Start Your Own Parent-Child Book Club

By Cheryl Murfin Bond

Book Clubs are Great Forum for Sharing Ideas and Nurturing a Lifelong Love of Reading

Seattle mom Susan Maney and her daughter Julia will never forget the day the book Go to the Room of the Eyes, by Betty K. Erwin, came to life for them. It was a magical moment shared in their mother-daughter book club.

Written in 1969, Erwin’s story is a reflection of the times, as six children deal with civil rights concerns and meet a Vietnam vet suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome. Set in Seattle, the club members were able to the house and some of the locations that are described in the book.

Enter our Mother-Daughter Book Club Giveaway! Win a $50 VISA Card plus 10 copies of Allie Finkle Book 1: Moving Day. You and your daughter can host a book club party!

A Place Where Kids Matter

Parent-child book clubs are a growing phenomenon throughout the country, with many bookstores and libraries hosting gatherings and friends and neighbors coming together to form independent groups. In the best clubs, librarians, educators and bookstore owners say, the thoughts and insights of kids and parents are equally valued and encouraged.

Both Maney and Julia, now 14, are convinced that the club they attended when Julia was 9 to 11 years old helped lay the foundation for her voracious book appetite. And she continues to share her ideas about what she reads with her parents.

A Less Reluctant Reader

“One of my daughters is what you might call a reluctant reader,” explains Sue Cain, whose daughters Maggie, 10, and Emily, 11, are in two different mother-daughter book clubs. “Even though she’s a straight A student, she’s not someone who will just sit down and read in her spare time. It really helps to have someone other than her mother to keep her reading. She loves seeing her friends and going to the book club and she understands that it would be embarrassing to go in and say ‘I haven’t read the book.’” The upshot is Maggie and Emily both read at least one good book a month outside their school assignments.