Wild Girl meeting

The attendance for this meeting was a bit lower than usual, but with school just starting it was to be expected.  The meeting focused on picking the book for next month.

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine.  At birth, Ella is inadvertently cursed by an imprudent fairy named Lucinda, who bestows on her the "gift" of obedience. Anything anyone tells her to do, Ella must obey. Another girl might have been cowed by this affliction, but not feisty Ella: "Instead of making me docile, Lucinda's curse made a rebel of me. Or perhaps I was that way naturally." When her beloved mother dies, leaving her in the care of a mostly absent and avaricious father, and later, a loathsome stepmother and two treacherous stepsisters, Ella's life and well-being seem in grave peril. But her intelligence and saucy nature keep her in good stead as she sets out on a quest for freedom and self-discovery, trying to track down Lucinda to undo the curse, fending off ogres, befriending elves, and falling in love with a prince along the way. Yes, there is a pumpkin coach, a glass slipper, and a happily ever after, but this is the most remarkable, delightful, and profound version of Cinderella you've ever read.


Princess Academy by Shannon HaleThe thought of being a princess never occurred to the girls living on Mount Eskel. Most plan to work in the quarry like the generations before them. When it is announced that the prince will choose a bride from their village, 14-year-old Miri, who thinks she is being kept from working in the quarry because of her small stature, believes that this is her opportunity to prove her worth to her father. All eligible females are sent off to attend a special academy where they face many challenges and hardships as they are forced to adapt to the cultured life of a lowlander. First, strict Tutor Olana denies a visit home. Then, they are cut off from their village by heavy winter snowstorms. As their isolation increases, competition builds among them.


And the winner is....Ella Enchanted.  I'm excited for this book.  It's been one of my favorites from the first time I read it.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

We will be meeting to discuss the book on September 23, 2011 in Community Room A.  I look forward to seeing you there!


Gloria

Super Woman Spotlight: Rosa Parks

I've been trying to think how I could get everyone more involved in the book clubs and I finally came up with the idea to have the girls write the Super Woman Spotlight.  Once a month the blog entry will be by them.  They can pick any woman they want to.  She can be someone famous, someone they know or anyone at all.  Just write a little bit about her and I'll post it.  Let me know if you are interested in writing it.

This first one is written by Lydia, age 9 and is about Rosa Parks.

In 1932, Rosa married a man named Raymond Parks.   He helped Rosa finish high school.  They lived in Montgomery, Alabama.   They became members of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).  They worked for civil rights. They wanted all people, no matter what color, to be treated fairly.  Rosa worked hard at the NAACP.   She wanted to do something the civil rights.   

On December 1, 1955, Rosa made a very important decision.   She was going to take the first step to change things.  That day, Rosa left work feeling tired.   She had worked for many hours at a department store. She took a seat on the bus, she was not allowed to sit in the front of the bus the. White are the only ones to sit in the front.  She was allowed in the back only. Buses were segregated and in the south it was the law. Soon the bus was filling up.  The bus driver told Rosa and other blacks to move.   Rosa did not move as the law stated.  It was very un-life like for Rosa.

Rosa Parks was arrested and taken to jail.  She was told to pay a fine.  When she was released from jail, she decided not to pay the fine.  Instead she decided to fight the unfair bus law.  Many people were ready to fight segregation.  But Rosa took the first step.  Rosa and her friends did a boycott.  (A boycott is when many people come together and refuse to buy or use something.)  The black people that usually took the bus to work agreed to walk instead.  This meant that the bus company would lose money.

An important minister helped tell people about the bus boycott.  His name was Martin Luther King, Jr.   He told people to fight for what they believed in, but to do it peacefully.  

While the boycott was going on Rosa’s lawyers took her case to the Supreme Court.  (That was the highest court in the United States.)   Rosa should never have been arrested.  They said that segregation on the buses should be against the law because it treats all black people unfairly.  

The boycott lasted for more than a year!  Then on December 20, 1956, the city of Montgomery got an order form Supreme Court.  Segregation is not allowed, period on bus.   It was great victory.   But many restaurants, stores, and even hospitals were still not open to the blacks.  It took very many years, and lots of battles to end segregation.  Rosa Parks worked very hard for civil rights movement.   She has won honors and lots of awards for all that she has done.   But one right stands before them all- the right to be treated fairly and with respect for ever.

Thank you Lydia for telling us about Rosa Parks.  She really was an amazing woman.

I'll see everyone next week at the meeting!

Gloria

Get Talking: Wild Girl

Here are a few questions to get you thinking about Wild Girl.


Lidie has spent five years living away from her father and brother.  Would living away from your family be hard for you?

Lidie moves from Brazil to America.  What do you think it would be like to move to another country?  What would school be like?

How would you feel if you had to go to a school that

When Lidie finally gets to America, she has changed from the little girl her father and brother knew.  Was it hard for her to show who she had become since they last met?

Lidie's father is a horse trainer and her brother is a jockey.  Would you like living around horses that much?

Why did Wild Girl react the way she did to the cat that Lidie brought to be her friend?

What is similar between Lidie's and Wild Girl's stories?  How are they different?


I hope these questions get you thinking about the book and what you want to talk about.  I'll see you at the meeting!

Miss Gloria

Book Blurb: Wild Girl

About the Book

Wild Girl  by Patricia Reilly Giff

Lidie lives in Jales, Brazil, where she’s free to ride, to be a wild girl, and to dream of going to live with her father and older brother, Rafael, in New York City. Finally Lidie is 12—time to leave Brazil for New York.

Meanwhile, a filly is born and begins her journey to a new home. As Lidie’s story unfolds, so does the filly’s.

Lidie’s father runs a stable at a famous race track, and Rafael is training to be a jockey. As much as they want to make Lidie feel welcome, they still think of her as the little girl they left behind. They don’t even know what a strong rider she is, and that she’s determined to befriend and ride the wild filly her father has just bought: Wild Girl.*

About the Author

  "I want to see children curled up with books, finding an awareness of themselves as they discover other people's thoughts. I want them to make the connection that books are people's stories, that writing is talking on paper, and I want them to write their own stories. I'd like my books to provide that connection for them." --Patricia Reilly Giff

Patricia Reilly Giff has received the Newbery Honor for Pictures of Hollis Woods and Lily's Crossing, which is also a Boston Globe—Horn Book Honor Book. Nory Ryan's Song was named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and an ALA Notable Book.
 
"I always start each day by writing. That's like breathing to me," says Patricia Reilly Giff. In fact, this bestselling author admits: "I wanted to write from the first time I picked up a book and read. I thought it must be the most marvelous thing to make people dance across the pages."
 
Reading and writing have always been an important part of Patricia Reilly Giff's life. As a child, her favorite books included Little Women, The Secret Garden, the Black Stallion books, the Sue Barton books, and the Nancy Drew series. Giff loved reading so much that while growing up, her sister had to grab books out of her hands to get Giff to pay attention to her; later, Giff's three children often found themselves doing the same thing. As a reading teacher for 20 years, the educational consultant for Dell Yearling and Young Yearling books, an adviser and instructor to aspiring writers, and the author of more than 60 books for children, Patricia Reilly Giff has spent her entire life surrounded by books.
 
After earning a B.A. degree from Marymount College, Giff took the advice of the school's dean and decided to become a teacher. She admits, "I loved teaching. It was my world. I only left because I was overwhelmed with three careers--teaching, writing, and my family."
 
During the 20 years of her teaching career, she earned an M.A. from St. John's University, and a Professional Diploma in Reading and a Doctorate of Humane Letters from Hofstra University. Then one morning, Giff told her husband Jim, "I'm going to write a book. I've always wanted to write and now I shall." Jim worked quickly to combine two adjacent closets in their apartment into one cramped workspace and, as Giff jokes, she "began [her] career in a closet."
 
Giff explains, "I want the children to bubble up with laughter, or to cry over my books. I want to picture them under a cherry tree or at the library with my book in their hands. But more, I want to see them reading in the classroom. I want to see children in solitude at their desks, reading, absorbing, lost in a book."
 
Giff tries to write books "that say ordinary people are special." She says, "All of my books are based in some way on my personal experiences, or the experiences of members of my family, or the stories kids would tell me in school." Therefore, when she runs out of ideas for her books, Giff says, "I take a walk and look around. Maybe I spend some time in a classroom and watch the kids for a while. Sometimes I lie on the living room floor and remember my days in second grade or third. If all that doesn't work, I ask Ali, or Jim, or Bill"--Giff's children, whose names often appear in her books.
 
When she's not writing, Patricia Reilly Giff enjoys reading in the bathtub and going to the movies and eating popcorn. She and her husband reside in Weston, Connecticut. They have three children and five grandchildren. In 1990, Giff combined her two greatest loves--children's books and her family--and, with her husband and her children, opened The Dinosaur's Paw, a children's bookstore named after one of her Kids of the Polk Street School novels. This store is part of Giff's quest to bring children and books together. She and her family are trying to "share our love of children's books and writing and to help others explore the whole world of children's books."

Throughout the year, Giff visits schools and libraries around the country and speaks to her readers about her books, and about writing. When discussing her work, Giff claims, "I have no special talent, you know. I never took a writing course before I began to write." She believes that "anyone who has problems, or worries, anyone who laughs and cries, anyone who feels can write. It's only talking on paper . . . talking about the things that matter to us."*

As a Beehive Nominee for this year, Wild Girl might be a little harder to get a hold of than usual.  Luckily we have an extra week to read this time.  Please try to read quickly so everyone can have a chance to finish the book before our next meeting.  I'm excited to see you there!

Gloria

*The book summary and biography of Patricia Reilly Giff were taken from http://www.randomhouse.com/features/patriciareillygiff/index.htm