We had very
different opinions about the Book Club read this month.
Scarlett and
Alice really enjoyed it. They liked the story, the adventure and the
descriptions, which Scarlett said painted a picture with words.
Giacomo liked the
adventure parts of the book, but on the whole found it a bit strange.
Rafferty, Maia
and Mercedes didn’t really get into it at all: the beginning was slow, and they
had other books they were enjoying more.
Books are so
personal, aren’t they? That’s what makes talking about them so interesting: you
find out a lot about how people think and feel when they tell you about the
books they like.
Like FIVE
CHILDREN AND IT, THE WOLVES OF WILLOUGHBY CHASE is a classic. We talked about
what we think that means, and whether it makes us more or less likely to want
to read a book. Alice had a nice description of them as books ‘from back in the
day’ and Maia explained that it can be a book that lots of people like – it
doesn’t necessarily have to be old.
Rafferty pointed
out the difference between books set in the past and books actually written in
olden times. He’s really enjoying MURDER ON STAGE at the moment (and some of
the rest of us had liked it too) – it’s a mystery set in Victorian times, but
written now. Other books like this we’ve read and enjoyed are VIKING BOY, HOW
TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON and the Percy Jackson series.
Maia used to read
a lot of classics, but is a bit sick of old-style language now and these days
is more into writers like Jacqueline Wilson who use the kind of words we use
now, and write about more realistic problems. Mercedes agrees that if
something’s called a classic it can be off-putting – like classical music is
boring. When your dad plays it in the car it sends you to sleep!
So what did we
think about this classic in particular?
It all seemed to
depend on whether we had read past the beginning, because the story takes a
while to get going and when you first meet Bonnie, the heroine, she seems
spoilt and annoying. Rafferty liked the wild wolves in the forest, they were
awesome, but stopped reading when he got to the nonsense of the maid and the
girl.
Read on, though,
and you find that Bonnie changes, and Scarlett enjoyed the surprise. You never
expect that she would dress up as a boy, and there are really funny bits – like
when Bonnie throws water on Miss Slighcarp and it knocks her wig off. That was
one of Scarlett’s favourite bits.
In the back of the book there is a quiz to see which of the main characters you are like: Bonnie, Sylvia, or Simon? (I’m glad to say that Miss Slighcarp isn’t on the list!!) It turned out that a lot of us were like Bonnie, and the others are like Simon – so you see, we’re not that different after all, even if we like to read different things!
Our two reviews this
month are from Scarlett and Alice.
Scarlett thought:
“Usually I find
classics boring but I really liked this. The story was interesting, and the
descriptions really painted a picture with words.”
And this is what
Alice said:
“I liked it
because it was adventurous and a bit scary – I like scary books”
Looking forward
to our next meeting, on 5 June, when we voted to talk about THE APOTHECARY by
Maile Meloy. Remember Bea’s suggestion that we all bring a note of our favourite
page to share with the group!
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