Welcome!

Welcome to the Louise Riley Parent Child Book Club Blog (Whew! What a mouthful!). The purpose of this blog is to explore some of the issues and themes in the books we read and also to just be a place where information about the book club can be found.

The club will meet in the Louise Riley Program Centre on the first Tuesday of the month. The exact dates and times are

September 4th, 7:00 to 8:30
October 2nd, 7:00 to 8:30
November 6th, 7:00 to 8:30
December 4th, 7:00 to 8:30

Books:

The book to be discussed at the September meeting is Wonderstruck, by Brian Selznick. Copies are available to be signed out at the Louise Riley Library. Ask at the information desk.

The book to be discussed at the October meeting is  The Case of the Case of the Mistaken Identity, by Mac Barnett. Copies can be signed out at the September meeting.

Books for the November and the December meetings have yet to be picked. If you have a book you would like to suggest, let me know. You can always email me at:

tyler.jones@calgarypubliclibrary.com.

What do we read for November?

I need YOU to help decide what our November book club book will be! E-mail me your suggestions, be it either specific titles or general types of books and I will see what books I can get enough copies of! Check back here to see what books we are thinking about!

Suggestions have started coming in! Among the books suggested so far:

Treasure Island
Mrs. Piggly Wiggly
The Wind in the Willows
Pippi Longstocking
Rick Riordan books
Septimus Heap books
Stone Heart series
The Book Thief
Michael Morpogo books (War Horse)
Charlie Bone Books
American Girl series

What do you think?

Email me at: tyler.jones@calgarypubliclibrary.com

Wonderstruck - Soundtracks

The David Bowie song Space Oddity got it's name from 2001: A Space Odyssesy, a science fiction movie that was popular in 1968, has special meaning for Ben.

It was a favourite song of his mother's and it also made him imagine that Major Tom was his dad. Click on this link to see the original video for this song from 1969. The song was the first big hit for Bowie in North America.

In 1983 German singer Peter Schilling released the song Major Tom (Coming Home) which is another version of the story.

There is not much mention of music in the part of the story that takes place in 1927, which is not surprising since Rose can not hear music. Still, if you are interested in what music sounded like back then, you can click on some these popular songs from that year:

My Blue Heaven, by Gene Austin

Stardust, by Hoagy Carmichael

Blue Skies, by Ben Selvin and his Orchestra

And here are some songs from 1977, when Ben's part of the story takes place.

Lonely Boy, by Andrew Gold
Star Wars - Main Title, by London Symphony Orchestra

Wonderstruck - Websites

A website has been created for Wonderstck with lots of interesting information and art. You can even learn to sign your own name in sign language:

Wonderstruck

Brian Selznick is published by Scholastic Press. This link will connect to the publisher's website where more information about the author, including interviews, can be found:

Brian Seznick's Biography

And another:

Video interview


In the selected bibliography, Brian Selznick lists the following websites for you to visit if you want more information:

American Museum of Natural History
Betsy Bowen
Deidre Scherer
Gunflint Lodge
James Perry Wilson
Learn Sign Language
Minnesota Geological Survey
Museum of Jurassic Technology
National Association of the Deaf
Queens Museum of Art

Here are a few more cool things I found:

How Lightning Works

NYC Panorama

Cabinet of Curiosities

Wonderstruck - Quotations

In Wonderstruck, Ben's mom has quotations taped up all over the house. Here are some quotations with links to the person who said them.

What do you think these quotations mean? You can email me your comments and I will post them here! tyler.jones@calgarypubliclibrary.com

1. We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. - Oscar Wilde
2. None so deaf as those who will not hear. - Mathew Henry
3. I believe it to be true that dreams are the true interpreters of our inclinations; but there is an art required to sort and understand them. - Michel de Montaigne
4. Calamity is the test of integrity. -Samuel Richardson
5. A star is beautiful; it affords pleasure, not from what it is to do, or to give, but simply by being what it is. - Thomas Carlyle
6. A book may be as great a thing as a battle. - Benjamin Desreali 
7. Love is the greatest of educators. - Frances Sargent Osgood
8. Curiosity is the thirst of the soul. - Dr. Johnson
9. Contemplation of celestial things will make a man both speak and think more sublimely and magnificently when he decends to human affairs. - Cicero
10. An undevout astronomer is mad. - Edward Young
11. Brave deeds are most esteemable when hidden. - Blaise Pascal
12. Out of difficulties grow miracles. -Jean de la Bruyere
13. Books - lighthouses erected in the great sea of time. - Edwin Percy Whipple
14. Promptly improve your accidents. - Napoleon

Wonderstruck: Discussion Questions

1. How does Ben feel about living with his aunt and uncle and sharing a room with his cousin? Describe his feelings when he finds Janet in his mother’s house at night. Why is he so affected by the locket and the book he finds in his mother’s room?
2. What are the early connections between Ben’s story and Rose’s story? Discuss how those connections—the places where they feel trapped, their loneliness, the storms and lightning—help to illuminate and expand on the individual stories.
3. “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” How many ways does star imagery come into Ben’s story and Rose’s story?
    
4. When do we first learn that Rose is deaf? How does that revelation intersect with Ben’s story? Discuss the events that compel each of them to run away. How are their experiences similar and how are they different?
5. Compare Rose’s encounter with her mother to Ben’s first experiences in New York. Why does Rose run away from her mother? Why does Ben run away from the boy who tries to help him? What draws both Ben and Rose to the museum?
6. Compare the powerful experiences Ben and Rose have with the meteorite Ahnighito and the wishes they make.
7. Why does Jamie lead Ben to the wolf exhibit? Why does Ben decide to trust Jamie, and later, why does he become angry with Jamie?
8. How does the storytelling structure in the book change when Ben finally finds Kincaid’s Bookstore? Describe Rose’s feelings when she sees Ben and realizes who he might be. Describe Ben’s feelings when he realizes his connection to Rose.
9. Discuss Ben’s thought that “maybe we are all cabinets of wonders” [p. 574]. What does he mean? What does the Cabinet of Wonders in his father’s book and in the storage room at AMNH represent to Ben? Why is he so drawn to the idea of those early museums?
10. Why is it important for Rose to take Ben to the Queens Museum to tell him the story of his father? What does the Panorama mean to her and how does it relate to her childhood? Why does Jamie follow them?
11. Compare Ben’s experience during the blackout in Minnesota when he is home alone with the blackout in New York when he is with Rose. What do you think Ben’s next chapter will be—staying in New York or returning to Minnesota?