January Book Club: "Don't Know Much About the Presidents" AND "Vinnie and Abraham"

Our January book club meeting will be on Thursday, January 7, 7-8 pm. We are reading TWO books for January: "Don't Know Much About the Presidents" by Kenneth Davis and "Vinnie and Abraham" by Dawn FitzGerald. The later is a picture book written for juvenile readers and we will read this together at our meeting. Both books are about Presidents of the United States. The Davis book is a highly readable collection of amazing facts and little known trivia about each of the U.S. Presidents from George Washington to Barack Obama. The FitzGerald book tells the story of Vinnie Ream, a sixteen-year-old young women with an awesome talent for sculpture. She became the youngest artist to be commissioned to sculpt a statue of a U.S. president. Her sculpture of Abraham Lincoln is still displayed in the Capitol rotunda today.

December Book Club: Because of Winn Dixie

Each year in December our book club reads a book that has also been made into a movie. It's fun for the kids to compare the book to the movie, note how the script was changed and adapted, and decide which they like best. This year we read "Because of Winn Dixie" by Kate DiCamillo. This book was a 2001 Newbery Honor winner. It is a lovely story about 10-year-old Opal, her preacher father, and the small Florida town of Naomi. Winn-Dixie is a mottley stray dog that Opal rescues from a wild escapade through the Winn-Dixie grocery story (hence the dog's name!) and talks her father into letting her keep him. Winn-Dixie quickly becomes Opal's best friend and confidante. He is better at making friends than any human and soon Opal has cast of unlikely new friends--Miss Franny Block, the town librarian, Gloria Dump, an elderly and nearly blind woman, and Otis, an ex-con who runs a pet shop and has a magically ability to calm the animals with his guitar playing. Opal's new friends help her cope with lonliness, feelings of abandonment (her mother has left) and her father's tendency to close up his emotions. In turn, Opal and Winn-Dixie bless the lives of everyone they come in contact with because of their irrepressible joy and acceptance. The movie is a delightful adaptaton of the book and really brings the characters of the book to life. We all enjoyed this year's book/movie connection.

November Book Club: The Lemonade War

Our November meeting of the Ashburn Kids Book Club will be Thursday, November 5, 7-8 p.m. We will be discussing the book, "The Lemonade War" by Jacqueline Davies. This is a very lively book about two siblings, Evan and Jessie. Evan is ten years old and going into fourth grade. Jessie is eight years old and will be in the second grade. The two usually get along well with each other and their natural talents are very complementary---Jessie is more academically inclined while Evan is better at people skills. Everything changes when a letter arrives from their school. It says that Jessie is going to skip third grade entirely and will be together with Evan in the same fourth grade class. Evan views this turn of events as a total disaster! He is sure everyone will think he is really dumb when compared to his younger grade-skipping sister. Evan rejects Jessie who is left feeling bewildered, hurt, and angry. Soon the two are locked in a battle---a battle to see who can sell the most lemonade from their competing lemonade stands by the end of the summer! The author's portrayal of family dynamics rings true and keeps the reader pulled into the action and drama. I'm sure our book club readers are going to enjoy this book! There is also a great website for this book: http://www.lemonadewar.com/

October Book Club: Mallory vs. Max

Our October meeting of the Ashburn Kids Book Club will be on Thursday, October 1, 7-8 p.m. The book we will be featuring is "Mallory vs. Max" by Laurie Friedman. This book is part of the very popular series of books (12 so far) featuring almost-nine-years-old, Mallory McDonald, her older brother, Max, her cat, Cheeseburger, and her best friend, Mary Ann. In this book, Mallory is facing a dilemma--her parents have decided that her brother Max is old enough and responsible enough to get a dog of his own. This worries Mallory who fears the new puppy will take away all the attention from herself and her cat, Cheeseburger. Mallory presents very logical reasons why getting a dog is NOT a good idea--Dogs eat a lot. Dogs drink a lot. Dogs dig a lot. Dogs bark a lot. Dogs poop a lot, etc. But no one is persuaded by her arguments and soon there is a new young puppy joining the family. Everyone has some adjusting to do, especially Mallory who finally realizes that Champ the dog isn't so bad after all. The cartoon-like illustrations by Tamara Schmitz add to the fun. This is a fast-paced easy chapter book that kids are sure to enjoy and, more importantly, relate to.

National Book Festival 2009

Living near the nation's capital does have its perks! One of the best is the annual National Book Festival. It is organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress and will be held on Saturday, September 26, 2009, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., between 7th and 14th streets from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The festival is free and open to the public. It is a day-long celebration of reading that features dozens of highly acclaimed and award-winning authors and poets. There will be author presentations, book signings, customed storybook characters, and much much more. The list of authors and poets coming this year is truly impressive. Here are some useful weblinks to the event:

Home page for the 2009 Festival: http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/

This year's participating authors: http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/2009/authors/index.html

Schedule of author presentations: http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/2009/schedulePavilion.html

Schedule of book signings: http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/2009/scheduleSigning.html

It's a great event for kids who get an upclose look at such favorite authors as Jeff Kinney (Diary of a Wimpy Kid books), Kate DiCamillo (Tale of Despereaux, Because of Winn Dixie--which we will read in December), Craig Hatkoff (Owen & Mzee--which we read last year), Lois Lowry (The Giver and much more), Megan McDonald (Judy Moody and others), Jacqueline Woodson (Locomotion and many others), etc. Well, there are just too many great authors to mention them all.

If you get the chance to visit the National Book Festival, please post a comment here and tell us who you say and what you thought of the whole experience. I'm hoping to attend, so maybe I'll see some of you down there!

September Book Club -- "Eleven" by Patricia Reilly Giff

It's hard to believe that mid-August is here and the first meeting of the 2009-10 Ashburn Kids Book Club is close at hand! Once again we will meet on the first Thursday night of each month at 7 p.m. The first meeting will be on September 3. Please notice that this is actually BEFORE the first day of school. Registration is now open and can be found at this link: http://engagedpatrons.org/EventsRegister.cfm?SiteID=6457&BranchID=454&Branch=Ashburn%20Library&EventID=38561

The book for September is "Eleven" by Patricia Reilly Giff. It is an exciting book about a boy, Sam, who lives happily with his grandfather. On the eve of his eleventh birthday, Sam goes up into the attic in search of birthday gifts he thinks his grandfather has hidden there. But instead of birthday presents, Sam he finds an old newspaper clipping about himself. The newspaper article stirs old distant memories for Sam and he begins to question many things about his life. Eventually, with the help of a new friend at school, Sam is able to solve the mystery and get his questions are answered.

June Book Club: "Kensuke's Kingdom" by Michael Morpurgo

I am late getting my blog updated with our June book club selection. But I thought I should still add it so you can all see how we finished up our book club year. Our last book for this school year was "Kensuke's Kingdom" by the award-winning British author, Michael Morpurgo. This adventure book is one of my favorites...in fact, it is the first time in five years of running the AKBC that I have repeated a book. The very first line of the book is, "I disappeared on the night before my twelfth birthday." Thus begins an intriguing and poignant story that starts in England and ends up halfway around the world where the 12-year-old protagonist, Michael, and his dog, Stella, are thrown overboard off his family's yacht in the middle of the night and end up on a wild and hostile island teaming with screeching gibbons, ravenous mosquitoes, and one very strange human--an old Japanese sailor named Kensuke who has been living alone on the island for years. At first, Kensuke is angry and agitated by Michael's intrusion but slowly they forge a deep friendship. Michael never gives up hope of being rescued, however, and that day finally comes after nearly a year on the island. I don't want to give away the amazing ending so I'll leave it at that. "Kensuke's Kingdom" is a beautifully written tale of family life, survival, and true friendship.

May Book Club: "Love, Ruby Lavender" by Deborah Wiles

Our May meeting of the Ashburn Kids Book Club will be held on Thursday, May 7, 7-8 p.m. We will be discussing the book, Love Ruby Lavender by Deborah Wiles. Ruby is a nine-year-old girl growing up in the small town of Halleluia, Mississippi, a town of "400 good friendly folks and a few old soreheads." Ruby’s best friend is her grandmother, Miss Eula. The book opens with a wonderful scene where Ruby and Miss Eula pull off a daring rescue of "three of the most pitiful-looking, nervous" chickens, chickens bound for slaughter. This starts a summer of adventures, ups and downs, and some growing-up for Ruby. She has to cope with her beloved grandmother going to Hawaii to visit her son whose wife has just had a baby. She has to contend with her "tormenter" Melba Jane. She has to take care of the chickens by herself. And she has to come to terms with her grandfather's death. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and found it to be a refreshing and realistic look at small town life and how seemingly insignificant daily events can take on huge proportions in the minds of children. It also illustrates how important love, support, and kindness are in helping children find their way in life. Join us for the discussion of this wonderful book!

April Book Club: Phineas L. MacGuire...Erupts!

Our April meeting of the Ashburn Kids Book Club will meet on Thursday, April 2, at 7 pm. We will be discussing the book, Phineas L. MacGuire...Erupts, by Frances O'Roark Dowell. This book is one of the titles nominated for this year's Virginia Readers Choice (VRC) Award. It tells the story of a 4th grade boy, Phineas, who loves science and experiments more than anything. Phineas says, "If you're a scientist like me, you're always interested when a problem comes around. Because what you learn when you study science is that if you think hard enough and are willing to take risks, almost every problem has a solution. It's just a matter of discovering what that solution is." This philosophy is put to the test, however, when Phineas is forced to team up with a new boy in the class--a boy who has clashed with Phineas from day one--for the 4th grade science project fair. Phineas puts his scientific problem-solving to good use and, in the process, learns quite a lot about himself and others.

Besides our book discussion, we will also be voting for our favorite VRC books. The votes are due by the first week of April to the Virginia State Reading Association who will compile the votes of children all over the state and then announce the winners of this year's award.

Special Thanks to Our Guest Speaker

For our March meeting of the book club, we were excited to have a guest speaker come and talk about assistive technology. Judie Schoonover, an occupational therapist and assistive technology specialist with the Loudoun County Public Schools, spoke to the book club kids about her job and the many different types of technology she uses to help children overcome their learning disabilities so they can participate fully in a school setting. She brought along many examples of technology--from the very simple to the highly technical--which she passed around and allowed the children to try. She was a wonderful guest speaker and we all enjoyed her presentation. It was a perfect tie-in for the book, Rules by Cynthia Lord.

March Book Club: "Rules" by Cynthia Lord

Our book club for March will meet on Thursday, March 5, and we will be discussing the book, Rules by Cynthia Lord. This Newbery Honor Medal book is one of the books nominated for the Virginia Readers Choice award for 2008-2009. It has also received many other awards--too many to list them all here. The story is about a 12-year-old girl named Catherine who has a younger autistic brother, David. The title of the book comes from all the rules Catherine establishes to help David understand and interact with his world. For example, one rule is: No toys in the fish tank. I'll bet you can guess why she has this rule! Catherine loves her brother and is sensitive to his needs but she is also growing impatient with the responsibilities and embarrassment he brings. Catherine often accompanies her brother to his therapy sessions at a clinic. One day at the clinic Catherine befriends a wheel-chair bound boy, Jason, who can only communicate by pointing to small word cards. Catherine uses her drawing skills to make additional word cards for him and their friendship gradually grows. Catherine experiences some of the same discomfort with Jason that others do in the presence of her brother David. This gives Catherine the opportunity to explore her own thoughts and feelings and begin to look at her world differently. This is a tender and heart-warming book which the author says is loosely based on her own experience raising a son with autism.

February Book Club: Owen & Mzee + Henry's Freedom Box

Our February meeting of the Ashburn Kids Book Club was very busy! We did two books for the month. They were: Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine and Owen & Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship by Isabella and Craig Hatkoff.

Henry's Freedom Box retells the true story of a 1849 Virginia slave, Henry "Box" Brown, who desired freedom so badly he devised a method of escape--he mailed himself to freedom by shipping himself in a wooden crate from Richmond to Philadelphia. The wonderful illustrations are by the award-winning artist, Kadir Nelson. The evocative illustrations are the perfect accompaniment to the simple text. Often we think picture books are just for young readers but this book is a good example of a picture book format written for older readers.

Owen & Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship tells the story of a baby hippo, Owen, who was orphaned in Kenya as a result of the 2004 tsunami. He was rescued and taken to an animal sanctuary where he formed a most unlikely friendship with a 130 year old Aldabra tortoise, Mzee. The book is illustrated by wonderful photographs that chronicle the whole amazing story. We were able to watch a documentary film about Owen & Mzee downloaded from their website. It was amazing to see such unlikely animals--a mammal and a reptile--form a lifelong bond of friendship. It's hard to explain how this would happen but perhaps the author's simple explanation is the best one, "Science can't always explain what the heart already knows: Our most important friends are sometimes those we least expect."

Both of these books have been nominated for the 2008-2009 Virginia Reader's Choice Award for grades 3-5.

January Book Club: "The Homework Machine" by Dan Gutman

Our January book club meeting will take place on Thursday, January 8, at 7 pm. We will be discussing the book, The Homework Machine by Dan Gutman. This book has an intriguing way of telling the story. It is told in the alternating voices of four 11-year-olds as they make statements to the police. The children are all fifth graders in the same class at the Grand Canyon elementary school. They are about as different from each as any four kids could be, but they do have one thing in common--they have all been involved in a scheme to use a machine, invented by one of the group, to do their homework. Their plan takes many twists and turns and gets more complicated than any of them could have imagined. The book appeals equally well to boys and girls and is both funny and thought provoking. It is one of the ten books nominated this year for the Virginia Readers Choice Award.

"Matilda" -- The Book vs. The Movie

The Ashburn Kids Book Club had a great time watching the movie of "Matilda" for our December get-together. The kids came up with MANY examples of ways that the movie is different than the book. Perhaps the most obvious difference is that the setting for the book is England while the movie occurs in the United States. Here's some more of the difference the kids noticed:

• Matilda's mom is fat and her dad is skinny in the book; in the movie it is just the reverse.
• Matilda's teacher is named Jenny in the book; in the movie she is called Bumblebee.
• Matilda's parents didn't sign adoption papers in the book; they did in the movie.
• Matilda never got put in the chokey in the book; she did in the movie.
• Matilda lost her amazing powers in the book; she never lost her powers in the movies.
• Their money is in British pounds in the book; they use U.S. dollars in the movies.
• They use the word "telie" in the book; in the movie it's called a "television."
• Mr. Wormwood rips up the book "The American Pony" in the book; in the movie he rips up "Moby Dick."
• Miss Trunchbull is called the "headmistress" in the book; she's called the "prinicipal" in the movie.
• Matilda didn't cook her own breakfasts in the book; in the movie she does.

I'm sure there are lots more ways that the book and the movie differ. But one thing the two did have in common -- they were both very enjoyable!