The First Rule of Book Club

It's okay. We can talk about Book Club.

The first rule of book club is actually the only rule: lose yourself in the story. It doesn't matter to me if the kids read the book themselves, hear it on .mp3, or listen while mom or dad read it. I just want them to wrap themselves in the story and then tell me what they think.

I got the idea for our kids' book club three and a half years ago, at the end of my daughters' first grade year. Penelope was a voracious, confident reader, yet Emma clung to her Step-one readers, reluctant to trade them for the beckoning stack of Step-twos. Witnessing her twin zip through the Geronimo Stilton series and anything else she could find, left Emma feeling forlorn, jealous, and more than a little hopeless. She had a collection of American Girl books that she wanted to read, but was too afraid to try. The letters were too tiny. The long blocks of text may as well have been Mt. Everest. One evening I found Emma in bed, crying because she wanted to read a book she'd chosen about a magic puppy. It was written at a third grade reading level and there was no art.

I decided that not being able to read at grade level yet was no reason for Emma to not enjoy the stories that interested her. I would read them to her, and she could read ahead whenever she wanted. But wouldn't it be even better if a bunch of Emma's friends read (or heard) the same book and I got the kids together to talk about it, just like a regular book club?

I started researching kids' book clubs and at the time, there wasn't much guidance. Everything was either story time ideas for preschoolers or Socratic method guidelines for high schoolers. Then I found Deconstructing Penguins: Parents, Kids, and the Bond of Reading by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone. The Goldstone's model was a little weightier than what I had in mind but it gave me someplace to start. It also gave me the confidence to move forward, no longer worried that it was a crazy idea. Once I mentioned it to the girls, it was all they talked about whenever we were near a bookstore. They chose Guardians of Ga'Hoole: The Capture as the first book.

Our first year was rocky. I set the age range a bit too wide and made the mistake of giving the kids full control over the book selections. Some months I got books that were meaty, but other months I got books with no inciting incident, no tension, and no reason for me to keep turning the page. The following year, I narrowed the age range and turned to lists of Newbery Classics from the past 60 years. We always had something to talk about, even if it was how some books don't hold up over the decades or what constitutes too much of a suspension of disbelief. Now I keep a running list of books my daughters love and books people recommend. Each spring, I type those titles into a few search engines and see what else comes up with similar themes. I pull together a list of 30 to 40 titles, provide a synopsis for each one (usually the back cover blurb), and let the kids vote. Each kid in the book club gets to pick and prioritize the four titles they're most interested in reading. I work some ranking and weighting magic that ensures everyone gets their top pick, and fill in the holes with other high-ranked titles. I never said I wasn't a geek.

Because we're a group of homeschoolers, we meet in the middle of the day. Officially, we meet for 90 minutes. Unofficially, people hang out as long as they want...or until I kick them out so I can get the girls changed for their sports. Our meetings have a loose structure: we talk about the book for 20 to 30 minutes, then break for snacks and social time. Early on, we started matching the snack to the book. For Pippi Longstocking, we baked pepparkakor. For Mr. Popper's Penguins, we brought in a tray of fresh sushi. Some books require more creativity with snack planning because either food is rarely mentioned or it's simply unappetizing, like the bland canned food that sustains the citizens of Ember. Occasionally there are foods we must avoid: serving ham for the Charlotte's Web discussion would have been disturbing.

Parents are free to join the conversation as long as they don't dominate it. Discussion points range from kids sharing their favorite or least favorite parts, to making observations about a character's motivation or the author's style, to talking about literary techniques and terms and analyzing their use in a book. When we read The Invention of Hugo Cabret, I found a few films by Georges Méliès on YouTube and pulled them up for everyone to watch. The discussion is never what I expect, but it always leads down rabbit-holes and often results in the kids discussing fairly weighty issues.

Our book club is in its fourth year, and Emma is reading almost everything on her own. She still reads slowly, but is a lot more confident in her abilities. Now Emma self-identifies as a reader, knows that she loves fantasy stories, has favorite authors, and spends her own money on books. Sometimes she even stays up late to finish a chapter.

REVIEW: Smile

Raina Telgemeier's novel Smile was the perfect read for the holidays, and not just because it was set in San Francisco, which got our located-in-New-England book club thinking of places without snow.

Okay. The truth. I chose it as the holiday book because I knew it would be a fast, engaging read. My daughters each read it in about two hours and other book club moms reported similar results.

Smile is a graphic novel and an excellent opportunity to teach kids that "graphic" does not necessarily mean "full of excessive, gratuitous violence and generally inappropriate content." It's also a memoir, which means you get a two-for-one on the vocabulary lesson. Most of the book club members had never read a memoir before and were surprised and delighted to find that this actually happened to the author. Oh! No! Not in the Schadenfreude sense! With braces either just going on or just over the horizon for many of these kids, Smile resonated with them all from the beginning.

But Smile isn't only about braces. It's about bullies and self esteem and bravery. It's about dating and puberty and finding your passions. We talked a lot about what made Raina's friends behave the way they do, and whether or not they would have treated her differently if she hadn't knocked out her front teeth. The kids brought up the fact that Raina dismisses Sammy the same way that Sean dismisses her. They empathized with her loneliness not only once she stands up for herself, but also while she deals with being alone-in-a-crowd. Our members also noticed that the art provides visual clues to the story's subtext that would normally be described in words, and that the book both begins and ends with a photo session and the word "smile."

You can find several resources for Smile online. The blog The Classroom Bookshelf has an activity guide here, and Scholastic's Mother-Daughter Book Club has a page of discussion questions here which you can download as a pdf. There is also an excellent post up at The Graphic Classroom.

If, like us, you can't get enough of Raina Telgemeier's work, you're in luck. She has a second book out, titled Drama, and her third original book, Sisters, is due out in September of 2014. Raina has also illustrated four graphic novel adaptations of The Baby-sitters Club. Her website, Go Raina! includes her blog, a list of upcoming appearances, comic-related links, and more. And it's all right here.

REVIEW: Tucker's Countryside

Tucker's Countryside by George Selden is the sequel to A Cricket in Times Square. So, most of you probably haven't heard of it or read it. But you should read it, because it has all the sweetness of the first novel with more realism and more issues that are pertinent to a kid's life, like moral dilemmas. Lots of moral dilemmas.

This time, Harry Cat and Tucker Mouse visit Chester Cricket in his Connecticut home, the Old Meadow. It's not just a visit, though: Chester and his friends are in danger of losing their home to developers. Where have we heard this story before? Oh yeah, Hollywood. But Chester's story came long before Hammy and Vern. While you won't guffaw, you will chuckle and you will hold your breath a few times.

Because of the pastoral setting, Selden's narration is even lovelier; his description of the rainstorm made me wish I was tucked into a porch swing, reading outdoors during a late spring rainstorm. In addition, the setting results in the tension in Tucker's Countryside feeling less contrived. Not only are the animals trying to save their meadow, but so are the kids that play there. Adult assistance doesn't come from expected quarters, though, which makes for excellent discussion. The most uproarious comment during our meeting? Vlad's* opinion that "they should only destroy the meadow if there was a bearpocalypse."

You won't find any teacher-made study guides or discussion questions out there for Tucker's Countryside, so I read with a notepad beside me and jotted down a few questions for each chapter. You'll find my questions below (or by clicking here). A unit could include research and activities on picketing, boycotting, civil disobedience, conservation lands, nature preserves, and natural disasters in addition to discussion about what constitutes a "benign deception." Who gets to decide when human progress is more important than preserving nature? Where do we draw the line between truth and lies? Tucker's Countryside gives kids an opportunity to explore questions that will stay with them as they grow.

*a pseudonym, of course. And don't feel sorry for him. I ran the name past his mom and she loved it.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Tucker's Countryside

1. How could you tell the species of John, Tucker, and Harry even if we hadn’t been told? What clues are in the story?
2. Do the animals avoid people? Why do you think the author chose to have them observe and interact with people, or have people notice the animals? Do you agree with his decision? Why/why not?
3. What little things do the animals (Harry, Tucker, and Chester) do throughout the book that show they care for each other?
4. What is Chester’s big concern about the meadow and the houses? Why is Tucker’s first idea not likely to work? Why are all the animals of the Old Meadow so utterly disappointed that Tucker has no other plans? What did you think of their reaction?
5. Who is Ellen and how is she important? What happens between Ellen and Harry?
6. Chapter six (Flood) starts off with language that’s soft, gentle, quiet. How do the descriptions of the rain and water change throughout the chapter? Why did the author do that?
7. What happens because of the flood? Did you expect something good or something bad to happen because of the flood? Why?
8. What happens the day the steam shovel begins ripping up the Old Meadow? What does that say about the workers? Did you expect them to react that way?
9. Why do the little kids not get bored with the picket line? How do those people who drive past react? Why do the mothers not head over to town hall like they talked about? What do you think the moms should have done?
10. What did you think of Tucker’s plan? What could go wrong?
11. Harry Cat tells Chester to think of the plan not as a Lie but as a Benign Deception. What is a Benign Deception? What do you think: is the plan a Lie or a Benign Deception? Are there other Benign Deceptions in the book? Where is the line between lies and not-lies? Who gets to decide?
12. What almost happens once all the people see the sign and the Bible? What is Ellen’s reaction? What do you suppose she thinks about how the Meadow was saved?
13. Did the book end the way you expected? If not, what did you think would be different?
14. Why do the humans save the Old Meadow? What changes do the humans now have planned for the Old Meadow? What kind of changes would you make?
15. Why was preserving history more important than apartments when preserving nature wasn’t important enough?

REVIEW: The Graveyard Book

Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book opens with a scene that, in the movies, would leave you holding your breath, popcorn forgotten. It only gets creepier from there, but that's not all. Gaiman is funny, too, and the world he's built for Bod is unique and mysterious. At times it feels like winter breath.

One of the best parts of reading The Graveyard Book is trying to puzzle out all the hints before the end, so I'm not going to reveal anything that's not already on the back cover. Even though an adult can figure out several of the pieces and fit them into place, kids are kept guessing. Not one of the kids in my daughters' book club fit it all together.

What I will tell you is: you'll have fun keeping track of the hints regarding both Bod's guardian and the man Jack. The Indigo Man gave me shivers. Voicing the Sleer made me feel like I was in on a deliciously surprising secret, though I had no idea what it was. The ghouls? The ghouls were great fun to read aloud, in spite of the fact that I can't maintain a fake English accent for more than a few sentences in a row. If that.

I'll also share that Bod's childhood is as normal as the inhabitants of the graveyard can make it; they take their responsibility as seriously as any parents, as any neighbors, as any teachers. Bod has playmates and lessons to fill his days. He has rules to obey. Like any kid, Bod pushes boundaries, gets into trouble, and needs help getting out again.

There is an excellent list of discussion questions LitLovers; the same list is also available on BookBrowse. With a gaggle of tweens in my living room, I try to keep the discussion no longer than thirty minutes, so I didn't use all the questions linked above, especially since several of them lead down rabbit-holes. (When is it okay to cross boundaries? What makes something or someone evil?)

Graveyard Cupcakes
(Headstones were craft foam)

One question that provoked an unexpected response was the first, about Dave McKean's illustrations. Meaning absolutely no offense to McKean, I want to share that none of the kids liked his illustrations. They agreed that the final illustration, of the Grey Lady, was the best, and that the drawing at the end of Chapter Seven made it look like the Sleer enjoyed pizza. Personally, though I can't draw anything beyond stick men and figure-eight puppies, I liked McKean's illustrations. Many of them felt as ethereal as the scenes Gaiman penned, and my favorite was at the end of Chapter Four. But then, I think I loved Liza even more than I loved Bod.

The Graveyard Book is perfect for kids looking for something creepy and fantastical. There's no gore, nothing gratuitous, but plenty of reasons to leave the hallway light on.

Adventures in Sock Dyeing

Close-up of the lace

I knit socks. It's more fun than a 5000-piece puzzle, and a lot more useful. Plus, it's impossible to have too many socks, unlike hats. People only need one hat, maybe two. It's also the only way I can have socks where the heels don't poke out of the top of my shoes like an extra pair of noses. The fact that I get to stick my feet in front of people's real noses and show off my wicked cool socks is just a bonus.

The last pattern I knit was called Screaming Girl Lace by Heatherly Walker and it's available for a small fee on Ravelry. The real fun with these socks happens after the knitting, though, because you knit them in white yarn and then you splatter-dye them with red dye. I knit them up with some Valley Yarns Charlemont because I had almost a full skein left over from the lettering on my TARDIS socks.

I've never dyed socks before, but the internet is my friend so I headed over to DyeYourYarn and psyched myself up. No matter how they turned out, my socks would be one of a kind. As usual.

Splattered and drying

My friend Mel came over on Saturday and we got down to business. I slipped on a few plastic grocery store bags, then the socks, and stood on a paper bag. Mel squirted red food coloring on my socks. She went for the "arterial spray" effect and I smeared the bottoms of the socks around in the puddle we created. It was brilliant! Totally original CSI!

We left them to dry on a rack in the garage and tried to scrub the red off our fingers, but even my pumice stone wasn't up to the task.

On Sunday morning, to a round of Breaking Bad jokes, I commandeered the candy thermometer and the pot Dan uses to make chocolate syrup. I added the vinegar, then the socks, and heated the whole mess to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Then I added more vinegar, waited until the temperature reached 180, and turned off the heat. (I'm generalizing, here. For accurate instructions, please visit Dye Your Yarn.) My socks sat on the back burner, cooling, until after dinner. I behaved myself and did not lift the lid, but I will confess to attempting to peer through the condensation on the glass. It didn't work.

Cool rinse, cool rinse, cool rinse... the dye ran a lot more than I expected. I know the directions I followed were for hand-painted yarn, but I thought the vinegar was supposed to keep the color from bleeding all over the place.

Bleeding! Because I used red dye! And the socks are called Screaming Girl!

Almost as bright as the sun

My new socks are fiercely bright. It's best if you wear sunglasses, and don't look directly at them for more than a second or two. If you must stare, please use one of those pinhole eclipse viewers. I've no doubt that when I wear my Screaming Girl socks, heads will turn...away from the blinding glare. But it's all okay, because nobody else has socks like these. Also, the vinegar bath made the fabric, which is already 20% silk, so soft I want to rub my face in them. Before I put them on my feet. Because after would be weird. And beyond my abilities.

But a teeny bit of me pines for those arterial-spray socks. So I ask you, citizens of the internet: Does anybody know if there was a way I could have kept the rest of the socks white? Because I have enough of the Charlemont left for a pair of footies.

REVIEW: The Tail of Emily Windsnap

This month, the kids read The Tail of Emily Windsnap by Liz Kessler. I'll admit, this one was far more popular with the girls than the boys. Still, everyone had fun sharing what they thought would be the best and worst things about being a mermaid or merman. Ned* was even brave enough to admit to the group that he thought the book was "pretty good."

Emily Windsnap and her mother live on a boat and Emily has wanted swim lessons for years. Maybe it's her mother's inexplicable fear of the water, maybe it's something else, but Emily is never allowed the lessons. One day, she finally prevails. After her first foray into the pool, though, Emily begs to quit the lessons. The worst thing in the world would be for her classmates to discover what she has just learned: Emily is a weirdo, a freak... a mermaid. She may be afraid for her classmates to learn her secret, but that doesn't stop her from sneaking out to test her new tail and fins at night. She befriends another mermaid and finds herself intrigued by the world beneath the surface of the water. Finally, someplace she feels at home!

A quick read, The Tail of Emily Windsnap is a fun book with twists that adults will likely see coming. However, my daughters and their friends figured out most of those twists right alongside Emily, so the book hits it target audience at the right level. With Emily having one human and one merfolk parent, the theme of love knowing no boundaries is central, but it's not necessarily a slippery slope. There are families of all sorts in our book club, so I chose to keep that part of the discussion focused on the general idea that love is love.  Emily's story contains plenty of other themes to concentrate on which are far more pertinent to kids' everyday concerns, like what makes a good friend, the difference between having one best friend versus several good friends, and whether or not disobeying a parent (or other adults) can be anything other than foolish.

Hennepin County Library in Minneapolis, MN has a discussion guide with some thought-provoking questions as well as a bunch of fun ones. Orion Books provides this teacher's guide, which has interdisciplinary lessons and activities, many of which can be easily adapted to suit smaller groups of kids.

There are three more books in the series. Though I haven't read them yet, Emma is looking forward to getting them.

And oh, yeah... our post-discussion snack spread included sushi, Swedish Fish and doughnuts with extra sugar.

*a pseudonym