Kid’s Book Club: Maxi’s Secrets

Join us on Tuesday, April 11^th, May 2^nd and May 16^th at 4:00PM in the Children’s department for a kids book club featuring this year’s Lewiston/Auburn Read: Maxi’s Secrets by Lynn Plourde.

Each kid who participates will receive a free copy of the book to keep and all three programs will include snacks. This program is recommended for ages 10 and up and no registration is required.

At the first program on April 11, each child in attendance will receive a free copy of the book, learn about the book club and receive discussion questions. All participants will read the first half of the book before the next program.

At the May 2^nd program, we will talk about the discussion questions and hand out the discussion questions for the last half of the book.

At the last program on May 16^th we will have an ice cream party while we review the book.

Maxi’s Secrets by Lynn Plourde is about a BIG, lovable, does-it-her-way dog that wiggles her way into your heart.

Timminy knows that moving to a new town just in time to start middle school when you are perfect bully bait is less than ideal. But he gets a great consolation prize in Maxi—a gentle giant of a dog who the family quickly discovers is deaf. Timminy is determined to do all he can to help Maxi—after all, his parents didn’t return him because he was a runt. But when the going gets rough for Timminy, who spends a little too much time getting shoved into lockers at school, Maxi ends up being the one to help him—along with their neighbor, Abby, who doesn’t let her blindness define her and bristles at Timminy’s “poor-me” attitude. It turns out there’s more to everyone than what’s on the surface, whether it comes to Abby, Maxi, or even Timminy himself.

Lynn Plourde is a will-never-live-anywhere-else Mainer. She was born on October 1, 1955 in Dexter, grew up in Skowhegan, and currently lives in Winthrop. She’s the second oldest of four. Lynn’s Mémère and Pépère (grandparents) lived across the street from her family, and so there were many multi-generational Franco-American family gatherings with card-playing, sing-a-longs, and storytelling. Lynn learned to read in kindergarten with “Dick & Jane” and then went on to read many series books, including the Bobbsey Twins, the Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew. Lynn went to the University of Maine where she earned bachelor and master’s degrees in speech pathology and then worked for 21 years as a speech-language therapist in public schools. Lynn and her husband Paul had their three kids have plenty of adventures to use as ideas for stories. For example, Wild Child was inspired by the struggle of getting kids to bed, School Picture Day was the result of a challenging family photo, and more recently the Go, Grandma, Go! board book was inspired by keeping up with her energetic grandson, Beckett.

The Lewiston Public Library is located downtown at 200 Lisbon Street at the corner of Pine Street. More information on this program is available by contacting the Lewiston Public Library at 513-3133 or LPLKids@lewistonmaine.gov.