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:

Some old stuff

Here are a couple of photos from some of our first meetings. I believe the first picture was taken during our January book club when we read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson. We all went together to the Sound of Music Singalong that night! The second photo is from the November meeting when we read Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine.

Number the Stars book club in August

We read Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. It's a story about the Nazi occupation of Denmark during WWII, but mostly it's a story about friendship and bravery. The girls got to act out a new "last chapter" in which they imagined what it would have been like if Annemarie and Ellen and their families were reunited after the war.

Starry River of the Sky book club in May

Back in May, we read Starry River of the Sky by Grace Lin. This is the second book we've read by this author; the first was Year of the Dog. The girls really liked this book and got to act out one of the scenes. Here they are with the symbol of power on their foreheads, to keep away the five poisons!

Review of "Harriet the Spy" by Louise Fitzhugh

All four kid book club members kind of recommend it. The moms had mixed feelings, but think it might be more appropriate for an older book club.

The girls had to say:

·      “Harriet writes mean things in her notebook sometimes. But she learns a good lesson – to be nicer to everybody and not be mean to her friends.”

·      “Harriet said mean things about Ole Golly’s mother.”

Here is a picture of the girls at book club. They each wrote a descriptive journal entry and got to read it out loud to the group. We tried to guess what they were describing. No one wrote anything mean, unlike Harriet!

 
Here we are working on our new blog:

Possible future books to read

How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell
Lily & Miss Liberty by Carla Stevens
The School Mouse by Dick King-Smith
Muggie Maggie by Beverly Cleary
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by E. Coerr
The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews Edwards
The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary
Lost Children of the Far Islands by Emily Raabe
Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman
Holes by Louis Sachar
Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
The Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dalgliesh
The Great Squirrel Uprising by Dan Elish
The Year of Miss Agnes by Kirkpatrick Hill
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Trumpet of the Swans by E. B. White

Resources

Books

·      100 Books for Girls to Grow On by Shireen Dodson – Has lots of book ideas for books which are appropriate for this age group and older. Includes ideas for activities and discussion questions.

·      The Mother Daughter Book Club by Shireen Dodson (this is more appropriate for pre-teen girls)

·      The New Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease

·      Great Books About Things Kids Love by Kathleen Odean

Websites

·      Link to a website about open ended questions: https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/article/open-ended-questions

·      How to use open-ended questions with children: http://storiesandchildren.com/open-ended-questions/

·      Reading Maniacs book club, includes list of books in the order they’ve read them over the years: http://www.kidsfirstsoccer.com/bookclub.html