Our November Book Club met at Seeds Children’s Bookstore to talk about Melissa Wiley’s The Nerviest Girl in the World, a historical fiction book set in the early 1900s when the American movie industry was just taking off! It was a fascinating look at the origins of Hollywood and the brave – or should we say nervy people who made it happen!

Although the story was about the making of early film, we were still drawn to the characters, of which there were plenty of! We admired Pearl and her brothers for their bravery, were amused by Mr Corrigan and his film crew for their creativity and cleverness, but still understood the worries of Pearl’s parents and grandmother regarding the dangerous stunts they pulled off. It was clear how much these people cared about and respected each other, especially when they all put their faith in Pearl to climb out of a floating hot air balloon!

For our creative activity, our Book Club members had two options to plan their own silent movie scene: writing it out like a screenplay or to draw it as a storyboard! It was fun to see what people came up with, especially as we were inspired by the high-stakes hijinks that Pearl had starred in many times. We noticed that Mr Corrigan’s movies always used basic character archetypes but often had complicated and dramatic plots, so we tried to reflect that too.

For our final discussion point, we talked about how Pearl’s acting ability ended up helping her in real life too. She was able to mask her feelings towards unpleasant people and situations – which some may view as lying, but it did avoid unnecessary conflict and more hurt feelings. Turns out the world isn’t so black and white, even if the movies are!