September Meeting Wrap-Up

The Book Buddies Book Club met yesterday afternoon to discuss our September book, The Humming Room by Ellen Potter.  We had a terrific discussion of the book followed by a journal and bookmark craft!

Everyone read and really liked the book, especially the main character, Roo.  We talked a lot about Roo and the type of person she is and how much she changed over the course of the book.  We first met her alone and hiding under her family's trailor and by the end she was comfortable and happy with the people in her life and felt at home on the St. Lawrence river.  Her transformation paralleled the transformation of the secret garden and both flourished by the end of the story.

We talked about Roo's relationships with characters such as Jack, Violet, Phillip and Ms. Valentine and her connection with Earth and nature.  At first Roo is more comfortable with animals and insects than she is with people but by the end of the story she has real friendships with her Uncle and cousin as well as Violet and Jack. 

We discussed Phillip's father and how much he changed over the story as well, from traveling so much and never spending any time with Phillip to someone who wanted to reconnect with his son.  We felt that his guilt over Phillip's mother's death caused him to close himself off from the family but that in doing so, he caused even more harm to the people he cares about.

We talked about the future for Roo and some felt that she and Jack might get married(!) but others thought that Roo, Phillip and Jack would all be good friends and that Jack might even live with them in the mansion on Cough Rock Island.

Our favorite parts of the book were when Roo hid in the cave from her tutor, Mrs. Wixton and the end when everyone was happy together.  Our least favorite part was when we thought Roo might be sent back to the foster home because she was too much trouble for Ms. Valentine.

It was a wonderful discussion and we had a great time designing our reading journals and bookmarks.  Thank to everyone who attended!

Ellen Potter & Spilling Ink

In addition to her wonderful chapter books for children, Ellen Potter is also the co-author of the book Spilling Ink: A Young Writer's Handbook with Anne Mazer.  Spilling Ink talks about all aspects of the writing process for children, from characters and plot to dialogue and titles.  It includes lots of creative encouragement and will get you itching to write your own stories.  Find out more about Ellen Potter and get additional writing tips on her website.

September Author: Ellen Potter

Ellen Potter is one of my favorite authors and the first author we ever interviewed for the Book Buddies Book Club!  Twice we've read and enjoyed Olivia Kidney (the first in that series) and I'm so excited for us to read her newest novel, The Humming Room.  In between Olivia Kidney and The Humming Room, Ms. Potter wrote a number of other excellent books for children.  Catch up on any that you may have missed today!

The Kneebone Boy
Otto, Lucia, and Max Hardscrabble, whose mother has been missing for many years, have unexpected and illuminating adventures in the village of Snoring-by-the-Sea after their father, who paints portraits of deposed monarchs, goes away on a business trip.

Slob
Picked on, overweight genius Owen tries to invent a television that can see the past to find out what happened the day his parents were killed.

Pish Posh
Eleven-year-old Clara Frankofile sits in her parents' elegant New York City restaurant, Pish Posh, and passes judgement on each customer as a Somebody or a Nobody, but her all-seeing eyes fail to observe the mysterious events occurring right under her nose.

September Book and Meeting Date

The first meeting of the new school year will be held on September 24th @ 3:30pm.  And the September book will be.....

The Humming Room by Ellen Potter!

Ellen Potter is one of my favorite children's authors and I'm excited for us to read and talk about her newest book, The Humming Room, a book inspired by the children's classic The Secret Garden. 

Twelve-year-old orphan Roo Fanshaw is sent to live with an uncle she never knew in a largely uninhabited mansion on Cough Rock Island and discovers a wild river boy, an invalid cousin, and the mysteries of a hidden garden.

Copies of the book will be available at the Children's Desk in September or may be requested through the Ocean State Libraries catalog using your library card.  For help requesting a book please visit the Children's Desk.

Registration is required for the Book Buddies Book Club.  To register, please visit the Children's Desk, call 401-847-8720 ext. 204 or email cgould@newportlibraryri.org.  

More Books by Ellen Potter

In addition to the Olivia Kidney books, Ellen Potter is also the author of some other terrific books for kids:

Pish Posh (2006)
Eleven-year-old Clara Frankofile sits in her parents' elegant New York City restaurant, Pish Posh, and passes judgement on each customer as a Somebody or a Nobody, but her all-seeing eyes fail to observe the mysterious events occurring right under her nose.







Slob (2009)
Picked on, overweight genius Owen tries to invent a television that can see the past to find out what happened the day his parents were killed.







The Kneebone Boy (2010)
Otto, Lucia, and Max Hardscrabble, whose mother has been missing for many years, have unexpected and illuminating adventures in the village of Snoring-by-the-Sea after their father, who paints portraits of deposed monarchs, goes away on a business trip.








And coming in February 2012: The Humming Room
Hiding is Roo Fanshaw's special skill. Living in a frighteningly unstable family, she often needs to disappear at a moment's notice. When her parents are murdered, it's her special hiding place under the trailer that saves her life. As it turns out, Roo, much to her surprise, has a wealthy if eccentric uncle, who has agreed to take her into his home on Cough Rock Island. Once a tuberculosis sanitarium for children of the rich, the strange house is teeming with ghost stories and secrets. Roo doesn't believe in ghosts or fairy stories, but what are those eerie noises she keeps hearing? And who is that strange wild boy who lives on the river? People are lying to her, and Roo becomes determined to find the truth. Despite the best efforts of her uncle's assistants, Roo discovers the house's hidden room--a garden with a tragic secret.

December Author: Ellen Potter

Ellen Potter is the amazing author of our December book, Olivia Kidney. Find out more about her on her website and be sure to check out her writing tips for kids!

Great News!

Ok, so I promised the book club that I would try to get in touch with Grace Lin and see if she would be willing to talk with our club members at the January meeting. Apparently since I was able to get them a few minutes of Ellen Potter's time last November, the club feels I should be able to do this every month with an author! :-) And even though I know how busy famous author's are and what a rare thing it was that we got to discuss Olivia Kidney with Ellen Potter, I love talking with them too, so I went ahead and sent off an email explaining how fantastic our group is and how much we'd love to speak with her about her books. I also invited her to check out our blog and the Newport Public Library's website so that she'd know a little bit about our book club and the library. And I've just heard back! The bad news is that Ms. Lin will be in China until the 27th and does not feel up to a phone interview on the 28th which is totally understandable. (That's got to be an incredibly long flight!)

However the great news is that she is still willing to answer questions for us. We have the opportunity to put together an email of questions and she will send us her responses! How great is that? So be thinking of great questions and we will put together a list of our best questions at our meeting on the 28th which I will type up and send along to Ms. Lin. If you think of any questions and can't wait til the meeting (or can't make it to the meeting), feel free to post them here and I will see that they get included. And a BIG thank you to Ms. Lin in advance for her time and her willingness to be involved with our book club! Authors are the best!

November meeting

Hi everyone,

Monday's meeting of the Book Buddies Book Club was fantastic. We discussed our first book, Olivia Kidney. Everyone enjoyed getting to know Olivia and all of her crazy neighbors and we all agreed that Olivia is a fantastic character. Our favorite Olivia trait is her ability to communicate with spirits. All book club members felt that the book was interesting, fun and an easy read. Overall, we rate this book very highly and encourage others to check it out!

The highlight of the meeting was our phone conference with the author of Olivia Kidney, Ellen Potter. She was absolutely delightful on the phone and gave us lots of great insight into her life as a writer and her books. We discovered that Olivia was written in a cafe in Ithaca, New York and that now her favorite place and time to write is early in the morning in a special room in her home. She is currently working on two new books that will hopefully be available sometime in 2008 and there is the possibility of a fourth Olivia Kidney book in the future. Ms. Potter also revealed that she doesn't plot out her books before she starts writing them. In Olivia Kidney, she didn't know that Branwell was a ghost until she was far along in the writing process.

Ms. Potter encouraged all of our book club members who think they might want to be authors to start writing now and make time everyday to read and write. She also reminded us of the writing contest she is having on her website. For more details on that, check out: http://www.ellenpotter.com/forkids.htm

A BIG thank you to Ellen Potter for taking the time to talk with our book club. It was amazing to have the opportunity to talk to a famous author and have all of our questions answered. Thank you!!!

Short Story Writing Contest

Ellen Potter is having a short story writing contest for kids ages 9 - 13. The deadline is January 14, 2008 and the first prize is a $100 gift card to Barnes and Noble! See her website for more information...

http://www.ellenpotter.com/forkids.htm

Ellen Potter

Something AMAZING has happened! I received a phone call from Ellen Potter! It was completely unexpected but I was thrilled to hear from her. She heard that we will be discussing her book, Olivia Kidney, at our November meeting, and she offered to call in that day and talk to our book club members! She will be answering questions about the book and about her life as a writer so start thinking of some really good questions now...

Olivia Kidney

Olivia Kidney, by Ellen Potter, is the first book the Book Buddies Book Club will read.

Olivia Kidney is lonely. She and her dad have just moved, again, and Olivia's the new kid in school, again. Then one day Olivia loses her apartment keys and stumbles upon some of the strangest sights she's ever seen. Talking lizards, a tropical rain forest in 7B, and even an apartment made entirely out of glass - all in her own apartment building! From the exiled princess to the ex-pirate, Olivia hears fantastical stories that make Alice in Wonderland seem tame. But despite the wondrous sights and amazing adventures, she still doesn't have a friend to share it all with. Until she realizes that sometimes friends pop up in the most unlikely places...

Check out Ellen Potter's website for more: http://www.ellenpotter.com/

This book will be discussed on November 19th. Happy reading!