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

 

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