December Meeting Wrap-Up

The Book Buddies Book Club met yesterday afternoon to discuss Olivia Kidney by Ellen Potter. We had a great discussion and enjoyed a few holiday treats including cupcakes, chocolate and gingerbread cookies.

We liked Olivia as a person and talked about the important relationships in the story, her ability to contact spirits and the many fantastic elements of the story including the glass apartment, the shawl of lizards and Sidi's rainforest apartment.

Everyone really liked the book and many expressed interest in reading Olivia's next adventure, Olivia Kidney and the Exit Academy.

Thanks to all who attended. Have a safe and happy holiday and I hope to see you back in 2012!

Meeting Reminder

Just a reminder that the Book Buddies Book Club will meet on Monday, December 19th @ 3:30pm to discuss Olivia Kidney by Ellen Potter. Due to a scheduling conflict, the meeting will take place in the Stride Room off the lower lobby instead of in the John Clarke Children's Program Room. We will meet in the Children's Department at 3:30pm and walk downstairs together.

Hope to see you all there!

Olivia Kidney Books

If you are enjoying Olivia Kidney you can continue to follow her adventures in Olivia Kidney and the Exit Academy and Olivia Kidney and the Secret Beneath the City.

Olivia Kidney and the Exit Academy
Twelve-year-old Olivia Kidney and her father move into a Manhattan brownstone that has a lagoon in the living room, hosts visiting strangers in the middle of the night, and is mysteriously close to the spirit world.



Olivia Kidney and the Secret Beneath the City
While preparing for her participation in the princepessa's wedding, adjusting to being a student at a school for the arts, and dealing with surprise visitors at home, twelve-year-old Olivia ventures into the New York City subway tunnels in search of a man who might help her friend Frannie.

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!

December Book

Our final book of 2011 will be.... Olivia Kidney by Ellen Potter. We will meet to discuss the book and have holiday snacks on Monday, December 19th at 3:30pm. Copies of the book are available at the Children's Desk. Hope to see you all there!

Twelve-year-old Olivia explores her new apartment building and finds a psychic, talking lizards, a shrunken ex-pirate, an exiled princess, ghosts, and other unusual characters.

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!!!

Book Club meeting Monday!

Hi everyone,

Just a reminder that the Book Buddies Book Club is meeting Monday, November 26th at 3:30pm to discuss Olivia Kidney. Come with questions, thoughts, opinions and more! I'm looking foward to finding out what you all thought of the book...

Olivia Kidney Art

Peter Reynolds is the wonderful artist who did the cover art and interior drawings for Olivia Kidney. He has a terrific website and some behind the scenes info about his work with Olivia. Check it out at http://www.peterhreynolds.com/phr_oliviakidney.html

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!