The Mother-Daughter Book Club: Fall

BOOK NAME: The Mother-Daughter Book Club
AUTHOR: Heather Vogel Frederick

Welcome to today’s book club meeting!

This week we read the Fall section of The Mother-Daughter Book Club by Heather Vogel Frederick.

If you have read through Fall, click “See More” to go to the book club meeting.

If you haven’t gotten that far, or if you’re still looking for a copy, stop here!

Emma, Cassidy, Megan, and Jess are very different girls. With the exception of Emma and Jess, they aren’t even friends. One day right after sixth grade begins, they find out their parents have signed them up for a mother-daughter book club. All of the girls and their moms will meet once a month to discuss the classic novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Well.. except for Jess’s mother, who has gone to New York to star in a soap opera.

Emma is shy, and likes to write. Her family is on a tight budget, and she has to wear hand-me-down clothes. Jess is very quiet and lives on a farm. She doesn’t talk much, except with her friend Emma. Megan is one of the Fab Four–the popular clique at school. Her big interest is fashion, to the dismay of her activist mother. Cassidy is new in town. She loves hockey and is the daughter of a famous fashion model. Her father died not too long ago.

During the fall, the girls grudgingly go to book club meetings as well as go to a Halloween party, where Cassidy, Emma, and Jess pull a prank on Megan and the rest of the Fab Four. As Emma, Jess, and Cassidy get closer, they help Cassidy get a spot on the hockey team (which traditionally only has boy members). At the end of the section, it seems like the moms are having as much trouble getting along as the girls.

Have you read Little Women, or would you like to? Have you seen any of the movies based on the book?

If you were Megan, how would you handle what Becca did with Emma’s journal? Why do you think that Megan and Emma are no longer friends?

Emma and Jess talk about how Jess is like Beth, and how Emma is like Meg. Who do you think Megan is like? How about Cassidy?

Here
are some
words you might not have seen before. (All definitions
from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.)

Miffed: To put into an ill humor; offend.

Mutinous: Rebellious.

Scowl: To contract the brow in an expression of displeasure.

Brr. It’s getting super-frosty outside. Perfect weather to read the Winter section of the book for next week. See you next Wednesday, and happy reading!

-DogEared