Tuesday 21 October 2014


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

Thursday 2 October 2014

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 ?