Kids’ Classics Book Club
c
I started a classics book club for myself and my kids. For those who are like me and would like to start one up, but don’t have enough friends who are interested. LOL! I joined a few meetup.com groups in my area and posted each book club meeting and started a secret private Facebook group for those who I knew to join in as well. (Ultimately, it became just a Facebook thing. After about six months on meetup, we had about 40 members on the Facebook page, so it ended up starting to just be new people being added by word of mouth or if I met people at homeschooling park days.)
I have a few goals — read classics and hopefully foster some friendships with other homeschooling moms for myself and other homeschooling kids for my daughter.
Here is how I introduced it:
I’m starting a classics book club for ages 4ish-10ish (younger and older certainly welcome). The plan is to read one classic a month and have a party based on the book to celebrate our accomplishment. This is a club for the kids, so the kids should be reading the classic or have the classic read to them. It’s up to you whether it will be an abridged version or not.
Hopefully, we parents will also read the books and have the chance to read some great classics we read as a child or ones we never got to. And, in the process introduce a whole new world to our kids and inspire them to love reading.
Each event will be a little different. Kids can dress up. I’ll plan fun activities and a themed snack. Every other will be in my backyard, which means they’ll probably get messy since it’s all dirt. The other times we will go somewhere else that will enhance the book.
When I say book club, I mean it in its simplest form — reading a book together and doing activities. 🙂 This is very casual. No formal questions or discussions. Just, getting together to do activities that expand on the book. It’s not necessary to come every time and coming to one party does not mean you have to come every time. So, no need to commit to coming to every one. Come when you can. No pressure!
The Theme for Each Book Club
I decided to call it “Oh, the Places We’ll Go” Book Club based on Dr. Seuss’s quote. 
And in that theme, I try to make each party title related to travel. We also made passports for each child. They get them when they arrive and at each station, they stamp a letter of the “place.” Then they leave it behind. That way, those who don’t come every time aren’t responsible for remembering it.
Update: I loved this, but soon realized it was an idea that stems from a more structured format than I planned. It would work great in a classroom or as a co-op, but I found that it was a lot of work for me — I kept trying to do enough activities that covered all the stamps — and, half of the kids weren’t interested, including my own! In a classroom, this would be a simple way to keep track of all the kid’s completion and progress. But, in a book club like this, when it isn’t necessary for all kids to do all the activities, nor were they required to do the stamps, it was just busywork. So, I sadly let them go, but hopefully some of you will find a place for them for your classroom or libraries or whatever. 🙂
Feel free to download and print copies for yourself — I add six blank pages.
Passport cover
Passport interior first page
And, I have a donations box out if anyone wants to help with supplies. I thought about making it an activity to pay for, but it seemed a little strange, when I was doing it for my daughter and getting so much from it myself. And, also this way, those who can’t afford it can still come. I’ve gotten enough to cover at least half of the costs each time, which is way more than I expected! Love giving people!
Book List
I will try and do a post for each one, but it may take awhile. But, I’ll list the books we read as we go. I’ll also put the Pinterest board I created next to it. (PS: For those of you who are part of this book club — any future books listed are subject to change!! 🙂 ) And, just as a reference, we started the book club when my daughter was 4 1/2 years old, but the activities can work for lots of age groups — the oldest I’ve had doing stuff is an 8th grader, and they had fun too! 🙂
Year 1
- “Oh, the Places We’ll Go”
Dr. Seuss (Pinterest Board) - First Stop: China!
Little Pear and Little Pear and Friends (Pinterest Board) - Destination: Wonderland!
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Pinterest Board) - All Aboard!
The Boxcar Children (Pinterest Board) - Up the Rhine to Switzerland!
The Overall Boys in Switzerland (don’t get the paperback on Amazon, it doesn’t have pictures!) - Berry Picking
Milly-Molly-Mandy Storybook - Creek Exploring
Minn of the Mississippi
Year 2
- At the Seashore
A Bear Called Paddington - Farm Fun
Two and Two Are Four - Homesteading Adventure
Understood Betsy - Mystery at My House
Nate the Great
Nate the Great Goes Undercover
Nate the Great and the Lost List
Nate the Great and the Phony Clue
Nate the Great and the Sticky Case
Nate the Great and the Missing Key
Nate the Great and the Snowy Trail
Nate the Great and the Fishy Prize
Nate the Great Stalks Stupidweed
Nate the Great and the Boring Beach Bag - Play and the Park
Charlotte’s Web - Crazy Fun
Mrs Piggle Wiggle - Visiting a Farm
Farmer Boy - Southern Picnic
Strawberry Girl
Year 3
- Fun at the Beach
Swiss Family Robinson - Dinosaurs at the Fair
Magic Tree House: Dinosaurs before Dark #1 - Double Trouble
Lisa and Lottie - A Play and the Park
Henry and Mudge
Took a break while I was pregnant and had a newborn.
Year 4
I have so many different levels, decided to try out multiple books with different levels, but similar themes. We’ll see how it goes. (Update: After a couple of years of this, I found it was a little difficult because there are just so many activity options. Ended up changing it back with 1 main book and some extra books for younger or older kids.)
- Exploring China
Main Book: Little Pear (4+)
- Free-for-Owl
Hoot (12+)Adult Book Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl (Not a known classic…but sounds like could be one someday. Not surprisingly, there aren’t a lot of owl themed books for adults.
It turned out to be a really interesting book!) - Fun at the Beach
- Main Book (3+): The Overall Boys (This is a very old book. You’ll find it here. There are a couple things you may want to skip, you’ll know what I mean when you get to it. Eek!)
Picture Books: A Day at the Seashore, The Seashore Book
The Wheel on the School (5+)
Baby Island (6+)
9+ Bright Island (9+)
Adult Book The Old Man and the Sea - Berry Picking
Main Book: Strawberry Girl (This book includes the term colloquial term at the time of “crackers” to describe poor white people in Florida. The author has a series where she visited these regions before writing about them. So, she uses the terms and language they used at the time she wrote them.)
Picture Books: Wild Berries, The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear, Jamberry, Blueberries for Sal, Saving Strawberry FarmChapter Books (10+): (please check descriptions to make sure the content is appropriate for your child) Esperanza Rising, A Taste of Blackberries , The Secrets of Blueberries: Brothers, Moose & MeAdult Book: The Grapes of Wrath - River Romp
Main book: The Wind in the Willows (5+)
Picture Books: Rain, Drop, Splash, Where the River Begins (2+)
Paddle-to-the Sea (5+)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (10+)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (10+) - Turkey Time
Main Book 5+ The Great Turkey Walk
Picture Books: The Thanksgiving Door, Over the River and Through the Wood , Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving
Molly’s Pilgrim (5+)
The Thanksgiving Visitor (5+)
Teen and Adult: An Old-Fashioned Girl
Year 5-6
(Covid Years: virtual and distanced book club meetings, which were essentially stations set up for kids to do in our front yard. They would book a time and go through the stations as a family with a designated time. My kids would hang out near our door and chat and talk with them.)
- Pippi Longtocking
Thing Finder Show and Tell (virtual activity)
Pippi Picnic (virtual activity)
Visit Villa Villekulla (distanced book club) - Mr. Popper’s Penguins
I’m a Penguin (virtual activity)
Penguin Party (distanced book club – got rained out, so just gave bags and info for pickup) - Fun at Gone-Away Lake (distanced book club)
Gone-Away Lake -
Country Living (distanced book club)
Understood Betsy
Year 7
- River Exploring: Thimble Summer
Thimble Summer - Switzerland in the Fall
A Bell for Ursli (picture book) video readingOverall Boys (3+ early reader) Free (The Amazon paperback one, when I ordered it a few years back did not have pictures, so I wouldn’t recommend it.)Asterix in Switzerland (11+ these are pretty dated in some ways, so you may want to read them together)Banner in the Sky (13+)And Both Were Young (13+)
- Horsing Around
Misty of Chincoteague 7+ (This author is the quintessential author of classic horse books. She has quite a number of them in this series and other series.)Black Stallion 8+ (This is the first of a series.)My Friend Flicka 10+All the Pretty Horses 15+ (This is the first of a series.)
- All Aboard
The Little Train 1+
The Boxcar Children 4+
The Railway Children 10+ - To the Tidepools!
Pagoo 5+
Year 8
There will start to be some duplicates since my youngest was hitting the age my oldest was when we started this book club.
- At Home with Mrs. Piggle Wiggle
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle - Musical Afternoon
Charlotte’s Web - A Visit to China
Main Book (4+): Little PearExtra Books:
The Emperor and the Kite (3+)Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze (11+)
Ho-Ming, Girl of New China (11+) (This is a little harder to find, but here is the text online: https://archive.org/…/hominggirlofnewc00lewi_djvu.txt )The Good Earth series (16+)
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China (16+) (This is so long, but so good!)
Year 9
-
Pioneer Life
Understood Betsy
Diary of an Early American Boy: Noah Blake, 1805 - Mystery at My House
Nate the Great
Nate the Great Goes Undercover
Nate the Great and the Lost List
Nate the Great and the Phony Clue
Nate the Great and the Sticky Case
Nate the Great and the Missing Key
Nate the Great and the Snowy Trail
Nate the Great and the Fishy Prize
Nate the Great Stalks Stupidweed
Nate the Great and the Boring Beach Bag - Picnic at the Park
Milly-Molly-Mandy Storybook
Year 10
This year some of the classic book clubs were also history club books. This year would be Ancient Rome to the middle ages.
- Shipping Museum
Seabird - Roman Villa (History Club Book)
Main Book (9+): Detectives in Togas - Apples and Turkeys
The Great Turkey Walk - Adventure Time (History Club Book)
Robin Hood (unabridged)
Abridged Versions
7+ Robin Hood (Children’s Illustrated Classics)
5+ Robin Hood (A Stepping Stone Book) - Korea in the Middle Ages (History Club Book)
A Single Shard - Ice Skating Races
Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates - Creek Exploring
Minn of the Mississippi
2 Comments
Anna Herrick
Hello! I see this may be an old site but I loved your Little Pear party and was wondering if you were going to add any more parties that you have done? You do a great job!! We have just read some of the books on your lists and to end the book we also like to celebrate with some activities/parties for my kids and I.
Kelly
I’m so glad it’s been helpful!! I’ve had two babies since posting, so I haven’t been able to keep up. But, hopefully will. And yes, we’ve definitely been doing parties! What book did you guys read? If I did a party I can tell you about it. And, if didn’t, I’m sure I could offer some ideas. Kelly