My eldest daughter, Miss 9, is part of a fantastic children’s bookclub at one of our beautiful local bookshops. Her younger sister, who was seven years old at the time, kept asking if she could go along but I felt the level of books was slightly beyond her grasp. The risk was that she would feel out of her depth and it would knock her confidence.
She finally wore me down to the point where I agreed to host a bookclub for her and her friends at our house. It has been the most wonderfully rewarding experience. I love hearing how the kids have engaged with the story throughout the month and seeing them develop a love for books.
If you have a little bookworm in your house or if you want to encourage your child(ren) to read more, I highly recommend starting a children’s bookclub. There is very little prep involved (other than madly cleaning the house before everyone arrives!) and the payback is huge in terms of reading engagement.
This is how we host our children’s bookclub, but you can tailor it to suit your context or situation.
Find some book-ish friends
My daughter was quite particular about who she wanted to invite along to the group. She knows which friends are more into books than others, so I trusted her call on this. Our group consists of seven children all around the age of seven and eight years old. This feels to be a manageable size for us. Too many and things become rowdy but too few and you lose the atmosphere. It’s about finding balance and knowing the kids you are inviting along. Rather start small as you can always invite others later. It’s much harder to uninvite if the group starts to feel too big!
To rally the troops, you need to get an invite out. I have a WhatsApp group set up for our bookclub where I contact the parents of members and post the meeting date and time, what we are reading and any other necessary info. Keep it short and relevant. I know, no parent needs another Whattsap group in their life, but it is an easy and efficient way to communicate with lots of people at once.
Decide how often to meet
Our group meets once a month. This feels right in terms of commitment level. It isn’t a burden on me as host and not so long between meetings that the kids have disengaged with the book. But you will know what suits your group. Whatever you can manage is great!
Choose a book
This is the fun bit. For our first meeting I chose the book along with my daughter. We read Etta and the Octopus by Zana Fraillon which was a great fit for our group.
After the first book, I put it to the group to choose what they would like to read next. I will usually narrow it down to a selection of three or four books and then we decide by vote. Everyone can vote for as many as they like and the most popular title is our book for the next month.
There are a few things to consider when choosing the book:
Reading level and age of the kids in your group – You want to choose a book that boosts their confidence in reading but is also enough of a challenge that they don’t finish it in ten minutes.
What do they enjoy? Are most of the kids sporty? Do they love animals? Are they into fairies and sparkles? You want a book that the kids will feel excited about reading and that interests them. I wouldn’t give our group a book about unicorns because they’re just not that kind of group. But fart jokes and you’re onto a winner!
Length of book – It’s best to consider the length of the book against the age of the children reading. Our group could probably handle Harry Potter but I’m not going to give it as an option. It’s unlikely most of them would get through it in a month at this age. Shorter books are better for now. The kids are more likely to finish them and will engage better at bookclub if they can join in the conversation about the story. This obviously changes as the age of the children in your group increases.
If you need book ideas, I have many on this blog. Also, if you join the Your Kids Next Read community you will find lots of suggestions for any age and range.
Provide snacks
Where there is food, kids will come! It doesn’t have to be fancy. I just do popcorn or crackers, some fruit and maybe a cupcake or similar treat. You could also delegate this bit and ask a couple of kids to bring something each time. I find the children enjoy the food time because it gives bookclub a bit of a party feel. And why not?! We want to give the message that reading can be fun! If you don’t want to go down the food route, even just a hot chocolate will go down a treat.
Do a book-themed activity
Doing a book-themed activity or craft, relevant to our current read, has worked well for the younger age group. My eldest daughter’s bookclub usually just chat about the book and that works well for them. I have found, however, for the younger age group, it is harder to keep them engaged in “book chat” for long periods. Breaking the time up into sections (book chat, choosing the new book, food and craft) really helps the flow and keeps the kids engaged and focussed for our 75-minutes together.
The internet hosts a wealth of craft suggestions on any topic or theme and I usually search for something fairly simple that relates to the book. Another great resource is Teacher Notes that often accompany children’s books. These can usually be found on the publisher’s website and often give background to the book as well as discussion questions and follow-on activities. If you find these for your chosen book, that’s your job done!
It really isn’t a big job pulling together a children’s bookclub and the reward is far greater than the effort put in.
If you have any questions relating to how we run ours, please comment below or drop me an email. As always, I’d love to hear from you!
