{"id":5006,"date":"2016-01-21T23:54:25","date_gmt":"2016-01-21T23:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/kids\/?p=5006"},"modified":"2016-12-06T19:39:33","modified_gmt":"2016-12-07T03:39:33","slug":"mother-daughter-book-club-the-secret-hum-of-a-daisy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/kids\/2016\/mother-daughter-book-club-the-secret-hum-of-a-daisy\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother Daughter Book Club: The Secret Hum of a Daisy"},"content":{"rendered":"

This month, our Mother Daughter book club for girls 11 and up and their moms read a beautiful book called The Secret Hum of a Daisy<\/a> by Tracy Holczer. \u00a0And at last night’s meeting, we were graced by a special guest: Tracy Holczer!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We had a great turnout, around 25 people–our club has really grown! \u00a0Tracy answered all our questions about how her own childhood inspired this book, what it was like writing it,\u00a0and where the characters and setting came from. \u00a0She set the story in a beautiful place called Auburn Valley, which is actually based on a couple of places in Northern California where she grew up. \u00a0Some of our girls and their moms have actually been there and could speak to how truly gorgeous\u00a0it is there!<\/p>\n

I loved this book–it’s one of my favorite books we have read this year. \u00a0The writing is deep and lyrical. \u00a0The characters and setting are well-drawn. \u00a0The book follows an orphaned girl named Grace whose single mother has tragically died. \u00a0Completely against her will, Grace is sent to live with the grandmother who many years ago\u00a0kicked her then-pregnant mother out. \u00a0Grace would give anything to return to\u00a0the Greenes, the family she and her mother had been staying with at the time of her mom’s death. \u00a0Grace hates her grandma and wants to make her suffer. \u00a0But it takes time before the locked-up place inside herself clicks open to accepting love, friendship and remorse from others. \u00a0Over time, she learns to change her internal “picture” of other people, creates a new home, and learns important truths\u00a0about her parents.<\/p>\n

Tracy talked about the book she is currently in the process of writing, which sounds like it will be another heartfelt exploration of what family and home mean, this time through the relationship of a father and daughter. \u00a0I look forward to reading it. \u00a0I also hope to have Tracy come back to be a writing instructor for one of our monthly writing workshops for kids ages 8-12. \u00a0She has worked very hard on her\u00a0craft and I know she’ll have a lot of insights for the kids!<\/p>\n

After our Q&A with Tracy, everybody got their books signed (I had bought around 20 copies of the book for participants to keep) and everybody signed something for Tracy too:<\/p>\n

\"DSCN1872\" \"DSCN1871\" \"DSCN1874\" \"DSCN1884\" \"DSCN1885\" \"DSCN1886\" \"DSCN1887\" \"DSCN1890\" \"DSCN1903\" \"DSCN1904\" \"DSCN1905\"<\/p>\n

I wanted to get a nice jar like the Answer Jars in the book, but when I couldn’t find one I ended up with this pretty blue box which I decorated with daisies and had the kids sign their names in the flowers. \u00a0Just something to show our appreciation to Tracy for her book and for being so sweet coming to visit us!<\/p>\n

\"DSCN1894\"<\/p>\n

As book club wrapped up, many girls stayed to make an origami crane (cranes are a major motif in Holczer’s book).<\/p>\n

\"DSCN1908\" \"DSCN1909\" \"DSCN1907\" \"DSCN1906\" \"DSCN1892\" \"DSCN1893\"<\/p>\n

Another cool thing that happened is that several girls really connected and became friends last night. \u00a0I love that! \u00a0Libraries are such a great space for bringing people together around shared interests and kindling new friendships. \u00a0I love this group. \u00a0Every month is a joy!<\/p>\n

Next month’s meeting will be on Wednesday, February 17th to discuss the book One Crazy Summer<\/a> by Rita Williams-Garcia. \u00a0We have a few copies available at the Children’s Desk if you are interested! \u00a0Call 626-744-4066 option 4 if you would like to sign up for the book club.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This month, our Mother Daughter book club for girls 11 and up and their moms read a beautiful book called The Secret Hum of a Daisy by Tracy Holczer. \u00a0And at last night’s meeting, we were graced by a special guest: Tracy Holczer! We had a great turnout, around 25 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":5145,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[228],"class_list":["post-5006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-staff-picks","tag-school-age"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/kids\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/10\/files\/sites\/10\/2016\/01\/secrethumofadaisy.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p71KT0-1iK","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/kids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/kids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/kids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/kids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/kids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5006"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/kids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5033,"href":"https:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/kids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5006\/revisions\/5033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/kids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/kids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/kids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/kids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}