An update from our twelfth and thirteenth Book Club meetings! Over the past two weeks, the Stone Soup Book Club has been reading and discussing the book Amal Unbound, by Aisha Saeed. The novel, which is seemingly inspired by Malala Yousafzai’s story, is about a girl in Pakistan who wants to become a teacher. First, before I launch into the Book Club’s discussions, I must say, on behalf of all of our participants, thank you to Lucy Rados (13), who attends Book Club, and who, in the past two weeks, has done a brilliant job leading some of our conversations! Thank you, Lucy! One of the main themes in Amal Unbound is the concept of happiness and freedom. Over the two weeks in which we read this book, we discussed this, brainstorming what happiness and freedom meant to the characters in the book, and then thinking about what happiness and freedom meant to us, and whether our opinions differed. We talked about the characters and setting in the story, thinking about the complexity of the characters (no one was really drawn in black and white), and how the setting played a major role in the book. We also discussed what the themes in Amal Unbound were (such as Education, Friendship, Family, Perseverance, and Gender Equality) and thought more deeply into the cover art of the book, and all that it symbolizes. One of the unique activities we did while reading this book was to think and write about social justice, and which social justice matters we feel are the most important to us. It was really fascinating to hear what everyone had to say! Finally, we also had a conversation about culture. We learned a little bit about Pakistani culture and thought about how the world around us impacts what we think of other cultures, in general. All together, these past two weeks have been full of really fascinating conversations! Our next book, which we will be discussing on 7/15 and 7/22 is: Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson The Stone Soup Book Club is open to all Stone Soup contributors and subscribers, age 9-13, throughout the summer. We meet every Wednesday at 1pm PST (4pm EST) for one hour via Zoom to discuss our chosen book. Join us!
book club
Book Club Report: The List, by Patricia Forde
An update from our tenth and eleventh Book Club meetings! Over the past two weeks, the Stone Soup Book Club has discussed The List, by Patricia Forde, a dystopian novel that lended itself to very fun conversations! In The List, words are treated as very dangerous, and very important. In our first week of discussions, we delved into why words are so important, and how the characters in the book view words in a different way than we do. We also went around and listed which words are most important to us, or the ones we feel that we need in order to survive. Next, we had a whole group discussion about the characters in The List, where we shared out our personal thoughts on the characters. Our second week started off with a very fun discussion about movie adaptations, where we broke into two groups to try and decide whether The List would make a good movie. To help us in our decision-making, we identified which types of books do make a good movie. We decided that a book needs to be very dramatic in order to become a movie, and that The List was just not dramatic enough. However, that discovery lended itself to a very fun conversation about which ways a movie would make the book more dramatic. Altogether, it was a very fun exercise. Next, we had a discussion about symbolism and themes in the novel, and talked about the significance of words, and all that they mean in society. Finally, this week, we had a delayed-tenth-week-anniversary (due to technical difficulties on our tenth week). We broke into small breakout rooms, and got to share out our favorite books, and discuss books we have in common. It was very fun to hear more about which types of books everyone likes! We also chose our next book this week, as well as the one after it. The titles and dates are written below. Our Next Book (7/1 and 7/8): Amal Unbound, by Aisha Saeed Our Second-Next Book (7/15 and 7/22): Harbor Me, by Jacqueline Woodson The Stone Soup Book Club is open to all Stone Soup contributors and subscribers, age 9-13, throughout the summer. We meet every Wednesday at 1pm PST (4pm EST) for one hour via Zoom to discuss our chosen book. Join us!
Book Club Report: Out of My Mind, by Sharon M. Draper
An update from our sixth Stone Soup Book Club meeting! This week, in Book Club, we began discussing Out of My Mind, by Sharon M. Draper. This is the story of a 10-year-old girl with Cerebral Palsy. She is extremely intelligent but struggles to communicate her thoughts—she cannot speak, write, or walk. We began our session talking in small groups about the importance of words. We discussed the role words play in our lives, whether words are more valued verbally or written, and how we might try to communicate without the ability to speak or move our bodies. We went on to discuss the strength of Melody as the main character and the role of the many companion characters the author uses to tell her story. We also talked about what we considered the core themes of the book, including perseverance, courage, strength, the importance of friendship, and our deep human yearning to communicate with others. Next week, we are so excited to be joined by Adam Gidwitz, author of The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, the Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog, for the first part of our session. Please come prepared with a few questions about the book, if you read it, or writing more generally. Since we have only a short time with Mr. Gidwitz, please keep in mind that everyone may not have the opportunity to ask a question directly. Following our time with Adam Gidwitz, we will continue discussing Out of My Mind and conclude by voting on the next one or two books we will read in Book Club. The Participants: Anya, Georgia, Lena, Vishnu, Rachel, Lucy, Joanna, Djin, Enni, Kaya, Allegra, Arianna, Katie, Zoe, Penelope, Em Jay, Isabel, Chloe The Stone Soup Book Club is open to all Stone Soup contributors and subscribers, age 9-13, during the COVID-19-related school closures and shelter-in-place arrangements. We meet every Wednesday for one hour via Zoom to discuss our chosen book.
