Slice of Life: Tuesday Afternoon Bliss!

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 

to the Tuesday Slice of Life (SOL) community.

Thanks to Stacey, Betsy, Dana, Beth, Anna, Kathleen, and Deb

                   for hosting this meeting place each Tuesday and nurturing our writing lives.

When I saw Betsy's post yesterday about her OLW (One Little Word), I was reminded that today is a 5th Tuesday - my own designated time to reflect on my OLW.  This year I'm having a bit of a tough journey with my OLW, abide.  So today, I'm postponing that post and sharing instead a bit about our after school book club.  It's that time of year when we're a little less organized.  We're post-test season, and finishing up our last round of book clubs.  It's tough to get everyone focused on discussing a specific book after a full day at school, but when we do, I'm amazed at the insight exhibited by my book-loving friends.  Last week we discussed Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer, and this week we discussed Rules by Cynthia Lord.

We started our discussion of Rules by exploring the Schneider Family Book Award.  Some of the winning titles that members of our club have read and enjoyed include:  Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullally Hunt, The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, Rain, Reign by Ann Martin, Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein, Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick, Reaching for Sun by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer, Small Steps by Louis Sachar, Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Munoz Ryan, and  A Mango Shaped Space by Wendy Mass.  It's affirming to see the empathy and compassion that students feel as they read these books that feature characters with special needs. 

Several students had read Opehlia and the Marvelous Boy by Karen Foxlee.  Their interesting discussion has me adding this title to my summer reading list.  I'm intrigued by the image of the girl peeking through a keyhole who sees another eye looking back at her.   And this review from Goodreads should pique your interest:  "It really is a modern-day fairy tale, reminiscent of Roald Dahl, with a touch of Grimm Brothers, engaging like the Narnia books." 

We only have three remaining Tuesdays of this school year to meet and share book bliss.  We plan to  visit our elementary schools to distribute flyers to 5th graders about two summer meetings in July and August, and to invite the rising 6th graders to join us next year for Tuesday afternoon bliss as we share book love and sometimes an occasional brownie or cookie bar.