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Jenifer from Mathare North puts finishing touches on her owl |
Carl Hiaasen’s novel Hoot was the inspiration for a great afternoon of discussion, interaction and art at the January meeting of BookLAB, as kids from the Mathare North center and the International School of Kenya continued their monthly book group meetings at ISK. Hiaasen’s book is about a lot of things, including bullying, peer pressure, and friendship. It is also about protecting the environment and one boy’s determination to help some small borrowing owls threatened by development in Florida. For the BookLAB kids, the afternoon started with discussion in the ISK library, where participants shared their experiences and views on dealing with bullies and how to stand up for yourself. Then it was time to get a little messy as everyone moved to the art studio to make owls and owlets out of clay, as keepsakes. |
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Stephen Irungu gets into the spirit of Hoot
Owls awaiting the kiln
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This was the third meeting of the BookLAB group, which was started in October 2008 with the enthusiastic participation of ISK art teacher Jane Elleby and librarian Barbara Jones, after they were approached by KidsLibs founder Anne Moore about starting a joint book club with students from Mathare North and ISK. Elleby and Jones thought it would be fun to expand on the book club concept and form a group that would combine elements of Leadership, Art and Books...so, BookLAB was born. With nine students from ISK representing six different nationalities, they joined forces with Stephen Irungu from Mathare North Library. He identified six keen readers to take part. BookLAB has met monthly since its formation in October. All the students and leaders read the same book beforehand, then spend a Saturday afternoon on the ISK campus sharing and expanding on their experience with the book. There are always discussion questions, which tend to focus on the actions of the young characters in the books and how they cope with issues such as gangs, peer pressure, bullying, leadership, and decision making. Then, an art element is included in the afternoon's activities - anything from drama to designing a book cover to making clay models. The other books read by the group have been The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton and City of Embers by Jeanne de Prau. Coming up next: Shabanu by Suzanne Staples. For the Hoot activity, the students went online and “googled” the burrowing owls that are featured in the book to find out what they looked like and then moved over to the art room to make clay models of them. The next meeting will include time to paint the owls after they have been fired in the ISK kiln...then the owls will go home with their creators. BookLAB has plans to meet two more times before the ISK school year comes to a close, but enthusiasm among both the leaders and students is so great that there is little doubt it will be resurrected in September for a second season.
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