The Secret Life of Bees – Mother-Daughter Book Club Meeting

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secretlifeofbeesThis past Sunday Catherine and I went to our mother-daughter book club meeting to talk about The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. Ellen cooked a great southern-themed dinner to go with the book; we feasted on ham, biscuits, corn fritters and green beans. Of course there was honey. It’s hard to read this book and not start to crave honey on the comb. As a southern-born-and-raised girl I was as happy as could be.

When the book was chosen, I was a little worried that I would be bored reading it. I had already read it twice: first in a women’s book club I used to belong to and the second time with Madeleine for her mother-daughter book club. But I need not have worried.

I started to read the first page to Catherine and was instantly reminded of how much I love the book, and how much I admire the way Sue Monk Kidd writes. The characters are well developed and their emotions leap off the page as real, not just words written about what they are feeling. I ache for Lily in so much of the book, and it’s easy to see that her need to have a mother who loves her influences everything she does.

We all talked about a favorite character, and it was interesting to note that nearly every character in the book is developed well enough to have a following. Some of us thought that August was too perfect, and that the pink house was too much of a utopia. But we also recognized that the issues dealt with were very complicated, and the story needed August’s wise voice to sort through them.

Racial tension and the civil rights movement was also a large issue underlying the story. It’s interesting how relevant that issue is today in light of the presidential campaign and election. When I shared some of my stories about growing up in the south during those racially turbulent times, the girls looked on as though I was talking about a foreign country. In many ways, that era does seem foreign, and Obama’s election is testament to how far we’ve come since then.

We plan to see the movie as a group next week. We’re looking forward to talking afterward about how the two compare. I highly recommend The Secret Life of Bees for mother-daughter book clubs with girls in high school.

Book Review: Masterpiece by Elise Broach

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I recently read Masterpiece by Elise Broach and was totally delighted with the story and the characters. Mother-daughter book clubs with daughters aged 9 and up should enjoy reading it—there’s a sprinkling of art history scattered among the broader theme of friendship, and you can even pair it with a trip to a museum. Here’s my review:

Masterpiece by Elise Broach is a delightful story of the unlikely friendship that develops between a lonely young boy named James and a beetle named Marvin. In the tradition of E. B. White’s Charlotte’s Web and The Trumpet of the Swan, Broach takes this human/insect encounter out of the wild and into New York City, where Marvin lives with his parents and other relatives behind a kitchen cupboard in James’s home.

The two characters meet when Marvin draws an ink rendition of the skyline outside James’s window as a birthday present. When everyone thinks that James is the artist, of course he can’t tell them who really drew what’s being hailed as a masterpiece. The two are drawn into a staged art heist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where officials hope to recover previously stolen masterpieces by a well known artist from the early Renaissance.

You’ll happily follow the adventures as James and Marvin work to unravel the complications of their deception while they learn the true value of art and friendship. The publisher, Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, also features an excellent companion discussion guide on its Web site, www.HenryHoltKids.com.

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Jen Robinson’s Book Page

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When I attended the Kidlit Blogger’s Conference in Portland last month I met Jen Robinson and heard about her blog, Jen Robinson’s Book Page. Jen has reviews of books for both kids and adults, and her blog has some really great features that can help you find something to read on your own or with your mother-daughter book club.

I particularly like Jen’s list of Cool Girls of Children’s Literature link. This is a list of some of the best female characters in books from classics to current. Jen also has an easy to scroll through index of all her reviews, which include picture books, independent reader books and young adult books. You can look by title or just check out something that catches your eye. I hope you have as much fin visiting Jen’s site as I did.

Book Review: Call Me Hope by Gretchen Olsen + Mother-Daughter Book Club Library Meeting

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Last Saturday I was happy to be invited as a guest to the Hillsboro, Oregon, public library mother-daughter book club meeting. Gretchen Olson, author of Call Me Hope, was also there to talk about her book and the Hands & Words Are Not For Hurting Project, which received a portion of the advance for Call Me Hope. A great group of moms and daughters had gathered that morning to meet Gretchen and hear her perspective on the book while also talking about their own thoughts. I loved being in on the conversation. And I admired the commitment of group members who came out at 10 a.m. on a Saturday morning to be part of the meeting. I know how difficult it can be to get kids out of bed and out the door on a non-school day.

Gretchen is a passionate supporter of the Hands & Words Are Not For Hurting Project, and she hopes that her book will inspire readers to take on a service project involving the group, which provides educational materials that can be used in schools among other things.

Here’s a picture of the group with Gretchen, who is in the middle wearing purple.

And here’s my review of Call Me Hope.

Hope Marie Elliot is eleven years old and in sixth grade. She has a lot to hope for: that her verbally abusive mother will stop calling her stupid and making her feel as though everything she does is wrong, and that she will get to go to Outdoor School at the end of the school year. But Hope is aptly named, and while her mother’s insults continue unabated, she begins to form a refuge for herself. She throws her energy into school work and takes on a challenging project related to Anne Frank’s diary, which her class is reading. She forms a friendship with two women who own a consignment clothing shop, and works to earn clothing for herself. She makes new friends at school, and begins to see her school counselor as someone she can open up to.

She is surprisingly independent for a girl her age, but much of her independence is forged from neglect. When Hope could be drawing inward and closing up, instead she reaches out and sees that the wide world is not necessarily like the one she experiences at home. And that gives her courage to reach out for more. Underlying much of the book is the recognition that while physical abuse is no longer accepted, verbal abuse is often still ignored or dealt with awkwardly.

Call Me Hope is told simply through the words of the young protagonist, and it is richly layered with many themes. Some of the questions it asks readers to ponder: What is verbal abuse? How does a parent’s verbal abuse affect members of the whole family, especially when it’s directed at only one sibling? How do voices from the Holocaust have meaning for and inspire us today? What impact does a loving community have on a child’s emotional well being? Is there hope for change?

Author Gretchen Olson has written a book that shines a light on an issue that isn’t talked about much, while giving us a character, Hope, who will burrow into your heart and stay for a while. Highly recommended for ages 9 and up.

Book Review: Getting the Girl by Markus Zusak

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Regular readers of this site know that I’m a big fan a Markus Zusak’s books. The Book Thief is one of my all time favorites, and I also really like I Am the Messenger. I recently finished one of Zusak’s earlier books, Getting the Girl, and it confirmed for me once again why I like his writing so much. The voice of Zusak’s characters is so real, so easy to empathize with, that as you’re reading you almost think of yourself as the main character. I’m certainly not a high school boy like Cameron Wolfe in Getting the Girl, but I really felt like I knew what he was going through and knew his character very well. Here’s my official review; I highly recommend it for readers aged 14 through adult.

In Getting the Girl, Markus Zusak takes us into the world of Cameron Wolfe, a high school boy living in the shadow of his older siblings: Steve who’s smart and driven and successful at everything he does, Sarah who works hard, and Ruben, a fighter who earns the respect of all the guys in the neighborhood and who easily gets any woman he wants.

But Cameron is a loner, with no friends outside his family, no girls to go out with, and nothing to do at night but wander the streets around his home. Things start to change for Cam when Octavia comes into his life. Octavia is the latest in a long line of girls dumped by Ruben. Cam sees her as different from the rest, and when she makes it known she’s interested in him, Cam doesn’t hesitate. But how does he open up to someone when he’s so used to being alone? And how does he tell Ruben that’s he’s dating one of his ex-girlfriends?

Cameron is an unlikely hero. Quiet and unassuming, he’s caught between wanting to find someone who appreciates him for what he is and wanting to be more than what he lets others see of him. Getting the Girl delves into complex issues of family and the roles played by different members, and finding a way to be true to yourself while not being overshadowed by more forceful personalities.

Book Review: The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman

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Ruby in the Smoke imageFans of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series will find The Ruby in the Smoke very different, but in many ways just as pleasurable to read. It opens with sixteen-year-old Sally Lockhart visiting her deceased father’s shipping firm and accidentally causing one of his associates to die of a heart-attack when she ask him if he knows of the Seven Blessings. The phrase was on a piece of paper dictated by her father before his death and sent to her in secret.

Fearing that her life is in danger, Sally seeks to unravel the mystery of why her father died, who would like to see her dead, and where to find the famed ruby of an Indian maharajah. Set in Victorian London, The Ruby in the Smoke takes the reader into the dark underworld of the times, where opium dens, disreputable boarding houses and seedy characters abound, while poverty forces many into a life of crime. Pullman keeps us guessing right up until the end, when the facts of several mysteries building during the story are revealed.

Book Review: The Night Tourist by Katherine Marsh

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Jack Perdu is a loner, a ninth-grader who is an expert on Greek classics and lives on the Yale University campus with his archeology-professor father. One winter afternoon, while he has his nose in a book, he is nearly killed when a car hits him in a crosswalk. Mysterious things start to happen to Jack after that. He finds a strange man in his father’s study—a man who disappears without a trace from an upstairs window when he spots Jack. Then his father sends him to see a doctor in New York City, a place he hasn’t visited since his mother died there eight years before. But while he’s waiting for his train to return, he meets a girl named Euri who takes him on an adventure into the mysterious realm of New York’s ghostly underworld.

As Jack dodges Cerberus, the three-headed dog who’s mission is to eliminate the living from the among the dead, her tries to locate his mom before he has to return to the world of the living or remain permanently in the world of the dead. An interesting twist on the story of Orpheus in Greek mythology, The Night Tourist by Katherine Marsh will have you looking over your shoulder at dusk and paying attention when you feel you’re being watched but no one’s there. It’s morbid subject matter never becomes too dark or overwhelming, and it asks questions that are great for group discussion: What happens when you die? Why is it important to treat life as a gift? Why do your family and friends need to know how much you care for them? The ending feels a bit rushed, but the fast wrap-up can provide good possibilities for conversation of what happens to Jack after his adventure.

Book Review: Becoming a Superhero by William Smith

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Becoming a Superhero by William D. Smith is an endearing tale that is a semi-autobiographical account of a young boy who dreams of being a superhero, and discovers a lot about himself along the way. We meet Billy Smith, a 10-year-old growing up in a Pennsylvania coal-mining town, as he decides to try his superhero powers by jumping out of the second-story window of a deserted house wearing a Superman cape he is sure will make him fly. His disillusionment doesn’t last, and he’s sure there’s some way he can become a superhero.

Set in the closing days of World War II, Billy’s story will take the reader back to the innocent times of those hard days. Times when boys collected scrap metal for the war effort, built soap box cars for derby races, and everybody watched cowboy movies. Billy’s also always getting into trouble because of his creative spelling, unusual solutions to math problems and general sense of adventure. It was a time when kids played without too much adult supervision and their neighborhood included the whole town.

Billy’s alter-ego, William, is always whispering in his ear about the things he knows he should be doing, but Billy does a pretty good job of ignoring him most of the time. Told very simply, this story is very accessible for younger readers, ages 8–12, who will appreciate Billy’s observations about his parents, his grandparents and his teachers. Younger readers being read to would probably also enjoy it, while parent readers will appreciate the quiet wisdom Billy’s mother gives him to help him learn how to become a superhero without ever developing supernatural powers. And Billy’s grandfather ultimately gives him a wonderful gift by inspiring him to leave their coal town and see the parts of the world that the grandfather knows he will never see.

While the writing is not very polished, that actually contributes to the feeling that you’re hearing a story about “those good old days” told to you by your grandpa. I believe young girls and boys both will have fun reading this book.

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