Super Woman Spotlight: Jane Austen

On December 16, 1775, George and Cassandra Austen welcomed a new baby girl into their family. She was the seventh of what would be eight children and the second daughter. Her parents named her Jane.

Jane Austen spent a happy childhood at the rectory at Steventon. At the age of ten, she was sent to boarding school for about two years, after which, she continued her education at home. She wrote her first novel, Love and Friendship, when she was about 14. She had a close family and she enjoyed reading her writing to her family, but was shy about letting others read it.

She loved dancing and taking walks in the country. When she was 25, her family moved to Bath, but she didn’t like it. She preferred country life and missed her friends. When her father died in 1805, she was able to get a short novel called Lady Susan published. Jane, her mother and her sister, moved around quite a bit before settling at Chawton, her brother Edward’s estate. It was while living here, that she was finally able to publish some of her novels. These included Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma.

It was 1817 when, after being sick for over a year, Jane Austen died. She was buried in Winchester Cathedral. After her death, that her brother Henry arranged for the publication of Persuasion and Northanger Abby.

Jane Austen is one of the most beloved British authors of all time. Since their first publication, her books have never been out of print and numerous prequels, sequels and movie adaptations have been based on her works.

She is a Super Woman!

Book Blurb: The Ordinary Princess

The Ordinary Princess is a children's novel written and illustrated by M. M. Kaye. It concerns Princess Amethyst Alexandra Augusta Araminta Adelaide Aurelia Anne of Phantasmorania, Amy for short, who has been given the "gift" of ordinariness.

Like the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty, the story begins with the birth of a princess and the arrival of fairies to give her gifts. The fairy godmother Crustacea, however, tells her, "You shall be Ordinary!"

Unlike her six older sisters, Amy grows up brunette, freckled, and plain, preferring playing in the woods to wearing fine clothes.
When she finds out that her parents want to hire a dragon so that a foreign prince can "rescue" her from it and marry her, she climbs down the wisteria vine outside her window, runs away to live in the Forest of Faraway.

                                       Taken and adapted from wikipedia.com



 A bit about the author

 

Mary Margaret (Mollie) Kaye was born in India on August 21, 1908. She lived in a small town near the Himalayas called Simla until the age of ten when she was sent to boarding school in London. She returned to India when she graduated and only returned to England when her father died. It was then she started her writing career.  She met and married Major General Goff Hamilton.  They lived in many different countries throughout their lives, each place helping to shape her writting. 

Along with The Ordinary Princess, M.M. Kaye wrote several books for adults. Her most famous work, The Far Pavilions, took fifteen years to write. M. M. Kaye died January 29, 2004 at the age of 95.

Our First Meeting

The first meeting of the Mother Daughter Book Club Jr. has come and gone. I don’t’ know about anyone else, but I sure had a lot of fun. I was a little short on time while setting up and I had to grab some help from some of the other staff at the library to get the room set up before everyone got there, but we made it. A big thanks to those who helped! :)

Three mother daughter pairs were able to make it to the meeting. Lily and Rebecca brought their moms and Ava brought her older cousin. As they came in I gave them a list of twenty books and they had to try to see if they knew the authors. Some of the books were Ivy and Bean, Harry Potter and The Secret Garden.

Because we’re a new group and didn’t know each other that well, I thought it would be fun if we played a game called Two Truths And A Lie. I learned something about each of the girls there. Ava doesn’t like spicy food, Rebecca has biked 16 miles and Lily loves potatoes.

We also talked about some of our favorite books. All of them love the Magic Tree House books. Black Beauty, Junie B. Jones, Goosebumps and Fancy Nancy were also some of the favorites mentioned. It’s nice to know what kinds of books everyone likes. It will make picking books for the club much easier.
For the first book club book, the two books I presented to the group were The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo and The Ordinary Princess by M. M. Kaye.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane is about a very special ceramic rabbit. He is three feet tall and has many changes of clothes. But he is a very selfish rabbit. He doesn’t even care about the little girl who loves him. Then one day Edward gets lost and he has to learn about love through all the different people who own him.

The Ordinary Princess is about a princess who, instead of receiving gift like grace and beauty when she was born, received the gift of being ordinary. As she grows, she loves who she is, but it presents a few problems to some of the people around her. So she takes matters into her own hands.

Both books are wonderful, but in the end The Ordinary Princess was picked as the first book for the book club. I hope you love it as much as I do.

I had a lot of fun getting to know everyone and I hope you had as much fun as I did. I think it’s going to be a great club.

The next meeting is on Friday, June 10, 2011 at 3:00 pm in Community Room A in the St. George Library. See you there!

Gloria

Welcome!

Announcing the first ever Mother/Daughter Book Club for the St. George Branch of the Washington County Library System!  My name is Gloria and I have worked at the library for about 4 years.  I won the librarian lottery and that's why I get to be a part of this book club and its senior counterpart.  This book club is for girls ages 7-9 and their mothers or another caring adult.

I'm really excited for this club to start.  I have been working hard to make it a great club and I hope you will come and join us!

The first meeting is on Friday, May 13, 2011 at 3:00 pm in Community Room A of the St. George Library.  We will be discussing our favorite books and deciding what to read for our first book.