Awhile back I wrote about the Tween Book Club I run at my branch and all the extension activities I’ve done with the kids. I recently landed a new (PERMANENT FULL TIME!) job that has me switching my focus from middle years to early years, so unfortunately I won’t be in charge of a tween book club anymore.
But I did promise to write more about the resources I used to plan my tween book clubs. I view this post as a living document, so please leave a comment if there is anything you think I should add.
Websites and Blogs
- Tween Book Club Outlines by SoTomorrow
- Tween Book Club Adventures by Tweenbrarian
- Read It and Eat It Book Club by TweenStop
- Book Clubs by Intentional Storytime
- Book Clubs for Kids by librarylyssa
- Book Clubbin’ and Page Turners Book Club by From the Biblio Files
- Tween Book Club using Wonder by R.J. Palacio by Future Librarian Superhero
- Comics Club by Delightful Children’s Books
Discussion and Activity Ideas
- Skype Book Club by GreenBeanTeenQueen – call the author via Skype and let the kids ask him or her questions.
- Incorporating Information Literacy into Youth Book Clubs by ALSC Blog
- 10 Ideas to Get Your Book Club Talking About Books by Teen Services Underground
- Grab some dice and play roll and retell. Or make one of these Cootie Catcher Story Elements (Thank you, Angie for pointing me towards these!)
- Book Resource Guides by the California Young Reader Medal – these include discussion questions, activities, read alikes, and more! Super, super useful.
- Have the tweens write tweets and then share them with the author. I did this with Sage Blackwood, author of Jinx. The kids spent a good 15 minutes of the meeting writing 140 word questions and feedback that I later tweeted to Sage (who replied to them all!). At our next meeting I shared what Sage wrote.
Icebreakers
- Games and Icebreakers from LitLovers (my tweens LOVED literary snowballs)
- Play a Minute to Win It Game. Check out these posts by:
- Play a Would You Rather?
- Use an idea from this list of amazing icebreakers Amy Commers uses with the kids at her church.
- Drama Games for Kids – over 50 ideas for fun games to get the group relaxed and smiling, including a huge collection of fantastic original monologues for kids and teens entirely written by students.
What did I miss? Please leave a comment and I’ll add in your suggested resources!
Thank heavens for you two! Just what I needed at the right moment!
Hello
Could you please advise me to a previously prepared book club discussion template for third graders, as we are currently reading “five go adventuring again” from the famous five series , I need it for reference
Thank you
Hi Sarah, I’m not sure what you are referring to. I think if you tried googling “book club questions for kids” you might find some online templates. I haven’t created any myself.