The Strange Intruder

As a boy mom, a small part of my regular reading diet includes previewing books that come from trustworthy sources as possible reads for the often difficult-to-please 8-14-year-old boy niche. In this book list article, Diane and I mention that, in our experience as teachers, boy moms, and encouragers of readers, we have learned that…

Hobbit Club: October Meeting

As I was preparing for our October Hobbit Club meeting, I fretted that I didn’t have any pre-planned questions to throw at the group. Silly me… all this crowd needs for good discussion is an open-concept furniture floor plan so we can see each other and move around to refresh our refreshments. To that end,…

The Book of Three Book Club

Last month I had the pleasure of reading The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander with almost twenty young readers. It was a tremendously good book club because, after a year and a half of reading together, we have developed a common vernacular and culture. It isn’t enough to discuss the story arc or character…

Miss Moore Thought Otherwise

I recently started off on a rabbit trail that leads back through prominent librarians of the 20th Century to the first women librarians in America. These women were influential in shaping ideas about the kinds of books that should be written for children. Many of them resorted to writing children’s books themselves.   While sorting…

Hobbit Club: September Meeting

In our September Hobbit Club meeting, we drank Dragon Eye Red Ale beer that Greg and I brewed, we had birthday cupcakes for Frodo and Bilbo, and we laughed until our sides hurt. It was a party for Hobbits! The reading for this month was the Joseph Pearce commentary, Frodo’s Journey. At this point in…

Book Club Questions

Sometimes the hardest part about leading a book club is getting the conversation going. While every book will have its own relevant questions and topics for discussion, it is nice to have a cheat sheet you can consult when the conversation dries up. Here are a dozen of my favorites: What did you like most…

Stick

Stick is another of my serendipitous library finds. The little frog on the first page is so cute I couldn’t resist taking him home. I assumed, from the first page, that the story wasn’t going to be terribly original.   We all know this story. The young frog is going to insist on doing things…

The Odyssey

This is part of Diane’s Literature Course II Series We’ve finished The Odyssey and my girls enjoyed it. I’m happy to have helped each of them complete her first time through. Now that they are familiar with the characters and events, something deeper can be gleaned from each successive reading. Is it too optimistic to hope…