My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer

Our next book club book was My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer.

My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer by Jennifer Gennari was about a girl named June who lives in Vermont. The story takes place where they had just established gay rights and her mother and girlfriend want to get married. When people start protesting against gay marriage June's only escape is making pies. This year she is determined to make a pie that will be fit to win the pie competition and the judges hearts. Will June be able to stand the criticism of others about her parents and make the perfect pie?

  I loved this book and I definitely recommend it for anyone who's looking for a short read. Personally, I think it's a good book for summer break because of all of it's summer themes. My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer is definitely high up on my list of book club books.

Because They Persisted...

 I just finished a book called Operation Redwood by S. Terrell French. Operation Redwood is about a boy named Julian and a girl named Robin who discover each other when Julian secretly looks through his uncle’s e-mails. The E-mail is to his uncle who is the CEO of IPX, a logging industry. The e-mail is from Robin Elder who wants Julian’s Uncle not to cut down a redwood forest. According to the text (e-mail), ”Sibley Carter is a jerk and a big fat moron!” I would recommened this book for kids that are 8+. This book was really godd and I would give it 5 out of 5 stars because it shows how persistant kids can do anything! 

P.S. We all got into LaVilla!!!

Finding Mighty

   For our March Book Club book we read Finding Mighty. It was a really good book by Sheela Chari (she also wrote the book Vanished). Anyway, it is a mystery book about a boy named Peter (and also about a girl named Myla) who is trying to find his brother named Randall, because one day he just disappeared. This book is followed by a series of OMs, which Myla and Peter have to find out who painted them to get to a mystical treasure. Along with a black book, a mysterious fall, and missing diamonds, this book is a mystery that you have got to read. This book was really good. I liked that it was about graffiti and a little about trying to get to know who your family is and loving them. This book made me think about my connections to my siblings. My favorite part was when Randall showed Peter where the diamonds were. I think you would like this book if you are at least 9 years old and like a good mystery. I think the lesson in this book is, "Even if your siblings are annoying, love them and treat them fairly (also, there is nothing like a good family mystery!)."

                                                           🔹🔷👧👦👴👨👵🔷🔹

Posted

Posted was our second book of the year. Written by John Anderson, it explores the power of words. It talks about how hard middle school can be. The main character is named Frost and he has a tribe of good friends until a girl named Rose shows up. Rose is different from everyone else. She is very brave and is unafraid to be herself. When there is a giant cell phone ban, the group finds a new way to communicate: post-it notes. These notes become all the rage and the students use them for both positive and negative purposes. When the post-it note war goes bananas, it's up to them to find the good in words and each other.

Margret's Search

Our January book was called Are You There God, It's Me Margret. In the book, Margret is experiencing middle school and the worries of going through puberty. Also, Margret had the choice of her own religion and learned about many in the process of choosing the right one for her.

Some of the delicious sweet and salty snacks we enjoyed at book club!

          I would recommend Are You There God, It's Me Margret, to girls ready or about to go through puberty, because this book helped me--or the reader-- to understand how it would feel, what you would do, and how to react/how others reacted. I would NOT recommend this book to boys or girls under the age of 10.

I liked this book because it was a good heads up on leaning about puberty and it helped me understand and learn about new religions as well. 

       
       

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!