Summer Book Club

Charlotte's Web reading and party!

Earlier in May, I suggested to my friend, Genny, that we do a summer book club with our children where we choose a book to read aloud to our kids each month and then have a “party” where we talk about the book, do a craft, maybe watch the movie-version of the book and get the kids excited to celebrate our reading. Genny had just started reading Charlotte’s Web to her children, so we agreed that would be a great first book for our summer book club. We decided to keep the book club to just our two families, as that would make it easier to coordinate summer schedules when it came time to plan a party, and we know our six children all get along and love each other! But this could easily be a great summer activity for a larger group too.

Throughout May, I read Charlotte’s Web every day to my children (4.5, 2.5 and 9 months) and it’s safe to say we all enjoyed it immensely! I read to my kids daily and I started doing read-aloud chapter books in the form of the Magic Tree House series around Christmas, when we gifted my son Hayes the box set. But Charlotte’s Web was the most “advance” chapter book we’d read yet and while it might be a bit above their age level, my children followed the story very well and were so invested in it! They loved the characters, they asked what was going to happen next and they understood it better than I thought they would. I was equally enthralled in the story, it was so fun to reread one of my childhood novels! I did tweak some of the language a bit for their age, specifically the discussion around killing Wilbur and Charlotte dying. I simply softened some of the words to make it a bit more toddler friendly, so instead of “kill Wilbur” it was “butcher Wilbur” or “turn Wilbur into bacon” and Charlotte “passed away” instead of “Charlotte is dead.” We’re in the midst of navigating our first early discussions and questions around death in general with our four-year-old as it is, so I felt like I needed these parts of the book to be a little gentle in relation to the characters, but just my personal preference.

Genny and I settled on a date for our “party” and I planned to host and do the snacks, while she would lead a craft with the kids and we’d let them watch the 2006 film with Dakota Fanning. Next month, we’d switch so Genny will host and do snacks and I’ll do the craft, and we will continue to rotate!

Naturally, I Googled “Charlotte’s Web snacks” and the results were mainly pig-themed cupcakes, but I did stumble across a cute blog post from “The Gingered Whisk” where she wrote about her Charlotte’s Web dinner she cooked with her children. She did a summer-themed meal that included corn dog muffins and hand pies, both of which I thought would be a great fit for our crew as well! I settled on corn dog muffins, hand pies, “spider crackers,” and berries for our party snacks and I’ve written out the recipes below.

I found cute farm-themed paper goods from Meri Meri that would arrive in time for our party and I’d bought a waterproof picnic blanket for summer that would be perfect for the kids to use in the yard for their meal. Click to see them!

Our book club party was so much fun, for the kids and for us moms! Genny did a great craft that was perfect for their ages and attention spans; they made cute little pig snouts with cut paper towel tubes wrapped in pink tissue paper and with a white circle taped on the end that they colored pink and drew two black dots on. Then she tied elastic on the finished snouts and the kids got to wear them and pretend they were little Wilburs! They crawled around the house as little pigs and were cracking themselves up.

We enjoyed our picnic lunch out on our yard and then came in to watch Charlotte’s Web, which held the kid’s attention for about 10 minutes before they took off playing! They were all using their little imaginations pretending to be knights and cowboys and other various roles. Once Wilbur and Charlotte made it to the fair, the kids settled down the watch the end. All the while, Genny and I enjoyed a quality yap session together!

The morning was so much fun and we agreed our book club was a great success! Next month’s book will be Little House in the Big Woods, a classic. I had briefly started reading this to my kids already and they (Hayes) was hooked as he listened to the story of Pa bear hunting to protect their pig for winter. Another pig! I think this book will interest both the boys and girls in our families and will offer plenty of craft and snack material for us to work with. Some other books we’ve considered are: Stuart Little, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, A Bear Called Paddington, Misty of Chincoteague (my favorite growing up), Matilda, Winnie-the-Pooh, Anne of Green Gables, The Secret Garden, The Wind in the Willows, The Boxcar Children, Heidi, Black Beauty and The Borrowers.

I can’t recommend a summer book club enough! Get your mom-friends together and organize one for your own children!

I’ve linked our party supplies here, such as the pig plates, farm napkins, serving-ware and more.

Mini Corn Dog Muffins
For this recipe, I made my “Jalapeño Cornbread Muffins” from A Month of Dinner, Vol. 3 and left out the jalapeño, used a mini muffin tin and added 1-inch cut pieces of hot dog to the muffins then baked for about 10 minutes. These would be a great weekday or school year lunch! So easy and can be taken on the go.

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt or sour cream
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 cup honey
2 eggs
Hot dogs of choice

1. Preheat your oven to 400 and spray a muffin tin.

2. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. Milk, yogurt, butter, honey and eggs.

4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix together until just combined.

5. Pour into muffin tin then add 1-inch cut piece of hot dog to each muffin. Bake for 10-15 minutes.

Mini Hand Pies
These came together very easily! I will say that some of the berry juice ran out of the pies in the oven, but I did not use an egg wash and that would’ve helped seal the pastry edges more. My son is allergic to eggs, so that’s why I skipped it, but I’ll add it to the directions below. I can assure you, these were a hit with the kiddos! Would be especially delicious with some vanilla ice cream.

1 package pre-made pie dough, such as Pillsbury, that comes with two sheets
2 cups frozen or fresh berry medley, you can use any berries you’d like
1 lemon, zest and juice
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg, separated as you only need the egg white

1. Preheat your oven according to pie crust instructions (I did 425) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a medium bowl, mix together your berries, lemon zest and juice, sugar and vanilla. Set aside.

3. Unroll your pie crust sheets and using a pastry cutter, the rim of a large cup or something round (I used a large Yeti cup), cut out large circles of pie dough from each sheet. You can form a circle with any of the scraps. I ended up with 8 circles from each dough sheet, for a total of 16 dough circles to make 8 hand pies. Hope that makes sense!

4. Take one of the circles in your hand and gently spoon some of the berries into it, be sure not to fill it too much! Take another circle and put it on top of the berries to create your hand pie. Think “Uncrustable” here! I use a fork to press the edges of the pie together. Set it on the lined baking sheet and repeat until all your hand pies are assembled.

5. For the egg wash, place your egg white in a small bowl and add a bit of water then mix. Brush the mixture over the top and seams of each hand pie.

6. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until done and pies are nice and golden brown!

“Spider Crackers”
Couldn’t be more simple and fairly self-explanatory! Another fun snack that’s easy enough to do during the week for school. Little side note, I have the berries in my favorite small colander! This colander was a bit of a splurge, but not only is it so cute, but I use it for berries almost every day for my kids! Totally worth every penny as much as I use it.

Ritz crackers
Pretzel sticks
Peanut butter or nut/seed butter of choice, we use Sunflower Butter

1. Take two Ritz crackers and spread a little nut butter on each one.

2. Break four pretzel sticks in half and press them onto one of the crackers to create the spider “legs.”

3. Add the other cracker to top it off!