Club

     Books and reading have always been important to me. I remember when I was a girl balancing a flashlight under the covers while secretly reading a Nancy Drew mystery well past the time I should have been asleep. There was and still is nothing I like better than a good book: mysteries, biographies, historical novels, I love them all. So I was particularly happy when our eldest daughter began to show an interest in books. Reading has never been especially easy for her; her learning disorder makes phonics difficult. She relies on her memory of a word seen before to make sense of it. She is not a fast reader but steady and regular.
     The book club she is part of is a great encouragement. Her friend's mother came up with the idea and it is brilliant. Several of her friends who are of a similar reading level and with like interests read the book and then get together to watch the movie and discuss aspects of the book with questions that can be found on-line. We take turns picking the book and hosting the evening.
     Their last book club meeting was hosted as a tea party in honour of the classic Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. The girls dressed up as their favourite character and the tea treats were reminiscent of the book's details: checkerboard sandwiches and flagged cupcakes, tarts with hearts and cheese and tomato toadstools, what a spread! We all ate like queens and had a marvelous time. The mums even got a chance to chat while the movie was playing! Yay! The only thing better than a good book is a book which becomes even more meaningful when shared with others. We are better together...