We had very interesting discussions at our last meeting, starting with
our novel,
The Girl in the Well is Me by Karen Rivers. We all marvelled
at the fact that a novel that almost totally takes place in a well where
Kammie has fallen could even get published. We had varying opinions of
the story however. Many readers said the whole thing made them feel very
claustrophobic and therefore difficult to read. We basically liked how
Kammie's story developed as she told about how her father had been sent
to prison for embezzlement, why she and her mother and brother had to
move to Texas, and how she had so much wanted to be accepted by the
'cool girls' -- who actually turned out to be mean girls, since they did
little to help her after she fell in the well, and may have even caused
her fall. Many of us felt that they didn't receive proper comeuppance
at the end after Kammie was rescued. Although we liked Kammie's
descriptions of the various details of her life, several of us felt that
when she started describing what was going on in her mind, after she
became delirious, it just went on for too long. A couple of readers
skipped thru that part quickly. We also felt that there were a few
things that just weren't plausible, even though they made for a good
story. Mixed opinions all around.
We mostly all liked our picture book,
City Dog, Country Frog by Mo
Willems; illus. by Jon. J. Muth. We all loved the illustrations, which
revealed new details each time one re-looked at them, and beautifully
depicted the year as the seasons passed. Most of us liked the
development of the friendship betwen the two animals as they taught each
other new things each season, but a couple of readers felt that the
friendship actually became too dispensable, since it appeared so easy
for Dog to make a new friend at the end when Frog wasn't there waiting
for him when Spring returned. We felt it could be a good story to read
to a small child to help deal with the death of someone near and dear,
OR to explain why a good friend had left. At first we all felt that Frog
had certainly died, but as we talked more, we learned from one reader
that frogs hibernate, so Frog could have just left for that reason. It's
amazing how knowing one additional piece of information can affect
one's perception of a story. . . which is why reading, and the thinking
it creates, are wonderful things!
