My kids are getting an embarrassing amount of screen time while my spouse and I are working from home. To be fair, my husband and I are getting more screen time by proxy. Our daughter (age 5), husband, and I have some recommendations based on this screen time (our son declined to participate).
Our daughter loves “The Willoughbys” on Netflix, based on the book by Lois Lowry (available on Overdrive). The Willoughby children have parents who love each other so much that there is no love left for them. The kids realize that they will be better off without their parents, so they send them on a very dangerous vacation. Adventures ensue as the children, their nanny, an orphaned baby, and a candy-maker learn what family truly is.
My daughter loves this movie because the children are “so silly and a little bit creepy.” Her favorite part is “when the children send their parents away and when the girl sings.”
“The Last Kids on Earth” on Netflix, based on the book series by Max Brallier (available in the building and on Overdrive), follows four teens as they navigate a new, scary world full of monsters and zombies. It bends several genres – adventure, horror, fantasy – while it focuses on how the four kids learn to work together as a team.
I love it because the teens work together and mature enough to reevaluate their assumptions about whether the monsters they encounter are truly a threat. Some good, subtle lessons here.
My husband recommends “Extraction” on Netflix, based on the graphic novel “Ciudad” by Ande Parks and the Russo brothers. The film is a violent, action-packed story of a mercenary hired to rescue a boy kidnapped by a drug lord with a vendetta against the boy’s father.
We haven’t explored the books for these yet, but they’re on our list for what we read next.