Book club for middle school girls- any suggestions?

[Perry]

I'd like to hear from people who have done this. Do you have any book suggestions? I've Googled but the lists I'm finding all have contemporary books that I'm not familiar with.

 

Do you attend with your daughters? How involved are you in the discussion? I wouldn't want it to be too schoolish, but if there is no adult present I doubt if they'd talk about the book at all.

 

I'd appreciate any ideas and recommendations. TIA.

[PrairieAir]

I highly recommend The Edge on the Sword if you're looking for a book with a girl heroine.

 

Where the Lilies Bloom is another great one along those lines for that age group, but I'd pre-read it first as it may be too much for some kids who are very sensitive. I loved it when I was about 12 and have read it as an adult and found that I still loved it.

 

ETA: I'd sit in on the discussion to help it along. I agree that the discussion isn't likely to go far with most kids that age unless there is someone to ask the right questions.

[Hen]

I did a book club one year with my girls and a few friends, we started with

Ella Enchanted, which is different than the movie, much better in my opinion and I thought they would jump into it, being familiar with the movie. I was pretty involved, because otherwise they wouldn't talk much. I had tea and cookies for them, we started off the first book by listening to the first chapter on audio, which is done really well..just to hook them in. We only met twice a month, so I would assign half the book and give them a few questions to answer. At our meeting I would ask questions about the book or ask what they thought about a certain character, how they would have changed an event, a different ending.

 

I think our second book was Boston Jane, which was really funny and had a spunky girl heroine.

 

I found a book called "the mother daughter book club", it deals with 4 girls and their mothers going through the book "Little women", it wasn't really deep, but dealt with friendship, mother/daughter relationships and I thought it was a great jumping off place to then dive into the book "little women'. There is a sequel out to it going through Anne of Green Gables. It wasn't as well written as the other books I mentioned, but it might work as a jumping in or with poorer readers.

 

I just read a book called Guinevere's Gift, which was just wonderful, it is part of a 4 book series, again a strong girl heroine and it deals with King Arthur, I really got into it.

[Hen]

want to add that the Mother-daughter book club had questions at the back of the book for a book club discussion.

[Moira in MA]

I'd like to hear from people who have done this. Do you have any book suggestions?

 

I participated in a 6th/7th grade mother-daughter book group with my youngest dd a few years ago. It was an interesting experience. All the other girls were in the local school but the mothers were a fairly disparate group -- 2 of us were older moms, one single, one Israeli, one Brit, two MIT grads...

 

The librarian chose most of the books, thank goodness. The few times she threw it open to the girls to choose, the selection was a chore to read.

 

Do you attend with your daughters? How involved are you in the discussion?

All the moms were usually present, but the librarian kept a pretty tight grip on the discussions and made sure that the girls were the major speakers.

 

I'd appreciate any ideas and recommendations.

To the best of my recollection, here are the books we read:

 

Bound -- Donna Jo Napoli

Shiva's Fire -- Susanne Fisher Staples

Dovey Coe -- Francis O'Roark Dowell

The Minister's Daughter -- Julie Hearn

Mara, Daughter of the Nile -- Eleanor J McGraw

All Alone in the Universe -- Lynne Rae Perkins

Prophecy of the Stones -- Flavia Bujor

A Northern Light -- Jennifer Donnelly

Hope was Here -- Joan Bauer

Red Scarf Girl -- Ji Li Jiang

When the Emperor Was Divine -- Julie Otsuka

Uglies -- Scott Westerfield

 

I'd probably recommend them as fodder for discussion of one type or another. Prophecy was really hard to plow through -- it was written by a teenager who had little understanding of plot and narrative.

 

HTH

~Moira

[FloridaLisa]

I had a girls book club in our home when my dd was in 7th and 8th grades. It was one of our best experiences and my dd fell in love with books.

 

We read:

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (followed by the just-releasing movie)

The Hiding Place

The Hedge of Thorns

The Bronze Bow

The Yearling (excellent! The real-life protagonist that inspired the movie is a young girl)(can be followed with a movie version)

Treasures of the Snow

The Giver (excellent. It took all the girls' had not to read ahead.)

 

It was a drop-off for 2 hours and I was the only adult moderating. I felt that if mothers and daughters participated, the girls' discussion would get lost. We discussed the book for an hour, followed by snacks and unstructured fun for an hour. Every now and again, I had an extension activity. I typically used Progeny Press guides, though I often googled, made my own questions or used Total Language Plus.

 

HTH!

Lisa

 

ETA: We started each book with an introduction week. I had each girl choose to be the illustrator, author, historian, geographer, and a few other roles that I cannot now recall. Their job was to report on the author or illustrator or historical/geographical setting, etc. The girls kept a notebook and it's been a nice keepsake.