Books coming to a theater near you!

I am always looking for a good book to read and a great movie to watch. Hollywood has a pretty good line into all the hot novels, since they're always in the process of adapting so many books for the big screen. And yes, most of the time the book was much better! There is nothing like seeing your novel that you loved come to life on the big screen. Each year, I tend to match my reading to-do-list to what is coming to a theater near me, and if I want to be ready for 2016, I better get going! Goodreads Listopia lists 63 books that are set to be movies in 2016! Check out their list for the hot adaptations that will be released this year, and add some new titles to your bookshelf!

Here are a few that I have already read and the adaptations I am excited for:

As a ch ildren's Librarian I have to start my list of with The Little Prince, coming March 2016, is based on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s acclaimed children’s novella.

The movie will follow a girl as she comes of age, taking on new, more adult responsibilities at the urging of her mother. But before she leaves childhood behind, her eccentric old neighbor introduces her to a magical world, where she learns some very poignant truths all while the classic story is interwoven in. Did you know that The Little Prince been translated into over 250 languages, making it the third-most translated book of all time? The trailer for the movie looks amazing! I cannot wait for a whole new generation to be introduces to this story!

Next on my list is The 5th Wave by Rick Yancy.  I know going into this one that the book will be better, which seems to be typical of Teen novels to movie adaptions. This was a quick-non thinking read full of everything that Teens (some adults too!) like. The movie follows 16-year-old Cassie Sullivan, who tries to survive in a world devastated by the waves of an alien invasion that has already decimated the population and knocked mankind back to the Stone Age. She is off to save her brother, who may or may not have been abducted by human-looking extra-terrestrials. She is also helped by a boy who might also be an alien in disguise-oh the teenage angst!  If the movie does well at the box office, you can bet the rest of the books in this trilogy will also be made into movies. The last book in the series will be in the library in May of 2016.

From the world of Harry Potter comes, Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find   Them, the first of a trilogy of films set to be released to the big screen in November of 2016. Written by J.K. Rowling, this book and movie are set in America way before Harry Potter is born, it also marks the first time J.K. has written the screenplay for her book. This is the book that is featured within the Harry Potter books as a study guide for the students at Hogwarts and the movie will follow the adventures of its author, Newt Scamander as he puts the book together.   In time for Valentines Day, Nicholas Sparks's newest movie will hit the theaters. The Choice,  like all of his books is a romance and is a story that spans years and tries to overcome tragedy. I may have to go back and re-read this one, since it came out in book form about 9 years ago. Fans of Nicholas Sparks know how his stories go: there is a guy (young and hunky) and girl (down-to-earth and beautiful), some big problem or mystery, and ultimately they fall in love somewhere in North Carolina. Sappy love story, that is a quick read, gets me every time.

Based on S eth Grahame-Smith’s best-selling mash-up novel, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (out Feb. 5) recounts the unlikely romance between Lizzy  and the haughty Mr. Darcy, but the courtship takes place in a 19th-century English countryside where the “sorry stricken”—as the zombies are called in the book—have been roaming for more than 70 years, victims of a mysterious plague. Fantastic parody, that was a quick read, and definitely not the Jane Austen you remember! 

Here's to a great reading list and viewing list in 2016! Which of these have you read and excited to see come to the big screen?