Wonder Review-- by all 3 daughters! (Book & movie)

KAIA:

1. The movie has a great sense of humor

2. I liked that it mostly stayed true to the book and only tweeked a few little things

3. I kind of wish that the teacher in the book and the movie could have had a perspective because most of the other characters do and he doesn't.



ZOE:

1.  The book was really good and it was specific about the characters and their lives.
2.  I really liked Summer and Jack because they were nice to Auggie when nobody else was.
3.  After we saw the movie and had the discussion I was kind of upset because they changed up some of the characters' personalities a little bit.


NORAH:

1. I enjoyed watching the movie wonder because it was very entertaining and touching.
2. I would give this movie a five stars out of five
3. I think the older sister Olivia or, Via had a very strong personality.

The Book Throwdown of 2017!

Note:  This blog is being co-authored tonight!  Mother and daughter share about the Book Throwdown:

This is a special blog, because it's not a book review... it is about our once annual Book throwdown, where we choose ALL the books for the entire next year.

You can read more about how we do our Book Throwdown here-- and you can see the final books we chose for 2018 here.

We decided the food for this month's book club would be "sports game food"... this was like our "Super Bowl" of bookclub, so it seemed fitting.



Zoe:
My favorite part was when we all put the marbles on the books.  But also I was worried that some books that I liked wouldn't get picked.



The best part was when we all read the jackets or backs of the books to see what they were like.

The worst part was when my mom told me that next year we can only put 5 marbles on each book maximum!  (I put a LOT of marbles on one book that no one else wanted and it made it in!)

At the end-- there was a tie between two books to be our final pick, so we had to vote again... it was another tie!  So, the third time, only the daughters voted.

I'm super excited about the year ahead of us and what we're going to read-- I'm also excited that halfway through this year we go to middle school.


Voting for books!

Tortilla Sun

Tortilla Sun

Tortilla Sun was a great book about a girl named Izzy.

Izzy doesn't want anything to do with her dad until one day when she finds a baseball with the words "Because magic" with two spaces in between them. Her mother hasn't really told her anything about him so she has no idea. Her mother suddenly gets an assignment in a different continent so Izzy goes to live with her Abuela for the summer. There she has many exciting new adventures, learns what story truly is and much more. We had a lively book discussion and had great food along the way. :-)

Us at book club!

Abby Spencer Goes to Bollywood

A NEW EXPERIENCE FOR ABBY

I just finished a book called Abby Spencer goes to Bollywood by Varsha Bajaj.  

Just some of the delicious Indian
food we enjoyed during book club!

I would definitely give it a 4 out of 5 stars rating. This book was about a girl named Abby. In the book, Abby wants excitement! No. Not really. What she really wants is to finally figure out who her dad is. Abby never really thought about not having a dad before, but but when an unexpected accident occurs, Abby is left with many 

Me and my friends at book club!

 

questions. Abby starts to have to keep secrets and tell lies about certain things. Do you think Abby will meet her dad? Does he care about her? Did he even know she existed? Read Abby Spencer Goes to Bollywood to find out. The one thing that brought me down a bit, was the way the main character was built. Most of the time I felt strongly that Abby, the main character did not stick up for herself enough. She just went with everything, even though she might not have wanted to. I would recommend this book to anybody over the age of 8. Altogether the book was enjoyable to read even though I did not quite like the way author built the main character.

Response from Hillary!

Remember our post way back in November 2016?

Well... this just came in the mail!

Moms Meeting

In preparation for the December Book Throwdown (our annual choosing of books for the next year), the moms met to whittle the books down to 18 books.

We each brought with us a huge stack of books, talked about the themes from Her Next Chapter, and then stacked the books in different categories.  We came up with a great stack of books that cover different cultures, different issues middle schoolers face, different time periods, and more.

We also really want to jump into some of the stuff our daughters will start wading into in middle school--
so we decided we would ALSO read one chapter of Mayim Bialik's Girling Up from
January-June--- this way we'll finish it right before they enter middle school.  Our hope is that in exploring these topics together in the safety of our book club, the girls will know they have 3 adults they can trust and 2 other peers who are getting the same information they can talk with about stuff that comes up for them-- or just ask questions!



So!  We have 18 books... 7 of them will be voted out in December... which 11 will make our 2018 books?  Check back in December to find out!

2018 Throwdown books (only 11 will make it!):

Midwife’s Apprentice

Lions of Little Park

Counting on Grace

Walk Two Moons

Kira Kira

Power of Lucky

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

The War that Saved My Life

My Mixed Up Berry Blue Summer

Breadcrumbs by Ursu

Three Times Lucky

Brown Girl Dreaming

Sylvia & Aki

Operation Redwood

Finding Mighty

Story Thieves

Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret

Posted (by John Anderson)

The Great Wall of Lucy Wu

Pages read: 312
Rating: 9 out of 10

Today I finished a book called "The Great Wall of Lucy Wu". It was an awesome book. the main reason why I give it a 9 out of 10 star rating is because some things (and by "things" I mean food) in the book is/are gross. Anyway, the book is about a Chinese American girl named Lucy Wu who has a sister (Regina) and a brother (Kenny), and when her sister finally moves out of her room forever because of college, Lucy is sooo exited that she is finally going to get her room to herself forever. But, when a Chinese relative named Yi Po comes to see her sister's family, Lucy is NOT happy. Not only does her room disappear, but her entire year collapses. Lucy encounters many things, including decisions between basketball and Chinese school, a little piece of Regina, and especially Sloane Conners. Lucy's year is ruined. Or is it? Read this totally AWESOME book to find out what happens to Lucy's year, and Lucy.🏀

Inkheart

Our most recent book that we read was called "Inkheart." It was about a book about a father and a daughter (Meggie and Mo) who travel around binding books.  But one night when a mysterious stranger comes to visit, Meggie isn't so sure that they're safe. When she consults Mo about the visit, he won't answer. Mo has the ability to read things in and out of books. The problem is he can't read them in/out again. Does Meggie have the ability too? Will she be able to find her long lost mother? Read Inkheart and you'll find out. It's a nice and thick book so if you have a vacation bring that with you. I hope you enjoy Inkheart as much as I did.

Fun with Grandma!

The great depression sends Mary Alice to Southern Illinois, a place very different from her home in Chicago. It takes Mary Alice forever to get used to her grandma’s town and even the ways of grandma herself! Grandma always gets her way. From bending rules, to breaking laws, Grandma gets what she likes, usually to the benefit of her fellow townspeople. A Year Down Yonder is a humorous story about an ordinary girl in an unfamiliar town, getting to know her amazing grandma. 

During book club, we discussed what it would be like to be an outsider, and if there was ever a time when we had felt like one. I’m sure Mary Alice would have been happy to know that she is not the only one who has felt like an outsider! All in all, A Year Down Yonder is a pretty good book. It is an easy read that will bring you laughter.

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Daughters Interview the Dads!

We decided to take all we've learned in book club and use it to interview our dads!

We went out to lunch and asked them a few questions including:

1.  Were you just as excited to find out you were having a daughter as finding out you were having a son?

2.  (Based on The Penderwicks) Do you think you could suddenly raise 4 daughters alone?

3.  Based on Hairspray, Tracy is kicked off of being in the daily show just because of how she looks.  What do you think of this?

4.  (Based on Hannah Divided) Would you send your daughter away to school alone?

We learned that men can also care about females and think that they can do whatever they put their mind to, but we did already know that our dads were on our side.

One thing that surprised me is that both dads said they hoped for a daughter, actually.

Keeper

In our Mother Daughter Book Club we just read a book called Keeper. It is about a girl named Keeper who is very questioning about her past, because she wasn't born a human, she was born a mermaid. Her mother, Meggie Marie, wasn't very loving to Keeper, and almost hurt her and made her very scared. But, Signe, who really truly took care of Keeper and loved her, told Meggie Marie she had to leave Keeper...Forever. So from then on, Signe raised Keeper, from 3-10. One day when Keeper was 10, she thought she had ruined everything, especially for Signe. That night, she made a plan to go out to sea on a little boat and tell Meggie Marie everything, and she brings a few wishing charms with her. Out of 100, I thought the book was 50/100, because it was mostly Keeper sitting in the boat. All the people in our book club also thought that it was pretty much a 50/100. The actual story was good, but the book...not so much. We all thought that the characters were pretty interesting. Overall, the book was okay. Keep reading and you'll see what we read next!

It ain't so awful, Falafel

It Ain't So Awful, Falafel was a great book about a girl growing up in the late 1970s. She's Iranian and she has been repeatedly moving back and forth from Iran to America her whole life and finally, she settles down in Newport Beach, California. Her name is Zomorod which means emerald in Iranian, but she decides to change it Cindy because she thinks it will make her fit in more. All of her family is back in Iran while Khomeini takes over. Part of her is in Iran and the other part of her is in California. The book is sad at some points and really funny and happy at other points. In the book Cindy goes over to her friend's house and discovers taco night. That becomes her favorite meal ever! So we had taco night for our book club.

Boy it was good! But whoever you are I think you should definitely read It Ain't So Awful, Falafel.

Zora's Wild Imagination

In Zora’s mind, it’s all imagination! From neighbors with gator heads, to Gator Kings, Zora’s imagination takes her and her friends on a mysterious adventure. In the book Zora and Me, Zora and her friends Carrie and Teddy hear about strange happenings occurring around the town’s favorite swimming hole, and they are determined to get to the bottom of this gator business.

This incredible mystery was our book club book for Black History Month. The book was most interesting because it was set in Florida, so I really got to compare how Florida used to be to how it is now. When we came together for discussion, our book club mostly talked about the differences between last months’ book, Stella by Starlight, and Zora and Me. One of the differences was that Zora’s life was a lot easier than the characters in the other book because Zora lived in a town with a population of only African Americans, which reduced racial conflicts.  I hope you decide to read Zora and Me, and that you enjoy it as much as I did!

Stella by Starlight

Our last Mother Daughter Book Club book was called Stella by Starlight. It was about a girl named Stella who isn't good at writing and experiences the Klan at times. It takes place a very long time ago, when black and white people were segregated. One of the most surprising parts of the book was when Stella was taking a walk outside at night and she heard a screaming noise coming from a lake, so she went in and something grabbed her. She pulled it to the surface and then looked at it. It was Dr. Packards daughter, Paulette. The worst and most scariest three parts were when Tony got beat up, when the Spencers' house got burned down by Klansmen, and when Stella's mother got bit by a poisonous snake. My favorite part was when Ms. Spencer gave Stella and her little brother, Jojo, tons of gifts. And the silliest part of the book was when Stella's school had the Christmas Pageant. I think that even though Stella had rough times, she still had a good life. I really loved this book, every time I finished a chapter, I was eager to read the next. I think that people should read this book, because once they read the book, the will have learned some very helpful and interesting lessons...

Just As Long As We're Together

I really loved just as long as we're together. And of course it's a Judy Bloom book so it has to be good right? Just as long as we're together was a book about three girls who are best friends and it's all about them and navigating their friendship, it's ups and it's downs. For our yummy snack that we had at book club it was brownies and stuffing (if you read the book you will understand). I don't know that very many people have read this book and it's been around for a while. The only reason we found it was because one of the moms had read it in elementary school. I am super glad we read Just As Long As We're Together!!

It's a NEW year!

We have now been doing our book club for over a year!

I, for one, am so thankful for this Book Club and feel enriched and surprised by all that has come out of it this last year.  I've learned that our 9 year old daughters are very insightful and quite observant.  They draw our attention to pieces of the book we may have skimmed over.

To kick off our new year, we decided to have a "choice" year.  Each mother daughter team brought about 5 books to the table (literally... to the coffee table!) and voted on which books we wanted for 2017.  How did we vote?  Well, first of all, we took turns reading the book jackets aloud, then the 3 girls met and decided there was one book they wanted to toss out of the voting process-- none of them wanted to read it.  Then, we were each given 6 smooth stones we could place on the books we wanted.  You could put all 6 stones on one book if you wanted to be sure it made the list.  Most of us didn't use more than 1-2 stones on each book, though.


And the 2017 picks are... (in order of most stones to least stones)...


And for documentation purposes... here is everything we read from the time we started til now:

December 2015	Hannah Divided
January 2016	Hairspray
FEBRUARY	The Penderwicks
MARCH	Secret Language of Girls
APRIL	Turtle in Paradise
MAY	Story of Ferdinand
JUNE	My Life with the Chimpanzees
JULY	Tua and the Elephant
AUGUST	BREAK
SEPTEMBER	Esperanza Rising
OCTOBER	Vanished
NOVEMBER	The Night Gardener
DECEMBER	Alanna The First Adventure
January 2017	Just As Long As We’re Together