The Wishbone Project

I really hope I'm not the only one who's thought to do this.

Does anyone else remember/love Wishbone?

You know, this guy?

First--let me say, that if you don't remember this wonderful dog, his adorable theme song, and all, then you had no childhood; please go to a PBS store and buy a real childhood. You can also find episodes on Youtube. If for some reason you DIDN'T grow up watching this amazing show, let me recap: Wishbone is a cute Jack Russell Terrier owned by a middle schooler named Joe. Wishbone is a prolific reader and somehow whatever book the show focuses on has parallels to Joe's everyday problems and through the novels, we get a nice moral. Or just some cute puppy fun.

I loved to read before I started to watch Wishbone, but the show introduced me to a lot of the classics like Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, H.G. Wells, and even Homer. Yes, it was a kid's show about classic literature. And it was enjoyable and interesting for said children. What? Shows like that existed, you ask? Yes.

I have seen all the episodes of said show, taped them off PBS. When I was about 10, I made a list of every book Wishbone covered and promised myself I would read them all before I turned 30. I'm 22. So far, I've only read 11 of them.

I feel like an invalid. Only 11? What have I spent the past 12 years doing? And believe me--I read a lot. I thought I'd accomplished a lot more than this...out of 48 episodes. Okay, I am SO far behind...

SO! I am instigating a revival of WISHBONE CHALLENGE, circa 1998. Below is a list of all the books Wishbone covered. Highlighted are the one's I have already read and italicized are the ones I already do own, though haven't read:

Edit: Books that have been read and reviewed are linked! 

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare
The Odyssey by Homer
Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmund Rostand
The Hound of the Baskervilles (a Sherlock Holmes story) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving
Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc by Mark Twain
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes 
Faust by Goethe
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
Silas Marner by George Eliot 
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
One Thousand and One Arabian Nights by (collection of authors)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Imaginary Invalid by Moliere
The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allen Poe
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
Robin Hood by (various authors)
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
the Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
David and Goliath from the Bible
A Scandal in Bohemia (a Sherlock Holmes story) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
The Tempest by Shakespeare
The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas
Hercules and the Golden Apples from Greek Mythology
Our Lady of Guadalupe from the Catholic Tradition
Metamorphosis (King Midas) by Ovid
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Laroux
The Inspector General by Gogol

And that's just the first season. I think I'll just start with that.
Unfortunately, the show was cancelled, which I'll never understand. The show won 4 daytime Emmys...It was educational AND fun. Which is nearly impossible half the time. I think, honestly, combining classic literature with a talking Jack Russell Terrier is the best way to present books to children. The creator is a genius.

So that's what I'll be undertaking the next year. I'm hoping I can read one or two a month. As you can tell from the italicized books, I've been planning on undertaking this mission of mine for a long time. In the back of my head, when I go to a bookstore, I think: Oh, this is cheap, and it's a Wishbone book. That'll come in handy!

So you can expect some reviews of those books coming up. Project Wishbone is a go! And you can completely expect that I am also watching the corresponding episode when I am finished. I hope someone besides me will set out on this epic mission of epicness. Nothing was cooler than Wishbone when I was a kid. I still firmly plan to buy--or download--the Wishbone series for when I have a kid and just let the whole thing sink into my offspring.

For a quick sidenote: I think Wishbone made me a book snob. I find it so hard to touch books written after 1980 if they aren't fantasy, which I find somewhat timeless.

Coming up: reviews of the Exiles series by Melanie Rawn (what? More Melanie Rawn books? I'm sure you're shocked), a review of "the Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood, and a return to my reviews of more classic literature!

Happy reading everyone! I hope someone jumps on my Wishbone bandwagon!
AJ