Movie · Netflix · 2004

Spookley the Square Pumpkin

A difference that turns out to be useful. The lesson is plain and not poisonous.

Spookley is a fable about a shape, and it earns the fable by making the shape useful when the weather turns. The teasing is not celebrated. A small child can hear it. Say the last part out loud: the point is not that he felt special. The point is that he held when the others could not.

The eight

Industry
5/10
The patch is a farm, and the storm is a real problem for the crop.
Household
4/10
No family. A field of neighbors.
Piety
4/10
He is allowed to be odd without being sacred for it.
Courage
6/10
He stays in the wind when the round ones roll.
Republic
6/10
The patch is saved together, after they were cruel separately.
Temperance
7/10
One short fable. The mockery is the problem, not the fun.
Truth
6/10
The square shape does a job. It is not only an identity.
Stewardship
6/10
What he hands the patch is a harvest that would have been lost.

Live historicallyName one way the child is useful to the house, not one way the child is different.

Movie · Netflix · 1999

Stuart Little

An adoption that sticks. The chase is extra. The belonging is the point.

Stuart Little is a small story about a family that means the adoption. The boat race is what children remember, and the race is fine, and the scene that matters is the one where they will not surrender him. A child can watch it. If your house has an adoption in it or near it, this is one of the few films that will not make a joke of that fact.

The eight

Industry
4/10
The father has a household to keep. Stuart has to find a way to be useful in it.
Household
8/10
They chose him, and they do not give him back when it would be easier.
Piety
3/10
Kindness is the law of the house.
Courage
6/10
He risks himself for the family that claimed him.
Republic
4/10
A single house, not a city.
Temperance
6/10
Gentle, with a villain who is mean and then done.
Truth
6/10
Adoption is treated as real belonging, not as a temporary plot.
Stewardship
7/10
What they hand him is a name and a room.

Live historicallyTalk about the room they gave him, not about the race.