Our First meeting after theSummer holidays was on Thursday 17th of September. We had some new members and kids from last year as well. This meeting was all about picture books for older kids. There are some realy great picture books aimed at older children that often get missed, they can  have fantastic pictures and great stories in them. Some books just have pictures and you have to guess the story. We picked two books to look at together

Rose Blanche by Roberto Innocenti & Ian Mc Ewan

Rose Blanche was the name of a group of young German citizens who, at their peril, protested against the war. Like them, Rose observes all the changes going on around her which others choose to ignore. She watches as the streets of her small German town fill with soldiers. One day she sees a little boy escaping from the back of a truck, only to be captured by the mayor and shoved back into it. Rose follows the truck to a desolate place out of town, where she discovers many other children, staring hungrily from behind an electric barbed wire fence. She starts bringing the children food, instinctively sensing the need for secrecy, even with her mother. Until the tide of the war turns and soldiers in different uniforms stream in from the East, and Rose and the imprisoned children disappear for ever . . .

Grandfather's Journey By Allan Say

A Japanese-American man recounts his grandfather's journey to America, which he later undertakes himself, and the feelings of being torn by a love for two different countries.


After reading and taking about these books we had a look at other picture books for older readers

 

And then everyone picked up the book for the next meeting on  Thursday the 15th of October

Mr Gum and the Biscuit Billionaire by Andy Stanton

 

 

Journey to the river sea

Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson

It is 1910 and Maia, tragically orphaned at 13, has been sent from England to start a new life with distant relatives in Manaus, hundreds of miles up the Amazon. She is accompanied by an eccentric and mysterious governess who has secret reasons of her own for making the journey. Both soon discover an exotic world bursting with new experiences in this highly colourful, joyous and award-winning adventure.

Maia is sent to live with relations in a town on the Amazon in Brazil. Nothing turns out as she had expected and she has a pretty miserable time until she makes friends with Finn who lives in the jungle near her house and Clovis a child who works in an  acting company on tour in Brazil
This was the last book we read before the Summer holidays, I love this book as it has lots of twists and turns, the characters are interesting and it's a really great story. It wasn't everyone's  favourite as it is quite long and there is a lot going on in the plot. Some people found it a bit confusing to keep track of everything that is happening. Some of our group would recommend it though.

As this was our last meeting before the summer we had a vote to see what our most popular books during the year were. Our top three reads were:

1st "Beyond the Cherry Tree" by Joe O'Brien

2nd "There’s a boy in the Girls Bathroom" by Louis Sacar

3rd "The Firework Maker's Daughter" by Phillip Pullman

Everyone loved Joe O' Brien's book "Beyond the Cherry Tree" We were lucky enough to have a visit from Joe for one of our meetings where we got to quiz him on the characters and story. Louis Sacar and Philip Pullman were close and highly recommended as well