I hosted my middle daughter’s book club this past week. She chose her all-time favorite book by which she judges all other books, Newbury Honor Book, The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden. Activity 1: Create a Cricket Habitat with Actual Crickets to Bring Home.
My oldest child is now starting 6th grade which is Middle School where I live. She’s a voracious reader now but it wasn’t always so. I guess there are many, many reasons why kids don’t like to read and for her, it wasn’t the decoding or sitting still; it was the act of performing. She hates any kind of attention. A root canal is preferable to her over performing and reading out loud was a performance to her.
Hiking around a pine woods with a dog and soccer ball makes for the perfect book club for The Penderwicks at Point Mouette by Jeanne Birdsall.
We were fortunate to have Middle Grade Author Karen Day as a guest at our 6th Grade girls’ book club where they discussed changes, Middle School, A Million Miles from Boston, and wrote short stories inspired by her talk.
My 5th grade daughter’s book club got invited to the 5th grade boys’ book club because they had a special guest, William Maliul, an articulate and engaging Lost Boy of Sudan, who came to speak about his experiences in Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, and the United States. Brothers in Hope was the book club selection and though it is a picture book, the content is suitable for a 4th or 5th grader.
These tips are from Dr. Abby. I have more posts on Reluctant Readers here
The Marsh Award for Children’s Literature in Translation is a literary prize awarded in the United Kingdom since 1996 to the translator of an outstanding work of fiction for young readers translated into English. I haven’t heard of many of these books but if you are looking for a book that no one has heard of, this is a great list with a wide range of age appropriateness. Your child might find a great book for summer reading!