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.