Community Matters. Story has power.
For me, reading and integrating what I read into my everyday life feels more like breathing. It’s how I’m wired. I realize this is not true for everyone and creating any sort of book club anything feels overwhelming. This is where Literature Community Kits (Lit Kits) come in.
My lovely friend, Tina, and I are creating these together. When I started a mother-daughter book club seven years ago (when our girls were eight) she joined without hesitation. This sits atop our list of favorite things we do (and our girls would say the same). We have bookish souls and we’re excited to share our passion with you.
We believe in the value of creating community with literature. We have seen it in our families and with our mother-daughter book club.
We know how busy life can be. We know that it’s hard to fit in all that we want to do.
Our desire is to help you cultivate community through story. We want to make it as easy as possible. We create the guides and kits and you simply grab your people and a book (or movie!).
Start small. Start in your family. Grab one friend. Use as much as or little of each Literature Kit as you’d like. It’s about what works for you.
For now, our Literature Community Kits will highlight reads for tween to teen girls, 8-16. This is what we know best. Each book has been tested by six moms and six daughters over the last seven years. Many of these books I read to all of my kids together and even my now 17-year-old son sat in and loved them. (Notes on best demographics for each book are detailed in our freebie booklist and on each page description in the shop)
We also offer Bookish Movie Nights complete with theme food (my favorite!). The new project is Literary Evenings Literature Kits ~ gatherings for women and/or mothers and teen daughters with a curated, themed menu and conversation questions for heart-level talks or for journaling.
We have created a free downloadable guide: The Elements of Literature Communuty: A How-To Guide.
So, what’s included?
- A beloved book recommendation with our thoughts on target age and details on when we read them to our girls or our families.
- A list of themes found in the book, genre information (adventure, fantasy etc.), and a skeleton plot (confession: We detest writing up book summaries and we figure you can find those anywhere.)
- Specifics on demographics: We have “tested” these books with out tween to teen daughters, but many are great for boys and girls, a wide range of ages, perfect for dads/uncles/grandpas to read-aloud and enjoy, others are difficult to read-aloud or better served by audio book etc. So, we have suggestions for those details too.
- The reasons why we love it (usually and most often without spoilers!)
- A whole lot of conversation questions + tips (creative ways to do the questions etc.) Use as few or as many as you like in any gathering. Also, we always include questions that are just for adults to answer. Sharing life experience and wisdom is invaluable.
- Activity options: whether you want to be crafty or have simple active options, you’ll find detailed instructions and/or links here.
- Theme food: I (Stephanie) prefer the term “literature foodie” — this section includes a variety of snack options directly from or related to the book. Some require no preparation of any kind, but recipes will be included when applicable.
- Some other odds and ends: Decor ideas — creative, festive and simple decoration ideas (directly from the book, of course) to create ambience and beauty.
- Extras Threads: This includes related links, books and other fun bookish things of interest.
Wonder is available for a free download in the shop.
For launch dates and other updates {plus my current reads and favorite books} follow on Instagram.
Sign up for the newsletter here. I will be sending a bookish newsletter once a month-ish, as well as sending updates on new Literature Kits as we release them. In the newsletter you’ll find links to my favorites from that month {top blog posts, podcasts, best reads, bookish sites etc.} plus other ideas for bringing literature to life {which will pretty much always include a literature-themed recipe…I consider myself a “literature foodie”}.
With the hope of threading stories and threading lives,