FernFolio » Girls’ Book Club

The Curse of the Evening Eye by Carol Matas and Perry Nodelman

fernfolio — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:03:27 +0000

Molly and Adam Barnett are trying to break a century and a half-old curse to save their father’s life. Dad’s 35th birthday is only days away, and, if they cannot stop her, Lucinda, the ghost of a long-dead family servant, is going to scare him to death. Lucinda is still furious that, back in the middle of the 19th century, their great-, great-, great-grandfather fired her after accusing her of stealing some valuable jewellery. Ever since, her ghost has been killing off the men of the family on the eve of their 35th birthdays.
Tim Barnett, the children’s father, is a well-known documentary film maker, famous for his films debunking the myth that ghosts exists. Molly, and her younger brother, Adam, are proud of their father and of his award-winning movies. Too bad he’s completely wrong about the ghosts. They want to tell him about Lucinda, and her intention to kill him, but are afraid that the shock will accomplish exactly what they hope to avert. Fortunately, the children have help in the form of the ghost of their grandfather, who has recently turned up with an old family desk.
When their father flies off to California to present his newest film, The Proof that Ghosts Exist? Not! at a film festival, Molly and Adam, and their ghostly granddad, tag along, determined to keep dad safe while figuring out how to solve the problem of Lucinda, once and for all.
Strange men who look just like lost friends, chance encounters with the spirits of old miners, former teachers, and kindly neighbours, earthquakes, dust storms, and the wildest “technical effects” going keep the tension rising until the book’s concluding cliff-hanger!
The Curse of the Evening Eye, by Carol Matas and Perry Nodelman, is the second book in The Ghosthunters series. Watch for The Hunt for the Haunted Elephant!
FernFolio Editor

The Odds Get Even by Natale Ghent

fernfolio — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:35:25 +0000

Boney, Itchy and Squeak are neighbours and best friends. All three boys are odd; Boney, whose parents disappeared when he was a baby, lives with his neurotic aunt and her long-suffering husband, Squeak, whose mother ran off to work in a travelling cabaret, views the world from behind World War I goggles fitted with lens made to someone else’s prescription, and Itchy contends with a father who’s an Elvis impersonator and a mother intent upon redecorating their house. Together, they built the club house in the tree behind their houses, have entered the yearly Invention Convention at their school, and weathered the attentions of the class bully, Larry Harry, and his henchmen, Jones and Jones.
Larry, aka the Fart King and Prisoner 95, seems determined to make the Odds’ lives unbearable. He and the Jones twins regularly throw eggs at the boys’ clubhouse, and ambush them on the street. Boney, Itchy and Squeaky are regularly assaulted by the bullies, especially during phys. ed. classes, which frequently end in one or other of the boys making a visit to the school nurse.
Since Larry has sabotaged their entries into the Invention Convention, the Odds have never won, even though Squeak is a scientific and engineering genius, but this year the friends are determined to win the grand prize of $500, and solve the bullying problem once and for all. Squeak thinks he’s figured out how to build an Apparator, a device that can detect the presence of ghosts, and, since the ruins of the Old Mill are rumoured to be haunted, the Odds decide that it would be the perfect place to test Squeak’s invention, and plan Larry Harry’s comeuppance.
Little to the friends know that their plans will put them afoul of the Old Mill’s current occupant, or that a chance encounter with a dog will land them in hot water and about four thousand sequins!
Written by Natale Ghent, author of No Small Thing, The Odds Get Even is an action-packed adventure about three boys, their bullies and….. a ghost?
FernFolio Editor

Book Clubs

fernfolio — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:41:23 +0000

The school’s three book clubs have wound up for the summer. After a year full of reading and discussion, shared lunches and case loads of Oreo cookies, playing with Photo Story to create book trailers, two electronic conferences and a wiki, and one abortive author visit, student readers are heading out of the school library and into the bookshelves of friends and family, public libraries and bookstores.
The Girls’ Book Club walked to High Park, last Monday, for a picnic. Once the picnic table was laden with home-made lemonade, brownies, cupcakes, cheese and veggies, watermelon, and spring rolls, we settled on picnic rugs to watch the girls’ ‘party pieces’. Girls recited poems, told riddles, read ghost stories they had written, acted out skits. It was a perfect summer afternoon, one made for lying on the grass and looking at the clouds. A perfect end to a lovely year.
On the following afternoon, members of the Boys’ Book Club walked around the corner from the school to Noah’s house for an Italian afternoon. We started with pizza in Noah’s lovely back garden. Then we watched The Thief Lord, based on Cornelia Funke’s wonderful novel, which boys read last Fall. Though I generally prefer books to their screen adaptations, this was a delightful movie. The small changes in plot added to the tension and helped to make up for the loss of some of the magic of Funke’s written text. After the film had ended, we ate dishes of ice cream with Italian treats. I enjoyed an expresso with biscotti! Many thanks to Noah’s mother, who opened her house to us!
The Intermediate Book Club had planned to go to High Park, last Thursday afternoon, but the day was cool and rainy. By lunchtime it became clear that we needed to find another venue. I begged the key to an empty classroom and we took our picnic there, spreading out the food on tables cleared of science projects, and sitting on the floor, since the room is virtually empty. Students started by eating. I will never become accustomed to how much food adolescents can consume! And their food choices! Mind you, I thoroughly enjoyed the jam sandwiches on whole-wheat bread, something I haven’t eaten a lot of since I graduated from Grade 8.
Then it was time for the readers’ pieces. Kate and Gen, who’d come dressed at the Weasley twins, acted out a scene from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Ella read a passage from Pride and Prejudice, complete with characters’ voices, shifts in location to indicate changes in speaker, and explanatory asides. Nuala and Emily sang while Emily played the guitar. There was a very funny reading of a poem by Shel Silverstein, an uproarious ‘singing’ of The Lonely Goat herd by Kaitlyn, helped out by Lauren, a scene acted out by Maxine and Diane from The Way Lies North, one of the novels nominated for the Red Maple prize this year, a poem about Book Club written for the occasion, and more. It was a simply magical afternoon.
To everyone who took part in Book Club this year, have a wonderful summer, and read lots of great books!
FernFolio Editor

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

fernfolio — Mon, 18 May 2009 16:59:13 +0000

Twelve-year old Percy Jackson seems to be plagued by bad luck. Constantly in trouble at his upper New York state boarding school, hounded by a nasty classmate named Nancy Bobofit, and struggling with both dyslexia and ADHD, it’s like he’s an accident waiting for a place to happen. And it happens inside one of the galleries at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, which Percy and his classmates are visiting on a field trip. Attacked by Mrs. Dodds, his math teacher, he finds himself killing her with a sword tossed to him by Mr. Brunner, his wheelchair-bound latin teacher. Mrs. Dodds’ body turns into dust before Percy’s stunned eyes and, stranger still, no one, including Mr. Brunner, remembers anything about the incident or the math teacher.
In the weeks following the trip to Metropolitan Museum of Art, Percy’s marks plummet from C- to F, as he relives Mrs. Dodds’ death, and wonders if he’s lost his mind. Even his friend Grover, an awkward, rather hesitant kid made lame by muscular disease, can’t cheer him up or help him to put the nightmares behind him. Then, just as the school year is winding up, Percy decides to pay a visit to Mr. Brunner’s office, and overhears the latin teacher in conversation with Grover. They are talking about him, about the summer solstice, about protecting him, and about keeping him in the dark just a little longer.
When Grover turns up on the same Greyhound bus bound for New York City, after the school year ends, and makes it clear that he wants to escort his friend safely home, Percy gets mad and ditches him as soon as they reach the bus station. He heads home to the apartment shared by his loving mother, Sally, who works in a candy store but dreams of becoming a writer, and his loutish stepfather, Gabe, who lives to play poker, verbally abuse his wife, and make Percy’s life unbearable.
Fortunately, Sally has organized a weekend away for just her and Percy to a cottage at the end of Long Island Sound. There they spend an idyllic day at the beach, a place both of them love because it is where Sally met and fell in love with Percy’s father, who was lost at sea when the boy was only a baby. But nightfall brings a bad storm and an anxious Grover, who demands to know if Percy has told his mother about the incident with Mrs. Dodd. When she learns of it, a very alarmed Sally packs things up and the three of them head off into the storm to get Percy to safety at a nearby summer camp.
Just as they reach the camp, Sally’s car swerves off the road, and Percy and Grover are injured. Sally orders Percy to get to the camp, and takes off through the storm to intercept the creature that has been sent to stop him. But Percy cannot leave Grover behind, and manages to drag him from the car. Together, they reach the camp’s boundaries, where Percy collapses. When he awakens, two days later, Percy discovers that he has lost all that he has ever loved, and that most everything his mother told him about his father was a lie.
Camp Half-Blood, where he now finds himself, is a safe place, and a training facility, for the children of Greek gods. These gods are fond of entering into relationships with humans and the half-blood children that result from these unions are both blessed by special abilities and cursed by the dangers that their unusual parentage attracts. Percy is at first sceptical about this revelation, certain that his father was human, but Grover and Mr. Brunner, who are both far more than Percy could ever have imagined, assure him that his very ability to enter the camp grounds is proof of his parentage. What no one knows, however, is exactly which of the Greek gods fathered Percy, so he is placed in the cabin of the Hermes, the god of travellers, until his parentage can be determined. The boy settles into camp life, and rapidly finds himself involved in a variety of camp activities, such as metalwork, where you can forge your own sword, arts and crafts, where you can sandblast a Grecian statue, ancient Greek lessons, archery, foot racing, wrestling, and capture the flag. But just as he begins to enjoy his new life, Percy is attacked and the camp directors realize that the boy has an enemy inside the camp.
Concerned that he is no longer safe at Camp Half-Blood, the directors send Percy to the Oracle of Delphi, who prophecies that the boy will find what was stolen and see it safely returned. It is then that Percy learns that Zeus’ thunderbolt, the symbol of his power, has been stolen and that he, Percy Jackson, is the prime suspect in the crime. If a terrible war between the gods is to be averted, and Percy is to clear his name, the thunderbolt must be found and returned to Zeus, and by the summer solstice, now only days away. Accompanied by his friend Grover, and Annabeth, a fellow camper who eyes the boy with considerable suspicion, Percy sets off on a quest that will test his mettle and pit him and his companions against greatest and most terrible monsters of Greek mythology.
Written by Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief is the first of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians books, which currently number five. Steeped in mythology, yet action-packed and full of tense moments interspersed with humour, this novel is sure to appeal to boys and girls, and eager and reluctant readers, alike!
FernFolio Editor

Book Clubs – A New Year Begins!

fernfolio — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:33:52 +0000

Last week, I held information meetings for three Book Clubs, the Boys’ Book Club, for boys in Grade 4, 5 and 6, the Girls’ Book Club, for girls in Grades 4, 5 and 6, and the Intermediate Book Club, for students in Grades 7 and 8.
The boys met at lunch on Monday. There was little advance notice and only 5 boys showed up, though I did speak later to a couple of boys who hadn’t been able to get to the meeting. I am hoping that more boys will show up, since we had between 20 and 25 members last year. We are going to start the year with Cornelia Funke’s The Thief Lord, a mysterious tale about two brothers, Prospero and Bo, on the run from a weathly and unpleasant aunt who wants to adopt the younger child and put his older brother in a boarding school.
On Tuesday, I held the first meeting of the Girls’ Book Club and 46 girls came, all eager to begin reading at once! Fortunately, given the large numbers, a couple of Grade 7 and 8 girls came out to help. On the recommendation of one of my most trusty library assistants, the Girls’ Book Club is going to read Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke, in anticipation of the movie’s release this January. I have read this book twice, and loved it. It is the story of a young girl, Meggie, and her bookbinder father, Mo, who share a remarkable and dangerous gift, one that makes them the focus of an evil villain’s nefarious plans.
The Intermediate Book Club came on Thursday, fourteen girls and boys who love reading and who, among them, have a wide and deep knowledge of Canadian and international fiction for adolescents. In turn, sort of, students talked about books they have read recently, presented titles for the Book Club’s consideration, and argued, argued, argued. I think perhaps a talking stick might lend some order to the proceedings, but I don’t want to stifle their discussions or their ideas! I have no idea what we are going to read, but went out and bought a copy of The Amulet of Samarkand after hearing one member talk about it! I have set up a wiki so that these students will have an online forum to share their thoughts about the books they are reading. I look forward to reading their reflections.
I look forward to another interesting year of reading and talking with readers!
FernFolio Editor

Girls’ Book Club’s Anne Picnic

fernfolio — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 18:31:10 +0000

The Girls’ Book Club read Anne of Green Gables, in this the 100th anniversary year of the publication of LM Montgomery’s Canadian children’s classic. We enjoyed Anne’s bursts of enthusiasm, her wildly romantic and fanciful imagination, her fierce love of Diana, Miss Stacey, Mrs. Allen and Matthew, her equally fierce hatred of Gilbert and anyone else insensitive enough to mention her red hair, and her bright, indomitable spirit. We sorrowed over Anne’s bleak and loveless early childhood. We rejoiced at her successes at Avonlea School, then at Queen’s.
It seemed only fitting to celebrate our year of reading, and Anne, by having an Anne of Green Gables picnic in High Park. Girls came dressed in long dresses with white aprons and pants with checkered shirts. They wore straw hats, some adorned with flowers, and brought straw baskets laden with all manner of sandwiches and baked goods and fruit.
We spread our picnic blankets under the low-hanging branches of some trees, and ate shortbread, scones, cucumber sandwiches, tiny muffins and lemon tarts, and drank lemonade.
Then each girl stood up in turn to recite a poem or tell a ghost story. There were stories about blighted love, lost children and motherly love, all of which Anne would have delighted in. One girl read a lovely poem by LM Montgomery, another girl recited The Charge of the Light Brigade, as she walked among us, and still another recited a poem of her own composition.
It was a magical afternoon there in that grove of trees celebrating Lucy Maud and Anne and the girls, each one so full of curiosity, determination, imagination and potential.
It has been a wonderful year filled with marvelous stories. I cannot wait to begin again in the Fall!
FernFolio Editor

The Seeker by LM Montgomery

I sought for my happiness over the world,
Oh, eager and far was my quest;
I sought it on mountain and desert and sea,
I asked it of east and of west.
I sought it in beautiful cities of men,
On shores that were sunny and blue,
And laughter and lyric and pleasure were mine
In palaces wondrous to view;
Oh, the world gave me much to my plea and my prayer
But never I found aught of happiness there!

Then I took my way back to a valley of old
And a little brown house by a rill,
Where the winds piped all day in the sentinel firs
That guarded the crest of the hill;
I went by the path that my childhood had known
Through the bracken and up by the glen,
And I paused at the gate of the garden to drink
The scent of sweet-briar again;
The homelight shone out through the dusk as of yore
And happiness waited for me at the door!

Lucy Maud Montgomery

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

fernfolio — Sun, 18 May 2008 20:44:59 +0000

When Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert request an orphan boy to help around the farm, they are sent, instead, a little girl named Anne Shirley. The child has red hair and freckles and big green eyes, and possesses plenty of spirit and imagination. Shy, gentle Matthew Cuthbert, who is sent to fetch the orphan from the train station and knows he ought to tell her that there has been a mix-up, promptly falls under Anne’s spell, but his sister Marilla, who is far more pragmatic, insists that she will have to go back to the orphanage. But the story of Anne’s lonely childhood and her grief at learning her dream of a real home is not going to become reality, touch Marilla and eventually she, too, concludes that Anne must stay.
Anne’s first months at Green Gables are difficult, at times, for, while she know how to work and tries hard to do her best, Anne is sensitive about her red hair and unable to always control her fiery temper. She becomes very angry when Mrs. Rachel Lynde, a friend and neighbour of Marilla’s, makes disparaging remarks about her hair and looks and character, and, cracks her slate over the head of Gilbert Blythe, a fellow classmate, who calls her “carrots.” Yet she makes good friends among the other students in Avonlea School, and becomes best friends with Diana Barry, whom she adores with all the pent-up affection of her lonely early childhood, and finds in Matthew Cuthbert a kindred spirit, someone with whom she can share her thoughts and dreams.
Though Anne settles into life at Green Gables and Avonlea, she finds herself in plenty of scrapes and misadventures. She accidentally gets her friend Diana drunk on home-made wine, breaks her ankle trying to walk the ridge pole of the Barrys’ kitchen roof, and dyes her hair green trying to rid herself of the hated red colour. But she also studied hard at school and soon shows herself to be an able student, writes deliciously tragical stories which she shares with fellow members of the Story Club, and wins a place at Queen’s to study to become a teacher.
One hundred years old this year, Anne of Green Gables is a Canadian children’s classic, that has been read and enjoyed by countless millions of children all over the world. I recently reread my copy of Anne, given to me on my 8th birthday by my parents, and laughed and thrilled and cried with Anne, just as I did when my mother first read it to me so long ago. Montgomery’s words celebrate the sights and smells of the Prince Edward Island countryside; I defy anyone to read this story and not be transported to the fields and meadows and woods around Green Gables. They also bring to life one small, extraordinary girl, so full of life and exuberance and imagination and spirit, Anne Shirley.
FernFolio Editor

Dancing Through the Snow

fernfolio — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:20:50 +0000

The girls who read her book created a mock interview with author Jean Little.

dancing-through-the-snow-interview.mp3

Molly Moon, Micky Minus, and the Mind Machine

fernfolio — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:19:01 +0000

The girls who read Molly Moon, Micky Minus, and the Mind Machine created a mock interview with its main characters.

molly-moon.mp3

Pauline de Lammermoor

fernfolio — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:16:02 +0000

The members of the Girls’ Book Club who read created this radio podcast. Click on the icon to hear their mock interview with Pauline!

pauline-interview.mp3