We had so much fun celebrating books with our book club last year! With each discussion, we had a “book party.” If you’re new to the idea, read on!
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What is a book party?
A book party is really similar to a book club discussion meeting. It’s just a jazzed-up, fun version of a book club. You can make it as fancy or as casual as you’d like.
Last year, I had purchased a year-long package of Julie Bogart’s grammar and writing curriculum at the Dart level. Each curriculum packet contains ideas for book parties. The ideas range from easy to requiring a lot of decor and prep, but we opted to keep the parties quite simple.
I knew that if I made them too complicated, I would be unable to keep up with it. With my personality, I’d just give up on the whole thing. My friend and I took turns doing each book party, and I also didn’t want to put any unnecessary pressure on her.
We’ve even chosen some books according to current museum exhibits at our favorite hands-on museum, and then visited the museum for the book party.
Here are a few ideas, from easy to elaborate:
- Make easy foods that are mentioned in the book.
- Do activities that line up with the book, whether it’s an active, running-around game outside or a sit-down craft.
- Decorate in ways relevant to the book.
Our 2023-2024 Book Party Line Up
These books are great to for independent reading for ages 10 and up. I did these as family read-alouds so that my 1st and 3rd grader could enjoy them, too. Many of these books are part of a series, and the kids wanted to read those, too! The other books in the series that my 12-year old twins read independently are pictured in the book stack on the right. I’ve mentioned them below, as well.
Here is a list of the books that we read last year, with a few things that we did at each book party:
Odder
Since this was my first book party, it was a bit fancier. I decorated the dining area with blue and green streamers to represent ocean waves and seaweed. My kids made a few signs with otters and sharks. We had seaweed, bubble tea, and made snickerdoodle cookies with almonds to look like sand dollars. We watched a few videos about otters at Monterey Bay Aquarium.
The Year of the Dog
We interviewed family members for stories from our own family history and shared them with the group. We celebrated a Chinese Holiday by making mooncakes.
We’ve read the sequels in the past: The Year of the Rat, and Dumpling Days
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
We chose this book to pair with an amazing museum exhibit. Unfortunately, the book was a bit too advanced for the kids (aged 6-11), but the kids read simplified and graphic novel versions before we went to the museum.
Children of the Longhouse
We had planned to go to a Native American museum, which ended up not working out due to winter sicknesses. So we made Native American dwellings out of popsicle sticks. And a functional birdhouse!
Mr Lemoncello’s Very First Game
We simulated Mr. Lemoncello’s carnival game using foam arrows and paper balloon cutouts instead of sharp darts and real balloons. (Because who likes the sound of popping balloons? No one.) Behind each balloon cutout was a rebus puzzle to solve.
This book is the prequel that comes after 5 books in the series. My kids were very excited when I bought the other books from BookOutlet and ThriftBooks.
Ra the Mighty: Cat Detective
We had a meal of goldfish (vs actual fish), seaweed, and figs. We looked at photos of actual statue in the British Museum that inspired the main characters, Ra and Khepri.
These were a very fun addition to our study on Ancient Egypt. The sequels are Ra the Mighty: the Great Tomb Robbery and Ra the Mighty: Crocodile Caper. I read the 2nd one to my youngest kids and it was a pretty exciting mystery.
Just Beyond the Very Very Far North
We discussed what we would have done at the bravery talent show. We had to have “nibbles,” of course, so we made pineapple cakes together. This book is so good to pair with learning about animals in the far north of Canada.
This is the sequel to The Very, Very Far North, which we had read a few years ago.
The Girl Who Stole an Elephant
We did a taste test of cookies with two types of cinnamon (Vietnamese and Indonesian) on them. We examined various types of polished rocks and played bingo with them. Set in Sri Lanka, we revisited some picture books set in the country when we read this book. Get the list and party pics here: Sri Lanka Books and Party.
Others in the series are The Boy Who Met a Whale & The Girl Who Lost a Leopard. My older kids really enjoyed all of them. A fourth one just came out which I’ll have to check out for my older kids: The Boy Who Saved a Bear.
The Bookwanderers
We had a tea party with beautiful quotes from the book.
There are 6 books in this series. I’ve heard mixed reviews, but my kids were not interested in the sequels, so I didn’t explore further.
A similar series about characters and people jumping in and out of books is Story Thieves. My kids read the first two in that series along with Bookwanderers.
Dragon Rider and Wingfeather: On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness
These two were our summer reads. We chose them to match a museum exhibit about Dragons from different cultures. (It turns out that the dragons don’t make much of a splash in Wingfeather. But that was one of the kids’ favorite series from the entire year!)
Dragon Rider has two sequels. Wingfeather has three sequels and those were a big favorite of all the older kids.
Brave Writer Curriculum
Julie Bogart, the owner of Brave Writer, does have an interview on her podcast specifically about throwing a book party. Her curriculum teaches grammar through copywork and dictation. It is the most organic and conversational way I have found so far to teach grammar and writing (aside from just naturally talking about it…which isn’t natural for me)
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