Book Club Behind the Scenes: Philippines Edition 4/5
Part four of five: The Content
Welcome to Book Club Behind the Scenes! In this guest post series, we’ll get a glimpse into how others are running their book clubs. I hope these insights inspire you to find what works best for your own space and create a book club experience that feels just right for you.
Happy reading!
Growing up, I played a lot of games with my family. When we went camping, we’d do Mad Libs, logic puzzles, and card games. During holiday gatherings, we pulled out Pictionary, charades, and board games. At church family camp, we put on team skits and played an elaborate real-life game of Clue. And when friends came over after school, we turned to the board game classics.
All of these experiences now inspire the content I create for book clubs. As I read in preparation, I take copious notes and jot down ideas for how characters, scenes, and quotes from the book could be transformed into a game. In this post, I’ll give an overview and highlight a variety of activities we’ve done at book club gatherings.
Book Selection: The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser
A heartwarming, funny, and delightfully chaotic tale of five siblings determined to save their beloved brownstone home—with a little ingenuity, a lot of love, and just the right amount of mischief.
Activity: A Jack Prelutsky Cereal Box Puppet Show (ala Hyacinth Vanderbeeker)
For our club meeting, I designed five activities—each one inspired by one of the Vanderbeeker siblings. While we had fun with all five, I’ll just share one here.
Hyacinth, the second-youngest, has a creative spirit and a love for all things artsy and crafty. In her honor, each team was given a short Jack Prelutsky poem to work with. These poems were chosen because they told concrete, whimsical stories—perfect for puppet show adaptations.
Each team created a puppet show to reenact their assigned poem. One gracious participant helped transform cereal boxes into puppet theaters for the performances. After all the shows, everyone voted for their favorite, and the winning team was celebrated!
Book Selection: Heart of the Samurai by Margi Preus
This historical fiction novel is based on the (true) life of Manjiro, a young Japanese fisherman who was shipwrecked off the coast of Japan and later rescued by American whalers. Manjiro spent over a decade away from home, encountering adventures that included everything from whaling ships to the California Gold Rush.
Activity: Looking for Gold in Easter Eggs
To bring that Gold Rush experience to life, we created a themed Easter egg hunt. Each team searched for eggs in a specific color. Inside the eggs, they might strike it lucky—or not!
If they struck gold, they found a chocolate gold coin inside.
If it was fool’s gold, they got durian candy instead. (Durian is a golden fruit popular in Asia, but it’s infamous for its strong smell—you either love it or hate it!)
Sometimes, their hard work just led to a handful of rocks—choco rocks, to be exact. These candies look like real stones but have a chewy, Tootsie Roll-like texture. It was a fun, silly, and slightly stinky way to connect with Manjiro’s adventurous life and the risks and rewards of striking out into the unknown!
Book: Adventures With Waffles by Maria Parr
This heartwarming (and often hilarious) story follows Trille and his best friend Lena as they get into all kinds of scrapes in their small Norwegian town. The book is full of humor, adventure, and big feelings, making it a hit with a wide age range.
Activity: Bonfire Ceremony & Midsummer Paintings by Nikolai Astrup
To mimic the Midsummer Festival that takes place at the start (and end) of the book, we began the book club with a bonfire ceremony. I collected milk bottles and painted them to look like a bonfire, then added battery-powered tea lights to light them up. After each team chose a team name, they stood up, turned on their bonfire, and announced their name.
Then, each team received a set of Midsummer bonfire paintings by Norwegian painter Nicolai Astrup. I loved how his paintings reflected the same festival described in the book. The teams studied and observed all the details in each painting. Afterward, I flipped the paintings over and asked questions to see who had paid the closest attention.
Book: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
This enchanting story follows Minli, a young girl who embarks on an adventure to find the Old Man of the Moon and change her family’s fortune. Along the way, she encounters magical creatures and learns important life lessons.
Activity: Change Fruitless Mountain to Fruitful Mountain
At some book clubs, the team point system was also in theme with the book. In this story, the main character, Minli, goes on a journey to change the fortune of her village, Fruitless Mountain. Along the journey, she encounters various people and creatures. The games reflected some of her encounters. The scoreboard for this book club was a black and white picture of Fruitless Mountain. Instead of collecting points from each game, the teams collected colored puzzle pieces, with the end goal of turning their village from fruitless to fruitful (from black and white to color). One of the girls from our group drew and painted the pictures for us.
For a more in-depth look at each book club, I’ve shared detailed accounts on my blog. Be sure to check them out for more ideas and inspiration!
Up Next in the Series: The Pairings
Kids’ Book Club Series:
The Content
The Pairings
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