Announcing Guys Read - a new book group for guys

Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy

I'm looking forward to discuss this book for eighth grade book club later this week. Yellow Star was a quick, but engrossing historical fiction read. Written in verse, it recounts the experiences of Syvia and her family during World War II. Based on the experiences of her aunt during the war, Jennifer Roy chose to share her aunt's story through a first person narrative. Syvia was four and a half when her family and all the other Jews in Lodz, Poland were moved to the ghetto. By the time liberation came the quarter million Jewish population of the city numbered at 800, with only 12 surviving children. A powerful story of war and suffering told through a child's eyes.

Works Cited
Yellow Star Cover. LibraryThing. Web. 15 Nov. 2009 http://www.librarything.com/work/1194939

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

I know I probably shouldn't post this before book club discusses it next week, but WOWSA! I really liked this book. I think I've read about 30 books so far this school year, and Unwind is by far my favorite.

This book grabbed me and kept me hooked. There were a number of twists and turns that caught me off guard. The premise is original and twisted. Set in future America after the Heartland War (the second Civil War), a peace treaty was signed after both sides agree to the idea of unwinding - taking 13 to 18 year olds and harvesting all their body parts. Connor finding out he is about to be unwound goes on the the run. Along the way he meets Risa, a ward of the state, and Lev, a child born to be tithed. The three of them try to stay alive. There is lots to think about in this book and plentiful action.

Book Clubs

The Highland Lunch Bunch book clubs will be kicking off for this year soon. Any Highland students are invited to join the fun! We meet during the lunch and recess period to eat together and talk about the book. Please contact Ms. Wyatt if you have any questions. Check out the book club page to find out what is happening with the lunch bunch groups this year.

• 6th Grade Lunch Bunch will meet on Friday, 9/25, to talk about Earthquake Terror by Peg Kehret. The book is a page turner about a brother and sister who have to figure out how to survive in the aftermath of an earthquake. I couldn't believe all that these two kids had to go through during the course of the book!
  

• 7th Grade Lunch Bunch will meet on Thursday, 9/24, to talk about Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Wowsa! If you haven't read this book yet, you have to check it out. Katniss and Peeta are chosen to represent their district in the annual Hunger Games. The games are a televised competition where the last survivor wins. There's something for everyone: action, adventure, and even a little romance.
  
• 8th Grade Lunch Bunch will meet on Friday, 9/25, to talk about Acceleration by Graham McNamee. This book was a thriller. Duncan has a horrible summer job, staffing the lost and found at the Toronto Subway. Bored out of his mind, he starts reading a diary that someone has lost. What he finds is disturbing. It seems that the writer of the journal is planning to kill someone. Will Duncan get involved and find this killer before it is too late?
  

Thanks to Danette Haworth, Virtual Guest Author!

The sixth grade lunch bunch read Violet Raines Almost Got Struck by Lightning for our last book of the year. We were very fortunate to be able to have an author chat with Danette Haworth. Ms. Haworth showed us some pictures of wildlife and the landscape in Florida that help shaped the places in the book. We also got a chance to look at a bunch of examples of cover art.

It was a text chat with images in a presentation. It was great watching the students involved. As our time with Danette went on, they crept closer and closer to the screen where we could see the images and the text chat. By the end of the session they were waving and saying good-bye to the screen.

We really appreciate Danette Haworth taking the time to talk with us about her book and answer our many questions. I'm excited about the possibility of connecting with other authors virtually in the future.

Works Cited
"Violet Raines Cover." Online Image. Summer Friend Blog. 28 May 2009 http://summerfriend.blogspot.com/

New Lunch Bunch Book Club Page Launched

We've just finished the second round of Lunch Bunch Book Club meetings at Highland.
The book clubs have a new web page within information about our upcoming meetings and selected books - http://highlandlc.wikispaces.com/BookClubs. Any students at Highland are welcome to join the book club at any time.

Next books and meetings are:

• 6th Grade - Fever, 1793 by Anderson on Wednesday, 11/19
• 7th Grade - Son of the Mob by Korman on Thursday, 11/20
• 8th Grade - Monkey Town by Kidd on Monday, 11/24
• 8th Grade - Maus by Spiegelman on Tuesday, 11/25
  

First Book Club Meetings of 2008-2009

It is almost the beginning of October which means that the book club meetings are finally here! I'm really looking forward to talking about our first books of the year. The 6th grade club meets on October 1 to talk about Rules by Cynthia Lord. As soon as we pick our next book I'll post it here. The 7th grade club is set to meet October 2 to talk about Turnabout. Finally, the 8th grade club will meet on Monday, October 6, (which is a change of date!) to discuss Acceleration.

Book Club News

It is the first week of school and the library will officially open for business tomorrow. I am so excited! I can't wait to hear what students have read this summer and share the things I enjoyed.

At Highland the Lunch Bunch Book Clubs will be back as well. The titles and dates for the first meetings have just been posted.
The 6th grade group will meet on Wednesday, October 1, to discuss Rules by Lord.
The 7th grade group will meet on Thursday, October 2, to talk about Turnabout by Haddix.
The 8th grade goup will meet on Friday, October 3, to talk about Acceleration by McNamee.

Any interested Highland students are welcome to attend book club. We meet about once a month to talk about the book we read for that month while we eat lunch.

Dairy Queen and The Off Season

Over break I read The Off Season by Catherine Murdock. I won a whole box of brand new copies in a book club contest! This is the title the 8th grade Lunch Bunch is reading for our April meeting. DJ is the only girl playing varsity football around. Her life is going along smoothly, so smoothly in fact she feels like the other shoe is about to drop. And it sure does. On top of discovering her family's money troubles that may put the future of their farm in jeopardy, her kind-of boyfriend never wants be seen with her in public, her best friend has stopped coming to school, she hurts her shoulder, and her oldest brother has been seriously injured in a football game. DJ deals with all the turmoils with sincerity. This book was a joy to read!


The Off Season is the continuation of DJ's story. When I saw the first book, Dairy Queen, come back into the library last week, I just had to pick it up. I was not disappointed. I really enjoyed reading the first part of DJ's story too. Although I think I liked The Off Season just a little bit better.

I'm looking forward to the book club discussion of the book later this week!


"Dairy Queen Cover." Online image. LibraryThing. 6 April 2008 <
http://www.librarything.com/work/book/29135398 >.
"The Off Season Cover." Online image. LibraryThing. 6 April 2008 <
http://www.librarything.com/work/book/28485852 >.

2001: A Space Odyssey

On Friday, the seventh grade Lunch Bunch Book Club met to discuss our latest book, Arthur Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey. I found it to be a really interesting discussion. We touched on how to write about the future in science fiction, the idea of "killing" HAL and if it is possible to kill an inorganic life, evolution, the ways in which 2001 was depicted, the idea of other life and the monoliths, and space travel - just to list some of the areas we talked about. Several members of the club continued on by reading other books in the series. We worked together to try to figure out the last few chapters of the book and what it meant for Bowman to become a Star Child.

My experience with 2001: A Space Odyssey illustrates one of the reasons I love book club. This was a book I would not have picked up on my own. I think I can say that for quite a few members of the book club. I found it was a pretty enjoyable read and gave me food for thought.

Image Citation
"2001: A Space Odyssey. Dust jacket from the first edition." Online image. 1968. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 1
Mar. 2008 .

Book Club Round Table Recommendations

For our December meetings, the Lunch Bunch Book Clubs held round table sessions where each member recommended a favorite book to the group. Below is a list of the books that were recommended by book club members. I know I've got some new things on my reading list!

8th Grade Round Table

• Jesse recommended Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
• Ellen recommended A Time for Dancing by Davida Willis Hurwin
• Katie recommended Code Orange by Caroline Cooney
• Ms. Wyatt recommended How Not to be Popular by Jennifer Ziegler
• Lydia recommended Eldest by Christopher Paolini
• Taylor recommended The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga
• Nina recommended Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
• Jovanna recommended East by Edith Pattou

Other books that came up during the discussion included Little Women, Drums Girls & Dangerous Pie, and So Yesterday.

6th Grade Round Table

• Maggie recommended Maus by Art Spiegelman
• Emily recommended Dizzy by Cathy Cassidy
• Stephen recommended Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
• Erin recommended Bloomability by Sharon Creech
• Nick recommended Thief and the Beanstalk by P.W. Catanese
• Ms. Wyatt recommended Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson
• Claudia recommended The Warriors series by Erin Hunter

Other books that came up during the discussion included:
Gregor and the Code of Claw, Here Today, Twilight, Wish List, Westing Game, Magyk, You are So NOT Invited to my Bat Mitzvah, Inkheart, and Inkspell.

7th Grade Round Table
This list only represents the discussion 1/3 of the 7th grade group. We were very fortunate that Heather Beverly and Ellen Jenkins from the Cook Memorial Public Library joined us and facilitated two of the groups before giving a GREAT book talk featuring newly released YA books.

• Holes
• Homeland from the Dark Elf Trilogy
• 21 Balloons
• Last City of Faar from the Pendragon Series
• What My Mother Doesn't Know
• Life at these Speeds
• Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
• Ashes of Roses
• The Twinkie Squad
• Charlie Bone Series
• Girls in Pants

November Book Club Meetings

The next book club meetings are quickly approaching. Any interested students are welcome to join the discussions at any time.

*The 6th Grade Lunch Bunch will be meeting to talk about The Misadventures of Maude March by Audrey Couloumbis on Thursday, November 29. The book is one of the nominees for the 2008 Caudill Young Readers' Book Award Program.
*The 7th Grade Lunch Bunch will be meeting to talk about Number the Stars by Lois Lowry on Friday, November 30.
*The 8th Grade Lunch Bunch will meet to talk about Hope was Here by Joan Bauer on Thursday, November 29.

A special thanks to Mrs. Heaser for helping to select the list of choices for the upcoming meetings.

Next Book Club Meetings Announced

The Lunch Bunch Book Clubs kicked off successfully in September. We have three book clubs at Highland, one for each grade level. At the end of the first meetings we selected our books for the next meeting.

Here is the information about our next meetings:

• 6th grade will be reading Wild Man Island by Will Hobbs. Our next meeting will be Thursday, November 1 during 5th period.
• 7th grade will be reading Silent to the Bone by E. L. Konigsburg. Our next meeting will be Friday, October 26 during 4th period.
• 8th grade will be reading Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff. Our next meeting will be Wednesday, October 31 during 6th period.

Any interested Highland students are invited to participate. See Ms. Wyatt to sign up and get a copy of the book.

Lunch Bunch Book Clubs Starting in September

Each grade level will have its own Lunch Bunch Book Club this year. Any interested students are welcome to join the club. Copies of the books are available in the Learning Center.

6th Grade -- Our first book of the year is No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman. We'll meet on September 27 during 5th period.

7th Grade -- Our first book of the year is Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. Our meeting will be on Wednesday, September 26, during 4th period.

8th Grade -- Our first book is Whirligig by Paul Fleischman. Our meeting will be on Wednesday, September 26, during 6th period.

Participants should bring lunch to the book club meeting. We'll eat together while we discuss the book.