I ran across this book at my parents' home. It came highly recommended to me by my mother and sister, whose opinions I so often agree with. And since it was written by the author of the immensely fun Cinderella retelling, "Ella Enchanted," I had to read it.

It's the story of always-in-trouble Dave, whose father dies and who is left by his step-mother at the Hebrew Home for Boys, where strict rules and a battering bully of a headmaster make life miserable. Dave, at night, escapes to Harlem (in the 1920s) where adventures ensue.

This is a must have.

I first heard Nickel Creek when they were guests on Prarie Home Companion on public radio. I like acoustic strings to begin with (the group consists of violin/fiddle, guitar, mandolin, string bass, and vocals) and their bluegrass folk sound.

My sister, whose musical tastes overlap mine considerably, let me borrow her Nickel Creek CD. I'm addicted! I love the instrumentals and the vocal selections. I didn't want to have to return her CD. Fortunately for me, we worked out an arrangement whereby she gave me the CD in exchange for my picking her up from the airport in Las Vegas when she gets back from her trip to Colorado later this month (February 2001). I think I got the better end of the bargain.

My favorite vocal tracks are probably track #2 (The Lighthouse's Tale), #5 (Reasons Why), and #11 (The Fox).

These guys are good! Nearly perfect, in fact. I'll give 'em a 4.5 out of 5.

This is another Bill Murray laugh fest! While not quite as funny as 'Groundhog Day', it nevertheless delivered a good chuckle rather often.

On DVD the soundtrack is incredible. I love the title background music a lot. I admit, this was only the sixth DVD to enter my meager collection, so maybe I'm still just not used to the clarity of DVD Dolby AC-3 5.1 sound. This was the first DVD (or movie for that matter) that I purchased over the Internet from Reel.com (of course!).

[Since I first wrote the above paragraph in 1998, my collection has grown and can no longer be called "meager" and I'm not nearly so enamoured with the clarity of Dolby Digital sound that I rave over it. In fact, I've since become rather jaded to it and wouldn't mind improved audio since the compression AC-3 uses is not perfect and is not quite CD quality. I still like the opening credits theme song, though.]

I give this move a 3 1/2. It is worth owning. I will certainly watch it again. And again.