An update from our seventh Stone Soup Book Club meeting! This week, during our 7th meeting of the Stone Soup Book Club, we were very lucky to have Adam Gidwitz, the author of The Inquisitor’s Tale come and join our discussion for a little while! We had the exciting opportunity to ask Mr. Gidwitz questions about his book, and about writing overall. We listened as he explained how he came up with the characters of Jeanne, William, and Jacob, as well as how all of the events of the story came together. We found out how Mr. Gidwitz settled on his unique style of narration in his book, what inspired him to tackle all of the subjects that he did, and we learned about the perseverance that all authors have. Our conversation was very thoughtful and meaningful, and it was a great experience all around! We did not have much time left after our discussion with Mr. Gidwitz, but we used our remaining time to talk about the ending of Out of My Mind, by Sharon M. Draper, the book that we had been reading over the past week. In a similar fashion to Gidwitz’s The Inquisitor’s Tale, Out of My Mind talks about differences in people and about overcoming adversity in your path. It was very cool to see what connections people drew between the two stories! Finally, we chose our next book, and the book that we will read after that one! Participants: Anya, Djin, Georgia, Lena, Chloe, Joanna, Katie, Enni, Lucy, Abhi, Isabel, Chloe C., Rachel, Madeline, Kaya, Allegra, Penelope, Sophia, Ariana Our Next Book (6/3, 6/10): Lord of the Flies, by William Golding Our Second-Next Book (6/17, 6/24): The List, by Patricia Forde 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, and always welcome new members! Join us!
stone soup book club
Book Club Report: The Inquisitor’s Tale, by Adam Gidwitz (cont.)
An Update from our fifth Stone Soup Book Club meeting This week, during our 5th meeting of the Stone Soup Book Club (13 May, 2020), we discussed The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, the Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog, by Adam Gidwitz. Our fantastic Stone Soup contributor, Anya Geist, led the session through a stimulating discussion on the various themes, plot twists, and favorite characters of this complex story. We discussed book banning, tolerance and diversity, religion, race, and a range of other interesting themes the book touches upon. We also spent time discussing how the perspective and structure of the book affects the story. Gidwitz takes an intertextual approach to the narration with a range of quirky characters telling of their own encounters with the main characters and their own versions of key events. I think we all agree this is part of what makes the story so very rich and exciting! The Participants: Anya, Lucy, Georgia, Joanna, Allegra, Chloe, Djin, Rachel, Chloe, Enni, Penelope, Kaya, Vishnu, Arianna, Sophia, Isabel 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. Next week, we will begin discussing our 3rd book, Out of My Mind, by Sharon M. Draper. Hope to see you all there!
Book Club Report: The Inquisitor’s Tale, by Adam Gidwitz
An Update from our fourth Stone Soup Book Club meeting! The Stone Soup book club is open to all Stone Soup contributors and subscribers, ages 9-13, during the COVID-19-related school closures and shelter-in-place arrangements. We meet for one hour every Wednesday to discuss our chosen book via Zoom. On Wednesday, May 6, we began discussing our second book: The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, the Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog, by Adam Gidwitz. We were so happy to have over 20 participants this week and were able to have some really great discussions! We started off the meeting by splitting up into breakout rooms in groups of three to share our overall thoughts and predictions about the book. Then we met in a whole group discussion to share those ideas out. From there, we split into two groups, one that discussed setting, and one that discussed characters. We switched groups after a ten-minute discussion. The ideas that people raised were thoughtful. We discussed how we felt that we could relate to the characters, even though they are living in 1200’s France, and how diversity and acceptance plays a large role in the book! It was great to hear everyone’s ideas! Next week, we will finish discussing The Inquisitor’s Tale. We are planning on having specific discussions about theme, and other aspects of the book that the book club members said they were really enjoying! On May 20, we will start discussing our third book, which we have yet to choose. Our Current Book: The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, the Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog, by Adam Gidwitz Our Next Book (beginning May 20th): To Be Determined, but we will announce it next week! Participants: Anya (13), Raeha (11), Chloe (10), Georgia (11), Ever (10), Ever (10), Lena (11), Willa (11), Enni (13), Kia (11), Isabel (10), Joanna (10), Simar (6), Allegra (10), Lucy (13), Djin (10), Chloe (8), Sophia (11), Sachi (13), Iris (8), Penelope (12), Abhi (12), Ariana (9), Jackeline (12) Next meeting: Wednesday, May 13, at 1:00 p.m. PST, via Zoom. The Book Club is always open to new members!
