September Grades 7 and Up Book Club: Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

In September, the Grades 7 and Up Book Club met to discuss Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. This novel is a Rhode Island 2015 Teen Book Award Nominee. Ben and Sarah were present. This is what we talked about.

1. Alina and Mal grew up in an orphanage in Kermazin. How does this relate to Alina’s experiences at the Little Palace? To Mal’s experiences in the First Army?

-It sort of relates. She thought the orphanage was really nice and grand. She walks into a library and thinks that it's beautiful and realizes that the orphanage was not really as rich. 
-I think that Alina thinks that the Palace is cool and she's wowed by her own room.

2. How is the Fold connected to the Darkling? What does it say about him and his power?

-He made it.
-His ancestors created it. The Fold is dark and he is dark.

3. How does Alina feel about her power? How do her feelings change? Why?

-At first, she says " I am not what you think I am." It reminds me of a teacher in sixth grade. A kid was throwing pencils out the window and the teacher said, "Who do you think you are?" and he responded "I think I am _____."
-I think that when she first began to practice her powers with Baghra, she thought her power was useless. She refuses to believe that she is Grisha. Once she lets go of her old anger, she realizes that she might be useful for something.

4. What is the connection between Alina and the Darkling? What does Alina think of this connection at different points in the novel?

-They are one of a kind.
-When she first meets him, she finds him mean and intimidating. But other times that they would meet and he told her how powerful she could be, she would think that maybe she liked him.
-Alina is sort of divided about the Darkling and his powers.

5. Why are other people afraid of what the Grisha can do?

- Because they're really powerful and they are close to the top of the government. The Darkling is able to tell you what to do.



6. What Grisha power would you want?

-The Beauty one. It's easy to get the right color on your face. Plus, if you look sick, like Alina, you can make yourself look better. 
-I would want to be Inferni from the Etherealki. I would want to be a Fire Summoner because when you need to cook your hot dogs fast and your grill has a blocked off gas pipe because of broken-off fried chicken let, you can just cook your food to perfection, quickly. 
- I want to be able to turn into a carpet or any kind of flooring. If you are sneaking into someone's house and trying to steal their hotdogs so that you can eat them and someone is about to catch you, you can turn into the flooring and they won't see them. 


7. Shadow and Bone

-Shadow Fold and the bone from the antler.


7. Please rate this book 1-5, 5 being the best.

-4
-5 million


The Grades 7 and Up Book Club will next meet on Wednesday, November 19th at 3:00 p.m. We will be discussing The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey. "After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one. Now, it's the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth's last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie's only hope for rescuing her brother--or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.-summary" Copies of the book will be available behind the Circulation Desk by late September. Please be sure to sign up for Book Club at the time of book checkout so that Miss Lisa can plan for snacks!

November Recommendations for Grades 7 and Up Book Club

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

Berlin 1942 When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance. But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

Sixteen-year-old Mattie Gokey has a word for everything, and big dreams but little hope of seeing them come true. She collects words, stores them up as a way of fending off the hard truths of her life, the truths that she can't write down in stories.The fresh pain of her mother's death. The burden of raising her sisters while her father struggles over his brokeback farm. The mad welter of feelings Mattie has for handsome but dull Royal Loomis, who says he wants to marry her. And the secret dreams that keep her going--visions of finishing high school, going to college in New York City, becoming a writer.Desperate for money, she takes a job at the Glenmore, where hotel guest Grace Brown entrusts her with the task of burning a secret bundle of letters. But when Grace's drowned body is fished from Big Moose Lake, Mattie discovers that the letters could reveal the grim truth behind a murder.Set in 1906 in the Adirondack Mountains, against the backdrop of the murder that inspired Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy.

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one. Now, it's the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth's last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie's only hope for rescuing her brother--or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up. 

September Grades 5-6 Book Club: The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier

In September, we discussed the book The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier.  Cam, Cecilia, Courtney, Harry, Julia, Isabella, Kelsey, Olivia, and Rileigh were present.

Did this story grab you in the very beginning? Why or why not?
-No, because it started off boring

-Yes, because they are traveling but in the beginning it doesn't tell you where. And because they met Hester.
-It caught me in the middle because it described the scenery really well. It got the picture in motion of the story.
-I liked the beginning because it was very detailed.


What did you make of Molly and Kip, traveling on their own? 
-I thought it was mysterious because they arrived at the house in a ragged old cart with a horse. They came upon a spooky old house that could have been any spooky old house. It ended up being mysterious.
-I thought it was weird that there were two kids without any parents with them.
-Some kids do travel by themselves.
-Meh.
-I thought that their parents leaving them behind trying to keep them safe seemed off.
-I thought it seemed normal for a scary story. 



What did you think of the Windsors when you first met them? Did you like them or not?

-I thought that they were evil.
-I thought that they were kind of scary but when we got further into the story, I liked them. I realized that they were a normal family who didn't know what was going on.
-I thought that they were mysterious. And that they were not a normal family because of their appearances. 

Did your feelings about the Windsors change as the book progressed?
-Eventually I started to feel better about them.
-I felt a tiny bit better about them. My feelings about Penny stayed the same because I always liked her.
-My feelings changed toward Mrs. Windsor (Constance) because the way she talks to everybody seemed really mean at first. But then I realized what was happening to her. She was almost dead, almost a ghost. That's when I started to feel sorry for her.


"We would often be sorry if our wishes were gratified." The author begins the book with that quote. What do you think it means in relation to this story?

-Their wishes were granted and they almost ended up dead.
-Having your wished granted isn't always a good thing.
-Wishing bees dead means that there would be no more food.
-Mr. Windsor might have got less money because: he has just a little bit of soul left; because the Night Gardener taking their souls means that they don't need as much from the tree; the Night Gardener taking their soul makes them pale;the money became less and less because it had less meaning.

What do think about the idea of stories vs lies? 

"What really made The Night Gardener stand out for me, however, was that the point of the book (insofar as I could tell) was to establish storytelling vs. lies. At one point Molly thinks seriously about what the difference between the two might be. “Both lies and stories involved saying things that weren’t true, but somehow the lies inside the stories felt true.” She eventually comes to the conclusion that lies hurt people and stories help them, a statement that is met with agreement on the part of an old storyteller named Hester who follows the words up with, “But helps them to do what?” These thoughts are continued later when Molly considers further and says, “A story helps folks face the world, even when it frightens ‘em. And a lie does the opposite. It helps you hide.” Nuff said."- School Library Journal

-I think that stories are meant to be happy or sad or whatever, but lies are always the same.
-If you lie, you feel guilty about it. With a story, you don't feel as guilty.  
-A story and a lie can be very similar. A lie is almost always bad. 
 

What other stories about orphans have you read? Consider Anne of Green Gables, the Boxcar Children books, The Graveyard Book, the Harry Potter series, Oliver Twist, The Secret Garden, and A Series of Unfortunate Events. How are other orphan stories similar to and different from The Night Gardener? Why do you think stories about orphans are appealing to young readers?

-Because they are read by kids. By making the stories about orphans, there are no grownups around to boss them around. 
-I think that they are appealing to young adults because there are no adults to limit what the kids can do.
-The Invention of Hugo Cabret and The Eight Keys were "orphan books".
-Star Wars too!

Did you think that this book was scary?
-At some points in the story, it was a little scary. "Are Kip and Molly going to die?" and other questions. The knives that Stubbs had scared me.
-There are scarier books: Elmo's World.

Write a short, scary story using these elements:  "giant", "witch", "haunted (place)", "cursed emerald".  We'll compare the results at the end. Three groups of three came up with these stories (or beginnings of a story).

The Cyclops with the Emerald Eye
CRASH! The plane burst into flames, right next to an amusement park. With the cursed emerald. Of course, that's why the plane crashed...  To be continued.

Elevator
Once there was an elevator. A haunted elevator! Zeus was angry at a witch that was in the elevator. She stole the cursed emerald of LATE DETH. Other people were in the elevator. Zeus threw a bolt at her and the elevator plummeted down to the Underworld. 

That is how the elevator got haunted.

The End

Deadman's Woods
One day a man was walking through the dark and disturbing haunted woods. Suddenly, a giant witch threw a cursed emerald at the man! And the man died. Then he turned into a ghost and haunted the cursed emerald for all eternity. One day a girl came walking through the woods and saw an emerald...   To be continued.

The Grades 5-6 Book Club selection for November 12th is Floors by Patrick Carman. This month's book is described as such: "Charlie had his chocolate factory. Stanley Yelnats had his holes. Leo has the wacky, amazing Whippet Hotel. The Whippet Hotel is a strange place full of strange and mysterious people. Each floor has its own quirks and secrets. Leo should know most of them - he is the maintenance man's son, after all. But a whole lot more mystery gets thrown his way when a series of cryptic boxes are left for him . . . boxes that lead him to hidden floors, strange puzzles, and unexpected alliances. Leo had better be quick on his feet, because the fate of the building he loves is at stake . . . and so is Leo's own future!"--summary. Copies of the book will be available behind the Circulation Desk within the next week. Please remember to register for Book Club so that we know how many people will be attending.

November Recommendations for Grades 5-6 Book Club

Floors by Patrick Carman

Charlie had his chocolate factory. Stanley Yelnats had his holes. Leo has the wacky, amazing Whippet Hotel. The Whippet Hotel is a strange place full of strange and mysterious people. Each floor has its own quirks and secrets. Leo should know most of them - he is the maintenance man's son, after all. But a whole lot more mystery gets thrown his way when a series of cryptic boxes are left for him . . . boxes that lead him to hidden floors, strange puzzles, and unexpected alliances. Leo had better be quick on his feet, because the fate of the building he loves is at stake . . . and so is Leo's own future!


The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas

In a city that runs on a dwindling supply of magic, a young boy is drawn into a life of wizardry and adventure. Conn should have dropped dead the day he picked Nevery's pocket and touched the wizard's locus magicalicus, a stone used to focus magic and work spells. But for some reason he did not. Nevery finds that interesting, and he takes Conn as his apprentice on the provision that the boy find a locus stone of his own. But Conn has little time to search for his stone between wizard lessons and helping Nevery discover who--or what--is stealing the city of Wellmet's magic.


Hiding Out at the Pancake Palace by Nan Marino

In Hiding Out at the Pancake Palace by Nan Marino, eleven-year-old musical prodigy, Elvis Ruby, was supposed to win the most coveted reality show on television, Tween Star . None of the other contestants even came close to his talents. But in the middle of the biggest night, with millions of people watching, Elvis panicked. He forgot the words to the song. He forgot the tune. He forgot how to play every single instrument he'd ever known and froze on national TV. So Elvis must run from the paparazzi camped outside his door and spend the summer working with his aunt and cousin at Piney Pete's Pancake Palace in the remote wilds of New Jersey. It's the perfect place to be anonymous, that is until Elvis meets Cecilia, a girl who can't seem to help blurting out whatever's on her mind. An NPR Best Book of 2013