Books Rule in Middle School
(BRIMS)
2019-20
BRiMS 2018-19 BRiMS 2017-18 BRiMS 2016-2017 BRiMS 2015-2016 BRiMS 2014-2015 BRiMS 2013-2014 BRiMS 2012-2013 BRiMS 2011-2012
Members 2019-20
BRiMS is a group of middle school students who love books and reading. Meetings are held on Wednesdays during the last week of the month at lunch time, and a special snack is always provided. BRiMS was formed on February 29, 2012.
Meeting Dates and topics:
August 28th -- Share a book that you think other members might want to read
September 25th -- The Girl in the Locked Room by Mary Downing Hahn
October 30th -- Choose a book to scare you: Horror, Thriller or Suspense
December 4th -- Virtual visit with Nikki Loftin
December 18th -- Discuss plans for future BRiMS meetings
January 29th -- My Life with the Liars by Caela Carter
February 19th -- Read any mystery
August 28th -- Share a book that you think other members might want to read
September 25th -- The Girl in the Locked Room by Mary Downing Hahn
October 30th -- Choose a book to scare you: Horror, Thriller or Suspense
December 4th -- Virtual visit with Nikki Loftin
December 18th -- Discuss plans for future BRiMS meetings
January 29th -- My Life with the Liars by Caela Carter
February 19th -- Read any mystery
May 6th
Virtual Visit with Lisa McMann
On May 4th, we had a special virtual meeting when author Lisa McMann joined our session. You can read more about this event here.
Weekly Zoom meetings were scheduled throughout March into May
|
The middle school book group missed having the time to just chat with their peers. Even though the group's face to face meetings were scheduled monthly. during the lockdown, the group decided to meet every Wednesday at 11AM. There were anywhere from 5 to 10 attending out of the 26 members.
April 1st meeting via Zoom
|
Bookface during the April 8th meeting
|
February 19th
This was the last face to face meeting that was held this school year.
January 29th
Caela Carter's My Life with Liars was an interesting choice. Students in 6th grade were suppose to be reading a dystopian novel during this time, and some in book group thought this book would suffice. When the students began reading, they did not realize that the main character had been rescued from a religious cult and was in the process of being deprogrammed. They thought she was living in a dystopian world. It was difficult for them to fathom that a child could live today in a cult where they would be physically hurt and starved and didn't want to be saved for a life of comfort and love. This book was a page turner about a topic that is not usually explored in middle grade fiction.
December 4, 2019
Nikki Loftin virtual visit
October 30, 2019
|
The members were tasked with reading a book that was scary. It seems that many were not fond of horror as a genre. One student had read Frankenstein and told the group how the monster wasn't the one to fear in the story but rather the scientist who created him. Another read a book called Rated that he bought from our book fair. This book is a dystopian novel, and the world where the characters lived was pretty scary. Others agreed that they could handle dystopian stories much better than horror. Hahn's book, Wait Till Helen Comes was shared by another. This book is touted as a ghost story, but the reader said she liked the book and was not very scared.
|
|
September 2, 2019
Mary Downing Hahn is known for writing ghost stories geared to middle grade readers that offer some sense of the unknown and otherworldly but not terrifying. The Girl in the Locked Room is just that. Some members found the book very slow at the beginning and did not finishit because they felt the book was boring. Others just did not like the genre so choose not to read it. There was a small group who felt let down because the book was not scary enough but another group liked the book because it was not too scary. Some expected the usual plot twists by Hahn that never materialized here.
August 28, 2019
For the first meeting of the year, students were asked to bring in a book that they would recommend others to read. Twenty-eight of the 30 members showed up for this meeting which is an amazing turn out. Since we wanted to give everyone an opportunity to share, the members were asked to tell us the title and author of their book and to share one thing that made this book a good read. On the left are some of the books that they recommended. Reasons for liking a book ran the gamut, but action and fast-paced were words that were said over and over again about various titles. Other reasons for liking a book included liking the internal conflict of the main character like in Matched, the fantasy elements found in Girl Who Drank the Moon and Circus Mirandus, and the clever resolution in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. There were titles that came up more than once like Refugee. There were few books mentioned that are not available in the PFTSTA Library. So visit the library soon to check out one of these great titles.