Monthly Archives: July 2021

Pop’s Top 10: Literary Amusement Park Rides

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moby dick ride_2To each their own thrills, be it the humble log flume (Dr. Dana) or the insane 128mph coaster that basically turns your face inside out (Katie). Inspired by my Moby Dick sighting on the Wildwood, New Jersey boardwalk, Katie and I had a lot of fun researching this post. The only criteria was that each ride had to be physical, not a virtual, IMAX, or 3D experience. So strap in…here are our Top 10 literary-themed amusement park rides!

#10 MAD TEA PARTY

Image courtesy of Wikipedia, photo by Ellen Levy Finch

Perhaps the most classic is Mad Tea Party, an Alice in Wonderland spinning tea cup bonanza at multiple Disneyland parks across the globe. Whimsical and charming, it also gained significant notoriety for being voted “most likely to make you hurl” by unfortunate family members on a grand day out.

#9 SWISS FAMILY TREEHOUSE

Image courtesy of ITM

Also in Disneyland is the amazing Swiss Family Treehouse walk-through attraction based on the famous novel J.D. Wyss. Hmmmm. I wonder how long it would take them to actually discover me living in it à la Claudia Kincaid?

#8 SUPERMAN ESCAPE

Image courtesy of Wikipedia, by Chensiyuan

Leaping briefly over to comics, we have this awesome accelerator coaster at Warner Bros. Movie World in Queensland, Australia. It goes from 0-62mph in 2 seconds. Not quite faster then a speeding bullet, but WOOOOOOOOOOOSH!

#7 PETER RABBIT HIPPITY HOP

Image courtesy of Alton Towers

Located in Staffordshire, England in the Alton Towers theme park, this Peter Rabbit ride is just flat out adorable. Though the prospect of being taken “high into the sky” in a tiny plastic seat with my children and suddenly dropped is exactly the type of thing to give me nightmares 10 years on.

#6 VOYAGE TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH

Image courtesy of Water World

A clear nod to Journey to the Centre of the Earth, this watery dark ride resides in Water World, Denver, Colorado. It’s got inflatable rafts, animatronic dinosaurs, and the thrill rating is “high.” What could possibly go wrong, Professor Lidenbrock?

#5 A DAY OUT WITH THOMAS

Image courtesy of Strasberg Railroad

This one’s for my son! He’s now a teenager, but back in the day he was a massive Thomas the Tank Engine foamer. Considering the ride is just over in Strasberg, Pennsylvania, I might take him there for his next birthday. Seriously. He might be game.

#4 TOM AND HUCK’S RIVERBLAST

Image courtesy of Silver Dollar City

More water fun! Mark Twain’s iconic rascals get their day at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri. Riverblast boasts 80 super soakers placed in strategic locations along the 567-ft river channel, making it “America’s Biggest Water Battle!”. Katie, game on!

#3 THE WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER

Image courtesy of Wikipedia, by Rstoplabe14

Couldn’t leave THIS off the list! The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at the Universal Resort in Orlando, Florida has an inverted coaster, a steel coaster, 2 dark rides, AND a full scale replica of the Hogwart’s Express. Plus butterbeer for later!

#2 DON QUIXOTE FERRIS WHEEL

Image courtesy of GaiJinPot Travel

OK, this one’s a bit of a stretch, but it’s SO cool we had to include it! The only ovular Ferris wheel in the world, patrons of the Don Quixote store in Osaka, Japan can enjoy a ride up and down the side of the building!

#1 DICKENS WORLD

Courtesy of Design You Trust

Before you get too excited, the Dickens World theme park in Kent, England closed in 2016. Here, you could watch live-action re-enactments of famous scenes, go through an interactive haunted house, take a Great Expectations boat ride, or turn the kiddos loose in the “Fagin’s Den” playground. Which, given Fagin’s role in the famous novel is, to say, rather…twisted.

The Best of the West

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Recently, I was delighted to connect with writer and musician, Mifflin Lowe. His latest children’s book, The True West (Bushel & Peck, 2020), is a journey to the American West and focuses on the individuals often left out of the popular narratives. Here we meet African American, Latino, Asian, and American Indian soldiers, inventors, workers, pioneers, cowboys…AND cowgirls! Filled with historic photos, amazing facts, helpful definitions, and illustrations by Wiliam Luong, it’s a fantastic, fascinating, and dynamic resource. I lassoed Mifflin for a few questions about his work…

How did this project come to be?

I wrote a picture book and an animated film called The Awesome, Amazing, Occasionally Incredible Adventures of Cowboy Howie, about a mixed race boy from New York City who dreamed of being a cowboy. In his imagination the city’s canyons turned into the Grand Canyon, dogs became wolves, pigeons became eagles etc.

What was the research like for the book? Did you, for example, get a hankering to visit some Western locations? Saddle up Old Paint?

Research was fascinating. I did it mostly online and I learned a ton about the people and the life in the West. The people were all tough and I mean that in the best possible way — the were incredibly resilient from Calamity Jane to Stagecoach Mary Fields to Fox Hastings to Bass Reeves.

Mary Fields

Who was your favorite person to research?

Well maybe Annie Oakley – she was under 5 foot tall and could shoot a dime thrown in the air at 20 paces, and shoot while standing on the back of a galloping horse. Also, Bass Reeves who was a Black lawman who arrested over 3,000 criminals — more than Wild Bill Hickok and Wyatt Earp put together. Bass is supposedly the person the Lone Ranger was based on. Bass always left silver dollar at the scene of a crime he’d solved — like the Lone Ranger did with his silver bullets. Also, Jackson Sundown, the Native American rodeo rider who was probably the best ever and Mamie Hafely who used to jump off a five story tower on the back of her horse into a pool of water

Jackson Sundown

What’s one thing that surprised you when working on this book?

How strong, determined and hard working all these people were. They never gave up and never gave in.

Chinese Railroad Workers

In the Calamity Jane chapter, you mention the “flat-out cool’ nicknames from the Wild West. What would your nickname be?

Mr. Smartypants, maybe? Naw, I don’t know… maybe Muffin… like Mifflin…people sometimes make the mistake.

Muffin Lowe

Images courtesy of Mifflin Lowe and Bushel & Peck Books. Illustrations by Wiliwam Luong.

The 12 Month, 46 Hour Library

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When Katie saw this DIY miniature library online, she  was entranced. It’s perfectly adorable with its tiny little books and knick knacks on the bookshelves and darling framed pictures and actual working chandelier with four lights. But she did NOT love the lengthy process of constructing it. It took 46 hours. 46 HOURS. Katie, share with us your epic journey…

I built the Rolifé DIY Miniature House: Sam’s Study (DG102), which can be purchased on the Rolifé website for $47.99. There is another company, Hands Craft, that makes a similar, if not identical kit. You can purchase their version of Sam’s Study on Amazon for $35.85. There is an age suggestion of 14+.

The kit arrives with a multitude of wood, fabric, and paper parts and pieces to construct the library, as well as small bottles of white latex and liquid glue, tweezers, white paint and a small paint brush. You will need to have a few additional tools to help with the construction: a ruler with millimeters, scissors, needle nose pliers, screwdriver, pencil and a binder clip.

I also highly suggest having a glue stick, another option of super glue (I used Krazy glue with an applicator brush), and a pair of small sharp scissors (I bought a pair of 4.5 inch nano detail scissors). Even though the kit claims batteries are included, you may need to purchase a pair of CR2032 Lithium 3V batteries for the chandelier.

There is an instruction manual packed with photographs and detailed steps to create the miniature library. I followed the manual very closely, making sure I had the correct pieces for each of the cabinets by using the included part number illustration paper.

So many pieces! So much glue! Oftentimes I had to be creative with figuring out ways to assist the various parts to hold together as the glue dried. Elastic hair bands for the win!
When I reached the section to build the sofa – it’s actually a wingback armchair – I was riding a wave of confidence. I had put together six dressers, cabinets, and bookshelves and a ladder without much difficulty.

The petite handles for the doors and drawers were a challenge, but I was able to create them. Surely I could make an armchair.

Surely not.

I created one side of the armchair and my fingers were so completely covered in glue, I was forced to give up. I couldn’t pick up the red fabric or the bottle of glue without it being nearly impossible to put back down. Defeated, I set aside the armchair.

My next challenge was cutting, folding and pasting the roughly 130 paper books, boxes and paintings that fill the shelves and walls of the bookstore. I started snipping with my 9 inch pair of scissors, and it didn’t take me long to realize I needed a much smaller pair in order to save time and my sanity. I was able to cut through the paper much faster with the 4.5 inch scissors, but it took a while to fold the little books and boxes and glue them all together. I used the glue stick and a q-tip to apply glue to the narrow paper edges, which greatly helped speed up the process.

The pièce de résistance was constructing the walls and floor of the bookstore, as well as creating the realistic chandelier that provided the gentle glowing light. The bookstore was relatively easy. The chandelier was complicated. And frustrating. And it nearly didn’t happen because I almost ran out of wire necessary to provide electricity to the bulbs.

Despite trying to be very careful while cutting and stringing the fragile wires, I cut some and broke others. It took many long hours (and the utterance of many bad words) to bring the light to life. I can fully understand why some who left online reviews of the kit simply gave up on the chandelier. Trust me, I almost did.

finished walls and light 2I was just about ready to furbish the bookstore, but I still had to finish the wing back armchair. The various bits and pieces of the chair were ready to go, but I was not looking forward to the actual construction. Begrudgingly, I used every last bit of my dogged patience to put the chair together. It’s not pretty, in fact it’s far from perfect. One side of the chair is slightly taller than the other and there are many areas of the wood frame showing through the red cloth, but I finished it.

Now came the fun part – decorating! The instruction manual had generic photos showing where the furniture needed to go, but you can decide where the books and decorations go. There were many times I needed to use the provided tweezers to glue a tiny framed picture on the wall next to a bookshelf, place a minuscule pamphlet in a specific area, or put the bitty silver coffee mug on top of a book. After all of the irritation I had while building the kit, decorating the bookstore was quite cathartic.

The miniature library is amazing. There are so many charming little touches and details that you could stare at it for hours. Even the red wing back armchair, in all its misshapen glory, looks fantastic nestled in the corner with a pile of books resting on the seat.

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Dr. Dana and I had a bet as to how long it was going to take me to finish the library. She said 25 hours, I guessed it would take much longer. I was right – it took nearly 46 hours.
Now that I am done putting the kit together, I think it is safe to say that I completely overestimated my technical crafting abilities when manipulating small parts and pieces. It is also safe for me to say that I will try to avoid doing another one of these types of projects in the future. I would recommend it for adults who have tremendous patience and dedication to lengthy projects.

May the teeny-tiny crafting kit odds be ever in your favor.