the end of the book, the community votes and agrees that two male rabbits should be able to marry if they love each other and want to spend their lives together because, essentially, “it doesn’t matter if you love a girl bunny or a boy bunny, or eat your sandwich backward or forward” as “stink bugs are temporary” and “Love is forever.”

Authors Marlon Bundo and Jill Twiss have written an important book that acknowledges and celebrates our differences.