The Saga of Erik the Viking.

This book received a lukwarm 6/10 from the majority of the group. Those who enjoyed it appreciated the fact that each chapter could be enjoyed as a short story. Perhaps this is the clue to the more general response. This type of narrative structure is unusual, and perhaps less satisfying than the usual 3 part  structure. It probably works best read aloud, a chapter at a time.

The saga style is a fireside style, an odyssey. Each story passed down by word of mouth, gaining embellishments with each retelling. In my view Terry Jones captures this with an authentic voice.

The group explored this idea, of adding descriptive details to a basic narrative. This would be well developed through games exploring the storytelling style.

The Court Painter's Apprentice

This blog is the collaborative work of the young adult fiction bookclub.


"The group agreed that 'The Court Painter's Apprentice' was not necessarily a bad read. It was short and easy going. However, our group found the length of the book a problem. Characters felt underdeveloped and many potential storylines were cut off and unexplored.

The writer likes to cut to the chase, for a younger reader that style is perfect, but for our group the lack of detail was disappointing. That's not to say the description was poor, it was evocative and sensuous, particularly the description of the activity of painting.

The book really lost its appeal when the writer developed the supernatural elements, where the artists power became more than that of the skill of depiction.

Overall the book was given a 6/10."

The Memory Cage

Only a very small group this month, so not a very broad spectrum of opinion to represent.

Overall the book was considered an average read, which contradicts every review currently on amazon. Cynical bunch or what?

The story was felt to be too obviously constructed, and the narrative implausible and unconvincing. There were groans about a 'Hollywood Ending'.

Given the big themes of adoption, ageing, war, and the impact of the past on the present, we might have expected a meatier read. But in this case the author's light touch makes the themes accessible to a younger audience. The principle relationship between the grandfather and Alex is very worthwhile, but we felt the cast of characters around them were generally painted too lightly.






 

Wonder

This was a popular and easy to read novel, enjoyed by the whole of the older group.

The story of 'Auggie' tackles an unusual subject with a light touch. 'Auggie' is a child born with a severe facial disfigurement: 'I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse.'

At the age of 10 having been home educated to accommodate  numerous surgeries on his face, his parents agree he should try school.

The story covers this transition time, and is told through a number of child narrators, including Auggie, his big sister, and the children who befriend him.

This is a clever narrative device, allowing multiple perspectives.

However, our group felt there were too many voices, saying similar things. We enjoyed older sister Via's story, which was touching and unexpected, but the other narratives were less revealing.

One thing we disagreed with the author about was the need to keep the voices to the children. There was a strong feeling that the headteacher, Mr Tushman, should have been given a few chapters, and the group were nauseated by his lack of intervention in Auggie's terrible experiences. He fulfilled our impression of head teachers as omnipotent figures who appear to know everything, but do nothing.

I asked the group to think about the main theme of the book, which they judged to be 'kindness'. They felt this a relatively small theme, and this ultimately, a small story, in that Auggie's struggle is not a tragedy. The safety net of his loving family making everything possible for him, despite the prejudice of a few people.

Peter Nimble and his Fantastic Eyes.

This month's book was a roaring success amongst all but one of the children. There was great appreciation for the characters, and plot lines, despite it's great length. Those of us who were less impressed found that despite an initially gripping start, we began to switch off as the plot became more fantastical.

There was some debate about the conclusion to the book, and relief that the ending was disclosed, thus eliminating the possibility of a sequel. Have I mentioned before that generally we dislike sequels? That said an idea for a story surrounding Sir Tode and the hag did seem like an interesting spin off adventure...?

Anyhow it seemed ironic that having spent the last session exploring the labyrinth; an exercise in sensory theatre carried out blindfolded, we now had a book about a blind boy-thief from which to launch another creative session.

I felt this called for some more games of the sensory kind. So, we tried listening intensely with our eyes closed, and did some work on creating scenes from the book using sensory techniques.

Noah Barleywater runs away.

Our latest book ‘Noah Barleywater runs away’ by John Boyne, tells the story of a boy coming to terms with his mother’s terminal illness. He runs away and finds himself on a fantastical journey, where trees and dogs talk. He enters a magical toy shop where the owner reveals much about life and love and death, and helps Noah decide to return home.

I completed reading the book at the same time as I was involved in devising a piece of labyrinth theatre at ‘The People’s History Museum’. Fired up by my latest experience, it seemed obvious that this book would make the perfect labyrinth. The challenge was how to make and perform this in our 1 hour session.....
 

To assist with the process I sent each family the following homework.

I would like each child to think about any event or moment in the book that sticks in their imagination. Could they describe that moment to a blindfolded person by simply handing them something to touch, smell, taste, or by making sounds? For example, early on in the story Noah plucks 3 apples from a tree, and takes a bite from one. I might offer the person in the blindfold a juicy apple to smell, and feel, and taste, to illustrate this moment from the story. 
                      

In the session I followed a simple plan. We warmed up by playing some games encouraging us to coordinate our actions, then we played a sort of ‘blind man’s bluff’ where we sampled our sensory ideas brought in from home (these were brilliant and thoughtful), and learnt how to guide someone in a blindfold through a space. We ran out of time here, but the enthusiasm for the game was very exciting, and it helped us ‘write’ the labyrinth. A couple of themes dominated, so we grouped people accordingly, and then we linked the groups with smaller narrative details, and we had our journey.

A quick run through and we were ready to perform.

The journey went like this:

The blindfold person enters the space, led gently.
There is the sound of feet on gravel.
He is brought to rest and given an apple.

The journey continues.

There is the sound of someone reading a newspaper.

He is brought to rest.

There is the sound of birdsong, and a rippling stream.

He is offered tree branches, which appear and disappear as he gropes for them.

He continues his journey and is followed by the musical sounds of a funfair.

The sounds fade away.

An energetic dachshund leaps at him, playfully rubbing against him, while panting and ‘woofing’.

He is brought to rest and seated.

There is the sound of mechanical things whirring and ticking, the ‘clack’ of wood, a smooth wooden toy car to hold and play with.

Mysterious voices, muttering about the ‘unusual stranger’.

A bell interrupts the scene, and he is led away.

Brought to rest, he is given a box. After investigation, he open's the box, and discovers a medal on a ribbon inside.

The box is replaced with an apple, and he is led through a door, returned to home, and the beginning of his journey.

This was a really creative session. The children devised a wonderful journey, and took the responsibility  of caring for the person experiencing the labyrinth really seriously. The parents who took the journey into the labyrinth enjoyed it, and were delightfully cooperative and playful participants.

As a means of exploring a story this technique has loads of potential....

Kai-ro

At the beginning of each meeting I ask the older group to award marks out of 10 for the book under discussion. The highest award for Kai-ro was 7/10, the lowest, 3/10. This was an indication that there were no real passions about this book, one way or the other.

We picked apart those responses a little further, and found disappointment, and a lack of empathy.

The disappointment came from the moment the Egyptian God's were introduced into the storyline. The opening chapters succeeded in creating suspense, in a vividly described post apocalyptic world. We were gripped by the plight of Stretch, searching for his father, in this cruel place, where survival is hard, and danger is real. And then it got a bit weird.

Even for those who were carried along by the plot, there emerged a lack of empathy with the main character which we felt may have been a major factor in the book receiving this lukewarm response. As the character became dominated by the God who inhabited his head, his actions became more those of the God, and he became unlikeable. For all but one of the group this was very problematic.

And once again, as the book headed towards its final chapter it was apparent that the main crisis of the opening pages, the disappearance of Stretch's father, was to remain open, unresolved. Did the group think this was open ended as stories often are, for them to write their own outcome? No. In their view this was an opportunity for a sequel. Groans all round.

Note to Publishers: We don't like sequels.

Goblins

This was a meaty read for our younger group, but was one which was largely appreciated. The humour particularly appealed to them. An excellent review can be read here.

If you follow this blog you will gather that the younger group are not a discussion group, and we try and explore ideas provoked by the book we have read. For this session I wanted to open up the narrative structure, which in many respects follows an archetypal 'hero' journey, through the wannabe hero character 'Henwyn'.

I presented the group with a crime scene. The outline of a body taped to the floor, and scattered around it items to be collected and judged as evidence of the life and fate of the victim. The only certain fact was that the body was that of a hero; he carried an identity card for membership to the 'hero's club'.

The kids gathered and bagged the evidence, scrutinised each item thoroughly, then selected their own narratives for the character, based on these objects.

The Last Wolf.

I was very unsure of how the older group would react to this book when I read it. As a short story it is overwhelmingly about plot. A lot happens in a very few pages. As a result it lacks the texture of descriptive detail and character which I like in a book.

However, the groups feeling ranged so much (from 'dull' to 'brilliant') that a really good discussion was possible, and they helped me to appreciate the books qualities.

The group agreed that the story is very exciting, or at least they agreed that it had the elements of a great plot. There were however doubts about the pre-story, and whether this was necessary.

The book begins with a grandfather recovering from illness, being led to the internet by his granddaughter. Here he begins internet based research into his family history, which produces an unexpected letter from the seventeenth century, and an ancestor he knew nothing about. The letter from the past forms the narrative for the rest of the book.

The ancestors story involves many plot twists and close shaves. It touches on historical fact, but provides very little in the way of historical texture. Even the language of this letter from the past fails to do much for setting the scene.

We made comparison with  'Chains' which was another historical novel read by the group, and was beautiful and rich in descriptive detail. We concluded that the short story form, had imposed some limitations on style in Morpurgo's book. We even wondered whether the story would have been better told by the wolf? Some of the group laughed this off because Morpurgo had used that stylistic device in Warhorse, and of course the wolf only shared part of the boy's story....

I would have suggested that perhaps this book is better suited to a younger audience, but those within the group who enjoyed it demonstrate once again that this reading lark is complex, and that sometimes a good story is just a good story, without need of frills or flourishes, or a massive page count.

The Machine Gunners

Probably the best book we have read since we began. First published in 1975, the book is now a well deserved classic.

Read with the younger group, this book demonstrated the capacity for younger readers to grasp big themes, and to stick with a lengthy narrative.

Set during WWII the book holds nothing back. For example, very soon into the narrative there is a dead body, which is shocking, the children swear and fight till they bleed, and the grown ups are, grown up.

It is no surprise to learn that this book was written by Westall, to account for his own experiences of the war, for his then 12 year old son. Perhaps this accounts for the open and honest approach to characters and events. I wish that more authors of children's books shared Westall's skill in communicating to children with respect for the fact that they too live in the real world, and see and experience far more than we would like to admit.

I didn't dwell on the themes with the group, though we had a very productive discussion. One of the successes of this group is that because these books are shared with parents at home, the children are very well supported in their experiences of the books we read, and this was evident from the enthusiasm of parents aswell as children for this book during the session.

So, I could afford to take a playful approach. I designed a game based upon my youngest son's suggestion, involving identifying aircraft from their silhouettes (using a wartime aircraft identity poster). I would fly a silhouette, and the children would either wave at the aircraft if friendly, or hide under a table if not. We then had a go at identifying 'shrapnel' from photographs.

WarHorse

The teen group had this as their summer read. In anticipation of it's tragic plot, and because she adores horses, one member of the group couldn't open the cover at all.

I admit that I was also wary of WarHorse as my holiday reading, so left it till the last minute to attempt it myself. Perhaps because I have seen and wept during the National Theatre stage production of the book, I was surprised that I was dry eyed for the duration of this read; though I was not unmoved.

The remainder of the group who ventured within the books pages,  were well rewarded. Everyone agreed that this is a stunning book. Told in the first person, the horse narrator 'Joey' was a reliable witness to the horrors of WW1. His story moves between both sides involved in the conflict, and thus enables a unique perspective of this dreadful war. The overwhelming theme is one of humanity. 

The book provided a rich text for discussion, enabling the group to look at narrative style and structure, whilst exploring the big themes. The group were unanimous in their praise; a book which surprised and provoked. Extraordinary.

Room 13

This is the third book the group have read, which could be styled as 'gothic horror', and they were keen to debate its merits against the others we have read. Some discussion about whether a vampire story and 'Hush, Hush' do in fact belong to the same genre took place, and I'm resolving it here by using the term 'gothic'.

This book is not a contemporary 'gothic' novel. First published in 1989, the 'present day' setting of the novel is by now dated, and as a result the children struggled because the characters to them appeared naive and unreal. This became a major barrier to enjoyment for them all. Issues like the absence of swearing in their speech were highlighted. The 'bad boys' in the school party seemed ridiculously innocent compared with those our kids have experienced. 

In terms of plot they found it a bit predictable, and the methods employed to kill the inevitable vampire, absurd. 

In the end it was agreed that the book offered a light read, that was good enough. 

On the other hand I found the book quite charming, depicting school life as I remembered it....but then, I have always been naive.

The Family from One End Street

This is a children's classic. Favourite apparently of my mum when she was a girl. The response of the children in book club to the book was mixed, though the parents all liked it. My own youngster wouldn't stick with it. He found the format a challenge. The book isn't structured as a novel is. Each chapter is a short story about one of the children from the Ruggles family. This works very well for bed time reading, but my youngest was looking for a longer, more involved narrative, apparently. I'm pleased to say other children loved it.

It's interesting to note that the book was shunned by several publishers before it finally made it to press in 1937. It was considered 'innovative' and 'groundbreaking' for its portrayal of a working class family.

It would have been interesting to talk with the group about differences between children growing up then compared to now. But since it was the last book club of the term, we had a 1930's style children's party instead. Call it living history!

So, we played party games with strange names like 'puss in the corner', ate food supplied by the families, including rock cakes and ginger beer, and I played a gramophone recording of 'The Lion and Albert', and some dance music of the era, on my actual gramophone. All in all it was rather jolly. The noise and mayhem looked very much like a party scene from a 'Just William' book. 

I realised as I stood back from the merriment, that this bookclub is now almost all boys aged around 9....comparisons with Just William seem very fitting.

Holes by Louis Sachar

I generally have no involvement in the selection of titles for bookclub. This is deliberate; I don't want the responsibility for an unpopular book. But this was an exception. We borrowed 'Holes' from the library for my kids to read; and I couldn't put it down. Since they wouldn't even pick it up, I knew it would have to come home again via bookclub.

I think this is a genuinely brilliant book. It unfolds with a number of different and unusual stories, whose threads gradually come together in a very extraordinary way. I was pleased that the group all agreed on it's merits, and rated it very highly.

In addition to an unusual narrative structure, great characters, sense of place, sense of heat, this book also allows you to think about serious issues, without the issues being what the book is about. I couldn't ask for more from a teen read really.

Here's what one of my enthusiastic readers thinks:

Holes is an excellent story with everything you would expect and more happening with each turn of a page. Set part modern day and part in the past (sorry I can’t remember exactly when) the story is about a kid who finds an athlete’s trainers drop from the sky. From then on his life goes from bad to worse. He gets arrested and thrown into a camp were kids must dig holes in the ground to teach them discipline. At least that’s what the staff tell them. The kids have got to discover the secret before it’s too late and they have to go home.

Mr Gum and the Cherry Tree

This book had a mixed reception from the group, as often happens with humorous books. Some of us agreed that this is ideally a read-aloud book; we found the language and humour so playful that it worked best with voices, adding to the silliness. 

Realising that this book is one of a series, all set in the fictional (thank goodness) location of Lamonic Bibber, I thought it might be interesting to map the location, using any knowledge children had of the other books. So, beginning with  brainstorm of places from this book, we then began to draw and cut out our landmarks, and to debate where to place them on our 3d map.

It was great to see how the group ran with this idea. Some wanted to illustrate events from the book, like the appearance of the real Runtus, others wanted to get the geography right. I loved watching the way this took on a life of it's own, and allowed everyone to participate in their own way.

'I, Coriander', alternative jacket design.

If you've been following this blog you will know that it has always been my hope that the bookclub would encourage kids to respond to books in interesting ways. I asked the older group this week to write something for me, and was delighted when instead I received this illustration from one of our members.

I love the way she has captured the elements of the 'fairytale'; the mirror and the silver shoes.

I, Coriander

This book was pretty weird. As it was not what you would have expected. The cover and blurb don't tell you anything about what the book may be like, and I am constantly getting cross with publishers and writers for giving away too much about the book on the cover and blurb. The book began like a journal, as it is first person narrated by the heroin of the book, Coriander Hobie. She writes of her family and her surroundings. You will learn about the history and politics of the time as it is talked about a lot during the book. So from the beginning you think it's going to be a book about a girl growing up in London in the sixteenth century. Well, with the introduction of a magical land and various magicians appearing here and there you end up with a fairytale. And for me it took some time to start reading it as a fairytale and not a historically accurate girls journal. Overall a good read. Read if you enjoy the Studio ghibli films or the book 
Mortlock by  Jon Mayhew.

Review by Lol. 

Mr Stink

Our most recent bookclub book (younger group) achieved a positive response from all the children. They all warmed to the character of Mr Stink; one boy particularly appreciated the scene where Mr Stink appeared on television. Other than that, they admitted that they did not find the book 'laugh out loud' funny.

I was slightly disarmed by the fact that this book was clearly designed to look like a Roald Dahl book, and felt this set the story up to be something it was not. I can see the marketing angle, but to offer comparison between the talents of both men was unhelpful. David Walliams failed to be a 'Roald Dahl' for me, but having been encouraged to make the comparison, I failed to hear his voice, and felt the whole book was derivative, which I think is probably unfair.

It is however always delightful to see Quentin Blake's illustrations, so for the session, I chose to look at some of Quentin Blake's own illustrated stories, by exploring the role of the 'eccentric' in children's stories.

In groups we read, 'Mrs Armitage and the Big Wave', 'Mr Magnolia', and 'Cockatoos'. From these we came up with a checklist of things that an eccentric character needs to have; obsessive behaviour or unusual interest, unusual appearance, interesting way of speaking, unusual name....

The group then brainstormed ideas for two characters, which I drew on the whiteboard, and they drew their own versions on paper. I must admit there was a tendency to prefer to design unpleasant characters, but we agreed that eccentrics are likeable, so had to ditch many of the more unpleasant suggestions....

Here were our brrainstormed ideas:

Name: Darling McDuck.

Appearance: a Top hat with champagne corks hanging from it, jester shoes, a duck beak shaped nose, webbed hands.

Unusual behaviours: collects Champagne corks but hates Champagne. Talks nonsense, such as, "Propesous is necessary". Makes random animal sounds. Keeps ducks and gives away their eggs.

Name: Doctor Macaroni.

Appearance: Overweight, with clown shoes, and a Top hat.

Unusual behaviours: Always eating macaroni. Confuses his festivals (Christmas at Easter etc.). Makes friends out of macaroni, which he then eats.Greets visitors by throwing macaroni over them. Doesn't speak, but has a constant supply of paper speech bubbles, which he writes his speech on.

The stories for these characters have yet to be written.....

Skellig

I love this book, and happily so did the bookclub.


Essentially Skellig is a fairy story, with much to make you believe in the power of wonder and friendship, in a real world that's full of sadness and pain. Don't let 'fairy story' mislead you, it is the realism that makes the magic so intense.

The adult characters are all living through painful conditions, which impact on the children at the centre of the story. They are growing up with the reality of loss, and issues of mortality. Through the discovery, nurture and rescue of Skellig, a disgusting man with wings, they learn that their own possibilities are enhanced through love and friendship.

The book features the extraordinary 'Mina', who we have to focus on because she is home educated. In some ways it could be argued that Mina reflects the world's negative view that home education can be isolating, and that home educated kids are by default 'extraordinary' or weird. As a group we explored these ideas, but had to admit that ultimately Mina is a wonderful creation, and that many of the specific home ed. issues are a positive endorsement of autonomous learning. We all went on to really enjoy the prequel My name is Mina which is an unusual narrative; in some ways an indulgent but clever exploration of creativity and learning.

At the time we read Skellig back in 2010, I was still asking the teen readers to bring in something they had made, or written, or drawn, in response to the book. I would include something of my own to show them, and made some sketches of a man with wings, and a detailed one of the anatomy of a birds wing. I found a copy of Blake's poem The Angel in an untouched copy of his works on our bookshelves, and did some reading around his interest. Although this was a very self-conscious investigation, an attempt to model a process, it has become part of a more intuitive journey involving observation, bird anatomy, drawing, painting, plucking and eating, and serves to demonstrate something about creativity as I experience it.



It excites me to see how so many threads are pulling together in this way. At the same time my oldest son (Lol.) is developing his own interest in birds, and my youngest (Little Plum) in animal anatomy. There are collections of bones, and bird books growing around my own paintings and sketches, and currently when I begin to work, I listen to 'Birdgirl' by 'The Unthanks'.


Skellig plays its part in that tapestry, and that's what I love about books.

Storm Catchers

Storm Catchers was one of the first books we had at book club, and it got us off to a great start. It is an incredible book that runs on fear and threat. The book begins with a kidnapping, which immediately leaves you wanting to read more. As the story progresses, the kidnapper makes contact with the victims family by making several spooky phone calls. At this point you really get a sense of how the family feel, and it's told in a way that is so real that it gets to the point where you almost understand what they are going through.

Partway through the book the theme changes from a realistic crime thriller to a spooky psychological horror! For example, the youngest character Sam begins to see a ghost. The change in genre is handled well by the writer. It is slow and gradual rather than sudden, and stays true to its realistic theme. Though the ending was a little bit disappointing and somewhat odd, I would still recommend it to pretty much anyone.                 

Book review by Lol. Age 12.