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.🏀