A Brave Writer's Life in Brief

by Mary Wilson

Helping my kids make meaningful connections to literature has always been an important part of my homeschool. I have used the Brave Writer Arrow and Boomerang guides for several years to support my efforts.

The Boomerang guides have always included Think Piece questions to facilitate discussion and the recent Arrow guides (those published since 2015) include Big, Juicy questions. These questions inspired me to organize book clubs for my children and their friends in order to facilitate a big, juicy conversation about good books.

Of course, I combined the questions from the guides with the idea of a Brave Writer party school and the Brave Writer book club party school was born. Our family had so much fun at our book club parties that I began to share ideas on my blog. Other homeschooling parents jumped on board and a Brave Writer book club community formed.

In order to encourage and support parents who want to implement creative party school ideas, the Arrow and Boomerang book guides published this year (2017-2018) include a Book Club Party School guide. You’ll find fun ideas for food, activities, games, and more in each guide so that your family can celebrate books together.

As a complement to their annual Arrow or Boomerang subscription, subscribers are invited to a private Facebook group where they can share ideas and inspiration from the book clubs with their own children. Many participants also share their ideas on Instagram using the hashtag: #bwbookclub.

Below are just a few of the wonderful ideas from our Brave Writer book club community this year:

We had just finished reading Johnny Tremain and were armed and ready for our book celebration! I went as Johnny and my daughter as Cilla. It was a patriotic affair! – Amanda Koren

We wrapped up “The Thing About Jellyfish” for our November Boomerang book club, and made this center piece from melted, spray-painted plastic bottles. Then each teen decorated a paper party lantern with streamers, beads, and ribbon to take home! – Tristan (@tvl_lakelouisefarm)

You bet! Here’s the caption “Welcome to our Jamaica celebrating Esperanza Rising! Nothing is better than a piñata under golden leaves.” – Erin (@greenchilegrl13)

I persuaded my husband to take on the role of Count Olaf, for our A Series Of Unfortunate Events book party. He really got into character on the day and the kids enjoyed getting a little scare. – Sam (@newman6142)

For our Station Eleven partyschool, my kids wanted to recreate Saint Deborah by the Water. This scene was made by my 11 year old daughter and we used it as a centerpiece under our tent for the party. This was our favorite party so far, there were so many rich details to re-enact and explore in a more tactile way at the party. – Michelle (@michelle.kay.anderson)

“Our book party for The Girl Who Drank The Moon was simply magical. We played memory games, sculpted dragon eggs, folded paper cranes, drank Moon Milk and nibbled on gorgeous moon and star sugar cookies during our lively discussion.” – Elena (@elenamgrover with fellow Brave Writer mom @amber_bunker_)

“A lunch like that shared by Johnny and Rab, one of ham, cheese, bread, and “ale” (butterbeer), followed by English tea, chocolates, and peppermint candies, served on a table decorated with a poster showing colonial newspaper articles, glasses covered in aluminum foil for makeshift “silver” cups, two lanterns, and some Union Jack toothpicks made Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes come alive.” – Damore (@lilacdamore)