Start a kids' book club

Book Club Day is a fun and easy holiday because anyone can start a book club: members of your family, groups of friends, neighbors or kids at school. A book club is just a few people who get together often to have fun and talk about good books. Members take turns choosing a book that everyone reads and discusses. They also plan fun activities related to each book.

Celebrate my new holiday by getting a book club started today, then check this column each week to get ideas.

The first thing to do is to look for books to read. A library card allows you to borrow them from your local library for up to several weeks.

If you need a library card, the librarian will give you a form to fill out. Once your parent or guardian signs it, you will be able to take books home.

With your library card in hand, browse the library shelves until you find something that interests you, or use the computer to find books on a specific subject or title.

Once you've found just the right book, the librarian can help you reserve extra copies for all the book club members.

A book your club might enjoy reading is "Lenny and Mel" by Erik P. Kraft. It's the story of twin brothers who celebrate holidays in unusual ways. They put leftover Thanksgiving turkey under the pillow for the Leftover Fairy because they think he'll pay them a dollar a pound for it. They send valentines to their dog and turn Halloween into Trash Day with a costume made of old candy wrappers.

At your first book club meeting, you can snack on leftovers or your favorite holiday foods, talk about the special ways your family celebrates holidays or think of a holiday you would make up if you could invent one.

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This is one in a series of stories on book clubs for kids. Look for more ideas every Sunday in Kids' Reading Room. Send your book club ideas to Jo Perry at BookClubFun@aol.com. Click here to read more Book Club columns.