Our sunflowers and nasturtiums have sprouted up, a great reminder of April's meeting when we painted plant pots and planted seeds after discussing The Secret Garden.  We had a great book hunt to find books on India (where Mary was born), on the Yorkshire Dales (where the Craven estate is located) and even for books also set in the Yorkshire Dales, including James Herriot's excellent animal stories.  Thanks everyone for a great discussion!

May is our final bookclub for this round -- registration for the Mother Daughter Teen Bookclub begins September 4, with the first bookclub taking place on  Wednesday, September 25.  The rest of 2013 will see us meeting on the 3rd Wednesday of the month (Oct. 16, Nov. 20, no meeting in Dec).

May is Bring A Friend to Book Club!  So if you have a friend that is going to be 12 years old in September 2013,  and interested in joining, please bring them along on Wednesday, May 15th!  We'll be having a special book club -- making BUTTONS!  These are pin-back buttons and mothers and daughters can design their own using recycled materials including old magazines, old books, scrapbooking paper, stickers and more!

THE WESTING GAME:  We'll of course discuss Ellen Raskin's The Westing Game, winner of the Newbery in 1979.  So many interesting characters to discuss!  Turtle, Mr. Hoo, J.J. Ford, Theo and Chris Theodorakis, Otis Amber!  And who was responsible for robbing Mr. Westing of his life?  A great mystery and so many clues!

You can watch a movie trailer of the 1997 Get A Clue movie, based on The Westing Game: http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3131375897/

You can learn more about the author Ellen Raskin here -- in fact there's a connection to our runner book from February (we were deciding between From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and A Wrinkle in Time).  Ellen Raskin was a graphic designer and illustrator -- in fact, she was the illustrator of the first edition of A Wrinkle in Time!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Raskin

Finally, can't remember all the characters playing the Westing Game?  You can use this handy guide in the Wikipedia entry to prompt your memory!  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Westing_Game

Look forward to discussing this very witty mystery with you all, and sharing snacks and crafts next week!