There are so many good choices that I can answer for this! In fact, I have an answer for all three…
Book: The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt
I wrote a whole post just about this author and how much I love his books (Gary Schmidt Y’all!) I read The Wednesday Wars the summer before I transitioned from teaching elementary grades to middle school English. The teacher I was replacing used to teach his book Okay for Now. Upon researching, I discovered that Okay for Now is a spinoff of The Wednesday Wars. So I decided to read the OG before diving into Okay for Now. It’s very clearly a YA novel. Gary Schmidt is a master at YA storytelling and every book of his is a masterpiece. I would give anything to read that book for the first time again. Though, to be fair, I’ve re-read it many, many times over the years and I love it just as much every time I read it.
Honorable mention: The Hunger Games (In fact, I’m tempted to re-read it before I watch the movie version of Sunrise on the Reaping just to see adult Haymitch’s role now that I know his origin story). I’m a YA nerd, I can’t help it. I was an English teacher.
Movie: Gotta go with “Signs” for this one. It’s Josh and my comfort movie. It was so good I saw it in the theater four times. Twice with Josh, once with Josh’s oldest niece, and once with my mother-in-law. It’s such a good story! The alien invasion is almost a sub plot for what is really happening with the characters. Some have criticized M. Night Shyamalan for not making anything good since “The Sixth Sense”. I disagree. He’s a really good storyteller and I always look forward to his new releases.
Honorable mention: “Little Miss Sunshine” Still such a great movie! And that ending! When the family basically says “f*** it”, despite all of our failings, we’re going to support our little girl. By dancing on stage to “Superfreak”, which is the cherry on top. Actually, I think I need to rewatch that today. It’s been a while.
TV Show: Ted Lasso We watched the whole series. Well, I watched the whole series. I think Josh checked out after season 2. This show is not the typical show that fits into the current tv show mold. There’s drama, yes. But it’s wholesome drama. With heartwarming resolutions. And character storylines that are beautiful, frustrating at times, but all around just…did I already say heartwarming? I’m very excited for season 4. Season 3 ended in a very perfect way. It was a natural conclusion to the series, but from what I’ve seen of season 4, it’s not going to be a creative stretch to make another season’s plot realistic. Not like Will & Grace where they had a wonderful wrap-it-all-up series finale, only to have the first episode of the reboot explain that the series finale wasn’t real and only Karen’s hallucination. Ted Lasso better not pull some stupid trick like that. I don’t think they will. That show has pure heart. I can’t imagine that won’t carry over to season 4.
Honorable mention: Honestly, despite the trauma of a LOT of characters being killed off, I’m going with Game of Thrones. It was just a really good show! I mean, sure they killed your favorite characters, even the main ones who you thought couldn’t possibly die because they’re the main character. But they also killed the villains, in spectacular fashion. Ramsey Bolton’s death was probably the most satisfying. Also, I’ll happily watch anything with Peter Dinklage. Thank goodness he survived the series!
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