Grades 5-6 Book Club

December's Middle School Book Club selection was The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. Don't be fooled by the movie Hugo or at least the trailers: there is no maniacal station agent perpetually chasing young Hugo or a super-active robot. There is a truly entertaining tale about an orphan boy who lives behind the walls of a train station, fixing clocks all day. Interwoven into this seemingly fantastical tale is the even more magical true history of the father of modern cinema, who ended up working as a toymaker/seller at that Paris train station in 1913. This is the story, the invention, of the boy Hugo Cabret but also the revelation of what friendship, perseverance, faith, and kindness can do to shape our lives.

Our fifth and sixth grade readers really enjoyed this book. We were able to talk about the parallels between Hugo's life and that of George Melies, the toymaker. Discussion of the word & picture format of the book illuminated how the book itself reads like a movie, the original trade of M. Melies. And we discussed how so many of the characters in the book are "broken" and how they are able to be fixed or fix themselves.

5 out of 5!

Stay tuned for the book club selection for January.

December Book Club - Grades 3-4

December's Children's Book Club selection was The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo.

This enchanting tale tells the story of Peter Augustus Duchene, a ten-year-old orphan who lives a fairly grim existence with an ex-soldier friend of his father's who makes him practice drilling and soldiering all hours of the day and night. The young boy is resigned to his life but is always wondering about his sister Adele. Peter was led to believe that Adele died along with his mother during childbirth but he just can't quite grasp that as the truth. When a fortune-teller comes to town and promises to answer a single question for a farthing, Peter spends his supper money on finding out about Adele. The answer that the fortune-teller gives him sets in motion a series of events that changes the lives of many of those around Peter and creates the dynamic for this book.

Our third and fourth grade readers really enjoyed this book. As Emma stated, "I don't read too much but I found this book really interesting. I really liked it." When asked what appealed to her, she replied "I liked the way that it was put together. And I had fun imagining how the author thought up all of these interesting situations, like the elephant falling through the ceiling!" Harry agreed, saying that the author's construction of the book was "very clever." Although Andeas thought that the book was too slow in points, his overall impression was pretty positive, as he rated it 9.5 out of 10!

We had a very nice discussion about the construction of the novel itself, DiCamillo's imagination, how we would feel in similar situations that the characters were put in, and whether or not we'd change the ending. As Harry stated, "there's always something mysterious in the books we read. Mysteries make them better." By having some questions unanswered, readers are forced to think of possible outcomes or future plot points on their own. And they are more than up to the challenge!

An average of five out of five stars for The Magician's Elephant!

January's Children's Book Club selection is Liar, Liar: The Theory, Practice, and Destructive Properties of Deception by Gary Paulsen. I look forward to seeing you all there!

Loser

November's Children's Book Club selection was Loser by Jerry Spinelli. This novel follows Donald Zinkoff from first through sixth grades as he navigates the highs and lows of elementary school.

Donald Zinkoff, quickly dubbed "Zinkoff" by all but his family, is a kid who does not know how uncool he is. He yells out "YAHOO!" at the most embarrasing times, constantly trips over his own two feet, spontaneously vomits on himself and others, and just does not act like the other kids. When a bully tries to take away a prized possession, Zinkoff ruins his fun by readily handing over the item, thinking that the bully must want it more than he, himself, needs it. While other kids drag their feet to school, Zinkoff makes sure that he's the first to arrive. When a teacher reverses the alphabetical seating order and places the usually banished-to-the-back-row Zinkoff in the front row, the boy feels like a kid at Christmas. Thankfully, Zinkoff is blissfully unaware of how much he sticks out among his peers. It's only when he gets his "big kid eyes" and realizes that others call him a "loser" that Zinkoff senses a difference. But he doesn't let any difference dampen his outlook on life and on himself.

Our third and fourth grade readers enjoyed the main themes of this book and the main character. They felt that Zinkoff might be a "spaz" but he is a nice kid who just marches to the beat of his own drummer. As Cameron stated, "Zinkoff doesn't care if he wins or loses. He's fun. He's nice." Those sentiments were echoed by Ben. Andreas thought that the book was "funny, because there are funny words in the story, like "jabip!" It was agreed that Zinkoff is behind others in his grade in terms of awareness of others and that he sometimes kills others with kindness. However, if they were to meet him in real life, the book club members feel that they'd be friends with Zinkoff since he would make a great friend: he's funny, loyal and likes to do fun things.

Four out of five stars for this month's selection (would those be some of Zinkoff's beloved silver stars??!!)!

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

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!

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

This month, the Book Club read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (adapted by Malvina G. Vogel with illustrations by Brendan Lynch). There were three separate short stories in this volume: The Red-Headed League, The Adventure of the Speckled Band, and The Adventure of the Copper Beeches.

Unfortunately, our group found several problems with this book. First of all, it should be mentioned that everyone agreed that the book was too easy to read for our group's age bracket. There were too many pictures and not enough words...these kids want to READ! Other issues with the book can be summed up in some of the comments made:

Nick: "It was too British...I didn't like Sherlock because he was too annoying."

Ben: "Sherlock was too full of himself. He brags a lot and he is too nerdy."

Liam: "The plots of the stories were too revised."

However, there were some positive comments about the book:

Cameron: "The stories were awesome because they had snakes...Sherlock and Watson didn't know what was going to happpen but I did!"

Liam: "I liked that they solved mysteries."

Alas, this was not one of the better reviewed books that our club has read. Here's hoping that next month's book, My Life as a Book, fares better!

Toward the end of the discussion, Miss Lisa handed out materials that were adapted from a Scholastic, Inc. exercise. These worksheets highlighted the "Ingredients for a Mystery" and the steps to "Planning Your Mystery" through determining the Setting, the Problem, the Suspects, the Detective, the Clues, and a Sequence of Events. These worksheets are a great way to get kids to write their own stories.

Please check back soon for the submitted mysteries, written by our very own Book Club authors!

The Giant-Slayer

In March, the Book Club read The Giant-Slayer by Iain Lawrence. This tale, set in 1950's Massachusetts in the midst of the polio epidemic sweeping America, works on multiple levels. It is a historical fiction account of a specific time and place in history, with characters either battling polio or worried that they might get the disease. The main protagonist, Laurie Valentine, spends much of her time on the polio ward, visiting her sick friend. It is there that she meets the other patients in their iron lungs and begins to weave a magical story of a tiny boy (not young, but tiny) who sets off to slay a giant in order to gain acceptance. The back and forth narration, between the 1950's and a time long ago, keeps readers on their toes, drawing similarities between the past and present, and between their lives and those characters in Laurie's tale.

As a group, we found this book to be well-written but too confusing for the grade levels we cover. The whole idea of polio is foreign to the group and much time was spent in discussing polio itself and the iron lung "treatment." The jumping back and forth between stories was also a little too complex. We'll wait and try to re-read this in a couple of years as the adults who read it just raved about the book!

The Doll People

Today’s Book Club was filled with laughter and a little bit of mayhem, perfect for the subject of our discussion. The Doll People, by Ann M. Martin and Laura Godwin, was a hit with our members. The adventures of Annabelle Doll, her family, and her new neighbors made for an entertaining read and lively meeting.

Everyone appreciated the themes of friendship and testing your comfort limits. Annabelle was able to stop being so bored and restless when she challenged her daily existence and opened her heart to an exciting, yet very different, new friend. And all of the Doll family were able to overcome their fear of the unknown in both their quest for Auntie Sarah and their acceptance of their new (both figurative and literal) neighbors.

We had a fun discussion of whether or not our dolls/toys/stuffed animals are real or not. The general opinion is that, yes, indeed, our beloved playthings do come to life while we sleep. So, next time you put down a toy, check to make sure that it’s in the same place the next time you go to play with it. Odds are, it might have had an adventure without you!

Our next Book Club meeting will be held Thursday, March 3rd from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Please note the change in time.

A Tale Dark and Grimm

I forgot to post about the Book Club’s January meeting centered on a discussion of Adam Gidwitz’s A Tale Dark and Grimm. My bad. A brief overview: we all loved it!

Gidwitz cleverly weaves together various fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm in order to create a story both familiar and completely original. The book is thrilling, bloody, scary, funny, and just plain great! The reader feels the excitement that Hansel and Gretel experience as they run away from home and have their numerous adventures. The insertion of the narrator throughout the story, warning young kids away before especially scary sections, is a unique device which was appreciated by all of our readers.

We’d recommend this book to all readers, though not to the extremely faint of heart. Though even those readers might surprise themselves with courage borrowed from the brave Hansel and Gretel.