Mother Daughter Book Club Meeting #16

Summary: Mrs. Frisby, a widowed mouse with four small children, is faced with a terrible problem. She must move her family to their summer quarters immediately, or face almost certain death. But her youngest son, Timothy, lies ill with pneumonia and must not be moved. Fortunately, she encounters the rats of NIMH, an extraordinary breed of highly intelligent creatures, who come up with a brilliant solution to her dilemma. And Mrs. Frisby in turn renders them a great service. -- Aladdin

This afternoon, our Mother Daughter book club met to discuss MRS. FRISBY AND THE RATS OF NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien. Our meeting was a little disjointed since half the mother daughter pairs arrived at 3:00 and the other half arrived at 4:00; however, I still think those of us who were there earlier were able to thoroughly discuss the book.

While it wasn't Booking Daughter's favorite book, some of the girls and the mothers really liked it. On the other hand, there were a few girls who weren't able to finish the book in time for the meeting -- they had read enough of the book to talk about it though! We did have an abundance of discussion questions -- both ones that the girls made up and ones that were pulled off of the internet. I thought our discussion went extremely well.

I think most of the mothers agreed that the book covered a lot of very deep issues that the girls didn't totally grasp on their own. It was still fun for the moms to talk about these themes; and we did our best to point out some of the larger issues for the girls. I definitely think the entire group benefited from our discussion.

For December, we will be reading THE WITCHES by Roald Dahl. Neither Booking Daughter or I have read this book, but we have both read other ones by Mr. Dahl. Our group will also be having our annual holiday party where each girl brings a wrapped book (new or used) to share with one other member. Last year we all had a great time, and each girl went home with a new book.

Summary: Meet a hero, a wise old grandmother, and the most gruesome, grotesque gang of witches imaginable! -- Puffin