Skip to main content

February Guys Read/Girls Read Book Clubs

Did you know that we have two parent/child book clubs every month at the Provo Library?  They are for children 9-12 and a parent and they meet the fourth Tuesday (girls) and Thursday (guys) of each month during the school year. Families can preregister under the Kids Corner/Program Registration tab on the library website. This month we have two great books that we will be discussing.


Guys Read
Ghost 
By Jason Reynolds
Antheneum Books for Young Readers, 2016. Fiction. 181 p.
Castle Crenshaw (he goes by Ghost) lives in a rough neighborhood.  His dad is serving time and his mom barely makes enough to put food on the table.  Ghost can't stay out of trouble at school, but when he gets a chance to be on an elite track team he is motivated to keep in step both on the field and in class.  For the first time he feels like he is a part of something, but when his past and his poor decisions catch up with him, he is at risk of losing it all.


Girls Read
Inside Out and Back Again
by Thanhha Lai
Harper, 2011, Fiction, 262 p.
Ha can here the bombs exploding near her home in Vietnam.  As the fighting heats up, Ha's family gets the opportunity to leave on a refugee ship.  This honest narrative follows Ha's journey from the refugee ship to a refugee camp in Florida, to a home in Georgia.  She tells of her struggles to learn English and the teasing from the other children at her school.  The story is written in fluid free verse.  An end note explains that many of the experiences recounted in the book are autobiographical and that Ms. Lai, herself, came to America as a refugee in the 1970's.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Fowl Play

  Fowl Play By Kristin O'Donnell Tubb New York: Katherine Tegen Books, 2024. Fiction 277 pages. Still reeling from her beloved uncle's death, Chloe Alvarez is comforted and confused when at his last will and testament reading, Uncle Will gifts her his African Grey parrot, Charlie. Charlie has a robust vocabulary and loves to make Alexa requests for her favorite songs, but when she starts saying things like, "homicide," and "cyanide," Chloe becomes convinced that Uncle Will may have met his demise by murder instead of a genetic disease, as was previously thought. Ultimately, bringing in her brother, Grammy, and Uncle Frank (and of course Charlie,) Chloe's ragtag and adoring family support her search for answers ---going on stakeouts, engaging in fast pursuits, and searching for clues. But as the suspects stack up and the mystery grows, Chole will learn that the process of death and grieving is complicated, and in the end her Uncle Will's words that, ...

If You Like...KPop Demon Hunters

KPop Demon Hunters has been one of the most talked-about movies of the summer. If you loved this movie as much as I did, you don't want the magic (or the music) to stop. Try reading these books that touch on some of the same topics and themes as the animated hit! Brick Dust and Bones By M. R. Fournet New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2023. Fiction. 247 pages. Orphaned Marius works in the family business--as their cemetery's ghost caretaker. However, Marius also moonlights as a monster hunter in order to earn the costly Mystic currency he needs to bring his mother back from the dead. As the window to bring his mother back begins to close, Marius's exploits get more and more dangerous, and he may have set his sights on a monster too big to handle on his own. Like Mira, Marius longs for familial connection, and his work as a monster hunter will satisfy the thrill of demon hunting for fans the movie. Where's Halmoni? By Julie J. Kim Seattle, WA: Little Bigfoot, 2017. Comics. W...

Review: Blood in the Water

Blood in the Water By Tiffany D. Jackson New York: Scholastic, 2025. Fiction. 255 pages. 12-year-old Kaylani McKinnon can't help but feel like a fish out of water. She's a Brooklyn girl spending her summer on Martha's Vineyard surrounded by wealthy family friends in their mansion. All she really wants is to stay home all summer where she her incarcerated father can easily reach her, and she can keep working to find ways to prove him innocent of fraud and embezzlement. Despite her protests, she finds herself on the island with the snooty granddaughters of her host. Soon after Kaylani's arrival, a popular teen boy is found murdered and she decides to conduct her own investigation. As she tries to discover what happened to Chadwick Cooper, Kaylani finds that not everything on Martha's Vineyard is as perfect as it appears. Thrillers for middle grade readers can be hard to find, but Tiffany D. Jackson succeeds in her first middle grade novel. A quick moving plot, tight d...