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
Ali Benjamin
Book Club Report: The Night Diary, by Veera Hiranandani
An update from our twenty-third Book Club meeting! At our first Book Club meeting of 2021, on January 30, the Stone Soup Book Club discussed The Night Diary, by Veera Hiranandani. The Night Diary tells the story of a half-Hindu, half-Muslim girl named Nisha during the separation of India and Pakistan, and is written through letters from Nisha to her mother, who died when Nisha was born. Our meeting consisted of over forty kids from across the US, Canada, and Europe, and we were very lucky to be joined for the first twenty minutes of Book Club by Veera Hiranandani, author of The Night Diary! We were able to ask her a variety of questions, from how she decided to be a writer, to the amount of research she had to do in order to write her book, to the impact of cooking and food in the story. She told us how she was inspired by her grandfather’s experiences in India, and how she herself feels that food can connect her to her culture. Thank you very much, Ms. Hiranandani, for joining us! After Ms. Hiranandani’s visit, we broke into small groups to discuss what we enjoyed about her visit, and then regrouped to have a conversation about the role of letters written by Nisha to her mother in the book. Overall, we agreed that the book was very good as an epistolary novel (that is, written through letters), and we talked about some of the challenges of writing that way, such as making sure the dates on the letters line up! Next, we went into four breakout rooms (led by myself, Laura, and two of our older participants, Maddy N. and Lucy) to talk overall about the book, including the characters, settings, and themes. We discussed the complexity of the characters, as well as how vivid some of the scenes were, and most of us agreed that before this book, we had not known much about the separation of India and Pakistan, and that The Night Diary had taught us a lot! Finally, we chose our next book, which is listed below. Our Next Book (to be discussed on February 27): The Thing About Jellyfish, Ali Benjamin
