Monday, February 11, 2008

My New Mother Daughter Book Club

Now that my 8 year old daughter has developed an insatiable appetite for books, she has been asking me about starting a Mother Daughter book club. I floated the idea last summer with members of my book club, but there weren't any real-takers (you know how busy everyone is with their kids' activities). I tried again a few weeks ago with some friends, and it looks like we're really going to do it. Right now, we have five pairs of moms and daughters either in 2nd or 3rd grade.

I probably could have surfed some blogs to get book ideas for our group; however, I found some great boxed sets at Costco last summer that I thought were perfect. These boxed sets, based on Shireen Dobson's book THE MOTHER-DAUGHTER BOOK CLUB, are put together by age group - 8+, 9+, and 10+. Each set contains five different books as well as complete discussion guides and suggested book club activities. I also purchased Ms. Dobson's THE MOTHER-DAUGHTER BOOK CLUB to supplement these boxed sets. (Last year in honor of the book's tenth anniversary, she updated and re-released this book.)

We are going to have our first meeting on February 24th, and I will be sure to let you know how our it goes. Our first selection is the Newberry Medal winner SARAH, PLAIN AND TALL by Patricia MacLachlan. I actually haven't read this book before (I know it's a little embarassing), but I'm really looking forward to it.

I can't begin to tell you how I excited I am to have this opportunity to share my love of reading with my daughter. I think reading these books and hearing her thoughts about them will be an amazing experience.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is so great. My daughter is almost six and just learning how to read. I just finished reading The Spiderwick Chronicles with her the other day and was so thrilled that she got excited each night when it was time to read!

Anonymous said...

I"m so envious! I've been trying to get a group together for a while now and just can't get enough people interested. My younger one isn't a big reader and the friends of my older daughter (age 10) aren't big readers. I'm still trying though.

Anonymous said...

Fabulous idea! I'm excited for you both. Care at bkclubcare.wordpress

Cindy Hudson said...

It's so great that you're getting started with your daughter at such a young age. Please consider sending in reviews and other feedback from your group to the Web site that I publish, motherdaughterbookclub.com. You can also look there to find ideas for other books to read and activity ideas for your meetings. Groups from around the country provide input, and we haven't heard from too many people in your group's age range yet. Reviews or other comments can be sent to info@motherdaughterbookclub.com. -- Cindy Hudson