The Mother Daughter Book Club

Cat and I started a Mother Daughter Book Club with a few friends last Spring and we've really enjoyed it.  We don't meet every month, in an effort to give everyone plenty of time to read the books, and we take turns hosting.  We always have some kind of refreshments and some little handouts that the girls can keep in their MDBC notebooks.  Whoever will be hosting the next discussion brings a few books to tell the other girls about and they vote on what book they want to read.  Here are the books we've read to far, to the best of my recollection:

The Mother Daughter Book Club by Heather Vogel Frederick

Daddy Long-Legs by Jean Webster

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Anne of Green Gables (the first half) by L.M. Montgomery

The Witches by Roald Dahl

Potterwookiee by Obert Skye

The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson

As you can see, we've managed to read a pretty good variety of books, which is really fun.  We've also enjoyed tying in elements of the book we're discussing into the meetings.  When Laurel led the discussion on Anne of Green Gables, we had a tea party at her house.  When Lily led the discussion on The Witches in October, we dressed in Witch costumes and Lily gave out little Witch hats for everyone and Trick-or-Treat goody bags.  When Cat led the discussion of The Invention of Hugo Cabret, we made tickets to hand out to everyone, watched a few of Georges Melies's films, and had popcorn and candy as our treats.

Cat led the discussion , on The Family Under the Bridge last week, which is a very short and very sweet book about a hobo in Paris who is resolved to live a solitary life but ends up befriending a homeless family of three children, a dog, and a mother.  He takes care of them, reluctantly at first, and takes them to a gypsy tent city to live.  The story goes on but I don't want to ruin it for you.

Cat really wanted to re-create the tent city, so the day before the discussion I hung up sheets, table cloths, and Christmas lights to try to make it look like a big tent.  Cat and our friend Zoe made a cool Eiffel Tower poster to hang up, and we had some French-ish fare to boot.  Cat made these madeleines, which were delicious, and we had store-bought croissants and fruit.  We also made French (Italian) sodas.

I dressed up a gypsy, complete with lots of jewelry and eye makeup and Jack and Eliza were thoroughly creeped out.  Cat dressed up as the hobo by stuffing a pea coat with a pillow and wearing a dress-up hat with batting sticking out from the top.

Among other things, we quizzed each other on the French words in the book and talked about whether there were any benefits to being a gypsy and being able to live in a house with wheels.

Tres bien!  C'est magnifique!

Bonne soir.