4th Grade Book Club Celebration

by guest blogger Mrs. Young

The fourth grade book club met weekly this semester to discuss The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo.  We all fell in love with this book, even though there was some hesitation at first because we had a tie vote when choosing which book to read.  One student who had initially voted for the other book stood up one day, held the book above his head and cheered, "This is the best book ever!"  We marveled at DiCamillo's story telling and how all of the different characters were connected.  We analyzed dark and light imagery and realized how it applied not only to actual dark and light, but to character's personalities and even their souls!  One book club member said the book showed him the difference between good and evil.  Another said it helped him know that no matter how small you are, you can still do big things.

To celebrate our time together we ate soup, which is very important to the plot of the story, and watched scenes from the movie to compare and contrast with the book.  The movie, although good, was VERY different from the book and the group was curious about whether the author approved of the movie or not.