Tuesday, September 7, 2021

Online Book Club - September Theme: Apples

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I've been joining some blogging friends in an online book club, and all our readers are invited to join in as well. Here's how it works:
At the beginning of the month Amanda at Hopkins Homeschool will share a book theme with us. It will be a theme instead of any specific title, so that anyone can participate - moms, dads, teens, kids, or the whole family. During the month, we will read books that go with the theme, and at the end of the month we'll share about what we read. Homeschool families may want to do unit studies or activities that go with the books they read, and they can tell us all about what they did and learned. Adults and teens may just want to share book reviews. 
Unfortunately, Amanda has been unable to keep up with the book club due to some unforeseen circumstances, but we are continuing on, and since I think this is a great format to share about books, I hope we try it for at least another year!

Well, the theme for this month is Apples. If I had little kids at home, I would find some cute kids' books about apples and invent a unit study, and we'd bake apple crisp or cook applesauce. I could come up with all kinds of ideas! But I don't have little ones here, and not sure I'll get to see my granddaughter this month, so I wasn't sure little kids books was the way to go. I started doing some searches but without any real inspiration. I finally came across a novel that looks like it might be good, and then I tried search terms looking for books with an apple on the cover. That turned up a graphic novel retelling of a fairy tale that really intrigued me! Here are the two books that I have from the library:

At the Edge of the Orchard: A Novel by Tracy Chevalier - There are apples on the cover, the storyline features John Appleseed, and the story centers around an apple orchard and the products it provides. The trick for me will be finding time to read it, so I'll make no promises that I will get very far by the end of the month!

1838: James and Sadie Goodenough have settled where their wagon got stuck - in the muddy, stagnant swamps of northwest Ohio. They and their five children work relentlessly to tame their patch of land, buying saplings from a local tree man known as John Appleseed so they can cultivate the fifty apple trees required to stake their claim on the property. But the orchard they plant sows the seeds of a long battle. James loves the apples, reminders of an easier life back in Connecticut; while Sadie prefers the applejack they make, and alcoholic refuge from brutal frontier life. . .
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Snow White: A Graphic Novel by Matt Phelan - I love this cover. I love the lettering and bold design, and that is clearly an apple. I haven't read a graphic novel in forever, and I liked the unusual ideas for retelling the familiar story, so I'm looking forward to this one.


The curtain rises on New York City. The dazzling lights cast shadows that grow ever darker as the glitzy prosperity of the Roaring Twenties screeches to a halt. Enter a cast of familiar characters: a young girl, Samantha White, returning after being sent away by her cruel stepmother, the Queen of the Follies, years earlier; her father, the King of Wall Street, who survives the stock market crash only to suffer a strange and sudden death; seven street urchins, brave protectors for a girl as pure as snow; and a mysterious stock ticker that holds the stepmother in its thrall, churning out ticker tape imprinted with the wicked words: "Another . . . More Beautiful . . . KILL."
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What are you reading this month?


Visit all the participating bloggers sometime during the month to find out their reading plans:



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1 comments:

Lori - At Home: where life happens said...

These look like some good titles. I need to find something to fit the theme.

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