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OUR YUCAIPA | JUNE 2015 13 Kids Book Club Book clubs help children develop important language skills, practice turn taking, help with fluency and comprehension and expose them to books that they may not normally choose. You can start a book club for preschoolers all the way to middle school. If you start a preschool book club it may be more like a parent/child book club but will be fun for everyone. Each child can read the book at home or the hosting family can choose a picture book to read to the group. To keep them interested you can prepare a snack and activity that goes along with the book and gets them excited about reading. Try to keep the group small so there is not too much chaos. Four to seven kids is a good group size. If the children are older try to pick kids that have a similar reading level. This does not mean that it has to be exact, it may challenge some and be easy for others. If you have a struggling reader that wants to join, the parent may have to help them out a bit, but never deter a child who wants to read. Just like the younger kids, it is always fun to have a snack and prepare an activity that relates to the book. With older children it is easier to have a discussion about the book, but make sure there are prepared questions to keep the conversation going. It is best to have a parent facilitator but try to avoid dominating the conversation. Set ground rules early to get the kids used to raising their hand and allowing one person to talk at a time. Try to encourage all children in the group to participate in the discussion but don't force them to because it may turn them off all together. There are some basic questions that can get any discussion started that each child can fill out: • My favorite character is: • Because: • I am most like this character: • Because: • If I wrote the book I would have titled it: • If this book had a sequel I think this would happen: • I would rate this book ________ stars Just as recommended for adults, a good way to pick the book for the next meeting have each child bring a book or two to vote on so that everyone can have a suggestion. Stacey's Picks The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden The Help by Kathryn Stockett Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen The Other Boelyn Girl by Philippa Gregory My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult Finding Fish by Antwone Fisher The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards Natalie's Picks House of Sand & Fog by Andre Dubus III Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe Open by Andre Agassi Burnt Toast by Terri Hatcher The Heroin Diaries by Nikki Sixx The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold A Child Called "It" by Dave Pelzer Courtney's Picks Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen East of Eden by John Steinbeck One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Books give a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything. ~ Plato Teen Picks The Fault in Our Stars by John Green Abundance of Katherine's by John Green If I Stay by Gayle Forman Divergent Series by Veronica Roth Older Kids Picks Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo Charlotte's Web by E.B. White James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis Holes by Louis Sachar Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell Young Kids Picks The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak Are you my Mother by P.D. Eastman Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems No David! by David Shannon We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen By Stacey Parr There's no such thing as a kid who hates reading. There are kids who love reading, and kids who are reading the wrong books. ~ James Patterson