Book Club Kits for Kids
Book Club Kits for Kids come in a red tote bag with multiple copies of a title (kit can include up to 14 copies of one title), plus a discussion guide, which includes author biographies, book reviews, discussion questions and other information to help you host a great meeting!
Book Club Kit for Kids Request
Below is a list of more than 50 titles from which you can choose. Once you have selected a title, request your kit online. Please allow one to two weeks for a staff member to contact you about your request. All copies of the book will be checked out to one member of the group and can be kept for up to nine (9) weeks.
If you have any questions please call East Regional Library – Youth Services (217-5317), or e-mail Book Club Kits for Kids.
Below is the list of available Book Club Kit titles
and a guide to suggested grade levels.
Note: Requesting a title from the link below will result in one copy of a book, not a kit.
Suggested Grade Levels
ES – Elementary School (grades 3-5)
ES, MS – (grades 5-7)
MS – Middle School (grades 6-9)
HS – High School (grades 9-12)
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
(also Available in Large Print & Audio)
A 12-year-old boy moves to Alcatraz Island in 1935 and has to contend with his extraordinary new environment in addition to life with his autistic sister. (MS)
Among the Hidden by Margaret Haddix
(also Available in Audio)
In a future where the Population Police enforce the law limiting a family to only two children, Luke has lived all his 12 years in isolation and fear, until another "third" convinces him that the government is wrong. (MS)
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
(also Available in Large Print & Audio)
Ten-year-old India Opal Buloni describes her first summer in the town of Naomi, Florida, and all the good things that happen to her because of her big, ugly dog, Winn-Dixie. (ES)
Call it Courage by Armstrong Sperry
(also Available in Large Print & Audio)
On the verge of manhood, Mafatu, who lost his mother in a terrible storm when he was a young child, sets out to sea with only his faithful dog and a misfit albatross for a guide. (ES)
Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop
(also Available in Audio)
A gift of a toy castle, complete with silver knight, introduces William to an adventure involving magic and a personal quest. (ES)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
(also Available in Audio)
Each of five children lucky enough to discover an entry ticket into Mr. Willy Wonka's mysterious chocolate factory takes advantage of the situation in his own way. (ES)
The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
(also Available in Audio)
The city of Ember was built underground as a last refuge for the human race. Two hundred years later, the lamps that light the city are beginning to flicker. Lina and her friend must decipher a secret message in order to save the city. (MS)
Clementine by Sara Pennypacker
(also Available in Audio)
While sorting through friendship difficulties, Clementine gains several unique hair stylesand helps her father her in his efforts to banish pigeons from their apartment. (ES)
Darnell Rock Reporting by Walter Dean Myers
Thirteen-year-old Darnell's twin sister and the other members of the Corner Crew have doubts about his work on the school newspaper, but the article he writes about a homeless man changes his attitude about school. (MS)
Down the Rabbit Hole by Peter Abrahams
(also Available in Audio)
Like her idol Sherlock Holmes, 8th grader Ingrid Levin-Hill uses her intellect to solve a murder case in her home town of Echo Falls. (MS)
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
(also Available in Large Print & Audio)
Against a bold tapestry of princes, ogres, giants, wicked stepsisters and fairy godmothers, Ella pursues a quest to rid herself of a curse bestowed on her at birth. (ES)
The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
(also Available in Large Print & Audio)
A photograph of a missing girl on a milk carton leads Janie on a search for her real identity. (MS)
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
(also Available in Large Print & Audio)
Having run away with her younger brother to live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 12-year-old Claudia strives to keep things in order in their new home and to become a changed person and a heroine to herself. (ES, MS)
Granny Torelli Makes Soup by Sharon Creech
With the help of her wise old grandmother, 12-year-old Rosie manages to work out some problems in her relationship with her best friend, Bailey, the boy next door. (ES)
The Green Book by Jill Patton Walsh
As their small stock of essential supplies dwindles, a group of refugees from earth struggle to make their strange new planet provide life's necessities. (ES)
Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
(also Available in Large Print & Audio)
When 11-year-old Gregor and his 2-year-old sister are pulled into a strange underground world, they trigger an epic battle while on a quest foretold by ancient prophesy. (ES, MS)
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
(also Available in Audio)
When Harriet's classmates find her diary and read what she has written about them, they decide to make life miserable for her. (ES)
Hatchet by Brian Paulsen
(also Available in Audio)
After a plane crash, 13-year-old Brian spends 54 days in the wilderness, learning to survive initially with only the aid of a hatchet given him by his mother, and learning also to survive his parents' divorce. (MS)
Holes by Louis Sachar
(also Available in Large Print & Audio)
As further evidence of his family's bad fortune, which they attribute to a curse on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnats is sent to a correctional camp in the Texas desert, where he finds his first real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself. (MS)
The Homework Machine by Dan Gutman
(also Available in Audio)
Four 5th grade students, as well as their teachers and mothers, each relate events surrounding a computer programmed to complete homework assignments. (ES)
The House of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton
(also Available in Audio)
An African-American family tries to unravel the secrets of their new home, which was once a stop on the Underground Railroad. (ES)
The Janitor’s Boy by Andrew Clements
(also Available in Large Print)
Fifth-grader Jack finds himself the target of ridicule at school when it becomes known that his father is one of the janitors, and he turns his anger onto his father. (ES)
Jazmin’s Notebook by Nikki Grimes
Fourteen-year-old Jazmin fills her notebook with exuberant, passionate, perceptive, witty stories of her life in Harlem in the 1960s. (MS)
The Land I Lost: Adventures of a Boy in Vietnam by Huynh Quang Nhuong
A collection of personal reminiscences of the author's youth in a hamlet on the central highlands of Vietnam. (ES)
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Twelve-year-old Percy learns he is a demigod, son of Poseidon. His mother sends him to a camp where he and his new friends begin a quest to stop a war between the gods. (MS)
Lion Boy by Zizou Corder
In the near future, a boy with ability to speak the language of cats sets out from London to seek his kidnapped parents and finds himself on a Paris-bound circus ship learning to train lions. (MS)
A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck
(also Available in Large Print)
Join Joey and his sister, Mary Alice, as they spend seven unforgettable summers with the worst influence imaginable – their grandmother! (ES, MS)
Love, Ruby Lavendar by Deborah Wiles
(also Available in Audio)
When her quirky grandmother goes to Hawaii for the summer, nine-year-old Ruby learns to survive on her own in Mississippi by writing letters, befriending chickens as well as the new girl in town, and finally coping with her grandfather's death. (ES)
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
(also Available in Large Print & Audio)
After his parents die, Jeffrey Lionel Magee's life becomes legendary, as he accomplishes athletic and other feats that awe his contemporaries. (MS)
The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
Deaf, blind and mute, 12-year-old Helen Keller was like a wild animal. Scared out of her wits but still murderously strong, she clawed and struggled against all who tried to help her. Half-blind herself but blessed with fanatical dedication, Annie Sullivan began a titanic struggle to release the young girl from the terrifying prison of eternal darkness and silence. (ES, MS)
The Moves Make the Man by Bruce Brooks
(also Available in Audio)
Jerome, the first black to go to a formerly all-white high school, befriends Bix, an unstable outsider, and tries to teach him basketball until Bix's mental state becomes apparent. (MS)
No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman
(also Available in Audio)
Eighth-grade football hero Wallace Wallace must spend detention watching rehearsals of the school play where, in spite of himself, he becomes involved in the production and makes suggestions for improvement to the play, and to his own life. (MS)
Nothing but the Truth by Avi
Chronicling the results of a teacher's objections to a ninth-grader's humming along with the Star Spangled Banner, it forces the reader to explore issues of perception, reality, bias and expediency. (MS)
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
(also Available in Audio)
In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, 10-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis. (MS)
Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris
A young man with a mysterious past and a penchant for inventing things leaves the troll who raised him, meets an unhappy princess he has loved from afar, and discovers a plot against her and her father. (MS)
Our Only May Amelia by Jennifer L. Holm
As the only girl in a Finnish-American family of seven brothers, May Amelia Jackson resents being expected to act like a lady while growing up in Washington state in 1899. (ES, MS)
Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry
Soon after Peter, an orphan, sets sail on the ship Never Land, he meets Molly, a young Starcatcher, whose mission is to guard a trunk of magical stardust from a pirate and the inhabitants of a remote island. (MS)
Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief by Wendelin Van Draanen
Thirteen-year-old Sammy's penchant for speaking her mind gets her in trouble when she involves herself in the investigation of a robbery at the "seedy" hotel across the street from the building where she is living with her grandmother. (ES)
The Secret of Platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson
(also Available in Large Print)
A forgotten door on an abandoned railway platform is the entrance to a magical kingdom – an island where humans live happily with mermaids, ogres and other wonderful creatures. (ES)
Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
(also Available in Large Print & Audio)
When he finds a lost beagle in the hills behind his West Virginia home, Marty tries to hide it from his family and the dog's real owner, a mean-spirited man known to shoot deer out of season and to mistreat his dogs. (ES)
Slam by Walter Dean Myers
Sixteen-year-old "Slam" Harris is counting on his noteworthy basketball talents to get him out of the inner city and give him a chance to succeed in life, but his coach sees things differently. (MS)
The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox
(also Available in Audio)
Kidnapped by the crew of an Africa-bound ship, a 13-year-old boy discovers to his horror that he is on a slaver and his job is to play music for the exercise periods of the human cargo. (MS)
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
(also Available in Large Print & Audio)
In this story about the perils of popularity, the courage of nonconformity, and the thrill of first love, an eccentric student named Stargirl changes Mica High School forever. (MS, HS)
Stone Fox by John Gardiner
(also Available in Audio)
Little Willie hopes to pay the back taxes on his grandfather's farm with the purse from a dog sled race he enters. (ES)
Storm Warriors by Elisa Carbone
In 1895, after his mother's death, 12-year-old Nathan moves with his father and grandfather to Pea Island, off the coast of North Carolina, where he hopes to join the all-black crew at the nearby lifesaving station, despite his father's objections. (MS)
The Storyteller's Daughter by Cameron Dokey
Shaharazade finds herself enslaved by the king, but her wiles and wit eventually lead the coldhearted ruler into her arms in this fresh, quirky retelling of a classic tale that unites historical romance and magic. (MS)
Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie Tolan
Jake Semple is notorious. Rumor has it he burned down his old school and has been kicked out of every school in his home state. Only one place will take him now, a home school run by the Applewhites, a chaotic and hilarious family of artists. (MS)
The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo
Rob, who passes the time in his rural Florida community by wood carving, is drawn by his spunky but angry friend, Sistine, into a plan to free a caged tiger. (ES)
Tornado by Betsy Byars
As they wait out a tornado in their storm cellar, a family listens to their farmhand tell stories about the dog who was blown into his life by another tornado when he was a boy. (ES)
Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen
(also Available in Audio)
This gripping, graphic survival story from an award-winning writer paints an unsparing picture of a violent teen named Cole Matthews and offers a poignant testimony that pain can both hurt and heal. (MS)
The Witness by Karen Hesse
A series of poems express the views of various people in a small Vermont town, including a young black girl and a young Jewish girl, during the early 1920s when the Ku Klux Klan is trying to infiltrate the town. (ES, MS)
The Wreckers by Iain Lawrence
(also Available in Audio)
In 1799, a ship is lured onto the rocky coast by Cornwallians who live off plunder from wrecked ships. John, apparently the only survivor of this ship, must escape the murderous wreckers in this old-fashioned thriller. (MS)
Wringer by Jerry Spinelli
(also Available in Large Print & Audio)
As Palmer comes of age, he must either accept the violence of being a wringer at his town's annual Pigeon Day or find the courage to oppose it. (ES,MS)
The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin
(also Available in Audio)
Frustrated at her seeming lack of talent for anything, a young Taiwanese American girl sets out to apply the lessons of the Chinese Year of the Dog, those of making best friends and finding oneself, to her own life. (ES)