For the past several years, Lake Drive School has hosted the Fourth Grade Book Club. Organized and run by 2 speech pathologists from Lake Drive, Marianne Bylo and JoAnn Sassone, the club matches our hearing impaired students with students from Wildwood Elementary school in Mountain Lakes. This years’ members include 10 children from town, chosen through a lottery system, and 3 hearing impaired students. Each month the students read a new book and then meet to discuss the book, eat a snack (usually themed to match the book) and participate in a hands-on activity. To top it all off, each month’s selection is kept top secret!

The first meeting of the Lake Drive Book Club was held on Monday, November 6, from 3:00-4:15. Since it was the first meeting, the children got acquainted, learned each other's names and invented name signs for themselves (with the help of the Lake Drive students!).

The children had to read the book Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary. The main character in the book had a few problems to solve; many were out of his control, but alarming his lunch box against a lunch thief was something he could take charge of with success. Then an activity was created in which the children were asked to work in groups to invent a lunch box alarm. There were quite a few clever inventors in book club! One student even guessed what the themed snack would be... pizza, as it played a part in the book. Among other things, the format of the book (letters) and the main character's use of a journal were discussed. After this discussion, the kids pulled secret pals to whom they wrote their own letters. Finally, the kids received their book packages (a journal, pen and note cards) and the new book.

A sampling of other selected books include Charlotte's Web by E.B. White, Granny Torelli Makes Soup, by Sharon Creech, Dragons of Deltora, by Emily Rodda and The BFG, by Roald Dahl.