4/5th Book Club - October

On Friday, October 21st, we had our first 4/5th Book Club meeting!

The enrollment in the Book Club this year has been extremely high-- about 20 students participating! Due to high enrollment (and my wanting to choose books of high interest), the students are broken down into smaller lit circles at Book Club. With 3-5 students per book, 5 books were discussed amongst groups and then Book Talked to the other groups at our first meeting.

The five books for our first month included:

Wonder by Palacio

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Grabenstein

Out of My Mind by Draper

Flora and Ulysses by DiCamillo

The War that Saved My Life by Bradley

Students were asked to identify the main character(s), discuss how the main character(s) related to others, how the setting affected the main character(s), if they personally related to any of the characters in the book, and if the book reminded them of any other books they have read. Some students responded that Wonder reminded them of Out of My Mind (via what they were hearing at Book Club); that Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library reminded them of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; and that Flora and Ulysses reminded them of Because of Winn-Dixie. Two groups agreed that Out of My Mind and The War that Saved My Life reminded them of nothing they have ever read before--lending to both these titles' uniqueness and student exposure to different types of literature.

Every meeting will end with the groups working together to develop a Book Talk that they can give to the other groups--inspiring the other groups to read their book. This first month I gave an example Book Talk showing how you want to highlight exciting parts without giving too much away.)

Our next meeting will occur on Friday, December 2nd after school.

The titles for November include:

Star Girl by Spinelli

Bridge to Terabithia by Paterson

Katarina by Winter

The Thief Lord by Funke