Book Club Post #1

Book Club book: Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reily
pgs:1-26

Summary: My book is about a a young 12 year old girl named Hollis Woods. The main character of my book was abandoned by her family as an infant. For 12 years she has been transferred from one foster home to another. The agency that finds her the new homes refer to her as a "mountain of trouble" (pg 6) because she likes to cut school and she runs away from the foster homes that she is placed in. According to Hollis she just wakes up some mornings and feels like she can't take any more of the place or the foster family that she has been placed with so she grabs her knap sack and runs away. (pg. 12). When the book opens up it tells you that Hollis was being dropped off at a new foster family. Of course she is not happy about this but has no choice but to go where they take her. Her new Foster mother is a lady named Josie Kale. Josie is an older retired woman that use to be an art teacher. Hollis likes to draw so she finds that her and Josie have something in common. In the second chapter of my book Hollis flashes back to an old foster family that she had. So far I can't tell why she left their house but the book leads you to believe that she liked that family and that is why she can't get them "The Regans" out of her thoughts or her dreams!

Opinion: I had seen this particular book in the class library for quite some time and I never read it. The moment that I saw that it was about a child in foster care trying to find someone to love her, I wanted to read it. I personally think that it is really sad that people have children and then have no desire to love and nurture them like good parents should! As soon as I started reading the book I was intrigued by it (it got my attention) because it doesn't actually tell you everything in the first chapter, but the author just keeps on making hints and leaving clues so you keep reading to see what is going to happen next. For example on pg. 18 Hollis flashes back to the days when she felt what is was like to have a brother named Steven. The book doesn't just come right out and tell you what happened to Steven. You know that she is not with Steven or that family anymore because she now lives with Josie. I am so excited that I just want to keep reading to see what the book is going to reveal about this Steven character.

Prompt:How do you feel about this new unit of Study? How did your book Club group perform this week? What role did you get the chance to play this week and how did that go for you? Tell me at least two new words that you learned this week as you read your book.
So far I love this new unit of study! One reason that I like this unit of study is because I like to read. Another reason that I am excited about this unit of study is that I worked hard to find books that fit the needs of the students and that is helping them stay committed to reading them faithfully. They all have books that are interesting to them. During Independent reading time everyone is usually engaged in their books and you could hear a pin drop in our class! This week most groups cooperated really well to make sure that they could all meet their reading goal and finish their As You Read worksheets! This week everyone worked on learning the role of the Deep Thinker and the Historian. Two words that I learned this week were hermanita (pg 18) which means little sister in Spanish and whittling (pg 20)which is kind of like carving.