Here are our stack of book club books for 2025-2026. This was the third year that we met with another book-loving family to read great books. Find ideas, links and discussion guides to help your book club!
My friend and I did something slightly different at the start of this school year. We presented the kids with a long list of about 20 books and asked them to rank the books in their order of preference. I removed the lowest-ranking books from each of the lists and we chose the top nine to read together this year!
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Midsummer’s Mayhem
This book had me intrigued from the start: How would the author would weave the magic of A Midsummer Night’s Dream into a modern-day plot? With FOOD! Rajani LaRocca does a wonderful job enhancing the magical properties of food to alter the character’s perceptions of reality. I also appreciated how she drew upon her own Indian background in the creation of her Indian-American characters in Midsummer’s Mayhem.
Be prepared with food: reading this book made us hungry! I was excited to discover recipes in the back, which we made for our book club celebration. The author includes a free Baking Event Kit on her website, walking kids through creating a baking contest. It provides 8 Indian-inspired dessert recipes, including the Thyme Chocolate Chip Cookies with Citrus Zest from the back of the book.
We read the paraphrased version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream before starting the book. And we finished the book right before a free, local opportunity to watch the play with our book club friends! Then, the following month, my daughter started a Shakespeare class at our homeschool co-op, learning about and reading the actual play. It’s just such a “God wink” for me when everything lines up like this.
Download this free Discussion Guide from the author’s website for discussion questions, and literaray activities.
Oh, but wait, LaRocca wrote a sequel, based on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, called Much Ado About Baseball. My baseball-loving boys flew through this one on their own. My youngest took pride in this being the first thick chapter book he read independently (at age 8.5). This one is related to math and contains a few bonus math sections in the back matter.
The Boy Who Saved Baseball
We chose this for our October read, before baseball season ended for some of the boys. The Boy Who Saved Baseball is the sequel to The Desperado Who Stole Baseball. It was fine to read them out of order, because you can bet that the boys read the other book on their own!
Review: Tom Gallagher has turned a baseball game into a high-states gamble to save Dillontown. A mysterious boy, Cruz de la Cruz, comes into town, possibly fulfilling a riddle about the town’s destiny. The reclusive Del Gato, a washed-out baseball player, is recruited to help coach the team of misfit baseball players. Will they be able to pull off the impossible?
We had our book party at a baseball field, decorated round sugar cookies to look like baseballs to eat while discussing the book, and then most of the kids played baseball (as well as you can with four kids).
John Ritter wrote a few other chapter books about baseball: Over the Wall, Fenway Fever, America’s Game, Under the Baseball Moon, and Choosing Up Sides.
For your baseball lovers, check out this baseball book list!
Solimar: Sword of the Monarchs
I read Solimar aloud in September, when the monarchs have their big migration down the east coast to overwinter in Mexico. This was our 4th year helping the monarchs survive by finding and raising the caterpillars on the milkweed that I had planted in our yard. It is just magical to watch the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly.
Review: Solimar is about to have her Quinceañera but prefers boots to tiaras. During a tryst in the oyamel forest where the monarch butterflies are overwintering, Solimar is chosen to be the protector of weak butterflies and endowed with a magical cape made of these butterflies as they gather their strength to fly away. She soon discovers this cape forces her to answer questions with the truth, even foretelling the near future with accuracy. When the castle falls under the control of an evil neighboring kingdom that would destroy the oyamel forest of butterflies, Solimar must flee and find a way to save her kingdom.
As I read this book aloud, I made the comment that it felt like a Disney princess movie. And then I discovered that the publisher is Disney-Hyperion! Why they have not turned this into a movie yet is beyond me.
During our read aloud of Solimar, we were in our study of the 1500s. I was pretty excited by a paragraph in Chapter 2 that anchored this story to world history. It describes her as being the descendant of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella “who sent my father’s ancestors to rule New Spain, which became the Mexican Empire, and eventually became the country of Mexico, where my father, Sebastián Reyes JoaquÃn met my distinguished mestiza mother, Rosalinda Socorro Guadalupe Cruz, whose great European and Indigenous family owned San Gregorio and all the land surrounding it as far as the eye could see!” Other than the brief history, it is a pretty fun work of fantasy, magic, and adventure. I appreciated the Spanish words sprinkled throughout.
This book is the perfect beginning to explore the monarch migration and read about Mexico.
We used the publisher’s Educator’s Guide which provides discussion questions as well as extension activities.
The Very Honorable League of Pirates: Magic Marks the Spot
It is worth listening to this trilogy on audiobook. The reader does a wonderful job with all of the characters and infusing the story’s humor into her voice.
Review: Hilary Westfield is a girl, and must therefore attend finishing school to learn to become a proper lady. But she manages to follow her heart and runs away to become a pirate on the high seas. On a treasure-hunting mission, Hilary meets a lively cast and crew, including a talking, magical gargoyle. This is the kind of adventure story that begs for sequels, and the author delivers!
The Very Honorable League of Pirates Trilogy:
- Book 1: Magic Marks the Spot
- Book 2: The Terror of the Southlands
- Book 3: The Buccaneers’ Code
The Green Ember
For our book club meeting, we had green jello (the green ember!), cheddar bunnies, and “rabbit food” like carrot and celery sticks.
Review: This book joins the ranks of other fantasy books featuring animal heroes. Two rabbits, Heather and Picket, are caught up in an adventure that takes them beyond the safety of their family and home. Like The Chronicles of Narnia and Redwall, this story is has a medieval setting as kingdoms clash and battles are fought. “It is a story of courage, loyalty, and unbreakable hope in dark times — a darkness-shaking, soul-shaping adventure that doesn’t talk down to children, but equips them for a hard and beautiful world.” (from the publisher)
This is a four book series:
Consider the Octopus
I thought this was going to be focused on ocean science and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It was more about an unlikely friendship that develops between two young people aboard a scientific research ship. All that said, we did enjoy the story and had a fun book club meeting by creating ocean scenes with yogurt, crushed oreos, and gummy fish!
Two Roads
My friend and I usually choose one novel focused on Indigenous Americans. Joseph Bruchac is my go-to author when looking for historical fiction about Indigenous American Indians. Two Roads was a favorite!
Review: Set in 1932 during the Great Depression, Cal and his father have lost everything and are hoboes, abiding by the “hobo code of honor.” When Pop needs to join a group traveling to Washington DC to get his veteran’s check, he says Cal can’t go with him. He reveals that he is actually Creek Indian, which means that he can leave Cal at the Challagi Indian Boarding School in Oklahoma. While there, Cal experiences bullying but also the forging of friendships. He learns about his Creek language and heritage, all the while hoping for Pop’s safe return.
For our book club meeting, we went to a local museum with a permanent display of North American Indian culture.
The Lion of Mars
We ended the year on a high note, with the kids wishing for a sequel to The Lion of Mars!
Review: This futuristic story follows a boy named Bell who is a member of the United States colony on Mars. Other nations have colonies of people, too, but for reasons unbeknownst to any of the younger generation, the US colony stays isolated from the rest. The children start to unravel the truth. Will they be able to heal past hurts and move forge new friendships?
The author provides a free educator’s guide with discussion questions and writing activities. For our book club meeting, we had dried seaweed snacks and carrots. Seems odd, but if you read the book, you’ll see why!
Ranger’s Apprentice: The Ruins of Gorlan
Due to general life busyness, we were not able to find the time to meet up for this final book. However, The Ruins of Gorlan is the first of a series of 11 books and the kids all read or listened to more than the first one! They all really enjoy adventure stories!