Do you belong to a book club? Do your kids? I’ve belonged to a few book clubs over the years. Some have been serious about discussing the books. Others have been more into the wine than the book discussion. Regardless, I have read some amazing – and not so amazing books – and definitely read some things that I wouldn’t normally gravitate to.
On to the book of the day! My kids were asking me to find audiobook…while I was driving the car…..on the highway where I couldn’t pull over. So I handed my phone over to them to fight over what they wanted to listen to. I’m not going to lie, having kids with different interests and having one kid on the brink of moving on to young adult books poses a problem when trying to find a book they agree on – but that’s a story for another day. They finally agreed on The Losers Club and we listened to the whole thing before I realized it was by Andrew Clements! Frindle and The Friendship War are two of our favorite books and now we can add The Losers Club to that list.
Sixth-grader, Alec, spends more time with books than with friends (ummmmm……this is the current state of my life and I see nothing wrong with it) so when he is forced to join an afternoon club he and Nina – a fellow bookworm – form a book club. This is just an excuse for them to read and not have to join a real club. And to discourage others from joining they name it The Losers Club. You know this is going to backfire spectacularly. Slowly other students start to join the club – including Alec’s ex-friend turned bully. Then some of the members what to (gasp) actually talk about the books. Alec encounters a romantic rival forcing him to confront his feelings for Nina and Alec realizes he has to stop hiding behind books and start to live life.
Both of my kids really enjoyed this book and I did too! I love how Clements had the members of The Losers Club reading actual books including ones my kids recognized like Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo and The Diary of the Wimpy Kid Series by Jeff Kinney. We also discovered the Hatchet series by Gary Paulsen which I highly recommend (and will be blogging about soon).
I’d love to get my kids involved in an actual book club of their own!! Drop a comment below if you would be interested in something local or if your kids are or have been in a book club let me know how it operates.
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