Book Club Kits for Kids
Book Club Kits for Kids come in a red tote bag with multiple copies of a title (up to 14 copies of one title), and we will email you a discussion guide, which includes author biographies, book reviews, discussion questions and other information to help you host a great meeting!
Below is a list of more than 50 titles from which you can choose. Once you have selected a title, request your kit online. 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.
Please allow one to two weeks for a staff member to contact you about your request, and for your books to arrive.
If you have any questions or are experiencing difficulties ordering a kit online, please call East Regional Library – Youth Services (919-217-5317) 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)
MS – Middle School (grades 6-9)
HS – High School (grades 9-12)
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
Print the Discussion Guide
In the not-so-distant future, when synthetic bodies and brains are possible but illegal, Jenna Fox, who is recovering from a serious accident and suffering from memory lapses, learns a startling secret about her existence. (MS, HS)
Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
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Matt, a young cabin boy aboard an airship, and Kate, a wealthy young girl traveling with her chaperone, team up to search for the existence of mysterious winged creatures reportedly living hundreds of feet above the Earth's surface. (MS, HS)
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
(also Available in Large Print & Audio) Print the Discussion Guide
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) Print the Discussion Guide
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. (ES, MS)
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
(also Available in Large Print & Audio) Print the Discussion Guide
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)
Bunnicula by Deborah and James Howe
(Also Available in Audio) Print the Discussion Guide
Though scoffed at by Harold the dog, Chester the cat tries to warn his human family that their foundling baby bunny must be a vampire. (ES)
Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop
(also Available in Audio) Print the Discussion Guide
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) Print the Discussion Guide
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) Print the Discussion Guide
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. (ES, MS)
Clementine by Sara Pennypacker
(also Available in Audio) Print the Discussion Guide
While sorting through friendship difficulties, Clementine gains several unique hairstyles and helps her father her in his efforts to banish pigeons from their apartment. (ES)
Darnell Rock Reporting by Walter Dean Myers
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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)
The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
(also Available in Audio) Print the Discussion Guide
A group of children, entranced with the study of Egypt, play their own Egypt game, are visited by a secret oracle, become involved in a murder, and befriend the Professor of the local junk shop. (ES, MS)
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
(also Available in Large Print & Audio) Print the Discussion Guide
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) Print the Discussion Guide
A photograph of a missing girl on a milk carton leads Janie on a search for her real identity. (MS, HS)
The First Part Last by Angela Johnson
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Bobby's carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care for his adored baby daughter. (MS, HS)
Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen
(Also Available in Large Print & Audio) Print the Discussion Guide
In alternating chapters, two teenagers describe how their feelings about themselves, each other, and their families have changed over the years. (ES, MS)
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
(also Available in Large Print & Audio) Print the Discussion Guide
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)
Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry
(Also Available in Audio) Print the Discussion Guide
A most unusual new student who loves to be the center of attention entertains her teacher and fellow second graders by telling absolutely true stories about herself, including how she got her name. (ES)
Granny Torelli Makes Soup by Sharon Creech
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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, MS)
Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
(also Available in Large Print & Audio) Print the Discussion Guide
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)
Half Magic by Edward Eager
(also Available in Audio Cassette) Print the Discussion Guide
Faced with a dull summer in the city, Jane, Mark, Katharine, and Martha suddenly find themselves involved in a series of extraordinary adventures after Jane discovers an ordinary-looking coin that seems to grant wishes. (ES)
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
(also Available in Audio) Print the Discussion Guide
When Harriet's classmates find her diary and read what she has written about them, they decide to make life miserable for her. (ES, MS)
Hatchet by Brian Paulsen
(also Available in Audio) Print the Discussion Guide
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, HS)
Holes by Louis Sachar
(also Available in Large Print & Audio) Print the Discussion Guide
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. (ES, MS)
The Homework Machine by Dan Gutman
(also Available in Audio) Print the Discussion Guide
Four 5th grade students, as well as their teachers and mothers, each relate events surrounding a computer programmed to complete homework assignments. (ES, MS)
The House of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton
(also Available in Audio) Print the Discussion Guide
An African-American family tries to unravel the secrets of their new home, which was once a stop on the Underground Railroad. (MS, HS)
The Janitor’s Boy by Andrew Clements
(also Available in Large Print) Print the Discussion Guide
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)
Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
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Through journal entries, sixteen-year-old Miranda describes her family's struggle to survive after a meteor hits the moon, causing worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. (MS, HS)
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
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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, HS)
Lion Boy by Zizou Corder
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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. (ES, MS)
Love, Ruby Lavender by Deborah Wiles
(also Available in Audio) Print the Discussion Guide
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) Print the Discussion Guide
After his parents die, Jeffrey Lionel Magee's life becomes legendary, as he accomplishes athletic and other feats that awe his contemporaries. (ES, MS)
The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
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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)
Nothing but the Truth by Avi
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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, HS)
Our Only May Amelia by Jennifer L. Holm
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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)
Peak by Roland Smith
Print the Discussion Guide
The emotional, tension-filled story of a fourteen-year-old boy's attempt to be the youngest person to reach the top of Mount Everest. (MS, HS)
The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
(Also Available in Audio) Print the Discussion Guide
While vacationing with their widowed father in the Berkshire Mountains, four young sisters, ages four through twelve, share adventures with a local boy, much to the dismay of his snobbish mother. (ES, MS)
Poppy by Avi
(also Available in Audio) Print the Discussion Guide
Poppy, a deer mouse, urges her family to move next to a field of corn big enough to feed them all forever, but Mr. Ocax, a terrifying owl, has other ideas. (ES)
Running out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix
(also Available in Large Print & Audio Cassette) Print the Discussion Guide
When a diphtheria epidemic hits her 1840 village, thirteen-year-old Jessie discovers it is actually a 1996 tourist site under unseen observation by heartless scientists, and it's up to Jessie to escape the village and save the lives of the dying children. (ES, MS)
Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief by Wendelin Van Draanen
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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, HS)
The Secret of Platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson
(also Available in Large Print) Print the Discussion Guide
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, MS)
Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
(also Available in Large Print & Audio) Print the Discussion Guide
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)
The Skin I'm In by Sharon Flake
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Thirteen-year-old Maleeka, uncomfortable because her skin is extremely dark, meets a new teacher with a birthmark on her face and makes some discoveries about how to love who she is and what she looks like. (MS, HS)
Stone Fox by John Gardiner
(also Available in Audio) Print the Discussion Guide
Little Willie hopes to pay the back taxes on his grandfather's farm with the purse from a dog sled race he enters. (ES)
The Stories Julian Tells by Ann Cameron
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Relates episodes in seven-year-old Julian's life which include getting into trouble with his younger brother Huey, planting a garden, what he did to try to grow taller, losing a tooth, and finding a new friend. (ES)
Storm Warriors by Elisa Carbone
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In 1895, after his mother's death, twelve-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)
Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie Tolan
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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, HS)
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
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Gen flaunts his ingenuity as a thief and relishes the adventure which takes him to a remote temple of the gods where he will attempt to steal a precious stone. (ES, MS)
The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo
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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
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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) Print the Discussion Guide
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, HS)
Toys Go Out: Being the Adventures of a Knowledgeable Stingray, a Toughy little Buffalo, and Someone called Plastic by Emily Jenkins
(also Available in Audio) Print the Discussion Guide
Together is best for these three best friends. Together they look things up in the dictionary, explore the basement, and argue about the meaning of life. And together they face dogs, school, television commercials, the vastness of the sea and the terrifying bigness of the washing machine. (ES)
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
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Just before their sixteenth birthdays, when they will will be transformed into beauties whose only job is to have a great time, Tally's best friend runs away and Tally must find her and turn her in, or never become pretty at all. (HS)
When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park
(Also Available in Audio) Print the Discussion Guide
With national pride and occasional fear, a brother and sister face the increasingly oppressive occupation of Korea by Japan during World War II, which threatens to suppress Korean culture entirely. (MS)
The Year of the Dog by Grace Lin
(also Available in Audio) Print the Discussion Guide
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)