In many ways, Manolita is a simple, old-fashioned tale. For a generation that’s immersed in mythology – from the retelling of Indian myths to all the popular books that have their foundation in Greek mythology – I think a story about a selkie set in the modern world is perfect!
Jaya makes friends easily, so it comes as no surprise that she befriends a stranger in Oregon. Of course, her new friend Manolita has to be perfectly human … right? Even if she doesn’t quite understand the phrase ‘exchanging numbers’, and she likes to eat her fish raw …?
The entire series of books that Karadi Tales has released under the Minmini Reads imprint is remarkable in many ways. Often, books of this length are for younger children, but a chapter book like this for slightly older readers works so well! It’s a quick read, wholly satisfying and perfect as a conversation starter. Here’s what we’ll do with Manolita at my book club in December.
Quiz
I enjoy working with myths. In fact, the theme ‘Mythical Maze‘ was the one I enjoyed the most when I conducted workshops for the British Library’s reading challenge.
After discussing the ways in which writers like Rick Riordan, Lari Don and others have reinterpreted mythological stories, we will read a few myths together and do a quick quiz about them – quizzes are always fun! If we have enough participants, we can enact a couple of myths too, which will be even more enjoyable.
Idioms
Achilles’ heel.
Midas touch.
Cupid’s arrow.
Or even the food of the gods.
Mythology has contributed so much to language the way we know it! What better way to explore idioms than by reading a book based on a myth and taking it from there?
Explore Mythology
And of course, that leads us to a deeper exploration of mythology. What myths do we know? Working with a jamboard, we will share a range of mythical creatures that we have heard of. Linking this to a writing session we did recently that was all about research, we’ll read up a little about a few myths and imagine what would happen if two characters from two different myths met. The reading programme for ages nine and ten has a strong creative writing component, so this is something we can explore quite a bit!
Join a programme!
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