JANE AND THE DRAGONWay back in 1988 at the Bologna Book fair I acquired for Scholastic from Walker Books the New Zealand and Australian rights in Martin Baynton's delightful book, Jane and the Dragon.
Last Saturday night Annie and I watched the TV adaptation of Jane and the Dragon, the New Zealand premiere, on TV2 at 5.30pm and were absolutely enchanted. This Weta Workshop's first TV series and we were greatly impressed.
Rebecca Barry writing in the New Zealand Herald last week had this to say about the making of the programme.
Martin and I have been friends since 1988 and although his life with Weta Workshop means he is pretty much constantly travelling internationally I did manage to catch up with him for a coffee last week when he told what a huge project Jane had become and how she had occupied his every waking moment for the past three years. She even has her own website where kids have the opportunity to put questions to him. I noticed too that on Googling Jane and the Dragon there were over 1.5 million sites available !!
Here is the Wikipedia site. And here is the Weta Workshop's site.
Jane and the Dragon is published by Walker Books as is Jane and the Magician, and The Dragon's Purpose. Several new titles created to tie -in with the TV series will be published later in the year.
Jane has arrived in a very big way. Congratulations to Martin and all those clever people at Weta Workshop.
For more on Martin Baynton and his many other titles go to the NZ Book Council website or the Wikipedia website
1 comment:
Jane and the Dragon is a fantastic little book on feminist empowerment. The best part being that it doesn't enforce its opinions on people but rather teaches and guides you in a way that is subtle and graceful.
Jane always and only dreamt of being a knight. Though all her schoolmates laughed at her, she was consistent and strong and believed in herself. Her only friend is the royal court jester who even goes ahead and lends her his armor. One day, the prince is taken by a dragon and off is our little heroine on a mission to rescue the prince. Hats off to Martin Baynton for altering the typecast roles of girls in fairy tales. Every mother better buy this for their little daughters (to learn from) and their little boys (to show respect to girls).
Now, will someone make a beautifully detailed movie of Beyond This Point There Be Dragons (http://www.beyondthispointtherebedragons.com/thebook.htm).
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