The Reading Maniacs Book club met on Sunday January 25 2004 at Jenna a Nancy's home to discuss "Ghost Girl" by Delia Ray.

There was a HUGE spread prepared with lemonade, ham, biscuits, apple pie, hot chocolate, lemon drops

The girls scored chestnuts that were then roasted and tasted (most of us didn't like them too much!). There were pussywillows on the table.

Nancy and Jenna picked Ghost Girl because they found this book on the "new" table at Dutton's and really liked it.

Everyone shared their thoughts. We all loved the book. Many found it very sad. Sarah especially cried because the mom was so mean. Emma felt it really "kept her attention".

We shared the fabulous photos from the author and the email about herself and the book. I loved the handwritten notes on the backs. We tried to answer her questions to us! We examined the faces of the children in the photo at the fair. We wondered about their expressions; were they scared, overwhelmed, sad, or mad? We studied the clothing and hairdos.

We identified the Appalachians on the US map and talked about the setting of the story at length. We talked about the Hoovers and the role, in particular, of Lou Henry Hoover. We discussed the historical aspects of this fictional novel.

We talked a bit about how much loss the Ghost Girl had to experience; her mom, Birdy, Ms. Vest. How did this affect her? We commented on April's insightfulness. We thought she acted like the mature grown up when she made her mom come to Birdy.

We talked about the pain of losing a child and how that shaped April's mom.

We wondered why the dad didn't help his daughter.

We talked about the state of medicine at that time and of course, especially in their town.

We talked about the rules of culture. We compared things to the Amish and Orthodox Jews.

We wondered why they all wanted to go to school.

We compared and contrasted April's life at home with that at Ms. Vest's. We noted how lovely, clean and refined it was at Ms. Vest's.

We decided moving would be a mixed bag - a blessing or not? The quality of life might improve but they would be giving up their homes.

ROASTING CHESTNUTS

Our next meeting took place on March 7, at Vicki and Molly's and we discussed Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery.

Report prepared by Book Club parent Nancy Z.