An update from our twenty-eighth Book Club meeting! On June 26, the Stone Soup Book Club met for its last meeting in this session. We discussed The Jumbies, by Tracey Baptiste, a book about Caribbean folklore and a girl named Corinne who must save her home from the evil jumbies. After our usual ARTT rooms, where our participants were given the prompt of talking about what books they planned to read over the summer, we had a whole group discussion about The Jumbies. Our conversation ranged from our favorite characters, to the complexities and nuances of the book’s villain, Severine, to the setting described by the author, and to themes within the story: such as family and bravery. Next, we brainstormed to think about what other fairy tales we know—and what cultures they are from. We compared various myths/stories, including those from Europe and China, and analyzed their similarities, differences, and how they connected to The Jumbies. Overall, we decided that most fairy tales have some sort of lesson—about wit, bravery, moderation, or family, for example— and many of them include supernatural or nonhuman elements; but they also vary in some ways. Some stories are about princesses and princes, while others are just about regular people. In some stories, the main character needs saving, and in others, it is the protagonist who is doing the saving. With all of this in mind, we set out to write our own fairy tales—about ourselves. Our participants were given the prompt of writing about something that happens to them in the summer, but with a fairytale twist of their choice. We shared out our stories and ideas in breakout rooms; they ranged from ones about mysterious forests, to characters who read a fairy tale—and then get sucked into it. It was really fun to hear what everyone thought of! Our final activity was more relaxed. Everyone went into breakout rooms for a few minutes just to talk about what books they liked, and then we switched the rooms around a few times. By the end, most people were able to find someone who liked the same book as them! Because Book Club will not be running over the summer, we did not choose a new book; a new book will be decided on in the fall. Stay tuned for information about our fall classes of Workshops and Book Club over the summer!
The Jumbies
Book Club Report: Look Both Ways, Jason Reynolds
An update from our twenty-seventh Book Club meeting! On May 29, the Stone Soup Book Club discussed Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks, by Jason Reynolds. Look Both Ways contains several short stories about what happens to kids on their walk home from school, and offers a variety of perspectives on life. As usual, we started off our meeting by breaking into ARTT rooms. Each room had three or four people in it, and they could talk about whatever they liked. We asked, “what is your favorite thing to do in the summer?” as the prompt. The breakout rooms talked about this as well as the book! When we came back together, we began talking about Look Both Ways. Normally we go into breakout rooms to have more specific discussions, since there are a lot of us, but on Saturday we decided to all stay in the main room. It was nice to have everyone in the conversation together, and we got to talk about many topics, including our favorite characters and stories from the book, as well as what theme Jason Reynolds was trying to convey. Many people agreed that they had found the book slightly confusing, but thought its format (being composed of several short stories) was interesting. Next, we started a fun writing activity! Since, as previously mentioned, Look Both Ways is a collection of short stories, we thought it would be fun to write our own stories about walking home from school, whether fictional or real. In breakout rooms, we talked about our ideas, and then we all came back together to write! After twenty or so minutes, people began to share out. It was really fun to hear everyone’s stories! You can read our anthology here. Remember: if you attended book club and liked what you wrote for this activity, submit it through the Writing Workshop Submission Form and we will post it along with other stories on the Stone Soup website! Finally, we chose our next book! Our next meeting, at the end of June, is the last one of this session. Our Next Book (to be discussed on June 26): The Jumbies, by Tracey Baptiste
