Once Upon a Time Book Club

Liyla Armstrong

March 11, 2021

Editor’s Note: The answers to the questions below were written by 11-year-old Liyla without any help from an adult.

What is the book this month?

The book The Ravens by Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige took me on an adventure like no other. This Book Club is outstanding. It sends you a box with a book and 4 gifts. The gifts go along with the book. The Ravens is a story about sorority girls who are actually witches. Not the green and old warty kind. The girls are divided into 4 groups: water, earth, air, and fire.

Vivian and Scarlett are the main characters and are trying to find out why terrible things are happening and who is making everything go wrong at their beloved Kappa Rho sorority house. At first Scarlett dislikes Vivian, but a very strong connection grows between them. Vivian is the strongest earth sign and someone is after her because of it. Scarlet has to let go of someone she loves in order to keep them safe and stop whatever dark magic is coming or else it will kill them all.

It surprised me the most to find out who was causing the terrible things to happen and why they were doing it. I personally really liked the book. It is a thrilling adventure, funny, sad and loving, all in one. I did not have anything I disliked about this book. I would definitely recommend it.

What is Once Upon a Time Book Club?

It is a monthly book club that comes in the mail with a newly released book with 3 – 5 small gifts with page numbers on them. When you get to a certain page in the book, you open the present and it seems as though you are in the book itself.

Why be part of a book club?

So people like me, who love to read all the time and want to go on adventures, but don’t want to leave their comfort zone, can experience new people and places. I am 11 and can’t exactly drive yet, so I am limited.

What is next month’s book?

The Love Curse of Melody McIntyre by Robin Talley. I cannot wait to read this book.

One of Liyla’s favorite Christmas presents this year was the subscription her mother gave her to the Once Upon a Book Club at OnceUponABookClub.com. The website offers 1 – 12 month subscriptions for either Young Adults (age 14+) or Adults (age 18+). Each monthly box includes a newly-released book as well as 3 – 5 related gifts, a 5” x 7” print of a quote from the book, discussion questions, and online group discussions on Facebook and Instagram.

Facebook Tweet Pin

Liyla Armstrong

Liyla Armstrong is 11 years old and attends Aiken Elementary. She is the youngest of 4 daughters of Bella’s publisher. She enjoys her time reading, playing video games, and cooking. She hopes to open up a cupcake and smoothie store one day.

Liyla Armstrong

In the know

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires – by Grady Hendrix

Bella Book Club Monthly Selection by Nichole Miller The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, by Grady Hendrix, provides an unusual combination of classic horror and old Southern charm. Patricia Campbell is a stay-at-home mom who is trying her best to raise her teenage children and care for her senile mother-in-law. Her husband, a psychiatrist, is never home and is little help, and Patricia’s sanity is starting to run thin. After embarrassing herself at the snooty local ladies’ book club, she walks out to find some of the other members forming a new book group where she is introduced to true crime stories and a group of amazing women

I Create Beautiful Things

If there was a job called Professional Creator, I could be THAT. I love to create stuff, all kinds of stuff. I like to find forgotten yarn and watch it become something new and beautiful. I glean from thrift stores or estate sales or garages or attics and find old balls of tangled messes and watch them unfurl, and then I create anew. I enjoy taking pieces of fabric, once serving their past-life purposes, and then cut and craft them into a new blanket or quilt. I am entertained by taking wood and screws and building stuff. Sometimes it’s bird atriums for my farm animals. Or functional things like a

Artist Spotlight | An Artist In Any Medium: From Fashion To Water Color

In 2006, a determined Barbara Beach walked into a Charleston boutique with children’s dresses that she had designed and sewn together. The owner quickly added them to the inventory, and eventually shops from West Ashley to King Street were carrying Barbara Beach Designs for the poshest tots. Women would stare at the carefully crafted dresses and secretly wish the apparel were in adult sizes (this writer is guilty as charged). The demand for these classic with a modern twist creations was gaining traction across Charleston when Beach was named a Charleston Fashion Week (CFW) Emerging Designer in 2010. This accolade included a fashion show where her small models took the

Pocket Poetry

Changing the World – One Poem at a Time Having been graciously selected by the members of The Aiken Poets to serve as Poet Laureate, I wondered what I could do to make people more excited about poetry and to make poetry better appreciated, noticed, read, memorized, written, and shared. Then I came up with this idea I call Pocket Poetry — a few lines in rhyme or free verse, written in calligraphy on white or colored cards, and distributed at random to people I meet. They go to people I know, people who provide a service, like the cashiers at the supermarket, the teller at the bank, the postal