An update from the Doncaster Middle Fiction Book Club
Sam Kelly updates us on all the goings-on at the Doncaster Middle Fiction Book Club, and looks ahead to their upcoming book club reads.
The Doncaster Middle Fiction Book Club is proving to be a lot of fun, and over the last few months we’ve had some amazing experiences. We’ve put on performances inspired by Drama, played a murder mystery game with dramatic deaths the likes of which would have shocked even Rose Raventhorpe, travelled back in time to WWII Singapore in Lizard’s Tale by Weng Wai Chan, and tested our own code breaking skills with a Morse Code scavenger hunt!
But the highlight of recent weeks was definitely our author session with Nova Weetman where we all fell in love with her new novel Sick Bay.
Upcoming sessions
7pm-8pm, Friday 11 October
How to Make a Movie in Twelve Days by Fiona Hardy
At this special meeting, the author will be joining us too!
The much-loved Fiona Hardy is joining us for this session to tell us about her marvellous debut novel in which a group of friends make (or try to make) a movie in the limited time of the school holidays. This is a session not to be missed by any aspiring writers or movie lovers, as Fiona is wonderfully funny and is going to give us the inside scoop on how she wrote her book and what movies inspired her.
7pm-8pm, Friday 25 October
Goblins by Phillip Reeves
This book was an obvious choice for the book club after the brilliant Dani Solomon from Readings Kids described it to me: ‘A delightful, hilarious and irreverent book celebrates the ultimate underdog … GOBLINS. They may be bloodthirsty, thieving, stupid ratbags who refer to libraries as Bumwipe Heaps, but they’re not all bad’. I wanted something fun and silly and not just a little magical, and it sounds like Goblins is the perfect book for that.
7pm-8pm, Friday 8 November
Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy by Rey Terciero & Bre Indigo
After our last graphic novel session, Drama, had the highest attendance of any non-author session I thought we should keep the ball rolling with another graphic novel. This time we will be reading a newly released adaptation of the classic Little Women. This is a timeless story of friendship and perseverance with a modern twist. Attendees will be asked to share their favourite picture in the book so please keep that in mind while you are reading.
7pm-8pm, Friday 22 November
Songbird by Ingrid Laguna
At this special meeting, the author will be joining us too!
Ingrid Laguna will be joining us as a guest author for this session to tell us all about her book, Songbird.Even though Jamila’s new home in Australia is safe, she misses her friends and family left back home in Iraq. This is a beautiful tale of finding belonging in unlikely places and I think this book will be relatable for anyone who has ever felt out of place. It’s also a magnificent glimpse into the struggles immigrants in Australia experience.
Friday 29 November
Special break up session
For our last session for the year there is no set book – instead we’re going to be talking about all the books we have read this year. We’ll be discussing what we liked and what we didn’t like, and we’ll be making a wishlist of the books we would like to do in the future. It won’t all be talking though, as I have a surprise activity up my sleeve to celebrate the end of the first year of the Doncaster Middle Fiction Book Club.
