Noah Depends on God

HOME SCHOOL BOOK REVIEW

Book: Noah Depends on God

Author: Lori Long

Illustrator: Alejandro Echavez

Publisher: Mascot Books, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1643070605

ISBN-10: 1643070606

Related website(s): http://www.mascotbooks.com (publisher)

Language level: 1

(1=nothing objectionable; 2=common euphemisms and/or childish slang terms; 3=some cursing and/or profanity; 4=a lot of cursing and/or profanity; 5=obscenity and/or vulgarity)

Recommended reading level: Ages 4-8

Rating: ***** 5 stars

(5 stars=EXCELLENT; 4 stars=GOOD; 3 stars=FAIR; 2 stars=POOR; 1 star=VERY POOR; no stars=NOT RECOMMENDED)

Reviewed by Wayne S. Walker

Disclosure:  Many publishers, literary agents, and/or authors provide free copies of their books in exchange for an honest review without requiring a positive opinion.  Any books donated to Home School Book Review for review purposes are in turn donated to a library.  No other compensation has been received for the reviews posted on Home School Book Review.

For more information e-mail homeschoolbookreview@gmail.com

Long, Lori.  Noah Depends on God (published in 2019 by Mascot Books, 620 Herndon Parkway #320, Herndon, VA  20170).  Almost everyone knows how Noah built a mighty ark for his family and all the animals to save them from the flood. After the people and beasts are on board and it starts to rain, things seem to be going fine except that the two little dogs on the ark have yappy barks that will not quit, morning and evening, going on and on.  It is so annoying.  Then one night as he is making his rounds, Noah notices that he doesn’t hear the barking.  In fact, the puppies are gone and he can’t seem to find them.  Where are they?  What has happened to them?  And how did their noses get so wet?

The cute, rhyming, folktale-like text by author Lori Long, who was inspired by her love for animals as she wrote this children’s book, tells the Scriptural account of Noah and the ark, but with a twist.  Of course, we must be careful not to turn the historical narratives of the Bible into mere fairy stories.  But there’s nothing necessarily wrong with allowing children to imagine fictional details that will help make the events more meaningful and thus memorable.  With lush, vibrantly full-colored pictures by illustrator Alejandro Echavez, Noah Depends on God will hold the attention of little ones and keep them interested as they learn how dogs came to have wet noses.

Eternity through the Rearview Mirror

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Book: Eternity through the Rearview Mirror: How Simple Faith Changes Everything–Seventeen Extraordinary Lives

Author: Annette Hubbell

Publisher: Credo House Publishers, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1625861269

ISBN-10: 1625861265

Related website(s): http://www.annettehubbell.com (author), http://www.credohousepublishers.com (publisher)

Language level: 2

(1=nothing objectionable; 2=common euphemisms and/or childish slang terms; 3=some cursing and/or profanity; 4=a lot of cursing and/or profanity; 5=obscenity and/or vulgarity)

Recommended reading level: Ages 13 and up

Rating: ***** 5 stars

(5 stars=EXCELLENT; 4 stars=GOOD; 3 stars=FAIR; 2 stars=POOR; 1 star=VERY POOR; no stars=NOT RECOMMENDED)

Reviewed by Wayne S. Walker

Disclosure:  Many publishers, literary agents, and/or authors provide free copies of their books in exchange for an honest review without requiring a positive opinion.  Any books donated to Home School Book Review for review purposes are in turn donated to a library.  No other compensation has been received for the reviews posted on Home School Book Review.

For more information e-mail homeschoolbookreview@gmail.com

Hubbell, Annette.  Eternity through the Rearview Mirror: How Simple Faith Changes Everything–Seventeen Extraordinary Lives (published in 2019 by Credo House Publishers, a division of Credo Communications LLC, Grand Rapids, MI).  What does it take to be a world changer?  Author Annette Hubbell gives us seventeen chapters each one on a different historical figure, from Galileo Galilei to Johnny Cash, with his or her own unique story to tell.  Some of them, such as Johann Sebastian Bach, John Newton, Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Corrie ten Boom, and C. S. Lewis, are quite famous, while others, like Elizabeth Fry, Amy Carmichael, Mary McLeod Bethune, Gladys Aylward, and Louis Zamperini, are less well known.  What binds them all together is a strong faith in God.  The lives of these once-ordinary people who discovered the secret to living an extraordinary life are told in heart-to-heart, first-person conversations which illustrate how we can experience the transformative power of ordinary faith.  There is an eighteenth chapter, “Your Name Here,” which is a call to action.

These heroes are not presented as paragons of perfection.  Like all of us, they made their share of mistakes during their lifetimes.  Various readers will not always agree with every decision which they reached and/or every action which they took.  For example, many believers may have some strong doctrinal, and perhaps even moral, differences with the teachings and lifestyle of Aimee Semple McPherson.  At the same time, the book shows how these simple men and women with all their quirks and weaknesses could be used by God through both their struggles and successes to accomplish good things in their generation.  Hubbell’s first book, A Spoonful of Grace: Mealtime blessings in Bite-Sized Pieces, was recently awarded the 2018 Illumination Award, given for exemplary Christian writing, in the family/parenting division.

For Eternity Through the Rearview Mirror, the author really must have had to do a lot of in-depth research to let the story-teller’s colloquialisms and “voice” come through.  There are a few common euphemisms (“Lordy” and “darn,” for example).   However, each chapter includes direct quotations (in italics) from the person’s own words, as well as pointers to URL’s for museums, documents, and other sources so that one can dig deeper as wanted.  Also, in the back of the book there are extensive footnotes to document everything.  Readers will not only make the acquaintance of individuals who were previously unknown to them and discover new information about more familiar characters, but also gain valuable insights into what motivated these folks and how their faith was important to their journeys.

Crazy Lady!

HOME SCHOOL BOOK REVIEW

Book: Crazy Lady!

Author: Jane Leslie Conly

Cover Illustrator: Vincent Nasta

Publisher: HarperCollins, republished 1995

ISBN-13: 978-0064405713

ISBN-10: 0064405713

Language level: 5

(1=nothing objectionable; 2=common euphemisms and/or childish slang terms; 3=some cursing and/or profanity; 4=a lot of cursing and/or profanity; 5=obscenity and/or vulgarity)

Recommended reading level: Said to be for ages 9-12, but I would say for ages 16 and up if at all

Rating: ** 2 stars

(5 stars=EXCELLENT; 4 stars=GOOD; 3 stars=FAIR; 2 stars=POOR; 1 star=VERY POOR; no stars=NOT RECOMMENDED)

Reviewed by Wayne S. Walker

Disclosure:  Many publishers, literary agents, and/or authors provide free copies of their books in exchange for an honest review without requiring a positive opinion.  Any books donated to Home School Book Review for review purposes are in turn donated to a library.  No other compensation has been received for the reviews posted on Home School Book Review.

For more information e-mail homeschoolbookreview@gmail.com

Conly, Jane Leslie.  Crazy Lady! (published in 1993 by Harper Trophy, a trademark of HarperCollins Children’s Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 10 E. 53^rd St., New York City, NY  10022).  It is 1981, and thirteen year old Vernon Dibbs, a seventh grader who is failing in school, lives in the blighted Tenley Heights neighborhood of Baltimore, MD, with his illiterate but hard working father and four siblings, Stephanie and Tony, who are older, and Sandra and Ben, who are younger.  Vern’s mother had died at work from a stroke three years earlier.  His friends are Chris Murphy, Bobby Sullivan, and Jerry Roland.  While feeling increasingly alienated from his widowed father, Vern joins the other boys in ridiculing the neighborhood outcasts, Maxine Flooter, an alcoholic prone to outrageous behavior, and Ronald, her mentally challenged son. However, when Miss Annie, a neighbor of Maxine’s who is tutoring Vern, asks him to do some work for Maxine, he begins to make friends with Ronald.  Vern even helps him with the Special Olympics.  Unfortunately, Maxine becomes increasingly drunk and belligerent, and a social service agency tries to put Ronald into a special home, but Vernon fights against the move.

How do his family and friends react to Vern’s relationship with Ronald?  Is there anything that he can do to keep his new friend from being sent away?   And what will happen to Ronald?   Crazy Lady! was a 1994 Newbery Honor Book.  This was, of course, long after the 1960’s watershed when the character of Newbery books changed from being morally good and uplifting to being socially relevant and realistic.  This book has all kinds of references to cussing, hotwiring cars, shoplifting, smoking cigarettes, drinking wine, and getting drunk.  Maxine and Ronald’s father, W. B. Swan, never married.  One reviewer wrote, “Yes, there is some language in this book that would not be acceptable unmonitored for young children, though it is kept minimal. Yes, there are situations in the storyline that are not completely happy. Yet…the story is a true gem of the theme of acceptance– of those who are different, of our own gifts and limitations, and of the opportunities given us to try and change those situations.”  I beg to differ.  The unacceptable language is not minimal; it is pervasive.  Not only do the “d” and “h” words appear frequently, spoken even sometimes by kids, but also there are terms like “pissed” and “boob,” and even “bullsh**” (once) and “goddam***” (three times) as well.

So far as I am concerned, there is simply no excuse for using that kind of language in books aimed at children.  Others noticed it too.  One said, “Apparently kids’ books with cuss words are considered literature. What a filthy book to place in front of children.”  Another noted, “Whereas the story has merit, this is not fit reading for 9-12 years olds. The story has no obvious penalties for harassment, shoplifting, abusive and offensive language.”  Still another wrote of “some bad language being said in the book that I believe most parents would not approve of.”   One student reported, “I read this book in grade school. Mrs. Goldberg let us scream the curse words to get them out of our system.” I’m glad my children were not in that classroom.  The book has also been criticized for what the characters say to each other in their moments of unhappiness, frustration, and anger.  Yet another reviewer said, “I think that this book is good for all ages!”  Again, I disagree. While I really don’t recommend it at all, I would say that if one is going to suggest the book, it should be for ages 16 and up only.  Also, the conclusion is rather abrupt, I suppose to remind us that not every situation ends “happily ever after.” While there could have been a useful story here, there are those of us who feel that how a tale is told can be as important as any supposed benefit of the tale itself.

The Gammage Cup: A Novel of the Minnipins

HOME SCHOOL BOOK REVIEW

Book: The Gammage Cup: A Novel of the Minnipins

Author: Carol Kendall

Illustrator: Erik Blegvad

Publisher: Young Readers Paperbacks, 2000

ISBN-13: 978-0152024932

ISBN-10: 015202493X

Language level: 1

(1=nothing objectionable; 2=common euphemisms and/or childish slang terms; 3=some cursing and/or profanity; 4=a lot of cursing and/or profanity; 5=obscenity and/or vulgarity)

Recommended reading level: Ages 7 – 10

Rating: ***** 5 stars

(5 stars=EXCELLENT; 4 stars=GOOD; 3 stars=FAIR; 2 stars=POOR; 1 star=VERY POOR; no stars=NOT RECOMMENDED)

Reviewed by Wayne S. Walker

Disclosure:  Many publishers, literary agents, and/or authors provide free copies of their books in exchange for an honest review without requiring a positive opinion.  Any books donated to Home School Book Review for review purposes are in turn donated to a library.  No other compensation has been received for the reviews posted on Home School Book Review.

For more information e-mail homeschoolbookreview@gmail.com

Kendall, Carol.  The Gammage Cup: A Novel of the Minnipins (published in 1959 by Odyssey Classics, an imprint of Harcourt Brace and Company, 6277 Sea Harbor Dr., Orlando, FL  32887).  The Minnipins live in twelve villages along the banks of the Watercress River in the remote and inaccessible Land Between the Mountains.  Some eight hundred years ago, they came here under their leader Gammage to escape a tribe of savage enemies known as Mushrooms or the Hairless Ones.  In one of these villages, the very orderly Slipper-on-the-Water, the sober and sedate descendants of Fooley the Magnificent, have become the rulers and begun demanding conformity, where all the residents must wear green cloaks and paint their doors green.   Another group known as “Oh, Them” rise up in opposition to the tradition-based existence of the other Minnipins.  They are Walter the Earl who studies history, Curly Green who is a painter, and Gummy who is a poet.   Strange things begin happening. Muggles, a young lady who presides at the Fooley Museum sees fire on the mountain in the dark, but no one believes her except the “Thems,” and her destiny is drawn into the company of the three oddballs.

Eventually, Muggles and her friends are outlawed, along with the town treasurer Mingy who also defends Walter, Gummy, and Curly, even as they become convinced that the whole valley could be in great danger from over (or through) the mountains.  Banished to the mountainside, the five outcasts soon find evidence that the Mushroom people are planning to invade the Minnipins for their gold. Will they survive the attack?  Can they find a way to warn the villagers on time?  And what happens in the battle with the menace from the desolate lands outside the valley?  This 1960 Newbery Honor Book has been described as a “Highly creative fantasy” that is “imaginative, amusing and thought-provoking.”  There is a bit of witty word play, but some young students (aged 8-12) may not get a few of the jokes.  The first half of the book, which may be a little difficult for younger kids to get into with its themes of conformity and individualism, is clearly a scathing warning against conformist tendencies class structure, and over reliance on tradition.

Then, with its strong good versus evil emphasis, especially in the second half when the Outlaws break away and the stirring action story begins, it’s also an almost allegorical warning against the threat from “outside the valley.”    Many people may not like the fact that there is killing in the book, but it underscores the principle that some values are truly worth fighting for.  An action packed, hilarious, yet thoughtful story that will make readers laugh at the ridiculous actions of the ruling Periods, but then make them think of the unique gifts often overlooked in ordinary people, it has everything—humor, adventure, danger, lovable and memorable characters, war, and love.  One professional reviewer, who wrote, “I can see teachers in high school government classes using this novel to analyze how governments are created and retain power,” still called it “a weird one.”  I wouldn’t say weird—just odd.  But I Iiked it.  The sequel, The Whisper of Glocken, was published in 1965.

A Long Vacation

HOME SCHOOL BOOK REVIEW

Book: A Long Vacation

Author: Jules Verne

Illustrator: Victor Ambrus

Publisher: Holt Rinehart and Winston, reprinted 1968

ASIN: B000JDWEZC

ASIN: B0000CNLLB

Language level: 2 (the euphemistic “heck” occurs once)

(1=nothing objectionable; 2=common euphemisms and/or childish slang terms; 3=some cursing and/or profanity; 4=a lot of cursing and/or profanity; 5=obscenity and/or vulgarity)

Recommended reading level: Ages 10-16

Rating: ***** 5 stars

(5 stars=EXCELLENT; 4 stars=GOOD; 3 stars=FAIR; 2 stars=POOR; 1 star=VERY POOR; no stars=NOT RECOMMENDED)

Reviewed by Wayne S. Walker

Disclosure:  Many publishers, literary agents, and/or authors provide free copies of their books in exchange for an honest review without requiring a positive opinion.  Any books donated to Home School Book Review for review purposes are in turn donated to a library.  No other compensation has been received for the reviews posted on Home School Book Review.

For more information e-mail homeschoolbookreview@gmail.com

Verne, Jules.  A Long Vacation (originally published in 1888; republished in 1967 by Holt Rinehart and Winston, New York City, NY).  It is March of 1860, and fourteen boys from the elite Chairman School in Auckland, New Zealand, plus a cabin boy named Moko, all aged between eight and fourteen, are spending the night on board the 100-ton schooner Sloughie, prepared for a six week summer cruise.  They have names like Iverson, Dole, Baxter, Cross, Webb, Service, Wilcox, Garnett, Jenkins, and Costar. The crew has chosen to stay offshore until morning.  However, that night, the ship breaks away from the dock, drifts to sea, and is caught up in a storm. They survive the storm and twenty-two days later are beached on a deserted island in the South Pacific, which they name “Chairman Island,” where they are forced to live by their wits for two years.  Three teenagers vie for leadership.  Briant is a sturdy, intelligent, courageous French boy, with a brother named Jack.  Doniphant is a brilliant but rebellious English snob.  And Gordon is a practical, diplomatic American mediating between the two.  Which one is chosen as leader?  Will the boys learn to work together to survive?   What happens when seven criminals, who mutineered on the American ship Severn, murdered all the crew and passengers except two, set fire to the ship, and escaped in the launch, are also shipwrecked on the island with a hostage, Kate Ready?  And will the boys ever get home?

Originally titled Two Years’ Vacation (French: Deux ans de vacances), this Swiss Family Robinson type of adventure novel was originally serialized in twenty-four parts between January and December of 1888 in the “Extraordinary Journeys” section of the French Magasin d’Éducation et de Récréation by Parisian publisher Hetzel. It was also published in book form in two volumes in June and early November of that year.  An English translation of the book was serialized in 36 installments in the Boy’s Own Paper between 1888 and 1889.  In 1965 the I. O. Evens version of the Sampson Low translation was published in England (ARCO) and the U.S. (Associated Publishers) in two volumes, Adrift in the Pacific and Second Year Ashore.  Then in 1967, a new modified and abridged translation by Olga Marx with illustrations by Victor Ambrus titled A Long Vacation was published by Oxford University Press in the United Kingdom and Holt Rinehart and Winston in the United States.

I have always been a sucker for stories about people marooned on an uninhabited island.  Someone said that Verne’s foray into juvenile fiction is “Lord of the Flies without the savagery,” since the boys are all remarkably well-behaved, perhaps because most of them are British. In his preface to the book, Verne explained that his goals were to create a Robinson Crusoe-like environment for children, and to show the world what the intelligence and bravery of a child was capable of when put to the test.  I agree with Kirkus Reviews, who wrote, “Verne, as usual, offers precise characterizations and detail to augment a tale that should appeal to any young adventurer.”  As is true of other books by Verne, A Long Vacation manages to keep us turning pages and is recommended for young teens, particularly of the male persuasion.

Pete’s Dragon: The Lost Years

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Book: Pete’s Dragon: The Lost Years

Author: Elizabeth Rudnick

Illustrator: Nicholas Kole

Publisher: Disney Press, 2016

ISBN-13: 978-1484749937

ISBN-10: 1484749936

Related website(s): http://www.disneybooks.com (publisher)

Language level: 2

(1=nothing objectionable; 2=common euphemisms and/or childish slang terms; 3=some cursing and/or profanity; 4=a lot of cursing and/or profanity; 5=obscenity and/or vulgarity)

Recommended reading level: Ages 9 – 12

Rating: ***** 5 stars

(5 stars=EXCELLENT; 4 stars=GOOD; 3 stars=FAIR; 2 stars=POOR; 1 star=VERY POOR; no stars=NOT RECOMMENDED)

Reviewed by Wayne S. Walker

Disclosure:  Many publishers, literary agents, and/or authors provide free copies of their books in exchange for an honest review without requiring a positive opinion.  Any books donated to Home School Book Review for review purposes are in turn donated to a library.  No other compensation has been received for the reviews posted on Home School Book Review.

For more information e-mail homeschoolbookreview@gmail.com

Rudnick, Elizabeth. Pete’s Dragon: The Lost Years (published in 2016 by Disney Press, an imprint of Disney Book Group, a division of Disney Enterprises Inc., 1101 Flower St., Glendale, CA  91201).  It is 1977, and Peter Anderson Walker, or Pete, a five-year-old boy, is on a road trip with his parents in the North Country outside of a town called Millhaven when their car flips off the road following a near-collision with a deer. Pete’s mom and dad are killed, but Pete survives the accident and is chased into the gigantic forest by a pack of wolves. He is rescued by a huge dragon with green fur, yellow eyes, and wings. The lonely dragon quickly bonds with Pete and becomes protective of the boy. Pete names the dragon “Elliot” after the character of a lost puppy from his favorite book.

Over the next four and a half years, Pete lives with Elliot in his underground cave and builds a tree house in the giant tree that grows on top of the cave.  Together they explore the surrounding woods.  Their lives seem idyllic.  However, one day while Elliot has flown far off to find new sources of food, a monstrous storm of all storms sweeps through the area, destroying Pete’s tree house and seriously injuring Elliot.  When the dragon doesn’t return, the boy sets out to find him but gets lost.  Is Pete able to locate Elliot?  Can the dragon survive his wounds until then?  And will the two ever make it back home?   In 1977, Walt Disney made a live-action/animated musical fantasy comedy film called Pete’s Dragon based on an unpublished short story of the same name, written by Seton I. Miller and S.S. Field.

In 2016, Disney did a live-action “remake,” actually a re-imagining, of the film. The new movie begins when Pete gets lost in the forest and forms his unforgettable friendship with Elliot.  Then it skips ahead to six years later when Pete, now 11, spots a lumberjack crew chopping down trees near his home.  The book, with original illustrations, explores Pete and Elliot’s adventures and struggles in the forest to catch up on what happens during the time from Pete’s being small boy to an older child and serves as a prequel to tell the tale of the lost years not shown in the film. There are a couple of references to both Pete’s and Elliot’s butts, but this very ingenious and imaginative story will appeal to both middle grade and younger children, though it is written for more advanced readers.

Swamp Thing

HOME SCHOOL BOOK REVIEW

Book: Swamp Thing

Author: David Houston

Publisher: Tor Books, 1982

ISBN-13: 978-0523480398

ISBN-10: 0523480393

Language level: 5

(1=nothing objectionable; 2=common euphemisms and/or childish slang terms; 3=some cursing and/or profanity; 4=a lot of cursing and/or profanity; 5=obscenity and/or vulgarity)

Recommended reading level: Adults who don’t mind a little vulgarity

Rating: ** 2 stars

(5 stars=EXCELLENT; 4 stars=GOOD; 3 stars=FAIR; 2 stars=POOR; 1 star=VERY POOR; no stars=NOT RECOMMENDED)

Reviewed by Wayne S. Walker

Disclosure:  Many publishers, literary agents, and/or authors provide free copies of their books in exchange for an honest review without requiring a positive opinion.  Any books donated to Home School Book Review for review purposes are in turn donated to a library.  No other compensation has been received for the reviews posted on Home School Book Review.

For more information e-mail homeschoolbookreview@gmail.com

Houston, David.  Swamp Thing (copyright 1982 by Swampfilms Inc., and published by Tor Books, an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates, 8-10 W. 36^th St., New York City, NY  10018).  After a scientist is mysteriously killed while assisting a top-secret bioengineering project in the swamps of the American South, government worker Alice Cable arrives at the bogs to serve as his replacement. Her guide, Charlie Tanner (or Thaxton) who is the project administrator, introduces her to Harry Ritter, the project field supervisor, and tells him a rumor about an evil paramilitary leader named Anton Arcane, who intends to hijack their operation.  However, there is another rumor that Arcane is dead. Alice introduces herself to Dr. Linda Holland and her brother, lead scientist Dr. Alec Holland, who are working on glowing, hybrid plant and animal cell concoction with explosive properties.  That night, a group of paramilitary agents led by a man named Ferrett attack and raid Alec’s laboratory. Ritter steps forward, but pulls off his mask and reveals himself as Arcane. When Arcane shoots Linda for attempting to escape with the formula, Alec grabs the beaker, but trips, causing the spilled chemicals to set him on fire. He runs outside, dives into the swamp to extinguish the flames as a series of explosions burst from the water, and is presumed dead.  Cable is also presumed dead in the ensuing explosion and fire but escapes with the last notebook detailing the Hollands’ work, and hides out in the swamp with the help of a young gas station attendant, Jude. However, Arcane learns of this and sends his men to capture her.  Suddenly, this Swamp Thing, which looks like a person but seems made of plant material, appears and scares the pursuers away, immune to their gunfire and even able to stop their jeep dead in its tracks.  Who is the Swamp Thing?  Where did it come from?  What does it do?  And will Cable ever escape?

Swamp Thing began as a fictional character and superhero in comic books published by the American company DC Comics, created by writer Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson,  The character first appeared in House of Secrets #92 (July 1971) in a stand-alone horror story and then returned in a solo series. Outside of its extensive comic book history, the Swamp Thing has inspired two theatrical films.  Its expansion into media outside of comic books began with his first eponymous film in 1982. Directed by Wes Craven, it starred actor/stuntman Dick Durock as the title character along with Adrienne Barbeau and Louis Jourdan.  This book is a novelization of the movie.  I don’t have a category for “horror,” although I have read both Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, so we’ll just call Swamp Thing science fiction.  I probably never would have picked it up, but I was in a thrift store that was selling paperback books for 25 cents or ten for a dollar; I had nine and needed one more, so I chose this one.  Just before I finished the book, I watched the movie to see how close they were.  The novel pretty much follows the film but does add some extra details.

This could have been a good story for those who like such things, but some warnings are in order.  There is a large amount of cursing (the “d” and “h” words) and profanity (the terms God, Lord, Jesus, and Christ are all used as exclamations) and even some vulgarity (the “s” word occurs several times).  The movie had some cursing and profanity and one possible vulgarity but not nearly so much as the book.  A few sexual references are found in the novel which are not in the film.  And while the movie certainly has a lot of violence in it, the descriptions of violence in the book are actually more graphic than what is shown on the screen.  If one is willing to stomach all of that, there is an interesting plot. Durock amd Jourdan reprised the roles in the sequel film The Return of Swamp Thing, along with Sarah Douglas and Heather Locklear. Produced in 1989, directed by Jim Wynorski, and having a lighter tone than its predecessor, the sequel was much lower in budget and met with significantly less success than its predecessor.  Peter David wrote a novelization of the second film. Disappointed with the script, David rewrote large chunks of the story. To his surprise, the producers enjoyed the changes and allowed the book to see print as-is.