The Book Club Kit (American Girl Series) »

What's the best way to share your love of books with friends? By starting a book club! This kit includes invitations, bookmarks, and calendars to help you get your club off the ground. Theme cards offer suggestions for American Girl books to read and discuss, or you can branch out to other favorite titles. Forty question cards will keep you and your friends talking about any book you read. There's even an online component--more book club resources on the American Girl Web site. With a handbook full of start-up suggestions and advice, you can take your book club from fun to fabulous!

Children's Literature

American Girl has added another clever how-to book to its growing collection, this one focused on starting a book club and keeping it going. The kit includes instructions for organizing a club, choosing books, and leading a book discussion. There are photos and comments from real girls in real book clubs. A group called the "Six Chix" says "we're like a team—we encourage each other." There are activities appropriate for a wide age range—decorating a tote bag to carry your books, book parties, field trips to hear an author talk. There is a quiz on how to be a good group member and suggestions for ways to deal with different kinds of girls in a group, whether they are shy, bossy, or scattered. The small kit comes complete with invitations, discussion starters, and activities for all types of books and open-ended questions for use with fiction or nonfiction books. The content of the kit is perfect for a Scout or neighborhood group, but teachers and librarians would also find many of the ideas appealing and practical.