We had a small but mighty group on Wed. April 16th to discuss Evan Munday's Dead Kids Detective Agency.  We had some character trading cards with Morna, Derek, Tabitha, Cyril and the other dead kids, as well as October Schwartz herself! 

We had fun creating blackout poetry -- using pages of discarded books and a sharpie we erased or blacked out excess words to keep the finest to create a poem!  In keeping with the writerly theme we also created poems from magnetic poetry!  We did not play Scrabble as much as Mr. Schwartz would have liked us too...

Our next meeting is our last for this year -- we'll register the Mother Daughter Book Club again for fall starting on Wed. Sept. 3.  First session will be Wed. Sept. 17 -- we'll meet the third Wednesday from Sept 2014 until May 2015, but no session in December.  Register both mother's name and daughter's name -- and we'll see you in September.

But for May!  We couldn't decide on My Name is Parvana by Deborah Ellis OR The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, so everyone took both!  Read whichever one you like and we'll discuss both!  We will also be watching a movie for our last session -- you can vote on which title on our Doodle poll.  I'll email you the link.  The Elegance of the Hedgehog?  Frozen?  The Mortal Instruments?

See you Wed. May 21, 6:15- - 8:30 pm -- we'll meet earlier to accommodate movie watching and we'll have lots of chips, popcorn, pop and juice on hand.  Bring a friend too if you like!

Linda B.

We met last evening on Wednesday, March 19, to discuss Teresa Toten's Governor General Award Winner The Unlike Hero of Room 13B.  Adam Spencer Ross, the main character who suffers from OCD, was deemed by some of the mothers and daughters to be beyond-his-years in maturity, but most of us attributed that to his home life and his malady.

We were all intrigued by Adam's Lists that he gives to his doctor Chuck as a effort towards dealing with his OCD.  Lying, liars and lies were central to Adam's lists as he tried to cover up his OCD and his mother's mental illness.  "Everybody lies, son.  Everybody."  Teresa Toten has a great website, you can check it out here.

So of course we had to play "Two Lies and a Truth" at Book Club.  There were lots of laughs as we voted on which 3 Facts stated by our members were lies or truths.  We had some skilled liars among us!    And some exciting personal facts:
One mom had once played hockey with Wayne Gretzky.  And almost met JFK Jr.!
One daughter was born in an examining room.
One mom did not run away at age 15, but did still play with Barbies at age 13.
One mom was not in a rock band.
One daughter was not born in Moscow, but her mom did once write for the Toronto Star.

Thanks to Sofia for an excellent tip on a short film called Mr. Hublot, which features a steam-punk world, a lonely man with OCD and a charming dog.  The lonely man trying to save the little dog reminded us of Adam, our Unlikely Hero, who was able to triumph over his fears to save his mother.  The truth did finally come out and allow Adam to heal.

Adam's struggle and Teresa Toten's book actually ended up helping me finish the lyrics to a song I was working on.  You never know what aspects of your life will be inspired and changed by a book!

Next up: We'll be meeting on Wednesday, April 16th, 7 - 8:30 pm and this month we're reading a mystery -- Evan Munday's The Dead Kid Detective Agency.  Evan Munday's blog "I Don't Like Mundays" is worth checking out, you can also learn more about the book on the publisher, ECW Press's website.  

PS  Close runner-up to our April book was Rachel Hartman's White Pine 2014 nominee Seraphina.  Several members walked away with both books, so we'll likely talk a bit about both!  Both novels are written by cartoonists and feature a mystery that needs solving.

For those of you who can never find enough books to read, be sure to visit the LPL Teen "Books and Magazines" section and subscribe to the Teen Scene Newletter (free! right to your email!) for great reading suggestions.

See you in April!

Linda B.

We're meeting this coming Wednesday, February 19th, 7 - 8:30 pm!  We'll be discussing Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, And What Alice Found There (1871).  

Get ready to practice your backwards handwriting as we transcribe the poem Jabberwocky as Alice first read it in a book on the other side of the mirror.  We'll have mirrors on hand so we can proof-read our work!

We'll also put on a short Readers Theatre version of Chapter IV -- Tweedledum and Tweedledee -- all 16 members will have a part to read! Mothers too!

We all borrowed so many different versions of this title, some of the illustrators (Oxenbury, Newell, Ross) differed, but be sure to check out John Tenniel's original illustrations in this archived copy of the book, which is also available through Project Gutenberg.   Lewis Carroll actually illustrated his first Alice story, Alice in Wonderland, to begin with, but the publisher's suggested Tenniel, who also worked for Punch magazine on occasion, to take this work on.

You can read more about Through the Looking Glass on the very thorough Wikipedia entry.

Look forward to seeing you all in a few days!  Happy Family Day!

Linda B.

Our January bookclub started with a visit from London Public Library's Marketing Department, documenting an evening at the Masonville branch.  Thanks to Rita Verhulst for taking this wonderful photo of us all smiling!  

Masonville's Mother Daughter Bookclub, January 15, 2014

GRAPHIC NOVELS! What talented mothers and daughters!  We had a great time creating storyboards for our own graphic novel ideas after our discussion of the various books we'd read.

Instead of all reading the same graphic novel we each read a different one.  Some of us read manga , others chose books like Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis -- we read everything from Pokemon to Essex County by Jeff Lemire.

• We discussed briefly whether or not there was a gender bias in boys having a preference for this format?  
• Some of us preferred to imagine characters and settings ourselves rather than see them drawn -- one participant said it was like preferring the book over the movie, you wanted to develop your own idea of the character in your mind. 
• Some of us were new to the experience of reading graphic novels and found it a challenge to read the illustrations while also taking in the text.

Some very creative and engaging stories were told and drawn when we settled down with storyboards and a few ideas on the whiteboard.  Theme/plot ideas to draw out stories for inspiration included:  The Argument, Shoplifting, Who Broke it?, Just Try it (On), The Blanket, Getting Lost, The Family Dinner, The (Car) Trip, How to Keep a Secret.  Each group created their own unique story.

SHOPPING FOR A DRESS FOR GRADE 8 GRADUATION:  One storyboard started with a memory. While the mother pleaded "Just try it on!", the daughter kept coming out of the change room in her street clothes after finding each dress did not fit with HER idea of a grad dress.  Big bows!  The wrong colour!  After driving home in tears of frustration (both mother and daughter) the pair decided to draw up a contract.  They arrived at agreed upon behaviour (for each of them!) that would work for success in finding the elusive graduation dress.  The contract worked!  In the last panel the daughter is happily wearing the PERFECT dress...

GRANDMOTHER'S CHAIR:  One mother daughter pair drew on a compelling story passed down through their family.  I had just finished reading Art Spiegelman's graphic novels Maus, so their graphic novel idea was particularly moving.  It was the story of a grandmother who protected her son (a member of the Belgian resistance) from arrest by not moving from her chair!

One evening the Gestapo stormed their home searching for evidence.  In fact, the son had come home with some important documents that would have linked him to the resistance but he had left them in his jacket pocket.  The grandmother was a large woman who loved to cook and eat! She sat, with a forbidding look to the Gestapo, in her usual chair.  While they searched and turned the house upside down they didn't dare ask the old grandmother to rise from her seat.  She stared them down.  The Gestapo left empty-handed.  Where were the documents?  Where was the jacket?  Hanging right on the back of Grandmother's chair -- she had been sitting on the pocket of the coat, right on top of the papers the whole while! What a story!  Perhaps some day this duo will finish their drawings and get it published!

There were some lighthearted, funny stories too -- a floating toaster in outer space, a glass owl ornament sitting on a mantel that somehow ended up in pieces on the floor...We could have drawn and told stories all evening!  Great collaborations!

FEBRUARY TITLE:

• Lewis Carroll's Alice Through the Looking Glass.  This will be put on as a play adapted by James Reaney (Canadian poet, playwright who was born in Stratford but lived for many years here in London)  this season at the Stratford Festival! 
• As a special treat, on Tuesday, March 11, Stratford will offer an Alice Through the Looking Glass workshop for ages 9 - 12 years right here at the Masonville library.  If you have younger siblings or are 12, you can register starting March 1st.  
• Meanwhile, we'll have fun on Wed. February 19, 7 - 8:30 pm discussing this classic and creating a whimsical craft!

MARCH TITLE:  Governor General Award Winning novel The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B by Teresa Toten!  Check out Teresa's website!  You can pick up your copy at our next meeting: Wed. Feb. 19, 7 pm in the Neill Room.

Cheers,
Linda B.

For our January 15, 2014 meeting we'll be talking about graphic novels & sharing our experiences trying this format for those who are new to it!  While we read Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick, it may be different reading a book told in pictures and speech bubbles.  What I do remember from our Wonderstruck discussion was how talented you all were at "reading" the pictures.  I'll have to pay close attention this time.

At our November meeting everyone chose a different graphic novel -- or agreed to seek out a graphic novel that intrigued them!  If you haven't decided, here's a list of children's graphic novels and a list of the teen graphic novels at London Public Library.

The Oxford dictionary online defines the graphic novel simply as "a novel in comic-strip format".  Comic books are different from the graphic novel because they tell a continuous or ongoing story that is often serialized in newspapers or other periodicals. 

Non-fiction books can also told in pictures -- in my first year of university back in 1983 I read Marx for Beginners by Rius, and learned all about Marx's theories through speech bubbles and pictures!  First published in 1976, this book is still in print!

Upon the recommendation of a Masonville regular who is in Grade 4 and cannot believe I've never read MANGA, I'm starting in on a manga book called Kingdom Hearts II, volume 1.  I am also reading Art Spiegelman's Maus books.

Can't wait to hear about the graphic novels you're reading.  We can try our hand at sketching and using speech bubbles to tell a story.  Look forward to seeing you all in January!


Linda B.

Thanks to everyone who joined us in our discussion of Sharon Draper's Out of My Mind!  It was wonderful to have Tania from Lambeth's Mother Daughter Book Club visiting - and to learn about her work with young people with autism and cerebral palsy.  How wonderful too to hear the work of all our mother members -- everyone had worked in some capacity with special needs children and had so many insights from their experience to add to our discussion.  Thanks to all our teens for their honesty and reflection on their own views of those with physical and mental challenges.  When Tania asked if this book had changed the way we thought about disabilities we all agreed it did. 

Thanks to my friend Pat who loaned us his manual wheelchair, we were able to see all the barriers encountered -- whether it was not being able to reach the Terry Pratchett book we wanted, or the stares we may have had from strangers.

Here's the link to the video about Carly from Toronto who is autistic and whose world was changed by finding her voice through a computer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNZVV4Ciccg

Thanks for a wonderful discussion!  Look forward to our meeting in January! I'll add a blog just about Graphic Novels next week so we'll all be prepared to discuss this visual genre!

Thanks to all who came out and sewed books last week!  While we didn't write any spells or incantations from This Dark Endeavour by Kenneth Oppel, during the book club, we did have a great discussion about the book and about Oppel's inspiration Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.   Some mothers and daughters were inspired to read Oppel's sequel to This Dark Endeavour, Such Wicket Intent...

We voted on our next book and the decision was to read Sharon Draper's  Out of My Mind. 

 Can you imagine not being able to speak?   Eleven-year old Melody has a photographic memory and is super smart but because of her cerebral palsy she is unable to talk.  Melody is the narrator of her own story, and we can feel her frustration with her, especially as she tries to adjust to school.  Are there mean girls in every school?!  We feel Melody's disappointments and triumphs as she makes her way through the school year.

You might want to check out Sharon Draper's author website, which has an excellent interview and great insight in the story:  http://sharondraper.com

See you Wednesday, November 20, 7 - 8:30 pm for the next Masonville Mother Daughter Book Club.  We won't be meeting in December, but don't forget to mark your 2014 calendars for an extra fun session on January 15 as we explore manga and graphic novels!

Cheers,

Linda