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.

Loot...and The Dog Who Wouldn't Be

Our October and November titles both touched on what is "truth"?   Should we lie?  Is there such thing as a good lie?As Farley Mowat once said: “I will take any liberty I want with the facts so long as I don’t trespass on the truth.”

LOOT by Jude Watson
We had a great discussion about the book Loot back in October.   The book's main characters are twins -- March and Jules who meet for the first time shortly after the death of their father, Alfie McQuinn, a skilled jewel thief.  They have a rocky start to their relationship and given their upbringing, do not trust each other.  But they do try to avenge their father's death and there are some likeable characters who help out along the way. 

Some book club members were not convinced of the authenticity of the characters -- they seemed like caricatures at times.  Everyone agreed the action was fast-paced but it was difficult to connect with March and Jules on an emotional level because they weren't fully fleshed out.  Where the plot was thin, the book made up for it with laughs and some great Alfie quotes!

We made jewelry as we talked -- paper beads fine enough that they just may have had appeal to a novice jewel thief!  We rolled beautiful patterned paper and discarded books into colourful beads, which we then strung on embroidery thread.  These necklaces do not take much time to make -- and just need a little patience, paper/discarded book pages, a pencil or souvlaki stick and glue or podge -- and some thread!
Some simple directions are here: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Paper-Beads

THE DOG WHO WOULDN'T BE by Farley Mowat
We watched a short video interview by Sandra Martin of Farley Mowat on The Globe and Mail's website called "In His Own Words: The Life and Times of Farley Mowat".  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/acclaimed-canadian-author-farley-mowat-dead-at-92/article18511064/

This launched a discussion about creative non-fiction versus non-fiction.  Everyone enjoyed the humour in Mowat's The Dog Who Wouldn't Be -- many of us laughed out loud while reading the book.  But as it was supposed to be autobiographical, some of us were compelled to look at the dates given in the book, and to try to figure out how old Farley was at various points, but we realized that he was very loose with the historical timeline!  It all made sense when we watched this interview -- and coming to terms with what Farley deems the truth -- the emotional truth of an event or issue versus the factual truth.

Given the brilliant use of language in the book, we played a word definition game "Balderdash".  We had a lot of fun inventing meanings of words that are rarely used in everyday conversation!  It was fun to try to guess who made which definition up!  There were definitely some patterns based on our interests and tastes...Fun game!  And played with some very fun and creative mothers and daughters!

THE UNDERNEATH by Kathi Appelt is our January title -- we'll be meeting on January 21st, 7 - 8:30 pm.   Set in the Bayou, this Newbery Honor Book tells the story of loyalty and friendship between an old hound dog, a mama cat and her two kittens.  Look forward to discussing the horrible Gar-Face, mean owner of that sweet dog!

If you are looking for reading over the holidays, try one of the 2015 nominees for the Red Maple Award or White Pine Award -- follow the links to the books and borrow them while they are still in the library!  The book we read last spring The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B by Teresa Toten is a White Pine 2015 nominee!! Bravo!

See you in 2015!

Linda

Welcome Back! October book: Loot by Jude Watson

We had a great start to the new school year -- we created a banner featuring flags for each member.  It is now hanging in the Masonville Library's Teen Annex.  We still have a spot for two more Mother-Daughter pairs so if you know of anyone interested, they can contact staff at 519-660-4646.

We will meet Wednesday, October 15, 7-8:30 pm to discuss Jude Watson's Loot: How to Steal a Fortune.  Our craft activity will definitely be jewelry heist inspired!  Hmm, wonder what snack might be appropriate...

You can check out Jude Watson's blog here: http://judewatsonbooks.com/loot/

Look forward to discussing this fast-paced book with you all.  I loved all of Alfie's quotes of wisdom:

Never trust a guy who says “Trust me.”
If there’s no way out, find a way.
If people were meant to look back, they’d be owls.
Do it any way you want, but don’t do it stupid.

No matter how good you are, kid, remember this: Sometimes you get caught.

See you next month!

Looking for something else to read in the meantime?  Consider subscribing to the London Public Library's Teen Scene eNewsletter (click link to view current issue).  You can click here to subscribe!

Happy autumn!

Linda

New Mother Daughter Session starts...Wed. Sept. 17!

Hope everyone had a great summer!  The new Mother Daughter Book Club session at Masonville starts on Wednesday, September 17, 7 - 8:30 pm in the Sam Neill Room.  Registration is now live so you can visit www.londonpubliclibrary.ca or follow this link to register.  You can also register in person at the branch (30 North Centre Rd.) or call us at 519-660-4646.

There were so many new books to read this summer, and the time flew by!  It was great to listen to many of come to the library to report on what you were reading in the Get Caught Reading program --  from James Dashner's The Maze Runner series to revisiting Veronica Roth's Divergent series to Marie Lu's Legend books.  Yes, series were popular this summer -- it felt like you had the characters with you at the beach, in the park and on the couch!

I'm looking forward to reading some new titles and old favourites and learning about what you'd like to read!

I have some cool crafts and activities in the planning stages -- and I'm always open to suggestions on what you'd like to explore or skills you'd like to learn.





See you all Wednesday, September 17!  If you have any questions about the book club or registering, drop me a line at linda.bussiere@lpl.london.on.ca. or call the branch at 519-660-4646. 

Linda