How to Start a Book Club for Elementary or Grade School Children

If you have a school age child, it's the perfect time to start a book club with them, their peers, and their peers' parents! The format that I'm going to lay out is an activity outside of school time, although you could try to coordinate with your child's teacher. We recently joined our first book club for our second grader and the kids had a lot of fun. I was particularly impressed with how the discussion went and the level of insight the kids expressed. They are 8 year olds, so there was a bit of silliness, but the book club leader did a great job keeping the group focused. Here's a step by step guide of how to start your own book club for kids!

• Email possible parents and children from your child's grade to drum up interest. Think about kids who will be able to sit for about an hour to discuss a book - this is more relevant with younger kids. A good number of kids is around 12. You can expect that some kids won't make every book club, so you need enough kids for there to be a good discussion. I think almost all of the parents emailed in our group decided to sign up.
• Explain in the email that the book club will happen once a month and that everyone will be asked to choose a book, purchase the book for the group, and lead the discussion at some point in the process. We have found that buying a bulk amount of books one time is the best method, rather than having to go out and buy a book each time book club rolls around. (I'll discuss this later.)
• I would also stress, especially for younger children, that the book should be read with the parent so that the child fully understands it and can have a meaningful discussion with their friends.
• If you are sending the email, you should be the first to choose the book and lead the meeting. That way, you can set the tone of how the book club will be run in future meetings.
• I have attached a sample email at the bottom of the Hub.

• We have our book club on the first Monday of every month; it's easy to remember and plan for.  I would recommend meeting one time a month and having it be as consistent as possible.  You can put out a date and time to the group or choose it on your own.  We decided to decide as a group and it worked out well.  
• You can either host the book club at a local library, the school library, or at your home.  The family that chooses the book and leads the discussion could host at their house, but we found that would be hard because most families have other siblings at home that can be distracting.  It's up to your group.

• Now that you've finalized your group, it's time to choose the first book and come up with some materials for the hour.
• I would recommend a grade level chapter book that is on the easier side for the kids to read.  It's their first book club and they should feel like this isn't going to be a huge chore, more that it's a fun experience.  For our second grade book club, we chose The Hidden Stairs and the Magic Carpet from the series The Secrets of Droon.  It is about 70 pages, but with large print and fairly easy reading for most second graders.  It also appeals to both boys and girls.
• Check out the Scholastic Book Wizard for Teachers site for grade appropriate books.

• Since you chose the first book, you are in charge of leading the book club and this means having activities for the kids to do.  
• The first 10-15 minutes of the book club can be asking questions about the book.  It is best to have the kids be the driving force in the discussions, that means having your child ask the questions and be the one calling on the students.  If your child is young, they may need a lot of help with this.  
• Depending on the age of your child, it's a great idea to have at least 10 questions for discussion already printed out and ready to read.  I would recommend having more questions than you will be able to cover, just in case.  You and your child can choose the questions together before hand.  Focus on questions that cause the children to think.  These are open-ended questions; there isn't just one answer.  A good place to start is, put your thumb up if you liked the book, to the side if you thought it was so-so, and down if you didn't like it.  This question gets the kids focused and moving their body right at the beginning.  
• After you've asked a few questions, it's good to break up the hour with an activity.  Some activity ideas are:  you could print out a few two sentence descriptions from the book and have the children choose one to draw; have the children act out a few parts of the book this could be done in groups or as a whole group; have children meet in small groups and create a venn diagram or character web of the characters in the book (this would need to be taught first),  create a film strip of events that happened in the book (the kids could work in groups and each have a specific part of the book to put together at the end with the other groups, or they could do the whole book.)
• If you are going to have kids do a specific activity, it is best to do a little lesson on how to do it first.  For example, if you want them to draw a venn diagram, first do one on a board or large piece of paper.  Do not assume that all children will know how to do an activity.  This is also a time where you will need help of the other parents.  At least one parent should be involved with each group of students.  

• I recommend getting to the book club venue 15 minutes early to move around tables and set up a circle for the kids and their parent(s) to sit. You will probably also want a white board or flip chart to write down any of the lesson.
• Once everyone arrives I suggest going around the room, introducing everyone, then going over the rules. If you want to talk in a group about what rules the kids want to adhere to, I always think it's a good idea. This way kids have ownership. Don't spend more than 5 minutes. You can write them down and bring them each time to go over briefly. If not, I've included a few rules that seem appropriate.
• Let the discussion and fun begin!
• After you have asked a few questions, go over your brief lesson, if there is one, and split the kids up into groups to do an activity. This should take about 10-15 minutes
• Come back into the group and have the children share their activity.
• If you have time, ask a few more questions from the list.
• Before you pass out the snack, have the next book club leader discuss the book that they have chosen and distribute the books as everyone leaves. (Be sure to send the parent a reminder to bring the book to the next book club meeting.)
• Pass out snack and discuss the leader schedule for the next book clubs.
• We've also set up a Shutterfly Club Page where you can share the schedule, pictures, links etc. It's a great way to keep everyone organized.

Let us know how it goes in the comment section if you decide to have a book club with your kids. The most important thing to remember is to have fun and make the experience as enjoyable as possible for the kids to help foster that life long love of reading and reading comprehension!

Hello 2nd Grade Families,

I thought it would be fun if we could organize a book club for our kids and would love for you and your child to join in on the fun! Would you and your 2nd grader be interested in joining our book club? It is definitely a parent/child commitment. You would be responsible for reading a book with your child once a month and attending the meetings together. You would also be in charge of choosing a book and leading one of the meetings. (That would be once a year if we have 12 kids.) The leader would also be in charge of purchasing the book for the group and distributing.

We are aiming for around 12-14 kids. That seems to be a good number to start with so that we have enough voices in the discussion without being too playful.
The plan would be to meet once a month (hopefully at our school library,) and discuss our book. It seems to work best by choosing a certain night of the week and then meeting every second Monday for example.

Which ever child chooses the book leads the discussion. I would be willing to go first, to demonstrate. Then we can set up a system to choose the order. We can also discuss how to help choose a good book for 2nd graders that leads to good discussions.

The general format is that the kids read a book (with you at first and on their own later.) It helps in the beginning to read the books with the kids so that we can help model how the discussion should move along. We can ask a few specific factual questions (Where does this story take place? What is the name of the best friend? etc,) but the main goal is to get the kids discussing the books. Not just what was your favorite part, but WHY? WHY did the character make that choice? What do you think could be an alternate ending? After discussion we could do a small extension activity related to the book. And of course, end with a small snack that relates in some way to the story. The point to the book club is not to get all fancy, but to get the kids discussing and enjoying different kinds of literature!

Please let us know if you are interested and what nights of the week work for you (possibly the 2nd Monday of the month.)

Thanks,

Your Name