Revitalizing UU Womens Groups

Appendix H: Tips on Starting a Mother Daughter Book Group

By Sydney Dunitz, First Universalist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota

I heard opinions and ideas from my daughter that I don’t think I would ever have heard otherwise. I think she expressed herself more freely (in the book club)—it opens up the confines of the mother-daughter thing.
— Kitty Schneider

The following suggestions are based on the experiences of mothers and their daughters, ages six to eleven, who have been in a Mother Daughter Book Group at First Universalist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Try to be as age specific as possible when enrolling girls. Ages six to ten is a reasonable range. A greater range becomes difficult because different aged girls enjoy different books.
A discussion period of forty-five minutes is about right. At First Universalist, where there are two church services, the club meets between the services. Stimulate discussion with questions such as, “Did you like the book?” and “Is your life at all like the lifestyle in the book?”
Always offer snacks.
Encourage the mothers to speak less often than usual giving the girls more opportunities to share their ideas.
Let the girls choose the books; they tend to have very definite ideas about the books that they want to read. Books with broad appeal tend to be most successful. If your group is having trouble choosing books, check with a librarian at your public library for ideas. Avoid series books.

Resources

Dodson, Shirleen and Barker, Teresa. Mother Daughter Book Club: How Ten Busy Mothers and Daughters Came Together to Talk, Laugh, and Learn Through their Love of Reading. Includes how to start a club of your own and reading lists from popular authors.

Odean, Kathleen. Great Books for Girls: More than 600 Books to Inspire Today’s Girls and Tomorrow’s Women. Maryland: Ballantine Books, 1998.