
Nutmeg Book Club (Gr. 4-6)
February 28 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Free
Join us for Nutmeg Book Club, a group celebrating Connecticut’s own kid’s book award, for kids in grades 4-6!
Books are available for pickup starting February 4 with a special Nutmeg Book Club Kit that includes activities, stickers, bookmarks, and other goodies related to the book!
This month we are reading Wayward Creatures by Dayna Lorentz. Read the book on your own and then join us at the library for a fun discussion and related activity. Our meeting is on February 28 from 4-5 PM.
Nutmeg nominees are chosen by a committee of school media specialists, public librarians, and reading teachers, as well as a small selection of student representatives in the appropriate age range for that reading material. Each spring, students are allowed to cast their votes for the nominee they think should win the Nutmeg Award.
Criteria includes the age of the book, and require that the books be well-written, with strong characterization, vivid setting, striking language, a well-constructed plot, and plausible conclusion. Nutmeg nominees may cover sensitive topics. For more information about how nutmeg books are selected, please see https://www.nutmegaward.org/
About the Book:
Twelve-year-old Gabe doesn’t know where he belongs anymore. His family is caught up in their own lives and his friends barely have time for him now that they’re stars on the soccer team. In a desperate plea for attention to impress his friends after school, Gabe sets off fireworks in the woods near his house and causes a small forest fire that destroys several acres of land.
In the chaos of the destruction, a coyote named Rill—tired of her family and longing for adventure—finds herself far from home. Already on animal control’s watch for wandering into a backyard and snapping at a child, Rill crawls into a cave, where she nurses her wounds alone.
Gabe and Rill’s paths irrevocably cross when Gabe is tasked with cleaning up the forest through the court’s restorative justice program. The damage to the land and both their lives is beyond what the two can imagine. But together, they discover that sometimes it only takes one friend to find the place where you belong.
Essex Library programs are free and open to the public.
Registration is required.