A Pencil That Can Give You All the Answers to All Your Questions - Would You Want It?

Hello Readers!

Can you imagine having a magic pencil that could tell you all the answers to any of your questions? What questions would you ask the pencil? What answers would you need to know? Could you use the pencil to help you on tests at school? Could you find out what was going to happen in the future? Would having an answer-providing magical pencil be a good thing?





This week fourth grade book club members are discussing this possibility after reading All The Answers by Kate Messner. In this story, Ava Anderson finds an old blue pencil in her family's junk drawer, and it doesn't seem like anything special. But then she writes a question in the margin of her math quiz, and something very strangle happens. She hears a voice loud and clear - one that nobody else can hear - and it tells her the answer!

With the help of her best friend, Sophie, Ava sees that having a magic pencil in middle school can be very handy. But as Ava's reliance on the pencil grows, the truths it reveals about herself and her family lead Ava on an adventure she never expected to take. Along the way, Ava learns that life isn't about knowing all of the answers, and sometimes it might be better not to know.

To preview our discussion questions, click here.

Happy reading!

Barry the Saint Bernard - Hero Dog Saves Over 40 Lives!

Hello readers (and dog lovers)!

This week our 3rd grade book club members are meeting to discuss the third book in Kate Klimo's Dog Diaries series entitled Barry.

I'm Barry. People

say I saved over forty

lives. Many call me a hero,

but I just think of myself as a dog

who loved the snow - to walk in it, to roll

in it, and to search for people buried under it.

Based on a true story, Barry der Menschenretter, a Saint Bernard dog, reflects back on his life in the early 1800s at the Hospice of the Great Saint Bernard in the Swiss Alps, where he rescued some forty people from avalanches. In addition, this book includes facts about the Saint Bernard breed and the hospice (pictured here).

To preview our discussion questions, click here. Visit the Grade 3 page to learn more about author Kate Klimo, Saint Bernards, and the amazing Great Saint Bernard Hospice which is still in operation today in Switzerland. (I think I see a hiking trip for me in the future.)

Happy reading!

Second Graders Scare Themselves Silly with Stink and the Midnight Zombie Walk

Hello Readers!

This week our second grade book club members are discussing Stink and the Midnight Zombie Walk by Megan McDonald (author of the Judy Moody series). We encourage you to read it, too, if you dare!

Guts! Brains! Eyeballs! There's only one week before the new book in the Nightmare on Zombie Street series comes out. Of corpse Stink will be first in line at the Blue Frog Bookstore to buy his copy and join the town's Midnight Zombie Walk! Until then, Stink and his friends keep busy making ketchup-stained zombie costumes, trying to raise money to buy the book, and racking up points for Virginia Dare School's race to one million minutes of reading. But with all that talk about the undead, Zink - that is, Stink - starts to wonder: is he being hunted by zombies? He does have a very delicious - er, superb - brain, after all. Readers will just have to open ze book and zee! Mwa-ha-ha-ha!

To preview our discussion questions, click here. Visit the Grade 2 page for more links to activities and videos related to this Stink book, Megan McDonald, and zombie-themed activities.

Happy reading!

5th Graders Contemplate Growing Up in a "Perfect" Town Amid a Clever Conspiracy, Cloning, and a Connection to Criminal Masterminds

Hello Readers!

This week 5th grade book club members are discussing middle-grade thriller, Masterminds by Gordan Korman (author of more that 80 books, including 39 Clues, Schooled, and Ungifted).

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to grow up in a perfect world? Would it be ideal to live in a utopia, sheltered from evil and assured that honesty and trust were the foundation of all you would ever know? Truth and happiness between friends, teachers and students, parents and children. Sounds dreamy, right?

The main character in Masterminds, Eli Frieden, lives in the most perfect town in the world: Serenity, New Mexico. In this idyllic place, every lawn is perfectly manicured and everyone has a pool and a tree house. The thirty kids who live there never lie - they know it's a short leap from that to the awful problems of other, less fortunate places. Honesty and integrity are valued above all else.

Eli has never left Serenity… why would he ever want to? One day he bikes to the edge of the city limits, and something so crazy and unexpected happens, it changes everything. Eli convinces his friends to help him investigate further, and soon it becomes clear that nothing is as it seems in Serenity. The clues mount to reveal a shocking discovery, connecting their ideal crime-free community to some of the greatest criminal masterminds ever known. The kids realize they can trust no one—least of all their own parents.

With a story full of plot twists, adventure, and characters you love, we are sure to have a lively discussion full of "What if ...?" and "Can you believe ...?" moments. To preview discussion questions, click here. Visit the Grade 5 page to link to more information about the talented Gordon Korman as well as links to the next book in the Masterminds series.

Happy reading!