Dave at Night has been deleted from FB's fall line-up. It's one I hadn't preread--I had read Ella Enchanted (also by Gail Carson Levine) and had read somewhere that Dave at Night was the author's favorite book she had written. The story deals with some brutality experienced by the main character while in a NYC orphanage, though, and, given the make-up of our group, with younger kids in it than originally planned and every member in it (including their fearless leader) on the sensitive side, we're going to pass on this book for now.
On to the second day we spent on The City of Ember. We began with some general questions, which you can find here (click the link and a pdf should download). The kids had a lot to say--it was an excellent discussion. After the kids had talked themselves out, we moved on to an online animated visual aid of how a hydro-powered generator works, with additional photographs of actual generators on the same page. Then we also watched the trailer for the movie and talked about how the story can often change in being translated from book to screen.
The previous week we had read aloud the part of the story when Clary sees Lina's bean plant beginning to grow on her windowsill, and this week we planted bean plants in individual plants which the kids took home.
The kids's enthusiasm for this book made it an easy one to discuss. They liked the first book they read for the group (Chasing Vermeer--look for a blog entry about this book soon), but they loved The City of Ember. Most of them are currently reading The People of Sparks, with plans to finish the series.
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