Odd and the Frost Giants

October's Children's Book Club selection was Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman.

This novel is based on the traditional Norse mythological gods Thor, Loki, and Odin, and their kingdom, Asgard. Gaiman creates a new twist to the classic tale by inserting a very human, very likable twelve-year old as the main protagonist of the story.

Odd is an unlucky boy. His father has died, his mother has remarried an unkind man, and his village is in a perpetual state of winter. Odd decides to set off on his own, intending to leave behind all of the bickering that has ensued from the bad weather. What he ends up doing is befriending the famous gods who have been banished from Asgard. In the guise of a bear, a fox, and an eagle, the gods and their young human friend travel back to Asgard in order to reclaim their kingdom from the powerful Frost Giants. Unsurprisingly, Odd ends up the hero of the story, using brains over might in order to defeat the dreaded enemy.

This month's Book Club pick was highly praised by its participants. Our third and fourth grade readers loved the plotting of the book, as well as the interactions between the main characters. They all felt that Odd would be a pretty cool friend to have.

Harry liked the fact that the book was a fantasy. As he stated, "fantasies are a good show of your imagination." Essentially, if you have an imagination, you can do anything. Andreas learned a bunch of new words with this book, including "fjord" and "squall". And Cameron loved the way that Gaiman thought out the book as a whole. When I asked the group if there were any flaws in the book, Cam said "there were no waves, no ripples. The tide was flat." Nothing was wrong with this book! In one word, the book was "fantabulous"!

November's Children's Book Club selection is Loser by Jerry Spinelli and December's selection is The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo. I look forward to seeing you all there!

When You Reach Me

The September selection for the Book Club for kids grades 5-6 was When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead.

This Newbery Award winner tells the story of Miranda and her very eventful year in sixth grade. Her best friend freezes her out of his life, her mom is a contestant on a game show, and someone is leaving her very strange notes. The stories surrounding these events in Miranda's life provide the backdrop for this truly original novel.

The participants in this month's Book Club meeting found Ms. Stead's story very original...maybe too original! Although the kids really enjoyed the characters and the science-fiction aspects of the book, parts of it were just too confusing. As one sixth grader noted, "the book just jumped around way too much".

*SPOILER ALERT*

The time travel that lies at the heart of the story (though only realized at the end of the book) was pretty confusing to all of the readers. As one of the readers asked, "Why didn't The Laughing Man go back to the past in order to change something really important, like September 11th, and not just one kid's life?" A great point and a great topic for conversation both on character motivation AND the rules regarding time travel.

Next month's Book Club selection for this age is A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, a book which heavily influenced Stead and her writing. A Wrinkle in Time was chosen by the Book Club both because it should help us to understand When You Reach Me a bit more and because it has frequenly been among the works on Banned Books lists. September 24-October 1 is Banned Books Week, which celebrates our freedom to read.

The Lemonade War

September's Children's Book Club selection was The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies.

This amusing tale about sibling rivalry, friends, enemies, and lemonade stands is a great read for both boys and girls. When Jessie skips grades and ends up in her brother's fourth grade class, the siblings' once unbreakable bond is tested. Evan starts acting distant and Jessie doesn't know what to do. Jessie may be a math whiz but she is awful at figuring people out. It becomes all out war between the brother and sister...a lemonade war.

This month's Book Club pick was very well liked. Our third and fourth grade readers really appreciated the humor in the book, as well as the very relatable emotions that siblings feel. Every kid can relate to running a lemonade stand and every kid can relate to being in a fight with a friend.

September's Children's Book Club selection is Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman. I look forward to seeing you all there!

The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg

August's Children's Book Club selection was The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick.

This funny, engaging, suspenseful, action-packed novel was a 2011 Newbery Honor Book. And for good reason. The tightly-woven story about a young boy seeking his older brother follows an interesting path. The narrator tends to lie...well, he says he's just telling stories and making the truth more interesting. Following this somewhat unreliable narrator on his journey to find his brother (and happiness) is very fun.

"Philbrick (Freak the Mighty) offers rip-roaring adventure in this Civil War–era novel featuring a mistreated orphan who doesn't let truth stand in the way of spinning a good yarn. When his guardian, Uncle Squinton—the meanest man in the entire state of Maine—sells off Homer P. Figg's older brother, Harold, to take a rich man's son's place in the Union army, Homer can't just stand around doing nothing. Determined to alert the authorities (and his brother) that Harold is too young to be a soldier, the plucky narrator traces the path of the regiment. He faces many dangers, including an abduction or two, and being robbed and thrown in with the pigs, and joining the Caravan of Miracles before landing smack in the middle of the Battle of Gettysburg, where he reunites with his brother and more or less drives the Confederates away. The book wouldn't be nearly as much fun without Homer's tall tales, but there are serious moments, too, and the horror of war and injustice of slavery ring clearly above the din of playful exaggerations" (Publisher's Weekly).

This month's Book Club pick was very well liked. One of the members thought that the beginning of the story was a little slow but "it got way better! 5 1/2 out of 5 stars!" Another club member said that the book is "funny. The beginning was slow. Overall, it was a great book. The beginning needed more detail and excitement. 4 1/2 out of 5 stars!"

September's Children's Book Club selection is The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies. I look forward to seeing you all there!

And please stay tuned for details on another Book Club which will be starting after the start of school!

The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall

July’s Children's Book Club selection was The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall by Mary Downing Hahn.

This ghost story, set in early 1800’s England, borrows quite heavily from the gothic novels popular in that time period. And it’s a good thing that it does. The atmospheric setting, suspense, and language all add up to an enjoyable read.

When twelve year old orphan Florence Crutchfield is summoned to her unknown uncle’s estate in rural England, Florence thinks that her fortunes have definitely changed for the better. She will soon gain a loving great aunt, uncle, and cousin. But upon her arrival at the sprawling house, Florence is met with hostility by her aunt and realizes that she is a relatively unwelcome intrusion in her newfound family’s lives. When Florence starts to hear voices and sense things that aren’t what they seem, she has to use her wits in order to survive the Ghost of Crutchfield Hall.

This month's Book Club pick was generally well-received. One of the members thought that the story was a little too scary. However, most members felt that the story had a good balance of suspense and story. One member felt that the tale ended too abruptly and left the story a little too much up in the air; was this a cliffhanger for a sequel? It was agreed that most members would read the next installment of Florence’s adventures at the haunted mansion.

August’s Children's Book Club selection is The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by W. Rodman Philbrick. I look forward to seeing you all there!

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

The Children's Book Club selection for June was Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin.

This fairytale, set in medieval China, tells the tale of Minli and her quest for good fortune. Minli lives with her parents in a small village under the shadow of Fruitless Mountain, a barren behemoth that yields no food. The villagers spend their days planting enough rice to feed themselves and they can never "get ahead". Minli toils with her parents all day in the fields; her only true happiness is listening to her father's fairytales that he tells in the evenings. Minli's mother, however, views these stories as frivolous and is certain that they give Minli unrealistic ideas of what her life could be like.

Worn down by her mother's constant complaining, Minli decides to set off on her own in order to find her fortune from the Old Man on the Moon. Thus begins this thrilling tale filled with dragons, talking fish, magic threads, evil emperors, and action galore! This Kids Reading Across Rhode Island book (and Rooster Book nominee) is a modern classic.

Once again, there was no group consensus on this month's Book Club pick. A few members thought that the magical apsects of the story were really interesting, though maybe there were too many fairytales told by Minli's father. One member felt that the story jumped around too much and was a little confusing. Most members agreed that Minli's mother should not have been so unhappy with her life, as she had her daughter, husband, and the wonderful tales he told in order to keep her happy.

July's Children's Book Club selection is The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall by Mary Downing Hahn. This Gothic-inspired ghost story is filled with suspense, action, and drama to spare!

My Life as a Book

The Children's Book Club selection for May was My Life as a Book, by Janet Tashjian with cartoons by her son, Jake Tashjian.

This story, set in modern-day California and Martha's Vineyard, tells the struggle that reluctant reader Derek has with completing his summer reading AND staying out of trouble. His antics include pelting avocados at the mail truck, playing with a trained monkey that is under his veterinarian mother's care, and generally trying to cause as much havoc as possible. It is only when Derek stumbles upon a faded newspaper article about a drowning in Martha's Vineyard a decade before that he becomes focused on a task: to find out the truth about the drowned teenager in the article. This quest leads Derek 3,000 miles from home and further away from completing his summer reading. Derek must decide which is more important.

This book has been compared to the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney. Although both are about mischievous boys and use cartoons, the Book Club felt that Kinney's books use the drawings to highlight the action and add to the story while Tashjian's drawings are more a method of explaining, in picture, some of the harder vocabulary words within the book.

There was no group consensus on My Life as a Book. Some of the club members felt that this was a really interesting read, combining humor with mystery in order to create a unique reading experience. Other club members thought that the story jumped around too much to be truly enjoyable.

June's Children's Book Club selection is Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin. This book was a Rhode Island Children's Book Award (Rooster Games) nominee for 2011 and is the Kids Reading Across Rhode Island book. (Grace Lin will be speaking on Saturday, May 14 at the RI State House) The Book Club is excited to read this fairy-tale adventure set in medieval China!