Intro Hi everyone! Welcome to Books Between - a podcast for teachers, parents, librarians, and you! Thanks for joining us today! This is a show all about middle grade books, and raising enthusiastic readers.   I am Corrina Allen. I’ve been teaching for over 13 years mainly grades 5 and 6. And I am a mother of two girls. And we just celebrated my oldests 10th birthday this weekend. She got her ears pierced and I had an amazing FAIL attempting to make a pink and blue checkerboard cake for her. Pictures are on Twitter if you want to see the carnage. All I gotta say is that Wegmans came through in the clutch with an amazing vanilla whipped cream cannoli filled caked. This is Episode #20 and today we are discussing the new Beauty & the Beast live action movie and featuring two brand new sweet contemporary fiction novels. Announcement - Book Drive But first, I have a quick announcement and an opportunity to do something really kind. Some of you may have heard the story about the Pleasant Run Elementary robotics team called the PantherBots. They were competing at their district's high school among a bunch of other schools and got first place. And during the competition and after the challenge as they were leaving and in the parking lot, this group of 9 and 10 year olds and their families, were told “Go back to Mexico” and subjected to other racist comments. Two of the kids are African-American and three are Latino. So - the reason that I am bringing this to our attention is that author Shannon Hale is calling for a book drive in support of the team and the school. I’ll link to her page  directly, if you want more details, but let me read to you her request: Hey friends! Like me, many of you were horrified by this news report: We want to show love for this school and their outstanding robotics team in the form of a book drive. This is a Title 1 school with a very diverse population. Authors, you can sign books to Pleasant Run. Anyone else who can donate is much appreciated! Picture books, early readers, chapter books, and middle grade books most welcome, especially those written by and featuring people of color. Also early readers in Spanish would be a bonus as they have a dual immersion language program for some kindergarten classes. Mail books to: Pleasant Run Elementary 1800 N Franklin Rd Indianapolis, IN 46219 If you have books more appropriate for middle or high school, this diverse district would love those too! And then Shannon lists their address which again, I will link to for you. I saw that and I knew that you all would want to help. Maybe you have a book on your desk or bookshelf right now that you could spare. Hey - send it media mail - it’s cheap. For a couple of bucks you can let this community know that they are supported, we have their back, and do something tangible to bend that arc toward justice. So, I’m going to get on that this week and mail out some awesome books, and I hope you will, too.   Main Topic - Beauty & the Beast Today I’ll be giving a brief overview and review of the new live-action version of the familiar fairy tale, listing a few other versions middle grade readers might want to check out, and discussing some ways you could do some analysis and comparing with your kids and students.   Have you ever been to a Movie Tavern? They recently opened one up near us and it is decadently wonderful. You can have a full meal, maybe a cocktail (I personally like the milkshakes), and enjoy a movie while you relax in a recliner. It is everything that is wrong and right with America.   Anyway - my mother treated myself and my sister-in-law and my kids to a girls’ brunch and Beauty and the Beast viewing last weekend, and I thought I’d let you all know how it is. I’m making the assumption that you’re familiar with the story so expect a couple plot spoilers.   First off, I do want to acknowledge that the Beauty & the Beast story is - shall we say “problematic”?  I enjoyed the Disney version when it came out when I was