To find great books
for your book club,
recall classics that you
enjoyed during your
own childhood.
Currently, our book club meets at one
of the public libraries. This works well for
homeschool families, because moms and
other siblings can enjoy the library while
the girls participate in book club.
Our librarians are fabulous. Each
month, they pull all the copies of the
books we plan to read and have them
waiting for us when we arrive so that
each girl can easily check out a book as
she leaves. The librarians also give us
an extended checkout so that the girls
who keep the book the whole month do
not have to remember to renew it after
three weeks. It is nice to let the librarians know you appreciate their efforts by
taking them thank-you notes from the
girls, taking them small treats for the
holidays, and being sure to clean up after the book club.
Typically we plan for our book club
meeting to last 1½– 2 hours, depending
on the number of girls involved.
To find great books for your book club,
recall classics that you enjoyed during
your own childhood. Consider reading
through a series (Little House Books,
for example). Grab a copy of Honey for a
Child’s Heart and browse the selections.
Invite the parents to share input. If you
are hosting, be careful to choose good,
wholesome literature for the girls. There
is a lot of junk reading out there, and
it may be fine, but if you have a chance
to influence a student’s worldview with
what you give her to read, you are responsible. Avoid controversial books for
younger children. We want our book
club to be a safe place where the parents
are not worried about bad influences.
We read numerous books, and in ad-
dition to our regular monthly meetings,
we always have a few special meetings
too. October is “Mystery” month. The
girls read a mystery book of their choice.
They can choose Nancy Drew books,
books from The Boxcar Children series,
Nate the Great, or others and make pre-
sentations about their mystery books. We
also have “American Girl” month, during
www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com
which each girl selects an American Girl
book to read. We have “Pick Your Own
Book” month. We have “Biography”
month. These are interspersed through-
out the year, allowing the girls some free-
dom. However, most of the time all the
girls are reading the same book.
Malia Russell is the blessed wife to Duncan,
thankful mother to five children (newborn
to 21), and an author, conference speaker
and director of www.homemaking911.com
and www.wheatnthings.com.
