There’s consequences to leaving a novel unfinished. It involves being pelted by marshmallows.
The Book Smack and Marshmallow Club meets once a month to discuss novels they’ve read, but if the children aren’t able to describe their books in 30 seconds or less, they’re pelted by marshmallows thrown by their peers.
The club started in July, after youth services librarian Aride Burnham combined a few ideas.
An adult Book Smack was held in Vernon, and Burnham had leftover marshmallows in her office. At her parents 50th anniversary, if people talked too long marshmallows would be thrown.
She thought combining marshmallows and a Book Smack would be a way for children, ages nine to 14, to get involved with reading.
The children loved it, asking for more marshmallows to eat afterwards.
Nine-year-old Jonathan Fulton couldn’t remember his book as the clock ticked down to zero and dodged the marshmallows as the other children giggled.
The club is helpful because it allows the children to hear about books from a peer standpoint, which is a more effective way to help them develop, said Burnham. The next Book Smack is held Dec. 1 at the Okanagan Regional Library Salmon Arm Branch.
Preregistration is required; to register call the branch at 250-832-6161 or sign up online.
