The Joy of Reading: Create a Book Club

Have you ever read a book and wanted to find someone else who had read it so you could discuss it with them? After reading The Shack many years ago, I remember feeling almost desperate to find someone to have a conversation with about that book. I finally resorted to Googling ‘discussions about The Shack’!  However, online discussions just are not the same as in person. I’ve been involved in many book clubs over the years. I’m currently involved in one via Zoom with a group of ladies in Texas. It is a sacred time of my week; I’ve turned down invitations to many things so as not to miss meeting with the group!

A book club with your children or students is especially wonderful! It doesn’t have to be fancy. It can be just you and your child or can include a few of your child’s friends and their parent. When my daughters were growing up, I would typically read the books they were reading. By doing so, we had a great time sharing our perspectives and wonderings with each other, asking questions, and getting a deeper understanding of what was going on in the story.

Sometimes, if I hadn’t read the book, I would get myself in a bit of hot water.   Kelly, my youngest daughter, was reading The Giver when she was in 3^rd or 4^th grade. She asked me if ‘releasing’ meant someone died. I told her (with great confidence and authority) that it most certainly did not. In my mind I thought it was such a strange question. Then I read the book and realized I was wrong. In that book, releasing most certainly did mean dying. What an intriguing and interesting book that was! We had some deep conversation thanks to that one.

A parent/child or teacher/student book club can be as simple as a parent and child reading the same book and discussing it to a group of 3-4 children and a parent creating a formal club and meeting regularly. You could also do a virtual club and include grandparents, cousins, friends who live far away, or even ‘book club pals’ who live in a different country. However you choose to structure it, a book club is an excellent, fun, authentic way to connect deeply with a book and to strengthen relationships. Remember to make this experience one that has an intimate, casual feel rather than a rigid, school assignment vibe.  

Here are some resources and suggestions to help you jump into this wonderful adventure:

• How to get started
  • This article lays out what to do to get your book club going.
  • Find additional suggestions in this article.
  • Brainstorm a name for your book club. Be creative!
• Have the children share the types of things they’d like to read about.
  • Share a few book suggestions to choose from and let the children be integral in picking each book you will read.
    • Lists of great books to choose from
      • Newberry Honor books from 1922-present
      • Good Reads Parent Child Book Club Books
      • 100 Greatest Books for Kids
      • 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time (click on the book cover to advance to the next book choice)
    • Ideas to enhance your book club
      • Choose a child and their parent to lead the discussion each session
        • Have each child/parent team generate a discussion question for the chapters read
      • Choose different locations to meet
        • One week you could meet in the gazebo in a park, the next you could go to a coffee shop
      • Act out parts of the book
        • My 8 year old niece and I recently read Anne of Green Gables
          • She spontaneously acted out the part about Anne’s friend who accidentally drank alcohol laden cordial instead of the child version during their play date!
        • Play with vocabulary
          • Have each person choose a word that they were not familiar with when they were reading and explain it to the group.
          • Have a casual discussion about other words that mean the same thing.
        • Teach an activity that goes along with the book
          • If you read Little House in the Big Woods, kids could make a corncob doll like Laura got as a child.
        • Watch a movie based on the story
          • Be sure to watch the movie AFTER you have read the book.
          • Compare the movie and book.
            • Talk about what you liked and didn’t like with each.
          • Make food or drinks described in the book
            • If you read Anne of Green Gables, you could make the cordial (the non-alcohol kind!) and make finger sandwiches.
          • Go on a field trip that relates to the book
            • After reading the Secret Garden, go to a nursery to see and learn about flowers and plants. You could buy some to take home and plant!
          • During discussion time
            • Ask thought provoking questions that require everyone to share their opinions and perceptions of what happened and what they think or feel about it.
              • What would you have done in their situation?
              • Why do you think they did that?
              • How might that impact their life in the future?
              • What did you like most about this book/chapter? What did you like least?
            • Relate what was read to each of your lives.
            • Ask some questions based on the fact based elements shared in the story.
              • What did a character do, where did they go, where did they live, etc.

Interacting with children or a group of children about a book you’re both reading is such a rich experience. It is a way to help them (and you) open up and share their innermost thoughts and feelings in a way that would rarely happen otherwise. Whether you do this with one book or with dozens, with just you and your child or with a group, or following a process or doing it off the cuff, it is an activity that will enrich your lives and theirs in countless ways.