17 Tips for Running a Successful Children's Book Club

Many people are nowadays trying to run a children’s book club where they put in all the favourite books for children as well as plan fun activities for them.

These book clubs take a lot of time, effort, love and patience to start and even a small bit of capital. A person needs to look out and be on the hunt for a place which can be a suitable space to start a book club.

The club must also be in a residential area or if not, close by. It should be a fresh, airy and welcoming space for children and their parents.

At the start, many book clubs keep entry free to gain more and more clients. Once they reach a specific number, they then make a membership scheme for all the existing members in which they usually include a lot of goodies once parents become members of the book club.

Starting a children’s book club is easy, maintaining and upkeep are the tough bits. There is a lot of competition and you need to be tougher when you are running a children’s book club. You need to have better social media and advertising outreach to outdo your other competitors.

You also need to be sure that you are targeting the correct age group when you are displaying your book club.

In this blog, we will be exploring some of how you can run a successful children’s book club.

17 Tips on How to Run a Successful Children’s Book Club

1. Keep your book club sessions short as children get bored of a single activity quickly and want to focus on more interesting things. An hour is sufficient time to complete all the activities of your book club.

2. At the start, chart out specific rules that have to be followed at the book club. Ask children and parents to be mindful of the rules when they step inside the book club and to maintain decorum and dignity.

3. Remind children to give other children their space and time when they are reading a book. All children have different times and abilities to finish a book. Those children who are not able to finish the book on time can be asked to tell what they have understood from the little reading that they have done of the book. After the meeting, children can finish off the rest of the book.

4. Before the book meetings, write down some questions related to the book you will be discussing with the children. This will enable you to take the conversation smoothly.

5. Along with reading at the club, add activities like playing games, painting, dancing, singing etc. This will keep children coming back to your book club. Keep the children motivated to come back to the book club.

6. Allow children to bring in their favourite snacks and share them with other kids as well. This helps them form meaningful social connections with other kids.

7. It is also important that your kid is excited and interested in joining a book club. If they are forcefully admitted into it, then it will not be fruitful for either parents or children.

8. Start with a small group of children, say around 4-5. These 4-5 children will then spread the message to their peers, who will join your book club.

9. Keep the structure of your book club simple and efficient. Everything must be in order and within the children’s reach. Ask kids to be respectful of the club property as other kids will also use the same.

10. And lastly, set a schedule that can be followed by children and their parents. Keeping the book club day on a weekday will not bring in many kids as opposed to keeping it on weekends.

11. When running a book club, you also need to determine the age group which will be coming to your club. Usually, parents enrol their children in a book club when they are in the second grade. You may want to keep the book club open for children of all age groups. This can be fun as parents would love to bring in their toddlers as well.

12. Also, be sure to keep the size of the book club which is suitable for all kids. It should not be too large or too small.

13. If you have some reluctant readers in your group of children, then encourage those who are not finding their reading sessions interesting. If such children keep getting regular reinforcement in the form of positive encouragement, they will surely become more interested in reading even more books.

14. The environment should not be too formal. It should be fun and filled with a lot of activities to keep children busy throughout the day.

15. Keep time for some extra activities that your children can do after you finish reading a book with them. They can indulge in craft activities related to the book just read.

16. When you finish off with a book, you can invite children to give their suggestions as to which book they want to read next. This helps children feel more involved and become better decision-makers.

17. You can ask children to keep a reading journal with them. Tell them to jot down the names of the books they have read, when did they finish the book etc. in the journal. This way they can keep track of how many books they have read in a month.

These are some excellent and useful book club tips that can be followed by any individual wishing to start a book club for children. Having a book club for children can be a very exciting prospect and with the right amount of advertising and social media outreach, it can convert into a successful venture for the individual.