Book Club Meetings

No.	Date	Book
1	October 2013	The Borrowers, by Mary Norton
2	November 2013	Ella Enchanted, by Gail Carson Levine
3	January 2014	The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, by Barbara Robinson
4	February 2014	Year of the Dog, by Grace Lin
5	March 2014	Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh
6	April 2014	The Cricket in Time Square, by George Selden
7	May 2014	Starry River of the Sky, by Grace Lin
8	July 2014	From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E. L. Konigsburg
9	August 2014	Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry
10	September 2014	The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick
11	November 2014	The Hundred Dresses, by Eleanor Estes
12	December 2014	Peter & the Starcatchers, by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
13	January 2015	The Landry News, by Andrew Clements
14	March 2015	Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbitt
15	April 2015	Matilda, by Roald Dahl
16	May 2015	The Magician’s Elephant, by Kate DiCamillo
17	June 2015	The Courage of Sarah Noble, by Alice Dalgliesh
18	July 2015	Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson
19	September 2015	The Misadventures of Maude March, by Audrey Couloumbis
20	November 2015	The Captain’s Dog: My Journey with the Lewis and Clark Tribe, by Roland Smith
21	December 2015	When Santa Fell to Earth, by Cornelia Funke
22	February 2016	Rain Reign, by Ann M. Martin
23	April 2016	The Book Scavenger, by Jennifer Chambliss  Bertman
24	May 2016	Loki’s Wolves, by K. L. Armstrong and M. A. Marr
25	August 2016	The Wild Robot, by Peter Brown
26	October 2016	Out of My Mind, by Sharon Draper
27	December 2016	I Will Always Write Back: How One Letter Changed Two Lives, by Martin Ganda and Caitlin Alifirenka
28	January 2017	The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, the Three Magical Children and their Holy Dog, by Adam Gidwitz
29	April 2017	Three Times Lucky, by Sheila Turnage
30	June 2017	All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook, by Leslie Connor
31	July 2017	Lawn Boy, by Gary Paulsen
32	October 2017	Orphan Island, by Laurel Snyder

Long time no write

Time has flown and a lot has changed since our last post. One mother-daughter pair moved away for 2 years but has recently moved back; one mother-daughter pair is off on a year-long family sailing trip; and another mother-daughter pair will be leaving soon for a year-long family trip abroad. But the book club is still going strong! We all continue to read the books and join the discussions if we possibly can, even by Facetime. As the girls get older, the doors are opening to more books on more mature topics. Good stuff!

The Magician's Elephant book club, May 2015

We had a great conversation about the meaning behind this book. It took us awhile to sort through it all, but the message seems to be that this group of people, all of whom had problems, came together to help the elephant, and through that experience, their lives were made better. The girls had a great time putting on a very elaborate magic show that included costumes and music and dancing. The talent was overwhelming!

Matilda book club, April

One of the things we loved about Matilda, and other Roald Dahl books, is the extreme characters and their extreme names, like Miss Honey and Miss Trunchbull. The girls got to make up names for their own characters and draw them. They got very creative!

The Landry News, January

We had a fun book club after reading the Landry News. The girls got to make their own newspaper, which turned out great, especially given they didn't have much time. And here are the girls being goofy.

The Hundred Dresses, November

This month we read The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes. We had a good discussion about bullying, which was timely as October was Bullying Awareness month. This book was not their favorite -- it bothered them that the girls in the book were mean. However, they thought that it had an important message about bullying. They enjoyed the activity -- they got to use wallpaper samples to make their own dresses.

Hugo book club, September

This month we read "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by Brian Selznick. This was different from any book we've read before, as much of the story is told with drawings. It's a big book! The girls all said that they were amazed (maybe intimidated?) by the size of the book when they first saw it. Now they are proud that they've read such a big book! It's a great story too -- all the girls said they would recommend it. We had planned to watch the movie "Hugo" together, but given limited time we decided we'll all watch it on our own time.

Here they are deep in conversation:

And here they are being silly: