An update from our twenty-fourth Book Club meeting!
On Saturday, February 27, the Stone Soup Book Club discussed The Thing About Jellyfish, by Ali Benjamin. The story is moving; it is about a girl named Suzy, who is coming to terms with the unexpected death of her friend, Franny.
We were incredibly lucky to have been joined by author Ali Benjamin for around forty minutes of our meeting! Ms. Benjamin graciously answered all of our questions about The Thing About Jellyfish, and about writing in general. She talked to us about what she felt was the ultimate truth of the book—learning to live with uncertainty—as well as about the research she undertook to learn about jellyfish, and how her own life impacted her ideas and her characters. Additionally, she explained how it felt to have written a book that had been a finalist for the National Book Award, and we learned a bit about the world of film and stage adaptations! We are very thankful to Ms. Benjamin for spending this time with us! If you attended this Book Club meeting, we would appreciate it if you write a brief thank-you note to Ms. Benjamin, if you have not done so already. You can email it to me (Anya) at my Stone Soup email address and I will forward it to her!
After Ms. Benjamin’s visit, we only had a little bit of time left. We split into three breakout rooms and discussed some questions that related to the central themes of the book: has there ever been a time where you distracted yourself from the truth? Has there ever been a time where you believed something no one else believed? We had great conversations about instances where book characters did something we couldn’t believe, or where we got a different answer to a question than the rest of our class in school. We also talked generally about the book, and mostly agreed that we enjoyed it! It was very fun to hear what everyone had to say!
Finally, we chose our next book, which is listed below!
Our Next Book (to be discussed March 27):
The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy, by Jeanne Birdsall
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