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.