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Mother-daughter book clubs inspire reading and relationships
Published: March 29, 2010 At 3 years old, my daughter and her friends are book-obsessed. They giggle over Corduroy’s department-store antics and offer solemn observations on just exactly what will happen if you give a mouse a cookie. Meanwhile, we mothers stand together comparing notes on what books to offer our offspring.
Still, I didn’t consider channeling our literary interests into monthly meetings until I picked up Cindy Hudson’s Book by Book: The Complete Guide to Creating Mother-Daughter Book Clubs. Hudson, who co-founded a book club for each of her daughters, has written an inspiring and informative guide designed to help women start clubs for dual generations. She suggests age 7 as optimal for launching a literary discussion group, with the caveat that no second-grader will talk quietly for an hour. To that end, she offers games, ideas for shared meals, and supplemental activities such as movies, field trips, guest speakers and volunteer projects.
I can see how I might tweak her ideas for the preschool set. A book-club meeting centered on The Cat in the Hat could include a trip to our local no-kill animal shelter, a dress-up box stocked with various hats, and a batch of cat-shaped cookies for kids to decorate. But Hudson’s thoughtful exploration moves beyond these basics. She explains that, over time, book clubs build a foundation that strengthens the mother-daughter bond—critical during the teenage years. In discussing a character’s struggles with drugs, sex and peer pressure, members gain insight into each other’s feelings, and support for their own personal challenges.
I aim for the same trusting, nurturing relationship Hudson has with her daughters. With this in mind, I’ll start a book club with my vegetable-eschewing toddler and her friends. First up: The Very Hungry Caterpillar, along with plates of carrot sticks and fruit, and, of course, caterpillar cookies. |
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How to start a mother-daughter book club
• Form the group based on the age of the girls, their reading level and homogeneity. “The overriding commonality of some mother-daughter book clubs will be membership in an ethnic, social or political group,” Hudson says.
• Commit to a specific day and time each month, and decide whether you’ll meet at someone’s home for a potluck, or at a library, bookstore, coffee shop or school. “If you don’t have a regular meeting time each month, you’re likely to reduce participation and have frustrated members,” Hudson advises.
• Decide on the format of your meetings. Will you incorporate food, games, films and guest speakers along with a discussion of that month’s book? “You may want your first get-together to be strictly social without assigning a book to read before you gather. That way, you’re free to get to know each other and talk about a few basic book club guidelines,” Hudson suggests. |
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Contributing editor Melissa Hart is the author of the memoir Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood. She teaches journalism at the University of Oregon and maintains a blog for writers at www.butt2chair.wordpress.com.
(This article appears in the April 2010 issue of The Writer.)
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