How to Start a Mother-Daughter Book Club
Make reading more fun by forming a mother-daughter book club. Among the many benefits, book clubs help you gain insight into your daughter's world, and connect with others in your community. Sharing good books can also be a lot of fun.
With a little bit of thought and planning, you could have a book club ready to go in no time. Here are six steps to get you started:
1. First, make sure your daughter is ready for a book club. The ideal age is about nine. At this age, girls are often able to read on their own, enjoy spending time with their moms, and like being with their friends. You can start earlier if you keep the books simple or have the moms read to the girls. Your daughter’s never too old to get started as long as she’s interested.
2. Second, think about how big you would like your group to be. Do you feel more comfortable in a crowd, or do you prefer more intimate gatherings? Larger groups can be more open, with new people invited to join all the time. Meetings may be at a fixed time for whoever’s available to attend. Smaller groups provide more time for each person to talk during discussion, and fewer people means fewer schedules to consult when you’re choosing your next meeting date.
3. Next, consider whom you may want to invite. You can start by asking one other mom and daughter who you feel close to, and then asking them if they have ideas for others to join. You could also tap members of a school class, Girl Scout troop, or church group. You’ll probably want to define a few expectations. For instance, everyone in the group should know that as it’s a mother-daughter book club— mothers and daughters should both plan to attend meetings and read the books.
4. Once you know who will be in your club, you can decide where you’ll plan to gather on a regular basis. Will you trade off going to each other’s homes? Will you meet at a library or in a bookstore? Consider, too, whether you want to serve a meal or snacks at a meeting.
5. Now’s the time to talk about choosing books. You can let the girls decide what to read, or let the moms and daughters select titles together, but I don’t recommend having the moms alone choose. It’s important for girls to know they have a voice in the process, and they’re not just reading what their moms think they should read. Other ideas that may help you choose books include picking a theme, focusing on a genre, reading from book lists (e.g. award winners), and getting recommendations from librarians or booksellers.
6. The last step is to talk about what you’d like to do when you get together. You’ll definitely want to include time for socializing in addition to discussing the book. You may also want to consider playing games or making book-related crafts. It all depends on how much energy your book club members want to put into planning your meetings.
Discover "8 Books Moms Should Read with Daughters" to get your book club started!
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Cindy Hudson is the author of “Book by Book: The Complete Guide to Creating Mother-Daughter Book Clubs.”
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