We got started chatting over pizza about the free choice books we had each brought to the meeting. There was a nice range of formats and genres represented: Bomb: the Race to Build - and Steal - the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin (nonfiction), New Kid by Jerry Craft (realistic fiction graphic novel), a book from the Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull (fantasy), Blended by Sharon Draper (realistic fiction), a book from the Keeper of the Lost Cities series by Shannon Messenger (fantasy), Stargazing by Jen Wang (realistic fiction graphic novel), and a book from the Warriors series by Erin Hunter (fantasy).
We followed our discussion up with a little icebreaker activity called "Would You Rather..." to start getting to know each other a bit better. We learned some very important things: most of us would rather be able to be invisible than be able to fly; most of us would rather live in the city than the country; most of us would rather have rainbow-colored hair than no hair at all; most of us would rather have a dog as a pet than a cat; most of us would rather be stuck reading only Percy Jackson books for the rest of our lives over only Harry Potter books; and more! It was an enlightening (and hilarious) exercise.
Finally, we got down to some serious team building using the library's Lego collection. We started off split into two teams with the goal to build a bridge out of Legos that was at least six inches tall, at least a foot long, and able to hold the weight of a book and two Lego people. The groups went about it in very different ways, with one group focusing on making a wide and stable base (but ultimately not making the bridge quite tall enough) and the other group using thin columns to make a tall but slightly less stable bridge. Then the groups combined their bridges, shoring things up and making them level, and we tested the strength and stability of the new and improved bridge, which was able to hold 17 Goosebumps books before it collapsed!
With the last few minutes, the entire group was challenged to build a Lego tower taller than the tallest Bookshop member but WITHOUT talking. It was a valiant effort, but the time crunch proved too much, and the tower crumbled just before it reached the forehead of the tallest Bookshopper.
Our next meeting will be on Monday, November 4th, and our book genre for the month is spooky/thriller/mystery because we'll be doing an ESCAPE ROOM for our November activity! If you need ideas of what to read, some of my favorite spooky books are pictured below:
