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Available Summer 2024!

Grades: 2-4, 7-8, & 9+

In our new summer Novel Study workshop, students will read, discuss, debate, and analyze an entertaining and intellectually challenging novel together (see below) — under the guidance of amazing, PhD-educated instructors! At the end of the workshop, we will have an optional group screening and discussion of the film version of the book (with popcorn!).

In the process of this exciting literary adventure, students will practice the “close reading” skills necessary to get the most out of almost any text — whether for pleasure or academic interest — including how to isolate and analyze literary elements, central themes, and key ideas. Taking the discussion beyond the confines of the classroom, students will also be encouraged to make “real-world connections” to the text (e.g. considering it in light of current news events) and debate its relevance to the modern world and their own lives. Finally, students will have the opportunity to write thoughtful academic responses to literature that will be useful models for success in their English classes.

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This Year’s Novel for Grades 2-4

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

In Katherine Applegate’s Newberry Award winning novel, inspired by a true story, we follow Ivan, a gorilla who has spent twenty-seven years behind the glass walls of his enclosure in a shopping mall.

Ivan hardly ever thinks of life in the jungle anymore. Instead, he occupies himself with television and painting. But when he meets Ruby, a baby elephant taken from the wild, he sees their home, and his art, through new eyes.

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This Year’s Novel for Grades 7-8

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

In Yann Martel’s Booker Prize winning novel, a young Indian boy finds himself adrift at sea in a lifeboat, struggling to survive alongside a zebra, a hyena, an orangutang … and a stowaway tiger named Richard Parker!

Both a suspenseful tale of survival and a philosophical meditation on the importance of the stories we tell ourselves, The Life of Pi is a story that is sure to make you think long after it’s finished.

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This Year’s Novel for Grades 9+

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

1922. Long Island, New York.

Nick Harraway, fresh from Minnesota and eager to learn business, arrives into a world where the young nouveau riche inhabitants enjoy a lifestyle of luxury, self-indulgence, and lavish parties.

Amid this scene, Nick becomes fascinated with his next-door neighbour, the mysterious Jay Gatsby. Gatsby outdoes his neighbours with his ostentatious displays of wealth, but (as Nick discovers) he also has a secret motivation and a secret past…

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NOVEL STUDY – Schedule

Classes are held in the given timeframes, excluding scheduled holidays.

Email info@brainpower.ca with your child’s/children’s age(s) and area(s) or interests, and we will help get you registered!