November Meeting Wrap-Up

We had a really fun meeting on Monday and a great discussion of The Spoon in the Bathroom Wall! Since it was our first fantasy novel we spent some time discussing what fantasy is and what elements of Spoon make it a fantasy. We all agreed that fantasy fiction is characterized by "stuff that can't happen" in real life as well as dragons and princesses and "fairytale stuff." Fantastical elements we identified in Spoon include the talking spoon, the griffin, and the dancing eggs. Other fantasy books that club members have read and enjoyed include the Emily Windsnap books by Liz Kessler, Stuart Little by E.B. White and the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling.

We all liked Martha especially the way she stood up for the other students at the Bloggins school. One club member liked Rufus, the school bully, because she felt he made the story exciting. We unanimously agreed that it was wrong for Martha to steal Mrs. Ferlin's eggs, even though she did it to protect her father. Some thought she should have secretly told Mrs. Ferlin what Rufus wanted her to do and maybe Mrs. Ferlin could have switched the eggs or come up with some other way for Martha to deal with Rufus.

We had snacks and for our craft we all made special souvenir spoons. We painted them silver and blue and added special gems. Everyone designed their spoon in a different way and they all came out great!

I also put together a display of other fantasy books our club members might enjoy, as well as books about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, The Sword in the Stone, other books by Tony Johnston and books about Langston Hughes whose poem, "Dreams", was such a source of inspiration for Martha and her father.

Overall we really liked The Spoon in the Bathroom Wall and would recommend it to our friends. Club members also expressed interest in exploring other fiction genres including historical fiction, science fiction and mystery. So stay tuned for future book selections! You never know what we might read next!