Fri Jan 8: what we talked about

The Thousandth Floor cover

Welcome Kandarp! We hope you liked Book Club and will join us again.

Next meeting: 7:45 a.m. Fri Jan 22. Zoom link on Google Classroom.

If you know any incoming freshmen who would like to join Book Club, please tell them about our club! 8th Grade Orientation is an online event where they can click a Book Club video and then fill out a Google Form to show their interest.

Starting Tues Jan 19, eschool students can request books for cubside pickup. Log in to Destiny and put any book you want on hold. Hybrid students can check out books in person.

One Book One Community: Join the rest of Vernon Hills in reading Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson and participating in online events. Her young adult memoir is Brown Girl Dreaming. The author will speak online at 7 p.m. Thurs Mar 18. Register for all online programs here.

Overheard at Book Club:

  • Tyler: "It was on the clearance aisle at Barnes & Noble so I thought, we'll give it a try."
  • Emily S: "Remember when I told you I was in a reading funk? I got over it!"
  • Emily J: "I've really gone down the autiobiography route recently."
  • Emily S: " ... until I can come back to the Library [Media Center] and bathe myself in books again."

Books we've been reading

  • Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
    • Summary: Chronicles the joys and sorrows of the four March sisters as they grow into yo ---
    • Wait, never mind, Tyler said he gave up on it.
  • Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
    • Summary: A bombardier, based in Italy during World War II, repeatedly tries to avoid flying bombing missions while his colonel tries to get him killed by demanding that he fly more and more missions.
    • Genre: classic
  • Emily S's series sweep:
  • Looking for Alaska by John Green
    • Summary: Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash.
    • Genre: realistic
    • Maddie said she got a pocket sized copy. The LMC has 6 minis if you want to give them a try!
  • The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee
    • Summary: Five teens struggle to find their footing in the world atop high-tech luxury in New York City one-hundred years into the future.
    • Genre: science fiction
    • 2nd most popular book at VHHS on Sora in 2020
  • Ghost Radio by Leopoldo Gont
    • Summary: A terrifying novel about a ghost-story call-in radio show that inadvertently opens a doorway into the paranormal, giving voice to the dead and instigating an epic battle for the souls of the living
    • Genre: supernatural
    • Allison said she listened to the audiobook
  • The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
    • Summary: A bitter eighty-three-year-old war veteran who believes his life is meaningless dies while trying to save a little girl's life and finds himself in heaven, where five people from his past--some loved ones, some strangers--explain what his years on Earth really meant, and whether or not he succeeded in saving the child.
    • Genre: supernatural
    • Kandarp also recommends the author's Tuesdays with Morrie
  • I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
    • Summary: Malala Yousafzai's describes her fight for education for girls under Taliban rule, the support she received from her parents to pursue an education, and how the Taliban retaliated against her by trying to kill her.
    • Genre: non-fiction
  • The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
    • Summary: Todd, one month away from an important birthday, learns all the tough lessons of adulthood when he is forced to flee after discovering a secret near the town where he lives.
    • Genre: science fiction
    • Movie trailer
  • Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
    • Summary: As Will, fifteen, sets out to avenge his brother Shawn's fatal shooting, seven ghosts who knew Shawn board the elevator and reveal truths Will needs to know. Book in verse.
    • Genre: realistic
    • graphic novel version just published
  • Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham
    • Summary: When Rowan finds a skeleton on her family's property, investigating the brutal, century-old murder leads to painful discoveries about the past. Alternating chapters tell the story of William, another teen grappling with the racial firestorm leading up to the 1921 Tulsa race riot, providing some clues to the mystery.
    • Genre: historical fiction and also realistic fiction
  • Again Again by E. Lockhart
    • Summary: After a near-fatal family catastrophe and an unexpected romantic upheaval, Adelaide Buchwald finds herself catapulted into a summer of wild possibility, during which she will fall in and out of love a thousand times--while finally confronting the secrets she keeps, her ideas about love, and the weird grandiosity of the human mind.
    • Genre: realistic
    • Author writes multiple possible outcomes