Smarty-pants

From Feb. 2005

Cashel’s latest passion is turning books into movies. In his head. He’s very big on adapting stuff for the screen. He has a lot of ideas. And the movies he makes in his head are, I must inform you, completely real. He has a resume. He says stuff like, “In my next movie …” What are you, Quentin Tarantino?? Books are being adapted into movies – all in Cashel’s 7-year-old head. He even has cast lists planned out. I’m sure Marty Feldman would have been thrilled to know that he would have been asked to be in every single one of Cashel’s book-to-movie adaptations.

Recently, though, Cashel has been feeling a bit uninspired. None of the books he’s been reading seem adaptation-appropriate. There’s no spark. Cashel knows good material when he sees it … and lately? In the 7-year-old reading world? The well has run dry.


He shared his concerns about this to his dad (my brother). They had a serious discussion about it. Cashel talked about wanting to adapt more books into movies (I’m sorry, I just have to interject this: I THINK THIS IS SO ADORABLE. Cashel … “adapting” books into movies and feeling bad because he doesn’t have a new project.)

So he asked my brother: did he have any ideas? Did he read any books when HE was a kid that would make a good movie?

My brother started brainstorming with Cashel, remembering his childhood books, telling him the plots, seeing if it would be a good movie. Finally he said: “I remember reading a book when I was little about a boy who could move stuff with his brain.”

Cashel pondered this. Seriously. Silently. Then asked: “He could move stuff with his brain?”

Brendan said, “Yeah, like – he would think to himself: Let me move the pencil across the table. And just by thinking about it, the pencil would move.”

Silence from Cashel. DEEP thinking going on.

Brendan went on, “And not only could this kid move stuff with his brain – but he could also read other people’s minds. He could tell what you were thinking.”

Long long silence. Cashel listening, pondering.

Then Cashel spoke. And this is what he said: “So … he was telekinetic and telepathic?”

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