Noontime Book Club (New!)

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Mr. Pip, by Lloyd Jones, is set on an island called Bougainville in the 1990s during a time of civil war. Mr. Watts, the only white man left on the island, offers to teach the children at school. He reads Charles Dickens's Great Expectations to the children as an escape from their war-ravaged lives. Matilda Laimo, a 13-year-old in Mr. Watts's class, is intrigued by Pip, the main character in the story. Her mother, Dolores, a deeply religious woman who is distrustful of white people, is not happy with Mr. Watts's teaching of the book and calls it dangerous. Mr. Watts, a strange man who sometimes dons a red nose, only meant the book as an escape in a time of terrible violence.