Book Club In a Bag

Friends of the Lake Jackson Library members
show off the Book Club in a Bag bags
which were purchased with a Target community grant.

Thirty Book Club In a Bag bags are now available for checkout. Made possible by a community grant from Target, the bags are available in three reading levels: preschool to third grade, fourth to sixth grade, and junior high to high school.

Each bag contains eight paperback copies of the same title along with discussion questions and booktalk notes. These paperbacks supplement the hardcover editions already available throughout the library system to help provide enough copies for a large group.

The purpose of the bags is to encourage more children to visit the library and read for reasons other than just school projects and to develop a lifetime commitment to reading that will carry over into adulthood and be passed down to future generations of readers.

Teachers, groups, organizations, parents or individuals are encouraged to start their own book clubs and check out a bag.

NPR's Back-Seat Book Club

National Public Radio has an online book club for children ages nine to 14. In November, they're reading the classic book "The Phantom Tollbooth" by Norton Juster.

"The Phantom Tollbooth" was published in 1961 and fifty years later it is still popular. Our library's copies have checked out a total of 167 times as of this writing.

From the book's jacket copy:

This ingenious fantasy centers around Milo, a bored ten-year-old who comes home to find a large toy tollbooth sitting in his room. Joining forces with a watchdog named Tock, Milo drives through the tollbooth's gates and begins a memorable journey. He meets such characters as the foolish, yet lovable Humbug, the Mathemagician, and the not-so-wicked "Which," Faintly Macabre, who gives Milo the "impossible" mission of returning two princesses to the Kingdom of Wisdom...

In addition to reading the book, participants are encouraged to interact with the book's author.

Check out a copy of the book. Send the author a message. And don't forget to tell us what you thought about Milo and his journey!