Our October meeting was a hybrid with three of our members joining us remotely on Zoom. We began with our picture book, Papa Loves You, Tiny Blue by Jo Empson. We all loved this sparely and beautifully told story of Papa Penguin and his very cute baby, Tiny Blue, who had A LOT of questions as they walked along the beach and swam in the ocean. We agreed that anyone one who has had experience with an inquisitive toddler (including the toddlers themselves!) could relate as Papa very simply and clearly explained the wonders of the world around them and the sea in which they swam – until – he finally said, “Aren’t you tired yet?” We loved the ending as Papa answered the final question, “What is love?” We also loved the lush, mostly bluish and pinkish illustrations throughout, which in many places felt very ‘wet’ – especially when they were exploring the underwater areas. We also liked the addendum page at the very end that explained fairy penguins, the smallest in the world, and gave very simple, scientifically true answers to some of Tiny Blue's questions. We felt that this was a great read-aloud/bedtime story that all would enjoy.
We had a 50/50 split in our reactions to our novel, Spy School by Stuart Gibbs. Half of us thought at first that the book would be really great, due to the title and the chapter headings, along with the military-seeming format telling the location, date, and time of the incidents in each chapter. But sadly, these readers were disappointed due to what they felt was a lack of characterization, too much violence, references that they felt were beyond the knowledge of the 8-12-year old targeted readers, and some plot situations that were just too convoluted to tolerate. Those of us who liked this book more appreciated 12-year-old Ben, the protagonist, who, after being brought to the Spy School as a ruse to catch an internal mole, turned out to be a very smart and intuitive thinker and problem solver, even as he was cast into various scary episodes of intrigue along with the usual middle-school angst common in novels for this age group: friends, girls, relating to teachers, food, etc. We also appreciated the fact that the ‘smartest person in the room’ was the very aloof and brilliant Erica, who had an answer and a solution for almost every situation that arose. Even though we didn’t love all of the weapons and violence, we felt that young readers would enjoy reading this first installment (published in 2012) in what is now a series of ten books, and many of us were interested in possibly reading more ourselves to see what happens to Ben, and whether the author’s style and plot ideas have changed at all, given current issues with school violence, guns, relating to authority, and attitudes of today’s youth toward sex. We had a very interesting discussion, and our differences of opinion are part of why we love our group!
