The Villano Book Talk is a monthly meeting for students at Patrick M. Villano School who share an interest in a specific book. They come together the last Friday of every month to talk about what they read. Run by fourth grade teacher Cynthia Doran, students are now reading the book Wish by Barbara O’Connor in preparation for October’s discussion.
“The Villano Book Talk started over twenty years ago as an evening event as a parent and child book club. Parents and children would read the same book, then come back to school at night to talk about the book. The original Villano Book Talk was run by me and Mrs. Thomas [Lisa Thomas],” Doran stated.
Lisa Thomas is now retired, but the the first Book Talk meeting is on for October. Arya Sontag, a sixth-grader, is just one of about fifteen members of the current Villano Book Talk, and she loves it.
“I like Book Talk because it’s fun and cool to be with others who understand books,” Arya Sontag said.
At the end of the group discussion, students create a poster to demonstrate their understanding of the book. The poster is hung in the upstairs hallway near the all-purpose room. Every month offers a new reading. The order of the books are: Wish by Barbra O’Connor, I Survived the Battle of D-Day by Lauren Tarshis, Who Was Galileo by Patricia Brennan Demuth, The CandyMakers by Wendy Mass, Ranger in Time: Long Road to Freedom by Kate Messner, Controlled Burn by Erin Soderberg Downing, The Hero Two Doors Down by Sharon Robinson, and Keeper of the Lost Cities by Sharon Messenger.
“Our biggest book talk last year was the Wings of Fire book talk,” Doran said. “The Book Talk group is also fans of series such as I Survived and Ranger in Time.”
