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!