Instead of doing literature as a separate subject (with the exception of studying Shakespeare), our elementary kids have a twice-monthly book club that they love.
Books for an Elementary-Level Book Club
My good friend and neighbor-down-the-street hosts a twice-monthly book club for her two elementary students and my two. They read the same book, then gather to talk about the characters and setting and what their favorite part was and why.
This year they’ve also started using the questions from Teaching the Classics. Although I think the basic book club was a great thing, after the Read-Aloud Revival podcasts with Adam Andrews and with Heidi Scovel, we purchased the Teaching the Classics set, watched the videos, and my friend started trying it out with the kids.
My friend is the kid lit specialist and she picks all the books. Here’s what they read last year and what’s on the list for this year so far, for a book club with kids ages 8-11:
- Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
- Call of the Wild by Jack London
- From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
- *The Borrows** by Mary Norton
- The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright
- Babe the Gallant Pig by Dick King-Smith
- Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien
- The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
- Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
- Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
- Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge
- Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham
- Along Came a Dog by Meindert DeJong
- Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong
- The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois
- Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop
- Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
- Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
- Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright
- The Wonderful O by James Thurber
- The 13 Clocks By James Thurber
- Hitty Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field
- David and the Phoenix by David Ormondroyd
- Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey
- Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
- All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor
- Fog Magic by Julia L. Sauer
- Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt
- The Winged Watchman by Hilda Van Stockum
- Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
- The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
- My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
These books make great read-alouds, literature selections, or free reading choices.