March Meeting Wrap-Up

The Book Buddies Book Club met yesterday afternoon to discuss our March book, Emily's Fortune by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. We had a terrific discussion followed by a very fun cattle drive game!

We talked a lot about the character of Emily Wiggins how much she changed both physically and emotionally over the course of the story. She became a much stronger person and much more adventurous. We thought that Jackson was integral to her development as a person and that her journey to Redbud would not have been as successful without his help.

As expected, nobody liked Uncle Victor and we were all very happy to see his scheme to take over Emily's inheritance foiled at the end. We were also very happy that Jackson got to stay with Aunt Hilda at the end of the story.

While it was very interesting to read about pioneer times, we all agreed that it's not a time period we'd be particularly anxious to live in. We thought it would be very difficult to adjust to not having the modern conveniences we are all so used to today.

Overall we all really liked the story and look forward to reading more from Phyllis Reynolds Naylor!

Following our discussion we made and played a very fun cattle drive game. We all thought of the many things both positive and negative that could happen during a cattle drive across the prairie. By adding and subtracting beans (representing cattle) for good things and bad we played the game. The winner was the player with the most beans (cattle) left over after all the cards were drawn. This terrific game came from the wonderful book, Westward Ho!: An Activity Guide to the Wild West by Laurie Carlson.

It was another terrific meeting and I look forward to seeing everyone back in April!