November book: The Nest by Kenneth Oppel!

Thanks to everyone who came out to October's meeting to discuss The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden by Phillipa Dowding!  We all enjoyed hearing Dowding's account of "A Birth of A Children's Author" from her blog -- especially about how she came to write her first Gargoyle book, and her daughter's response after reading the first finished draft: How did YOU write this?

We spent our craft time creating a display for our November book...The Nest by Kenneth Oppel!  We had started ahead of time some papier maché wasp nests.  HarperCollins kindly sent us some wonderful things to create a display including a blowup of the book cover, a giant Window cling featuring wasps!, bookmarks, and our favourite: wasp tattoos!

We had fun popping the balloons to free the wasp nests -- and then we had a whole pile of sticks gathered from the backyard, along with cutouts of wasps, embroidery floss, string and we set to work!

Our display ended up including the windows in our Teen Annex along with the back door (!) and a wonderful swirling ceiling display of 3 of the wasp nests.  We tucked battery-operated tea lights inside for an extra eerie feel!

Can't wait to share our thoughts about this book at our November meeting.  Since we read David Almond's Skelling last year we may find some parallels between these two stories.  Both feature a main character -- a boy -- who finds himself a big brother to a very ill newborn baby. Kenneth Oppel's website has a wonderful book trailer, an excerpt and excellent discussion guide.  Artwork is by the amazingly talented award-winning illustrator and writer Jon Klassen.

Have a look at the London Public Library Facebook page to view a short movie of the floating The Nest Display at Masonville Library!  Be sure to check London Public Library's posts on Twitter and keep checking in at the hashtag #NestContest to see other amazing displays by bookstores and libraries for Kenneth Oppel's The Nest!

See you Mother & Daughters on Wednesday, November 18, 7 - 8:30 pm in the Neill Room!

Linda B.

The Fault in Our Stars: You Can Never Have Too Much Kleenex

While many of us had already read The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, it was wonderful to revisit it.  Some of us tried to read it in French!  Yes, you still need Kleenex even as you read it for the second or third time.

The other book choice was Richard Scimger and Marthe Jocelyn's Viminy Crowe's Comic Book.  This is a fast-paced adventure that truly brings comics to life -- the characters in the book realize they are "in" a comic book.  They turn the page to save themselves from the next peril.  Everyone who read it liked this one!

As this was our final session for the year, we watched the movie The Fault in Our Stars, complete with snacks!  We bid farewell to our Mother Daughter Book Club members -- see you in September. But of course several of them we see for the amazing Get Caught Reading program all summer :)

We'll resume the Masonville Mother Daughter Book Club on Wednesday, September 16th -- hope to see you there!  If you are a huge Brian Selznick fan you'll want to be on the lookout for his new book which releases September 15: The Marvels!

Skellig: How do you deal with grief and strong emotions?

Our April book was Skellig by David Almond.  This Printz Honor-winning novel makes a wonderful read-aloud.  I remember sitting outside the first week school finished, on a hot July day reading it to my three children.  They wouldn't let me put it down to pour lemonade! 

Skellig is the story of 10 year old Michael who has two big life changes in a short time -- his family move house, and his mother has a baby girl.  Sadly, the new baby is very ill and is in hospital just as the family are trying to renovate and settle into their new home.  Michael is befriended by a fascinating homeschooled girl Mina, who loves William Blake and drawing.  Michael is told by his father not to go near the dilapidated old wooden shed at the back of the garden.  Of course Michael does.  Inside he discovers a mysterious creature, who along with Mina help Michael overcome his fears and worries.

We had a great time sketching and drawing, in the spirit of Mina and Michael!  Spring is sprung!

March: Transportation Inspired Art!

We read The Boundless by Kenneth Oppel, and Unspeakable by Caroline Pignat.  Both were Red Maple nominees for 2015 -- however the Oppel book was in the juvenile fiction section, whereas Pignat's in the Teen Annex fiction section.

As some of our members are in Grade 6 and 7, we had a member in Grade 10 quite concerned about some upsetting content in Unspeakable.  We won't spoil the plot for you, it is revealed early on in the story that a main character has been raped.  On their own, the younger members of the group preferred to read The Boundless, so it all worked out.

Both stories involved main characters who were pretending to be someone or something they were not -- in The Boundless, Will Everett takes on the identity of an East Indian circus performer, and in Unspeakable, Ellie Ryan who is from the upper middle class, becomes employed as a maid on board a ship.

We had a great evening creating collages on canvases which we painted blue.  We used images and words from discarded books, old magazines and incorporated selections from a wonderful collection of postage stamps donated by a Masonville patron.  These pieces hung in the Teen Annex of the Masonville Library for 6 months.

Be sure to check out Caroline Pignat's informative website & Kenneth Oppel's marvelous website!

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library: Thanks for being "game" to play

Clue:  Most sparsely populated country in Europe: Retain 1st letter + "S" =   ___    ____

Congratulations to the Masonville Mother Daughter Book Club on solving the anagrams and puzzles and hunting through all the Dewey Decimals to find books with clue cards!  The solution was:

Your library is the key to open your eyes to the world!  Thanks to Mica for solving the extra puzzle contained in the book  -- an anagram using the first letters of each chapter! 

We had a great time discussing Chris Grabenstein's book Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library.  We talked about libraries of the future -- and what other libraries are doing in other cities across the world.  iPads tethered to a table in the Children's area, loaded with literacy apps and games, libraries with green screens for making your own movie or music video -- instruments, recording software.  It's all coming faster than we think!

We voted between two AMAZING 2015 Red Maple Nominees -- Kenneth Oppel's The Boundless and Caroline Pignat's Unspeakable.  Both have compelling stories and of course despite Unspeakable getting all the votes, many of you took along a copy of The Boundless as well!

For those of you interested in the London Youth Advisory Council, nominations are being accepted until March   ,campaigning starts April 11, and voting is May 3 - 8th.  You must be 15-25 to stand as a Youth Councillor, and 13-25 years to vote!  Check out the website for details: http://www.lyac.ca/

Look forward to seeing you all in March -- we're meeting Wed. March 25 instead of during March Break.  7 - 8:30 pm, the usual time, in the usual place.

See you then!

Linda

Double the Fun: January 21 bookclub

Due to some dazed and confused state in November, I thought our January title was The Underneath by Kathi Appelt, with Outside In by Sarah Ellis being the runner up.  Sofia has kindly dropped by this afternoon to the branch to tell me of my error. 

So...half of us will have read The Underneath and half of us Outside In. This should make for a lively discussion!  I am almost finished Outside In and I am re-reading The Underneath so I should be in the loop...

We'll be doing a découpage project with a small typewriter table that will join the library's furniture collection.  Our project will be book-themed and we can all find images and photos from our collection of collaging materials.  Dress for mess!


Look forward to seeing you Wed. Jan. 21, 7 - 8:30 pm.  Snack will be provided as well - we'll need lots of energy to get cutting and pasting!


Linda B.