A Few More Perks...

Want to know more about The Perks of Being a Wallflower? I did, too, and I found a few neat things online. First, Charlie experiences a lot of new music with his friend Sam and books with his teacher Bill. Wikipedia has a list of the songs, movies and books in the novel. Take a look. 

Next, this is a "literary weaving" that a class made after reading the book. The little sections have ideas or quotes from the book, and are woven together to make a piece of art that represents the book. Cool!

If you have ideas for projects to make, or songs that fit with this book, or movies it reminded you of, go ahead, leave a comment! 

The Perks of Being... a Book Clubber.

Well, I just finished The Perks of Being a Wallflower . Let me tell you, it threw me for such a loop.

I picked up Perks because two friends of mine say it's their favorite book. I just had to see for myself what all the renown was about. It's a fast-paced read about a shy, but brilliant, ninth grader named Charlie, who writes to an anonymous friend about his hopes, fears and misadventures. His star football-player brother is off at college, his older sister wants nothing to do with him, and he misses his closest companion, his aunt who died years ago. Charlie, with the help of his new friends and a teacher who believes in him, must navigate the frenzied world of high school--and that includes dealing with drugs, dating, sexuality and self-confidence.

I'm not going to give away the ending, but it was cemented in my brain for days after reading it. I couldn't wait to tell my boyfriend the whole tale. The next day at work, I spilled the ending to Mary, our director, who'd never read it. The thing was, I couldn't help but talk about it. The story spun around in my head all day, like clothes in a washing machine.

This is, of course, the perk of being in a book club like ours: you get a chance to chat about those stories that just beg to be talked about! The books in our library were chosen for their ability to get your brains buzzing! They're wildly exciting or so painful you might tear up. Many take difficult issues and face them head on, with a roar. Regardless of your age or background, we bet these babies will get you talking.

You and your fellow club members don't even have to agree about whether you liked the book or not. Mary, when she picked up the book after me, remembered that she'd read it before -- the story had just so uninterested her that she forgot about it! But we still had a good chat about it.

And you know what? If you've read the book, you know that Charlie is pretty shy, and has a dilemma of watching life go by him. But he learns, I think, at the end of the book to dive in and participate. Well, that's what we say to do with your book club, too!

So, for those of you that have read it, what do you think? Leave a comment! Did you relate to Charlie's character? Did it get you talking? What's your take on that ending?

That's all for now! Happy reading.

-Meredith

We're off and running...

Hi gals,

Today's been an exciting day in the Mainely Girls office. Our first clubs have ordered books! We have one group reading The Book Thief, a 2005 bestseller by Mark Zusak, about a young girl using books to cope with the horrors of Nazi Germany. Another group just asked for Looking for Alaska, a coming-of-age story about a boy and his entanglements with a girl named Alaska. Two great books to start the year!

Check out this site, which has the author discussing The Book Thief: Check it out!

Also, cruise over to Looking for Alaska on Amazon.

The other news is that Maine author Megan Frazer sent us a copy of her book, Secrets of Truth and Beauty. I cracked it open today at lunch, while I soaked up sunlight on a bench outside of the Rockport Library. (What a beautiful thing.) Anyway, I'll let you know what we think about the book. Thanks, Megan, for your generosity!

A New Year!

Hi there! Meredith here. I'm the new Programs Director at Mainely Girls and I'm thrilled! The school year is just starting, and that means it's the perfect time for our Girl's Point of View Book Club to get rolling, too!

You might be wondering what purpose this blog will serve. Well, I'll be sharing info about our clubs and, of course, our books! I definitely want to hear what you have to say about them. See, that's the best part about these clubs: they offer a chance to interact! I want to hear your ideas. Did you really love "The Secret Life of Bees," or "The Bean Trees?" Did you hate that one character, or did you cry at the ending?

I also want to hear about what YOUR club is up to. Do you guys have an awesome idea for a meeting that other gals might want to hear? Did you all get together and watch, "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" after reading the book? Did you come up with a brilliant plan to make meetings even more fun? Let me hear it!

The cool thing about having a blog is that we can interact a little differently here than in the clubs. I'll post links to sites that relate to our books, or maybe even video clips that match up with our themes. There's a world of media out there and we can use it take these books off the page and into our larger world.

So, here we go! Hope you'll be joining me for the ride.

One more review of an old favorite...

Here's a book review of 13 Little Blue Envelopesfrom Mary S., the wonderful Americorps member who worked at Mainely Girls before me. Interesting reading! -Meredith

I'm excited to have an official blog follower! I hope those of you who aren't bloggers and can't add this to a list of "followed" blogs are instead showing your support by telling all your friends about the Girl's Point of View Book Club.

This review is of one of the books on our High School list, 13 Little Blue Envelopes, written by Maureen Johnson. It's not one of our new titles, but I happened to pick it up and read it a little while ago and I thought that I would share my thoughts with all of you.

Those novels I referenced rather negatively in my last review, that focuses solely on one sudden, huge, and rather unlikely life-changing event? That is exactly the concept on which 13 Little Blue Envelopes is based.

However... it is an absolutely wonderful, fun, interesting and entertaining story. Even if you have never been left a mysterious series of notes or a hefty inheritance from a recently deceased, quirky relative, this book contains enough careful character development and realistic conversation to be understood and appreciated by everyone. Ginny’s European adventure is complete with Italian food, Parisian wine, and a cute British actor, but her classic teenage American charm, naivety, and awkwardness persist throughout the story and compel the reader to love and relate to her as well as the girl next door. As she explores so many different countries and cultures, it is impossible not to empathize with the main character’s every excitement and discomfort. I would strongly recommend this book for anyone who is looking for a laugh and a confidence boost.

Currently, I am finishing up both The Green Glass Sea (by Ellen Klages) and Ida B. and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (possibly) Save the World (by Katherine Hannigan), which are both new titles here at Mainely Girls and would probably be best enjoyed by girls reading from our 4th and 5th grade or Middle School lists. Look for those reviews coming up soon! Enjoy your Club meetings this week.

First review!

Here's a book review of Criss Cross from Mary S., the wonderful Americorps member who worked at Mainely Girls before me. Check it out! -Meredith

Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins

Everyone has read at least a novel or two about teenagers whose lives are changed suddenly when they have to move across the country during freshmen year, or decide to become a high school soccer star. While I generally find these stories entertaining and critically important, I have often felt that those of us without some life-altering change during our teenage years are in need of some relatable plots and characters as well.

Enter, Criss Cross. Have you ever been introduced to a cute boy or girl for the first time and then realized afterwards that you missed their name completely? Have you tried to prevent an argument by allowing your mother to buy you some piece of hideous clothing, and then ended up stopping along your walk to school to change your outfit? Do you sometimes wish that something really interesting would happen to you…something different, and soon, just anything totally out of the blue? If you can understand any of these situations, then this book was written with you in mind. Lynne Rae Perkins manages to capture in print the hilarity of basic everyday life, allowing readers to laugh at the characters and then at themselves as they experience each simple, awkward moment of this relatable and entertaining story. The main characters are not rock stars, or even high school superstar athletes or geniuses- they are just small-town kids, growing up together one day at a time and wondering when their lives will really begin. Perkins’ language is simple but not simplistic, and her tone is reminiscent of a comfortable conversation with an old friend. I found myself laughing out loud throughout almost the entirety of the book, and I am excited to recommend it to anyone looking for a relaxing afternoon.

Inspiration and an explanation

Here's the first blog entry from Mary S., the wonderful Americorps member who worked at Mainely Girls before me and started this blog. Take a gander... - Meredith

An introduction of this blog, to the Mainely Girls in book clubs around the state...

So I started my job here at Mainely Girls several months ago, and a big part of my position is to ship out books to our book clubs around Maine and check them back in when they return. I had noticed over the course of my four months here that a lot of the same titles were going in and out quite a bit, but I didn't realize just how many brand new sets of books were being neglected until yesterday afternoon during some office inventory. Ladies, we have TONS of new titles that are just sitting in our office (slash storage room) literally unopened and simply dying to be read. These books are award-winning, recent stories on a huge variety of topics, and there are a few new ones for each of the three Club age groups. Go on our website right now to look through the list of titles (www.mainelygirls.org), or remember to ask your club facilitators if they have a hard copy lying around anywhere at the next meeting, and pick out something you've never even heard of to suggest to your club this month!

If the enticement of simply being the first person to open a brand new copy of a book (don't you just love the way it smells??) isn't enough for you... this brings me to the real reason that I have started a blog. Although I generally find the word "blog" awkward and unattractive, I wanted a method of communicating more directly with the Girl's Point of View members from around the state, and it seems that this is probably the best way to do that. Through this blog, I will be able to do things like review some of our brand new titles, so that you will be able to choose something that you think you or your club will really have fun with (and have a way to convince the girls at your school to choose that new title you've been eyeing since September!).

In order to do all of this, I obviously have to get reading on those new titles, but I do have two reviews around here somewhere that I wrote about two of our older books a few months ago. I'll try to post those first and start reading the new stuff right away, but for the time being please tell all your friends to keep their eyes peeled for the upcoming reviews! Stay warm and check back soon.

-mary