Did you have a chance to download the free printables in our 3 Reasons Your Kids Should Start a (Secret) Club post?

Starting a club or fort is a rite of passage for kids — a statement that says “I’m ready to bond with my peers” if you will.

Kids love the idea of creating their own secret handshake, club badge and map directions!

But maybe the kids aren’t sure what kind of a club to start.

It’s a good question — one that takes some thought and a few inspirational reads.

So this week’s book list is all about the fun & adventures that happen when you create a club of your own!

 

 

Inspiring Kids to Start a Club

Summer is the perfect time to start a club! 

Maybe the kids want to kick off an Explorer’s Club and head out on adventures.  Or they may enjoy forming a Book Club and reading together.  And then there are those unique ideas — like an “I don’t want to go back to school” club 🙂 

Our books will entice them to connect with their friends and siblings to make some amazing memories.  Not to mention learn a few skills in leadership and collaboration.  We’re including affiliate links so you can learn more about each of our selections along with a brief description too.

 

My husband & daughter would certainly be fans of The Dangerous Snake & Reptile Club!  (And yes, I said daughter — she takes after her Dad 😉

Readers will see that this group of boys has a lot of imagination along with some very interesting finds for their newly formed club.  But can they stay in control of all the ‘club members’?  A funny story of how clubs form, disband and begin again.

 

Some kids might be interested in starting The Perfect Clubhouse– one that is the best place to paint or do science projects or camp-out!  But what if everyone wants to do something different? 

Kids will learn quite a bit about cooperation and compromise in this wonderful story of four friends who each have a different idea of what should be done in The Perfect Clubhouse!

 

Young girls who love to solve mysteries (and like horses!) will enjoy The Clue in the Clubhouse.  Three friends decide to start a Detective Club and stumble upon their first case when they head to the stables. 

This early chapter book is sure to inspire and entertain any wanna-be sleuth! Perfect for kids reading on their own who aren’t yet ready for a longer mystery.  And we really enjoyed the colorful illustrations throughout the story.

 

Freddy & Frito decide that they want to start a club that doesn’t have any rules (because they both agree there are waaaaayyy too many rules to follow at home).  However, they learn very quickly that rules can be a good thing too. 

But how do you ask your friends to leave the clubhouse when everyone feels so at home?  A story with a great moral — ‘Be careful what you wish for’!  We really loved the endearing watercolor illustrations in Freddy & Frito and the Clubhouse Rules.

 

For kids who look at a pile of junk and see treasure,  The Clubhouse is a wonderful read!  Four friends find some old boards and other assorted junk in a vacant lot and decide it would make a cool clubhouse — so they set out to begin building! 

This book highlights the imagination and persistance that many kids have when they begin a project.  It’s a fun read for early readers who want a not-too-long book to enjoy this summer.

 

We love this pint-sized detective!  In Nate the Great and the Hungry Book Club, Nate’s friend has started a book club but something mysterious keeps happening to the pages in the books.  Can Nate find the culprit before any other books are harmed? 

I can almost guarantee that kids who want to start a spy or dectective club will begin to scout out things like a notebook and cool sleuth hat — sometimes clubs are all about the ‘gear’!  If this is a hit with your child, be sure to introduce them to the other kid-friendly mysteries in the series.

 

This is another series that grows with the reader; Amelia Bedelia Chapter Book #6: Amelia Bedelia Cleans Up shares how a younger Amelia is always puzzled by many of the phrases we use in the English language.  Amelia and her friends set out to clean up an old vacant lot and start an Explorer’s Club with many fun antics (and misunderstandings of phrases) that arise in the process.

Kids who are familiar with the original Amelia Bedelia stories will enjoy this entertaining introduction to her childhood.  I love the black and white illustrations on almost every page (it’s a great book for kids who are reading early chapter books but still enjoy the pictures).  A guide to idioms (a phrase that has a figurative meaning like “raining cats and dogs”) is included in the back of the book too.

 

We’re currently reading Henry and the Clubhouse which is a wonderfully vintage book!  Henry Huggins (neighbor to Ramona if the kids are familiar with her books) sets out to build a clubhouse — the BEST clubhouse — with his two friends Murph and Robert.  But when Murph suggests the club be for “boys only”, Henry doesn’t want to exclude his good friend Beezus who is a girl. 

An entertaining read-aloud or read-on-your-own story for kids who are ready for chapter books.  And quite a few interesting conversations will occur about the difference between life now and when Henry was young (for example, why Henry needs a dime to call home on the pay phone 🙂

 

Updated cover art for a well-loved series will invite a new generation of readers to enjoy The Baby-Sitters Club.  You may remember these books from way back when — a group of middle school girls decide to start a Babysitters Club.  Their club meetings focus on contacting families to hire them for jobs and in each book in the series, the girls face some type of life issue that they must work through.

The book details how the girls create a club with structure since they are in the babysitting ‘business’ — they each hold positions such as President & Treasurer and call meetings to order.  Kids will both enjoy the story and learn a few skills as they read these books.

 

A fabulous chapter book series, The Mother-Daughter Book Clubtells the story of a group of girls who become friends because their moms decide to start a Book Club.  And what do they read?  Classic literature!  Which at first makes the girls balk but they (and we) quickly begin to see how the events in each book they read begins to play out in their own daily lives. 

I love that the story is told from the point of view of each of the four girls in alternating chapters and includes many passages that play on words or incorporate some of the classic text from the novels they are reading.  It’s a great way to introduce kids to good literature.

 

This is an awesome read for kids ages 10 and up!  Five friends make a pact to earn a million dollars by the end of the summer in The Get Rich Quick Club.  They devise the scheme of taking a photo of a UFO and selling it — but what happens when others begin to think it’s the real thing?

There are so many lessons and discussion opportunities with this story — the ethics of making money, honesty vs. hiding some of the truth and how to fix a mistake you made.

 

 

MORE GREAT BOOK LISTS:

25 Kids Books that Were Made into Movies

Back to School Books for Preschool to Middle School

Amazing Books that Introduce Kids to Space