Hello everyone
I hope you enjoyed your holidays and time to relax with your family and friends, as well as some extra time to enjoy reading.
If you have not responded to our Book Club survey, please take a moment to fill this out and vote for what you might like to read over the coming terms. Thanks to the students who already responded at the end of Term 1 (you don’t need to fill it out again).
Below is a recap of our meeting at the end of last term, especially for members who were not able to attend.
As this was our first meeting for 2022 (our 33rd book club meeting), it was lovely to welcome all our new members. Great to see everyone who came along for the first time including Katie, Irish, Izel, Deeya, Anastasia, Olivia and Faith. Thank you for joining us, and welcome back to our regular book club members and Mrs Lacey too (Mrs Ryan, Mrs Hanratty and Ms McNamara all sent their apologies). Thank you as well to Mr Llewellyn-Evans for joining us as a ‘guest speaker’. Mr Llewellyn-Evans had us all captivated with his account of Katrina Nannestad’s latest book, Rabbit, soldier, angel, thief, and his thoughts about the main character, Sasha, and Sasha’s story. If you would like to listen to Mr Llewellyn-Evans, you can access the recording here.
You can also listen to the audio recording to hear some thoughts about our Book Club book (read over the Christmas holidays), The left-handed booksellers of London by Garth Nix. Our conversation may continue next meeting as some members are still reading it and some members were not present for our discussion. The book is set in 1980s London and, although often described as a fantasy book, the Australian author, Garth Nix, draws on the mythology of Britain to create a magical, alternate London (and countryside) that exists parallel to everyday London. For many of us, it was a slow read at times, but we all agreed that there were many aspects of the novel that we enjoyed including Nix creating an empowered main character, Susan, and just the right amount of romance between Susan and left-handed bookseller, Merlin. There’s 1980s pop culture references (mainly music and clothing) and plenty of adventure, action and humour. If you’re looking for something a little different, this book is highly recommended.
We usually have the second half of book club meetings to share individual books. We were a bit limited for time so we will allow more time in our Week 3 meeting this term. Thanks to everyone who had time to share a book or two including:
- Gretel shared How we fall apart by Katie Zhao. Gretel is reviewing this book for SpineOut. Gretel didn’t particularly enjoy this book, but thinks others may like it, and would recommend it as a quick, engaging read. This review on CommonSense Media is worth reading if you are considering reading this book.
- Sophia is currently reading a Mary Poppins book. We have a couple in the collection. You can access them here.
- Katie has read science fiction book, Hunger, by Michael Grant. Another good read and a popular series.
- Lillian shared a couple of books including:
- The bone spindle which she is reviewing for SpineOut. Lillian liked it but did not love it.
- Defy the night by Brigid Kemmerer – Lillian thoroughly enjoyed this book. Kemmerer’s books have good plot twists, and Lillian recommends her books to students looking for a good fantasy writer.
- League of Liars by Astrid Scholte – Lillian commented that this book was so good she couldn’t put it down. Highly recommended.
- Mrs Lacey shared The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. A book for slightly older audiences, this story is about multiple universes, and a main character who can choose to experience different lives from the Book of Regrets, which she finds in the Midnight Library.
- Congratulations to Zoe who finally finished reading The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. This is a book about the Holocaust. While it is a challenging read, its popularity has endured over the years for students interested in reading a different book about the Holocaust. Another recommended book by Marcus Zusak is The Messenger.
I look forward to our meeting in Week 3 to hear about what you read in the April school holidays and since then.
Until then, happy reading!
Mrs Sylaprany