Book Bistro Pick - "The Neddiad" by Daniel Pinkwater

This month's Book Bistro pick was Daniel Pinkwater's The Neddiad published by Houghton Mifflin, April 2007. I wrote a review about it on Shelfari so I am just going to write about the book club meeting.

This is my second year being one of the coordinators of the school book club and I am still having trouble drawing a good crowd. A lot of our students read tons of fiction but they do not seem to be to interested in discussing it within the book club setting.

I still am not quite sure how to draw them into the meetings but activities seem to be working. For the "Dangerous Book for Boys" and the "Daring Book for Girls," we had a paper airplane contest. We talked about the books but the students really enjoyed competing against each other. For today's meeting, I thought that carving turtles out of soap would be fun way to talk about the book, which references the creation story about how a turtle carried the Earth on it's back. I am butchering it with that description but it is a great story.

The students had a great time carving but most did not really like the book. They were a little put off by Pinkwater's "random" writing style. A couple liked it because it was quirky and they also loved the references to early Los Angeles. I know, that the reference to the Brown Derby peaked my interest and I looked it up. Unfortunately, it no longer exists except for the top of the hat is on a building that now looks like a strip mall.

For our next Book Bistro pick, we will be reading Brian Selznik's "The Invention of Hugo Cabret." I cannot wait! I love that my MIAS studies are not going to waste because this book does focus on film. YAY!