Up Next: When You Reach Me

For our next meeting, we chose When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead.

• The good news: It's a mystery, Megan and Michelle, so it will count toward your reading project.
• The bad news: It's a mystery, Hannah, but at least it's not Nancy Drew.

Here's a review from School Library Journal:

"Sixth-grader Miranda lives in 1978 New York City with her mother, and her life compass is Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. When she receives a series of enigmatic notes that claim to want to save her life, she comes to believe that they are from someone who knows the future. Miranda spends considerable time observing a raving vagrant who her mother calls "the laughing man" and trying to find the connection between the notes and her everyday life.

"Discerning readers will realize the ties between Miranda's mystery and L'Engle's plot, but will enjoy hints of fantasy and descriptions of middle school dynamics. Stead's novel is as much about character as story. Miranda's voice rings true with its faltering attempts at maturity and observation. The story builds slowly, emerging naturally from a sturdy premise. As Miranda reminisces, the time sequencing is somewhat challenging, but in an intriguing way. The setting is consistently strong. The stores and even the streets-in Miranda's neighborhood act as physical entities and impact the plot in tangible ways. This unusual, thought-provoking mystery will appeal to several types of readers."

Extra credit for reading A Wrinkle in Time.

Dahl Report

As promised, it was chaotic! Here are the books we read:

• Magic Finger
• James and the Giant Peach
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
• The Twits
• The Witches
• Boy
• The BFG
• The Enormous Crocodile
• Matilda

We all agreed that he was crazy, with an imagination that was just this side of veering out of control. I'll send in the forms and we'll see just what kind of prizes you'll get!

October will be Dahltastic!

At our next meeting (Tuesday, October 19 at 6:45), we will be participating in the Dahlathon that's sweeping the US and UK. Everyone should choose three books by Roald Dahl to discuss at the meeting. (Janet will be reading Boy, The BFG and The Enormous Crocodile.) Download the Official Reading Journal -- http://www.roalddahl.com/dahlathon -- to keep track of your books and to just have fun!

Sure, we could all agree on three books to read together, but it seems so much more gloriumptious -- and chaotic -- if we all read our own. I know Roald Dahl would be proud of us.

There are so many fun things on his site-- http://www.roalddahl.com/ -- including a Buckswashling Book Chooser to help you pick your three books.

For reading the three books, each member of our club will be eligible for awards from the Dahlathon: a free book, a certificate and a medal. It will just be....scrumdiddlyumptious!

Loved Slob!

Hannah and Janet loved Slob by Ellen Potter. We thought the story was very well told and we liked the twists and turns -- both interesting and believable. We also really liked the characters: Owen, Jeremy, Zelda, Izzy, Mason. What did the rest of you think?

Thanks to Mrs Khost for suggesting it!

Oh, and we also had an Oreo taste test: Mint Oreos were the best followed by regular Oreos in the festive football shape. The Oreo half and half double-stuffed were a bit much. The Oreo fudge stripe had a nasty plastic taste.

Interview with Louis Sachar

This interview was done in 2006 by the editors of TeenReads.

Louis Sachar's SMALL STEPS chronicles life after Camp Green Lake for Theodore "Armpit" Johnson, one of the former occupants of Tent D from the Newbery Award-winning book HOLES. In this interview, Sachar explains why he chose to focus his highly anticipated novel on this particular character over all the others. He also describes his rather slow writing process and reveals how his life has (or hasn't) changed as a result of the success of HOLES.

Question: Of all the characters from HOLES, why did you choose to revisit Armpit in SMALL STEPS?

Louis Sachar: I tend to write about underdogs. It seemed to me that life would be tough for an African-American teenager from a low-income family with a criminal record. Especially someone stuck with the name, "Armpit."

Q: Although this new book is about a character from HOLES, the two books are very different. How would you explain to a fan of HOLES what to expect from SMALL STEPS?

LS: I can't. I'm no good at describing my books. HOLES has been out now for seven years, and I still can't come up with a good answer when asked what that book is about.

Q: Could you imagine future novels about any of the other boys? Do you think about what Stanley is up to now?

LS: I don't think too much about Stanley or Zero. I left them in a good place. Although money doesn't bring happiness, or give meaning to someone's life, the problems Stanley and Zero face now (and I'm sure they do face many problems) are less interesting than those faced by someone like Armpit.

Q: Plenty of teenagers fantasize about what it would be like to be a young rock star. You portray it as lonely. Tell us about that decision.

LS: The media tends to portray the teenage world as one where drinking and sex is taken for granted. In fact, I think most teenagers don't drink, are unsure of themselves, and feel awkward around members of the opposite sex. I thought it was important to show Kaira, a rock star no less, as such a person. Her situation, in many ways, is made more difficult as she has no social contact with anyone her age. She is trapped in a world of agents, record producers, and hanger-ons.

Q: I'm imagining that of all the books you've written, HOLES is the one that has changed your life the most. Not only did it win the Newbery Medal, it's also simply a popular sensation. Is this assessment accurate? What is this novel's continuing impact on your life? Would you consider it the book that you are proudest of?

LS: Not counting SMALL STEPS, I think HOLES is my best book, in terms of plot, and setting, and the way the story revealed itself. It hasn't changed my life, other than that I have more money than I did before I wrote it. I'm still too close to SMALL STEPS to compare it to HOLES.

Q: Why do you typically write only two hours each day?

LS: Small steps. Every time I start a new novel it seems like an impossible undertaking. If I tried to do too much too quickly, I would get lost and feel overwhelmed. I have to go slow, and give things a chance to take form and grow.

SMALL STEPS: Recording the Music for the Play

So, Small Steps (the

sequel to Holes), has been made into
a play (Oregon Children's Theatre,
playing April 24 to May 16, 2010).

Check it out!

Harry is the WInner!

Harry Potter was the overwhelming winner in the poll on our blog.

Any other questions we should poll about? Post your comments here and I'll add a new one.