Tips for Tuesday- Books: The Last House on the Street & Movie: Hotel Transylvania: Transformania

We may have been given complimentary copies of any books and/or other products mentioned below for review purposes and/or access to any audio or visual media mentioned. Any and all opinions expressed here are our own.

Books: The Last House on the Street

Today we are recommending The Last House on the Street by Diane Chamberlin. Although Ellie was raised to be a proper southern girl, she wanted to do something more meaningful than that so despite the displeasure of her friends and family, she chose to spend the summer helping to register black voters. There she met a young black man named Win, and it changed Ellie forever. What happened that summer has repercussions years later when Kayla, the daughter of Ellie's former boyfriend, Reed, moves down the street from Ellie's childhood home, and someone clearly doesn't want her there. This deeply affecting novel is extremely timely and relevant to so many things that are going on today including tense race relations, attempts to suppress voting rights, and the white supremacy, and  Black Lives Matter movements. It will make you realize how little has changed in the world and how much further we have to go to attain true equality for all. It is a riveting and absolutely gut-wrenching read.

Movie: Hotel Transylvania: Transformania 

Today we are recommending Hotel Transylvania: Transformania. Although many movies series overstay their welcome and later movies in the series just seem to be tired retreads of earlier films that is definitely not the case here. Although the story in the film does bear some similarity to earlier films they are not films in the Hotel Transylvania series nor are they animated films at all, but rather the Freaky Friday films. Still, the film is not a complete retread of those films either but a unique and interesting take on the idea in which characters find themselves in bodies other than their own. However, in this case, Dracula and Johnny don't actually switch bodies. Their bodies just change form. Dracula becomes a human and Johnny becomes a monster. The story and special effects are fun and just interesting enough to keep your attention for the approximately 87 minute running time of the movie.

Hotel Transylvania: Transformania will be available from Amazon Studios on Prime Video globally starting this Friday, January 14. 

And that's our view. Tune in tomorrow for Where-To-Go Wednesday.