2019 Throwdown!

Our movie this month is Little Women (the newest one--we're going to see it in the theater over winter break).
Meanwhile, we had our throwdown!
Head over to our Book Log to see the final picks for 2020! 

Beyond the Bright Sea

The daughters are now almost halfway through 7th grade and decided they wanted to make some changes.

Super understandable that things can't (and shouldn't!) stay the same since 3rd grade.

The changes we made:

• The blog is too overwhelming to keep up with with all their other responsibilities.  One of the moms will take over posting and it truly will be more of a log-- just the book we read + 3 questions
• Instead of a different girl leading the entire discussion (which includes prep), each girl will come with 1 question to ask each month.
• We will shift from the moms choosing most of the books for the throwdown to the daughters choosing about 75% of the books for throwdown.  Each daughter will suggest 3-4 books every November.

On to the book!

Questions

Norah:
What do you think this means: “Because that’s what people do when they think something doesn’t belong to you. Like taking the treasure because it was buried on a state land, even if it belonged to someone else before that. And claiming a little island that nobody else could have thought of wanting, until someone else wanted it.”

Kaia:
Why do you think the author made the choice for Crow to never meet her brother?

Zoe:
On page 209, Osh said "People don't want much until they have plenty, then they want more and more." Where do we see this in society?

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Questions:
1.  Why is Carmen the narrator?
2.  Which of the 4 girls are you most like?
3.  Do you think 10 years from now they will still be friends?
4.  How does Bridget feel at the end of the book versus the beginning/middle?  Why?

Wishtree

Questions

1.  Which character do you most relate to?

2.  Red says of Sumar and of him/herself that they need to “stand tall, reach deep.” What does that mean to you? Have you ever had to stand tall and reach deep?

3. What wish would you tie on the wishtree?

4.Red likes to make others feel safe. Are there things in nature that make you feel safe?

The Inquisitors Tale

 A girl who can see the future. A boy who can heal any wound. And a monk who is so tall you would have to climb a ladder to be his height. Funny, adventurous, and filled with different stories, the Inquisitors Tale is a book you'll want to read. 
  I found myself laughing at every page of this book! I especially liked that this book was told from several points of view, not just one storyteller. It was cooler that way. Much more interesting.
  This book made me think about if I had special powers like these kids. I don't mean to be cheesy but that would be SO. COOL. I think that even if I was made fun of for having special abilities I wouldn't care because I'd be a REBEL and I would have freakin' powers. 
  My favorite part of the book was when all of the kids (Jacob, William, and Jeanne) teamed up to fight the knights and succeeded and ran away together like REBELS!! 
  I think this book is for ages 11+, it's a little too--religious and a bit confusing at times. I would recommend this book to people who love adventure, danger, storytelling, and kind-of sad books. The lesson I learned from this book was, "Sometimes life is tough, but your friends are there when nobody else is."

The War That Saved My Life

        The War That Saved My Life is a tragic, but heartwarming novel written by award-winning author Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. The War That Saved My Life was awarded and honored with the following achievements:

        Ten-year-old Ada has a club foot, and due to her mother's humiliation, she has never left her one-room apartment.  So when her little brother Jamie is shipped out of London to escape the war, Ada she sneaks out to join him. A new adventure has begun for Ada, and for Susan Smith, the woman who has no choice but to take in Ada and her brother. Ada learns how to ride a pony,  to read, to watch for German spies, and finally to trust Susan, and Susan learns to love the children back. But in the end, will their bond be enough to hold them together through wartime? Or will Ada and her brother return to the cruel hands of their unloving mother?

Refugee

Refugee

 The book Refugee follows three different stories about kids trying to find refuge in other countries. They are leaving because their countries aren't safe because of conflict, and these stories are all based on real historical events. Here is some information:

Story one: Joseph. His story is focused on the World War One era. His family being Jews, has to escape the Nazis as they are trying to flee to Cuba. His father has just gotten out of concentration camp and has a limited time to leave the country.They board the M.S. Saint Louis in hopes of escaping to Cuba, but something is different about his father. He is traumatized from concentration camp and is acting crazy. Will they make it?

Story two: Isabel. Her story is set in 1994 when there is a lot of food shortage in Cuba. People are rioting and when her father gets injured, they know it's finally time to flee to the states. Isabel's neighbor has been secretly building a boat to try to sail to the U.S. She confronts them and asks if her family may join, but has to trade her beloved trumpet for gasoline. They set sail, but the boat is unstable and leaks, and with her mother expecting a baby soon the tension grows. Will they make it?

Story three: Mahmoud. His story is set in Syria from 2015 to the present day. People's houses are getting bombed and people getting killed. Mahmoud is in his apartment doing homework when a bomb flies down and hits their home. After finding each other, they all agree they need to leave. They start traveling and have to cross many different states and countries with near death encounters all along the way, while trying to find their way to Germany. Will they make it?

 

Wild Wings

  If you found an endangered bird near your house, what would you do? In this page turning book, Callum befriends a girl named Iona, who everyone thinks of as a nutter, and they discover an osprey on his farm. The book takes twists and turns on the osprey (which they eventually name Iris) 's journey. Will they save the osprey and her family, or will they're fate end up at the market? This book went by real fast for me, I found myself reading 40-60 pages a day! I especially liked that this book took place in Scotland, one of my favorite countries. This book made me think about my mom and how glad I should be that she mostly works from home and I get to see her everyday, because in this book Iona never ever sees her mom, and then something terrible happens to Iona (read the book to find out!). My favorite part of the book was when Callum and his friends raised a bunch of money so Jeneba could get her legs fixed and be able to walk again. It was heart-melting. I think this book is for ages 10+, it's a little hard to understand. I would recommend this book to people who love kind-of sad books but turn out to be bittersweet (or just a happy ending). The lesson I learned from this book was, "When you have lost (something), why not gain from it?"
  Here are the questions we asked at book club (borrowed from the book Guide to Father Son Book Clubs:

1. Iona says, "People are like rivers. You've got to learn to look beneath the surface, to see what lies deeper in." How do you do that?

2. Callum's friends said unkind things about Iona. Why do you think he agreed with them? What do you think you would do?

3. At a certain point, Callum can't stand listening to Rob talk badly about Iona and punches him in the face. Why do you think he resorts to punching him instead of talking or yelling back?

4. What do you think of how Jeneba's village worked together to help find Iris? How did that inspire Callum and his town?

5.There are so many different relationships to think about in this book: friendship, parents, siblings, adult friends (like Hamish), and your town/village. What did you learn about relationships from this book?

The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl

The Miscalculations of...Lightning Girl!

 Miscalculations was a book about an extremely OCD math whiz named Lucy Callahan. When she was younger she was struck by lightning and because she was holding a metal fence she suffered brain damage. She got Acquired Savant Syndrome (which basically means she's a genius when it comes to math.)  Lucy is home-schooled until seventh grade while spending most of her time on a math website. Everything changes when Lucy's Nana announces that she wants her to go to middle school like everyone else even though she's much more academically advanced. Lucy protests, but it's no use. She finally gives up, but vows to never tell anyone that she's a math genius.

Uglies

Our book club book for February was Uglies. Written by Scott Westerfeld, Uglies is a book full of adventure, fun, danger, and love for family and friends.

Tally lives in the future where everything is given to them by the city. In the future people are divided into groups based on your age, and your looks. Children called “littlies” and are supposed to be cute. Used as an insult, teenagers up to the age of sixteen are known as “uglies.” At age sixteen, uglies are supposed to have a surgery that makes them pretty. When Tally meets Shay --a girl who wants to remain ugly-- she is exposed to a world called the Smoke where she doesn't have to be a "pretty" or an "ugly", Tally could just be Tally and people could just be themselves. But of course like any story, there are bad guys called the Special Circumstances who don't want people to like the way they look. The Special Circustances are determined to find the Smoke and it is all up to Tally to keep the location of the Smoke a secret.

I would give Uglies a 4 out of 5 stars rating. I thought that the book was fun and excting to read but I think that the author could have shortened the amount of detail in Tally's adventure to the Smoke. Here are our questions for this book!:

Question 1: To keep up her fake reputation, in the Smoke, Tally had to lie over and over again. How did you feel whan she was doing that? Have you ever been in a situation similar to this?

Question 2: Tally's adventures in Uglies were big and dangerous. What, for you, was one of the most exiting arts to read about? Why?

Question 3: Scott westerfeld was very detailed with his writing. While reading the book Uglies, we were left only with our imagination. What did you imagine.

Question 4: When the special circumstances comes to destroy the smoke, Shay is mad at Tally. If you were Shay, would your reactions be any different? 

Question 5: The Rusty civilization collapsed because of there dependence on oil and gasoline. In what way is your life dependent on oil and gasoline? How easily would you survive if it all dissappeared one day?

Fresh Ink

  Thirteen amazing authors. One editor. And a publisher. That's all you need too get a perfect anthology.
  Edited by Lamar Giles, Fresh Ink is a stunning anthology filled with inspiring stories and life lessons to tell. It was a good read. It was confusing, I do have to say, but it was technically a teen read. This book has a lot of lessons, such as be who you are, don't be afraid, and saying goodbye is one of the hardest things in the world. I can apply these lessons to my life with everyday things, like "be who you are" could tell me not to fit in and to be different if I have to (unique). And "saying goodbye" like when your friend is moving away and you may not ever see them again. These lessons were realistic because of the examples I just gave.
  I recommend this book if you like anthologies and friendships. My favorite story was the script called "TAGS" about the dead guys. It was weird, yes, but sooooooo good still. This book made me think about my writing career. I am a creative writer (at LaVilla Middle School of the Arts), so I should be thinking about what I want to do later on (IN MY LIIIIIIFE). I think that this book is either a 12+ or a 13+.