Mother-daughter Book Interview

When I interviewed author Christina Hamlett recently (read interview), she then turned the tables and interviewed me about mother-daughter book clubs for American Chronicle. How interesting it was to be on the other side of the pen. Here’s a link for you to read Christina’s interview. Check it out!

New Blog with Mother Daughter Book Club List

Recently I received an email from Caryn, whose mother-daughter book club has been meeting for a few years. Her group of 7 mother/daughter pairs has just started a blog about their experience, and they’ve posted a list of the books they’ve read on it. Caryn’s group is from Portola Hills in California, and their girls are 11 and 12 years old. Here’s her note with the link:

I happened upon your site searching for mother-daughter book club
blogs since we just launched our own blog this past week. I invite
you to visit our blog at http://phmdbc.blogspot.com/. We are still
building it, but we have posted a list of all the books we have read
so far, and we would recommend them all to you as they all gave much to
discuss (a few are already on your lists). We started our club in
2005 when the girls were in 3rd grade. We have read some great books
and have had a lot of fun along the way. We are beginning to feel a
transition toward more mature themes as the girls are more and more
interested in some of the “teen lit” books, but we still want to
protect them from some of the more trashy novels so I am so happy to
find your site and read your reviews.

Who Says Reading’s On the Decline?

Last week my mother-daughter book club celebrated its fourth year together with a Cinco de Mayo party followed by a discussion of our book, The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King. Our hostess brought out her Partridge Family album and played it for the moms, many of whom had teenage crushes on David Cassidy (yes, me too!). We got crazy singing along and talking about our 13-year-old selves back in the day, which was quite embarrassing for our daugthers.

But then we settled down to talk about the book. We talked about the fun of reading mysteries and discussed the main characters—Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell—and we talked about things we liked and didn’t like about the plot.

As I looked around at the girls and moms sitting in the circle talking, I was reminded of a study released last year by the National Endowment of the Arts, which says reading is on the decline. I thought, “thank goodness my family isn’t a part of that.” Yes, my girls love to read and maybe they would be avid readers anyway. Their dad and I always have a stack of books we’re working our way through and as parents, we have always encouraged them to read books.

Even so, I believe being in a mother-daughter book club has helped us keep reading cool, even when Madeleine and Catherine might have been tempted to let it fall by the wayside as their other time commitments ramped up. And the friendships they’ve developed there have become some of the most important ones in their lives. I can say the same is true for me.

I’m happy to be a trend-reverser, and I look forward to the day a study finds I’m right in the middle of the upswing in readers everywhere.

Mother’s Day Thoughts

For once, I’m on top of a Mother’s Day present. It seems that every year it sneaks up on me and I’m late sending a gift off to my mom. She lives in Louisiana, I’m in Oregon so it takes just a bit of planning. Usually I get her books, or a certificate for a massage or a restaurant certificate. But this year I’m contributing to the cost of her plane ticket to come out and see my family this summer. I felt lucky to find an airline ticket that didn’t cost an arm and a leg.

With the gift part down, I just have to be sure I get a card to her on time. I recently found a Web site that will make that easier, because I can pick out a card to email to her. It’s called 123greetings.com. Here’s the link for the site’s Mother’s Day cards: http://www.123greetings.com/events/mothers_day/.

Here are some reading gift ideas for yourself, your mother or your daughter:

• I Capture the Castle—Dodie Smith. A great book for multi-generations that allows you to talk about life expectations for women in another era while fantasizing about living in a castle in England.
• The Mother-Daughter Book Club—Heather Vogel Frederick. An interesting look at a fictional mother-daughter book club and an inspiration for travel to New England. Reading it also made me want to take field trips to the homes of historic authors, as some of the story line is devoted to the birthplace of Louisa May Alcott.
• Girlwood—Claire Dean. A new book released this month. It feels as though it has one foot in the present, one foot in medieval times. It’s dreamy yet real. It reminded me of a secret place my sister and I carved from the shrubs along the fence line of the house I grew up in, and it will have you thinking about creating your own girlwood.
• Songs for a Teenage Nomad—Kim Culbertson. Who can resist the thought of writing a soundtrack for your life? This came up recently in our mother-daughter book club when we talked about the music we all liked. We found a lot in common as well as a lot that was different, as you might expect. But we had fun talking about it as we explored some very interesting themes from this book.
• Certain Girls—Jennifer Weiner. I haven’t read this one myself yet, but it’s getting good reviews and it seems like it would work well for older girls and their moms. The Web site, www.certaingirls.com, offers two reading guides, one for mothers and one for teens. Both include interviews with the author “that touch upon the mother-daughter themes throughout this novel, from the disconnect between the worlds of adult women and teenage daughters, to those feelings of teenage insecurity about one’s family and body image, to the conflicts that come when a mother learns she has to let her daughter go and grow – all common emotions among anyone who has ever been or had a mother!”

Whatever you choose for your mom or ask your family for, I hope you’re able to have a meaningful, relaxed Mother’s Day and enjoy the best part of the holiday—spending time with your family to focus on how important motherhood is.

Trading Spaces

This is not a mother/daughter book club post; I’m passing along some information that came to me by the producers of Trading Spaces, which appears on The Learning Channel. It seems they’re searching for women to apply to be on the show. Here are the details:

Trading Spaces and Paige Davis are looking for
homeowners with rooms that need a redo and
relationships in need of serious repair.
Do you have a rival who you’d like to trade
spaces with in the hopes of resolving your
issues? Do you have a problem that you want
to try to resolve through patience, power tools
& fun?
The format is the same; 2 rooms, 2 days, $1000
dollars per room, and all your favorite
designers. But this season, the stakes are even
higher.
Contact Trading Spaces Casting:
Ask for Nina or Rachel
818-432-2900

In Celebration of Reading

Today is the National Education Foundation’s Read Across America Day. Every year the NEA schedules this day on or near Dr. Seuss’s birthday to promote the love of reading. I’m planning to participate by curling up with two good books today, Songs for a Teenage Nomad by Kim Culbertson and Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale. I’m also reading Burr, by Gore Vidal to my daughter who’s a junior in high school.

In need of a good book? Try out the recommendations at the following sites:

• MotherDaughterBookClub.com
• BookSense.com
• TeenReads.com
• KidsReads.com
• ALA Teen Read Week
• School Library Journal.com
• Bookspot.com

Mardi Gras

Today is Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. I grew up in Louisiana where Mardi Gras is a school holiday and revelers all over the state laissez les bon temps rouler if only for a day. I didn’t experience a New Orleans Mardi Gras until I started college, when my mom and I went together. Until then I only went to the parade that rolled through the little town of Addis, which always preceded the actual day of Mardi Gras by a week or two. I found out there’s nothing quite like Mardi Gras in New Orleans and every year I think of the fun going on not just in New Orleans, but all over southern Louisiana.

Even though I live far away from the merriment, I still love to celebrate a little every year. My daughters went to school this morning with beads to give away and wearing Mardi Gras colors: purple, green and gold. I’m wearing the colors too, and I wish you all a happy Mardi Gras

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The Build-a-Library Project

I recently received an email from Julie Bennett, who is senior acquisitions editor for Ten Speed Press in Berkeley, California, about The Build-A-Library Project. As a member of two Mother Daughter Book Clubs and author of this blog as well as the Web site MotherDaughterBookClub.com, books are a big part of my life and dear to my heart. I’m making a contribution to the efforts. I will also approach other members of my book clubs to request that we make a group donation.

Please read Julie’s request below, and if you feel as strongly about the cause as we do, make a donation to the project today.

Here is the information from Julie:

As some of you know, in the last year I’ve been volunteering for Room to Read (www.roomtoread.org), an organization founded by former Microsoft executive John Wood (author of Leaving Microsoft to Change the World). Room to Read builds schools, libraries, and computer labs; funds scholarships for girls; and publishes children’s books in developing countries in Asia and Africa.

 

Last month I heard John speak at the annual San Francisco fundraiser and was blown away by how much his organization accomplishes with relatively small amounts of money–roughly $250 to educate a girl for an entire year, and about $10,000 to construct a library AND fill it with books, puzzles, games, and furniture.

 

Because this organization does so much with so little (for people who often have so little), I wanted to do more than sort books in a warehouse or staff a donation table. So I’m rallying my family, friends, coworkers, and fellow publishing professionals to help raise enough money to build a library in Vietnam (exact location to be determined by Room to Read once we raise a good portion of the funds).

 

The cost of funding a library construction project includes bilingual books for kids ages 3-16, the creation of a child-friendly learning environment, posters and educational games, teacher training, and support for the library’s first three years—it’s an all-inclusive deal!

 

If you want to help me (please, please, please), here’s what you can do:

• Go to http://www.roomtoread.org/involvement/donate.html and make a donation (big, small, or otherwise). In the “Special Instructions” portion of the online or mail-in form (and in the memo section of your check, if donating that way), please write “Julie Bennett’s Build-a-Library Project” so the donation gets applied to our library in Vietnam.
• Make a donation in honor of a friend, family member, coworker, your kids–and build up serious karma points with your holiday giving. You can download a gift card to send to your honoree once you donate (or in the “Special Instructions” box, request that a gift card be sent to you; be sure to include your contact information). Please also write “Julie Bennett’s Build-a-Library Project” in that same “Special Instructions” box so the donation gets applied to our library in Vietnam.
• If your company offers corporate matching, beg, plead, or otherwise convince them to kick in for this donation. And remember to reference “Julie Bennett’s Build-a-Library Project” in the “Special Instructions” box so the donation gets applied to our library in Vietnam.
• Forward this email to everyone you know who loves and appreciates books and wants to be more than a slave to soul-sucking consumerism this holiday season!
• Send me new (not used) children’s books to add to the donation being made by Tricycle Press (the children’s book imprint of my generous employer, Ten Speed Press). I’ll be packing up boxes of books and driving them to Room to Read’s partner warehouse in the Bay Area for shipping overseas. (Log on to http://www.roomtoread.org/involvement/donate/in_kind.html to read about the kinds of books you can donate.) My address is below.
• If you work for a children’s publisher and want to donate more than just a few books (like hundreds or thousands) or you want to set up a regular donation cycle, call or email me and I’ll hook you up with Room to Read’s publishing liaison. Scholastic, Chronicle, HarperCollins, McGraw-Hill, Pearson, Reader’s Digest, and others have already jumped on the donation bandwagon.

 

All of your donations are tax deductible (if you donate online, tax documents are automatically generated that you can print out; if you donate by mail or phone, or donate books, tax docs will be mailed to you).

 

Three more cool things: once we’ve raised this money, Room to Read will send me updates on the construction of our library, including photos, which I’ll share with everyone. Once the construction is finished, a plaque commemorating our Build-a-Library Project will be hung in the library. And if you happen to travel to Vietnam, you can even visit our library.

 

Thanks for reading this, even bigger thanks if you donate, and happy holidays!

 

Warm regards,

 

Julie Bennett

Senior Acquisitions Manager

Ten Speed Press

 

999 Harrison Street

Berkeley, CA 94710

510-559-1600

www.tenspeed.com

Uglies

 

I’m back after a nice, long, recharging trip to Italy. The whole family went - me and my husband and our two daughters - and  we survived 3-1/2 weeks of 24-hour togetherness better than any of us would have guessed. We weren’t the only ones who decided to travel to Italy this summer; every place we went was pretty packed with tourists. And while we were right in with them at the most popular sights, we were also able to find a few quiet, out-of-the-way gems that kept us recharged.

While my daughters both read avidly the whole time we were gone, I only squeezed in two books. One of those was Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. Uglies was on the list for all of us this summer, and somehow I got it first. I was transported into the world of main-character Tally immediately. Tally is about to turn 16 and can’t wait for the day she goes for the surgery that will make her pretty for the rest of her life. Her best friend Peris has already changed, because he’s a few weeks older than she is, and Tally is lonely waiting for her turn.

Then she meets Shay, who takes her on adventures outside their city. Shay claims to know of a place where kids run away to before they become pretty. And she’s unsure of whether she wants to be pretty or not.

This futuristic world had lots of innovations it was fun to read about - hoverboards for transportation, holes in the wall that spit out new clothes - but it also had a controlling dark side. I recommend it as a good book to generate discussion about the importance of beauty and conformity in any society. You should probably pick it up with the intention of reading the whole series though. Uglies sets up the sequel, Pretties, which probably also sets up the third book, Specials.

Can you hear the buzz?

Check out the article by Steve Woodward on new Portland-area blogs, which includes Mother Daughter Book Club Blog, in today’s Oregonian!

You may have figured out by now that I’m passionate about these clubs, because I think there are so many long-term benefits to reading with your daughter and talking about what you’ve read with other people.

Over the years my daughters and I have read books that have made us wipe tears of laughter or sorrow from our eyes. We’ve also read books that have made it easier to talk about incredibly difficult topics like sex and drug use. Through it all we’ve been constantly enriched by close ties to the other moms and daughters in our groups.

I would like this to be a forum where mother daughter book club members can share book ideas or meeting activities as well as hear thoughts about discussion topics. So please post your comments about what you’d like to see covered or things that have been successful in your group. Send in questions too, and I’ll address them in future posts.