A Mother-Daughter Book Club

Confession: I WISH I had done this with my daughter and our friends. (I always had to sneak a look at what the girls were reading.) So I was really happy when Nina invited me to join the first meeting of their Mother-Daughter Book Club. They live in North Carolina so I spoke with them via Skype. No double stuffed Oreos for me! But I did get to see their smiles. They were so inspirational, I invited them to talk about their club on my blog.  

The girls are holding objects from the novel, including Double-stuffed Oreos and a bear!

Nina had particular reasons for starting the club. As she wrote in the invitation, "The tweener time can be challenging as girls face a lot of pressure from the outside world about how to look and how to 'be.'" To counteract that, she wanted to bring together "a group of peers and their moms to talk about characters that show inner strength in interesting ways." 

Nina had read Shireen Dodson’s book:  The Mother-Daughter Book Club: How Ten Busy Mothers and Daughters Came Together to Talk, Laugh, and Learn Through Their Love of Reading.  (More info here. ) She particularly wanted female authors writing about female characters because that encourages the girls to say "yes I have a mind and it's worth exploring my thoughts."

Here are some answers to questions I had for the moms and the girls. (My apologies for shortening their answers. They all had so many great thoughts!)

What inspired you to be part of the club?

"I tried to start a group with my friends before, and so I was eager to be part of this one. I really liked the discussion part, where we all asked questions. The double-stuff oreos were important. I recommend cookies if some one wants to do this."

"It was a great way to provide community and encouragement for the girls, and an opportunity for moms to be with their daughters in a unique way.  Daughters get to see their moms as peers discussing books and having fun, not as organizers or 'doers', etc....  or 'the person in charge'."   

"One-on-one time with my children has become so precious. My daughter absolutely adores reading, so this was a perfect avenue for us to bond. I try to push her to think outside the box with my questions. The material opens up conversation about friends, tween years, growing up, relationship changes, body image, etc."

Did you learn anything surprising about each other from your discussion about the book?  

"That the moms are all emotional weirdos because they cried at the end of the book. We couldn't relate to why they cried. We thought it was a pretty funny book."

The moms tried to explain their tears. 

"It was empathizing with Megan's mom and what she must have been going through."

"Megan had 'evolved' so much and that she chose to call her mom (to do the right thing/as opposed to calling her friend)."  

"Because of the forgiveness factor there at the end--between Lucy and Megan. Because she knew how hard it was to say sorry."

"I felt the exact same way Megan did--as an adult--when she went in to talk to Alison the

first time after she had found out she was sick. I did not know what to say, etc...  I could totally relate to what she was feeling."

What kinds of books are good for a group like this?

"Well our theme is kind of feminine heroes--and that seems to work really well, because I think we can relate better to girls rather than guy heroes.  Not heroes--like with super powers--I mean girls as main characters."

"So there you have it--a powerful book all around!  One that brought both laughter and tears to our eyes and hearts."  

Thank you, Nina, Mia, and all the book group members for sharing your thoughts with us. I'm so honored that you chose my book. I hope you keep the group going after the summer. Reading books is a great way to explore new ideas together. 

While I was Skyping with the club, Blackberry had to get in the act. 

One final thought--  

Nina was happy to read the passage when a monarch butterfly is inspirational to my character Megan.  A few years ago, after Nina had learned about the monarch population crash, she started a Monarch Rescue Organization. www.monarchrescue.org Her group partners with other organizations to restore the monarchs' habitats. It's so sad to me that when I wrote Nature Girl eight years ago, I had no idea that this was an area of concern. Please help however you can!