3rd Grade Book Club :: The Five Lives of Our Cat Zook

My daughter recently joined a book club with some classmates (all girls), which I was quite excited about because she's not always the most enthusiastic reader. I'm afraid that reading is becoming a chore for her and I was hoping that a book club would motivate her to read regularly and to read books she might not normally choose. Unfortunately, it hasn't gone exactly as I hoped and, in fact, in some respects it's become a bigger chore because I keep bothering her about trying to finish the books.

Anyway, we hosted the group this month and I wanted to share what we did for the book Maya chose, The Five Lives of Our Cat Zook by Joanne Rocklin:

• discussion questions (from the author's website and from the publisher's website)
• solving rebuses (ice cream flavors and countries)
• snacks, including fried zucchini
• folding origami cats

All in all, I think it went quite well for my first Book Club. The discussion didn't last terribly long, but it got heated at times because it always does when you have Dog People vs. Cat People!