Starting a Book Club
I tried to start a book club once. The only problem was, I was often the only one at the “meetings” that had read the book. So I guess I actually started a dinner club that I got to go to as a reward for finishing a book. It was fun, but I still craved a book club.
My husband is an avid reader and textbook introvert, so book clubs in theory are appealing to him, but the social aspect is a no-go. BUT there’s a workaround. What if the book club was with someone he enjoyed spending time with? The Super-Cool-Megan-Kyle-Book-Club was born. We decided to read a book per month, and have a date night book club. We’ve never been good at holding ourselves to “date nights,” but the book club made it like a real excuse to have to go out.
One unexpected result of our book club was that it inspired our oldest son (then in second grade) to want to start a book club of his own. We encouraged him to talk to his teacher and principal to try to get one going at his school. After several meetings and no action, I think the guy gave up.
Then Coronavirus hit. School closed, and we were home for what was to be a super long summer. When August snuck back up, we were not quite ready to send our kids back into school and opted to take advantage of remote learning. One of our biggest concerns was just the lack of connection to other kids that our children get in school. I reached out to a few friends who were opting for remote learning as well, and their concerns were similar. After talking to our son, we decided it was the perfect time to start up a book club – for kids!
The Remote Readers
They call themselves The Remote Readers, and it’s a group of four kids (three 3rd graders, one 4th) who actually enjoy reading (which is kind of hard to come by!) My husband did the ground work and came up with a list of books for them to choose from. The kids take turns getting to pick the next book from the list. They meet on Zoom at the end of each month. Before the meetings, my husband and I help our son come up with a short list of questions to keep the meeting rolling. At the end of the meeting, whoever picked the next month’s book announces it to the others.
It is so fun to see my son in the “moderator” role. I have been pleasantly surprised by some of the conversations I’ve overheard. They also have plenty of time in their Zoom for kid silliness. (Somehow every month ends up with a conversation about pickles!) My son looks forward to his book club every month, and he has been able to feel connected to his friends even though we are all remote learning. I think his only complaint is that it isn’t more frequent!
Tips For A Children’s Book Club
Have parents or an adult pick a “master list” for the kids to pick their next book from. This ensures that they’ll read a variety of books! Not to mention, kids may not know where to start when picking books for a book club.
Keep it small. It is super easy for the kids to get off track, and the more kids there are, the more likely it is that they’ll get distracted!
Have an unofficial moderator. If one of the kids seems very into the book club, talk to them about being an unofficial moderator. Explain that they’ll be in charge of getting the group back on track when they get off topic. My son also is working on asking questions and then asking each group member for a response so everyone gets to participate!
Prepare questions ahead of time. Sit down with your child or the moderator and help them prepare questions. If they’re meeting on Zoom, show them how to keep the window open to reference during the meeting. If you’re doing in person meetings, print the question list! (You can visit my Books For Kids page to download the discussion questions we used.)
Let the kids have their book club. There will be times you want to intervene, but try to let them have their club, their way. The second meeting will be better than the first. Depending on their ages, they may not have super deep conversations. This is fine! Think about your purpose. Is it social? Want to get them excited about reading? Want to have them engage in conversations about books? All of this will be accomplished by a kid-led book club.
Get Going!
If you don’t know anyone with kids of a similar age or aren’t quite ready for a full on club, check out my kid friendly reading challenge! If you’re interested in helping your kids start their own book club, I say go for it! Click here for the complete list of books that the kids choose from each month. As they meet, I will update the blog with our question guides for each book as well. You can see the ones we have done so far at this page:
Want to read more about my failed book club and how I got reading again? Check out my “Tips to Help You Read More” post!