Kids Book Club--ANY WHICH WALL by Laurel Snyder

A few weeks ago, I blogged about a book club that my daughter wanted to start--here's the link.  We had an organizational meeting, and the book was chosen (ANY WHICH WALL by Laurel Snyder). Yesterday, the girls met to discuss the book.

The girls spent a few minutes talking about their favorite parts of the book and drawing pictures of their favorite characters. Then we headed out to start the adventure. My friend hosted and had a brilliant idea to incorporate the theme of the book into the meeting. I give her ALL the credit for this awesome idea--the girls loved it.

If you've read the book, you know that four kids discover a magic key that fits into a lock in a wall in the middle of a field. My friend wrote very clever rhymes that led the girls on a scavenger hunt to find a magic key for each of them. Oh my gosh, it was all I could do not to join in the hunt!

Aren't those keys cool?

So...to start a book club for kids: #1, have them pick a good book. #2, have the kids read said book. #3, pick a cool prop from the book. #4, have a creative friend come up with a cool game--or have the kids come up with one. Oh, and also have her take pictures since you left your camera at home.

Easy Peasy!

One last word: Thanks to Laurel Snyder for writing such a cool book, full of every day magic.

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Update: One of the coolest things about the children's writing community it being able to interact with fellow writers and occasionally (::fangirl squee::) favorite authors. I emailed Laurel Snyder about our little bookclub and had a lovely conversation with her on twitter. Today, she referenced this blog when she posted about how cool it is to be a children's writer.

Book Clubs for Kids

I'm a proud mama. Yesterday, my almost-third-grader said "You know what, Mom? I'd like to have a book club with my friends."

Of course the next words out of her mouth were, "But if we meet at someone else's house, can you just drop me off?" (What's up with that? Am I suddenly not cool enough to hang out? Hmm, must work on  that.)

LOL. Anyway, we're undertaking an experimental book club this summer with a few friends. Not sure how it's going to work yet, but two of the books being thrown around are ANY WHICH WALL by Laurel Snyder (which my daughter is devouring right now and the book that precipitated the outburst) and MARTY McGUIRE by Kate Messner. Two of my favorite children's authors--not that I had any input at all!

So exciting to see her love reading and want to share it!