October Book & Cookie Club: A Properly Unhaunted Place

​Book and Cookie Club is a monthly book discussion group for students in third through sixth grade and an adult caregiver.  I have been facilitating Book and Cookie Club at my library since December of 2015.  This is one of my favorite school-age programs to plan and lead. 

At my new library, I take turns facilitating Book and Cookie Club with two of my colleagues.  Instead of facilitating Book and Cookie monthly, I facilitate it four times a year.

The way that I lead Book and Cookie has changed as well due to the participants that come to the program.  Most of the participants that come to Book and Cookie are older (4th and 5th grade) and I have more caregiver engagement.  As a result, we have more of a discussion format.

The Book: A Properly Unhaunted Place by William Alexander

To quote Anne of Green Gables "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."  This is my favorite month and time of the year.  I am a BIG fan of Halloween. 

That said, I wanted to choose a book that was a little spooky and eerie for Book and Cookie this month.  I love that A Properly Unhaunted Place has librarians that work as "ghost appeasement specialists."  It isn't too scary for those kids that aren't into thrillers or ghost stories, but it has the right amount of spookiness for this time of year.

Ice Breaker: Halloween Mad Lib

For our icebreaker, I downloaded this Mad Lib from Teachers Pay Teachers and had everyone give me their suggestions for each field.  Then I did a dramatic reading of our Mad Lib.  

Discussion Questions

• Does the title, “A Properly Unhaunted Place” have any significance to the plot of the story?  Would you keep the title or change it to something else?  What would be your new title if you changed it?

• What do you think of the cover of “A Properly Unhaunted Place”?  How did you feel when you first saw the cover?  What did you think the story would be about? Does the cover reflect the story well?  Why or why not?

 

• How original and unique is “A Properly Unhaunted Place”?  Are there any books that you have read that are similar to this one?  Which ones?

 

• Would you want to work as an appeasement specialist and live in a library?  Why or why not?  What part of the job would you enjoy the most?  The least?

 

• What scene resonated most with you personally in either a positive or negative way? Why?

• What surprised you the most about the book?

 

• Which characters in the book did you like the best?  Why?  Which characters did you like the least?

 

• In the town of Ingot, their town history was a half-truth (in regards to Baron being a hero).  How did that impact the town?  Is it right to alter the facts of history?

 

• Did you find the ending satisfying?  If not, what would you change or add to the ending of the story?

 

• Mrs. Jillynip, the head librarian in Ingot, was fairly strict about the library.  How have libraries and librarians changed over the years?  

 

• There is a sequel to a “Properly Unhaunted Place” - do you plan on reading it?

 

• In some chapter books, the primary adults are removed from the storyline. Why do you think authors do this?  How would the book have been different if Rosa had both of her parents around to help her?

 

• Tell a friend - 1 thing that you liked about this book and 1 thing that you wished was different about the book.

 

• What time in history would you most like to travel to?

 

• This book has some artwork throughout (pp. 8, 28, 60, 108, 156, 171). Which illustrations did you spend the most time looking at?  Why?  Did the illustrations reflect what was happening in the story?  What other scenes from the book could have used an illustration?

 

• Rosa believes that spirits live in books.  When you read a book from the library do you think about the life that the book has had?  How so?  

 

• What genre does “A Properly Unhaunted Place” fall under?  Is this a genre you chose to read often?  Why or why not?

 

• What was one big lesson that you learned from reading this book?

 

• Which places in “A Properly Unhaunted Place” would you most like to visit?

 

• Does this book have Hollywood potential?  Can it be turned into a movie or TV show?  

 

• If you could speak with William Alexander, the author, what would you ask him?

 

• This book was selected for last year’s Battle of the Books.  What made this book Battle worthy?

 

• Rate this book.
  • 5 - worst book ever
  • 4 - disappointed 
  • 3 - meh
  • 2 - enjoyable
  • 1 - best book ever

 

• Thumbs up or thumbs down if you would recommend this book to a friend.

Sources for discussion questions:
Multnomah County Library "Talk It Up! Book Groups for Kids"

Scholastic "5 NEW Questions to Ask Kids About Books"

Book Riot "40 Great Book Club Discussion Questions for Any Book"

Book Bundlz "General Discussion Questions for ANY book"

Activity: Build a Haunted Library

I love everything that Krista creates and this activity is no different.  I had the participants build a "haunted library" and they really got into the activity (caregivers too).