Hi everyone, I wasn't at the last book club meeting but Irene has been filling me in on every thing that I missed. Lots of different books to mention from last months meeting. Everyone picked a book from the Children's Books Ireland Recommended Reads book and then came back and told the group

what they thought. I've added all the books that were read below. Some people really loved their reads,  I've put five stars ***** beside these books!

The Forbidden Library by Django Wexler

Alice always thought fairy tales had happy endings. That--along with everything else--changed the day she met her first fairy When Alice's father goes down in a shipwreck, she is sent to live with her uncle Geryon--an uncle she's never heard of and knows nothing about. He lives in an enormous manor with a massive library that is off-limits to Alice. But then she meets a talking cat. And even for a rule-follower, when a talking cat sneaks you into a forbidden library and introduces you to an arrogant boy who dares you to open a book, it's hard to resist. Especially if you're a reader to begin with. Soon Alice finds herself INSIDE the book, and the only way out is to defeat the creature imprisoned within.
It seems her uncle is more than he says he is. But then so is Alice.

two people chose this book and favourite parts of the book were when the ship sank and the fairy but they felt there wasn't enough comedy in the story

Paws and Whiskers by Jacqueline Wilson *****

"It's about dogs and cats and the author's childhood when they had cats and dogs. My favourite story was shadow the sheep dog because I like the way that shadow really loves Jonny, when Jenny falls down a hill shadow saves him"

Fintan's Fifteen by Alan Nolan *****

Ray is tired of losing every match he plays with his team, the Ballybreen Terries. Before they become the laughing stock of the leadership, Ray persuades Fintan Heffernan, ex-star player of U10's to leave his early retirement and computer games to help bring his rival 'Dirty Den' down and lead the Ballybreen Terries to the victory they deserve

"It's about Fintan. He keeps on winning each match. When he stops playing they keep on loosing but then he comes back and they win." Best part of the book was "when they won the cup"


Over the Summer we were very lucky to have an exhibition of art work by Alan Nolan  from Fintan's 15. Here Alan is in a photo in our exhibition area !

Monkey Business by Debbie Thomas

Welcome to Remote Ken, an island with a mind of its own. A school trip to a rain-soaked island off the Irish coast is not Abbie Hartley's idea of fun ... until she hears rumors of treasure hidden by medieval monks. With her best friend Perdita she sets off to find the priceless Goblet of Dripping. But they're not alone. Hot on their heels are a vast villain, an ancient Inca emperor - and a curse that will turn their world upside down. With crazy characters, wonderful wordplay and awesome adventures, kids will love this story! With black and white illustrations.




about "a class who are going on a trip to remote Ken. There are two stories Abbey and Perdita look for treasure"

Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens

When Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong set up their very own deadly secret detective agency at Deepdean School for Girls, they struggle to find any truly exciting mysteries to investigate. (Unless you count the case of Lavinia's missing tie. Which they don't, really.)
     But then Hazel discovers the Science Mistress, Miss Bell, lying dead in the Gym. She thinks it must all have been a terrible accident -- but when she and Daisy return five minutes later, the body has disappeared. Now the girls know a murder must have taken place... and there's more than one person at Deepdean with a motive.


"It is about two girls who try to solve a murder in the school they are in" Hazel is their favourite character because she is clever and the best part of the book was " when they figured out who was the murderer"

Beyond the Stars by Sarah Webb

A collection of short stories from a stellar line-up of Irish authors and illustrators, edited by bestselling author Sarah Webb. The anthology is completed by a final winter-themed tale from the winner of HarperCollins’ competition for young writers, which will be illustrated by Irish Children’s Laureate, Niamh Sharkey.
12 wintry tales of wonder, from the funny to the ghostly, from the heartfelt to the action-packed – there is something here for everyone to love…

"This book has a lot of different stories from a lot of famous Irish authors in it. It has a lot of different varieties of stories in it " The best bit of the book was "When Raka saw that the wolf she found was her long lost brother. Then he had to go and Raka was very sad. "

The Tin Snail  by Cameron Mc Alister  *****

This is the story of a brave little car that helped to win a war.
In the 1940s world of elegant, luxury automobiles, the Tin Snail is no beauty. But it’s facing a tough challenge:
to carry a farmer and his wife,
a flagon of wine
and a tray of eggs
across a bumpy field in a sleepy French village
– without spilling a drop or cracking a shell.
And then an even bigger challenge comes along – staying hidden from an officer of the occupying Nazi army, who is bent on stealing the design for the enemy!

"This is about a car that wants to beat the Germans in the war. The best part of the book is when they fall off the bridge, because it's funny"

Alfie Green and the Magical Gift by Joe O'Brien  *****

"This is when Alfie's birthday arrives and he goes into his granddad's shed and takes him on a magical adventure, you really enjoy Alfie, the wise old plants and the garden tools"

A Room Full of Chocolate by Jane Elson

Grace's fun loving Mum has found a lump. Her north London world of sleepovers, tap dancing and playing the clarinet fall apart when she is sent to live with her grumpy old granddad on his farm in Yorkshire while her mother goes into hospital to get better.


the best character in this book is " Megan, because she has a pot bellied pig"
Check out author  Jan Elson's website for more about her book and writing




Fantastic selection of books, hope this will give you lots of ideas if you are not sure what to read next. Looking forward  to our next book club meeting on Thursday the 18th of December!  see you all there

 

Book for December bookclub

There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom by Louis Sachar

"Give me a dollar or I'll spit on you." That's Bradley Chalker for you. He is the oldest child in the class. He tells enormous lies. He picks fights with girls, and the teachers say he has "serious behaviour problems." No one likes him - except Carla, the new school counsellor. She thinks Bradley is sensitive and generous, and she even enjoys his far-fetched stories. Carla knows that Bradley could change, if only he weren't afraid to try. Sometimes the hardest thing in the world is believing in yourself.

In case anyone didn't make the last book club meeting on Thursday this is the book we are all reading for December. We gave out the books at our meeting, if you haven't got your copy yet please let me know here in the library and I will get one for you. Really looking forward to reading this, have heard it's a great story. Another post to follow on our last meeting and reviews on the different books everyone chose from recommended reads

Past reads from Ballyroan Junior Bookclub

Just thought I would mention some of the books we read last year at our book club for anyone who has just joined our group. We've  read all kinds of books by lots of different authors.

The Terrible Thing that happened to Barnaby Brocket by John Boyne

There’s nothing unusual about the Brockets. Boring, respectable and fiercely proud of it, Alistair and Eleanor Brocket turn up their noses at anyone strange or different. But from the moment Barnaby Brocket comes into the world, it’s clear he’s anything but normal. To the horror and shame of his parents, Barnaby appears to defy the laws of gravity – and floats.
Little Barnaby is a lonely child – after all, it’s hard to make friends when you’re ten feet in the air. Desperate to please his parents, he does his best to stop floating, but he just can’t do it. Then, one fateful day, Barnaby’s mother decides enough is enough. She never asked for a weird, abnormal, floating child. She’s sick and tired of the newspapers prying and the neighbours gossiping. Barnaby has to go . . .
Betrayed, frightened and alone, Barnaby floats into the path of a very special hot air balloon. And so begins a magical journey around the world; from South America to New York, Canada to Ireland, and even a trip into space, Barnaby meets a cast of truly extraordinary new friends and realises that nothing can make you happier than just being yourself

This was by far one of our most popular books and  most people really enjoyed it. It's a very unusual story which captured the imaginations of our group.

The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd

When Ted and Kat watched their cousin Salim get on board the London Eye, he turned and waved before getting on. After half an hour it landed and everyone trooped off - but no Salim. Where could he have gone? How on earth could he have disappeared into thin air?
Since the police are having no luck finding him, Ted and Kat become sleuthing partners. Despite their prickly relationship, they overcome their differences to follow a trail of clues across London in a desperate bid to find their cousin. And ultimately it comes down to Ted, whose brain works in its own very unique way, to find the key to the mystery.

An adventure story with a twist, as well as chatting about the story this book sparked lots of discussion about London and the London eye itself


The History Keepers by Damien Dibben

Imagine if you lost your parents - not just in place, but in time.

Jake Djones' mum and dad have gone missing and they could be anywhere in the world - at any time in history. Because the Djones family have an astonishing secret, which for years they've managed to keep - even from each other. They belong to the HISTORY KEEPERS: a secret society which travels through the centuries to prevent evil enemies from meddling with History itself.

In the quest to find his parents, Jake is whisked from 21st Century London to 19th century France, the headquarters of the mysterious History Keepers, where he discovers the truth about his family's disappearance - and the diabolical Prince Zeldt's plan to destroy the world as we know it . . .

This book is part one of a series. Check out the official History Keepers Website for more info on the series, games reviews and news on the newest book in the series as well as some book trailers

The Sleeping Army by Francesca Simon

Freya is an ordinary girl living in modern Britain, but with a twist: people still worship the Viking gods. She's caught in her parents' divorce, and shuttling between bickering adults is no fun. One evening, stuck with her dad on his night shift at the British Museum, she is drawn to the Lewis Chessmen and Heimdall's Horn. Unable to resist, she blows the horn, waking three chess pieces from their enchantment; the slaves Roskva and Alfi, and Snot the Berserk. They are all summoned to Asgard, land of the Viking gods, and told they must go on a perilous journey to restore the gods to youth.

If Freya refuses she will be turned into an ivory chess piece but, if she accepts her destiny and fails, the same terrible fate awaits her.

Francesca Simon is best known for her books based on Horrid Henry but the sleeping army is the first book in a new series for older readers based around Norse myths and legends. Find our more about Francesca Simon and her other books on her website


Benny and Omar by Eoin Colfer

The hilarious debut novel from one of the world's favourite children's authors. Benny Shaw, a young sporting fanatic, is forced to leave his beloved Wexford, home of all his heroes, and move with his family to Tunisia! How will he survive in a place like this? Then he teams up with Omar, and a madcap friendship between the two boys leads to trouble, crazy escapades, a unique way of communicating, and heart-breaking challenges.

Eoin Colfer has recently been made  Laureate na nOg and will be promoting reading and books to children for the next two years in Ireland . He is the author of  really popular Artemis Fowl series and has a new series -WARP- out at the moment which I would recommend


Siobhan  Parkinson
For one of our meetings we all picked a different book by Siobhan  Parkinson
The moon King seemed to be the most popular choice

Ricky has withdrawn from the world into his own inner space. Placed in a foster home which is full of sunshine and goodness, he is uncertain how to become part of family life. He often retreats to his favourite hideaway, a special chair in the attic, and adopts the pose of the Moon King. From this situation relationships slowly begin to grow ... but it is not a smooth path and at times Ricky just wants to leave it all behind.






We also picked Ann Fine as an author and everyone chose a different book, she has written over 50 books for children so lots to choose from!

Poetry afternoon !
In one of my favourite book club meetings we had a poetry afternoon. Everyone picked a poem that they really like and read it out at our meeting. We had lots of poetry books from the library on hand as well and we all picked a few poems  that we enjoyed and read them out to everyone
Two books with a great mix of poems in them are

Michael Rosen's A to Z the best Children's Poetry from Agard to Zephaniah

and also the Puffin book of fantastic first poems is worth a look

Great bookclub meeting last Thursday and we even had some new people join in. We discussed our book for the month "The Ghost of Thomas Kempe" by Penelope Lively and watched a spooky book trailer for it!

Ghost of Thomas Kempe Book Trailer

Here are some comments about the book, some people really liked it but others thought it was a bit old fashioned and not scary enough !

"I thought it was interesting , I would not have picked it out myself by the cover but it was really good, I would give it 8 out of 10 because I don't really like old fashioned books"

"I thought it was interesting because I really wanted to see what happened to James"

"The book is interesting, it has posh words, you will keep turning the page"

It was an old fashioned surprising book. It was about 17% scary and ghost was sort of a stalker"

"I thought the book was kind of interesting but I didn't like how the author put the words and that it was too old fashioned for my type but other than that.."

We also talked about books that we have just read recently, two people had just read "Diary of  a Wimpy Kid"
"I thought it was a good book, not too bad, it was good enough. It was interesting enough."

"I like diary of a wimpy kid because I like the way it's actually a diary and writing everyday and it looks like somebody just wrote it and he's telling every bit of his life. Because normally if you read a book it's typed, so that's why I like the books of Diary of a Wimpy Kid  "

Another favourite "Awful Auntie" by David Williams
"Awful Auntie is a very interesting story about a girl called Stella and her family own a place called

 Saxby Hall. Stella's auntie wants Saxby Hall to herself . Stella's parents die in a mysterious car accident and Stella thinks it was her auntie. Stella meets a ghost called soot and he helps her on the way"









and someone had just read "how to be a Viking" by Cresida Cowell

"I read how to be a Viking. It was a really funny book, some of it was a bit scary when they mentioned about the head being chopped off but it was still a good book!!"

Next month we are all reading a different book so we should have a really great meeting finding out about what everyone thinks of their read. We had a look at Children's Books Ireland's recommended reads booklet and everyone picked something to read from it for our next book club! If anyone missed our last meeting we have copies of recommended reads in the library so just come in and pick out a book from it, we have all the books in stock and we can reserve one for you if they are on loan

The Ghost of Thomas Kempe  by Penelope Lively

 

 

 

James is fed up. His family has moved to a new cottage - with grounds that are great for excavations, and trees that are perfect for climbing – and stuff is happening. Stuff that is normally the kind of thing he does. And he's getting blamed for it. But it's not him who's writing strange things on shopping lists and fences.  Thomas Kempe the apothecary has returned and he wants James to be his apprentice. No one else believes in ghosts. It's up to James to get rid of him. Or he'll have no pocket money or pudding ever again.

For anyone who hasn't collected their book club books yet this month we are reading "The Ghost of Thomas Kempe" by Penelope Lively. We thought it would be fun to read something spooky as Halloween is coming up soon!

Penelope Lively has written lots of books for adults and children and this book won an award- the Carnegie Medal- and was even made into a film once

I love love ghost stories so I was really looking forward to reading this, the story was quite funny and  definitely kept me turning the pages and wanting to read more. The language in the book is a little different as it was written quite a while ago in the 1970s but I think that makes it more interesting and adds to the atmosphere. Hope you all enjoy it ! Has anyone any more spooky reads to recommend for Halloween ?

September Book Club

Hi everyone, just started this blog for our Junior Book club here in Ballyroan.  This should make it easier for everyone to find out what we are reading each month and to recommend books to each other. For our meeting on September the 18th at 3.30pm we are reading "The Grunts all at sea" By Philip Ardagh

Philip Ardagh is a very well know children's writer and has  written over 60 books! "The Grunts all at sea" is part of a new series of books he is writing. If you like funny stories you will probably love Mr and Mrs Grunt.  All the crazy characters are great and I love the illustrations in the book by Axel Scheffle. Don't want to say too much about what happens in the story in case some people haven't finished the book !  if you would like to find out more about The Grunts check out this link
www.meetthegrunts.com

Philip Ardagh is writer in residence for booktrust, an organisation in England who promote reading to everyone. Philip writes a blog for booktrust and he has his own blog and website too
http://www.philipardagh.co.uk/

The Grunts, All At Sea by Phillip Ardagh

 

Mr Grunt's a man with a mission. He has to get a Person of Great Importance (or POGI) to someone called Mrs Bayliss by the twenty-fifth. Alive and well. And he can't tell anyone more than that, not even his lovely wife, Mrs Grunt, because there will be people trying to snatch the POGI and so the POGI must be transported in secret. It's an exciting adventure, but what interests Mr Grunt most are the silver coins he's been promised at the end of it. The Grunts' stolen son, Sunny, has a few questions. Who is the big-earringed cyclist? Why does the POGI have to wear a barrel all the time? Is Rodders Lasenby a lovely person or simply the rudest man on the planet? And how long will it be before they find themselves All At Sea?