Clubs Connect
Share Your Ideas With Other Mother-Daughter Book Clubs
Do you have something to share with other mother-daughter book clubs? Did you have a memorable meeting or go on an interesting book club field trip? Would you like to send in your own book review? Send in any suggestions, reviews or stories to info(at)motherdaughterbookclub(dot)com, and I will share your news.
Be a Pal
You can also sign up to be a pen pal with mother-daughter book club members in another area. Have you ever had a pen pal? Someone you connected with who lived far away and wrote letters to you about what her life was like? In today’s world where it’s so easy to connect technologically, it may seem old fashioned to have a pen pal. Yet, I believe there’s still plenty value in forming a relationship with someone you’ve never met before who lives in a different place than you do.
For one thing, when you send notes of your own to a pen pal, you’re really thinking about what it is about your day-to-day life that someone else may find interesting. For another, there’s something really fun about slowly getting to know someone as they send you notes about their lives. Whether you correspond the old-fashioned way by sending letters or connect electronically, getting meaningful mail can still put a smile on your face.
As a way to help mother-daughter book club members around the country (or in other parts of the world) connect with each other, I have created this pen pal exchange. In part I was inspired by Heather Vogel Frederick’s great addition to her mother-daughter book club novels, Dear Pen Pal. I was also influenced by a mom in a book club who wrote in to ask if I knew of resources for their club members who were seeking pen pals.
What are some ways you may be able to connect with a pen pal club:
- Send postcards, photos, or other information by mail.
- Share your reading lists, including books you felt worked particularly well or not so well with your group.
- Connect electronically by creating a Facebook group page that only members of your two clubs can join.
- Choose a common book to read for one of your selections during the year. Then join each other through speaker phone or Skype for a blended group discussion.
Once you connect, there are probably even more ways you’ll think of to communicate with your pen pals.
Interested? Here’s what I need from you:
- Number of girls in your club
- Ages of the girls
- Hometown
- How long you’ve been together as a group
- One mom’s name as a contact
Here’s what I will do:
Post a list (see below) of clubs who would like to connect as pen pals. I’ll include all the pertinent information. When you make a connection, send me a note and I’ll move your name to the list of clubs who have already connected. I won’t try to match clubs; I’ll merely provide email addresses* so the two clubs can connect with each other.
Send your information to info(at)motherdaughterbookclub(dot)com, then look for your club’s name to be posted soon thereafter.
(*No email addresses will be listed on the site. An address will only be given out when someone else with a listing requests it.)
Clubs Seeking Pen Pals
Antioch, California Mother-Daughter Book Club
- Number of mother-daughter pairs: 17 girls/15 families
- Age of the girls: 5th to 7th grade
- Number of years together: 5
- Contact: Cheryl McHugh
Newnan, Georgia Central Library’s Mother-Daughter Book Club
- Number of mother-daughter pairs: 6-8
- Age of the girls: 11-14
- Number of years together:1.5
- Contact: Kristin Rubenstein
Council Bluffs, Iowa Mother-Daughter Book Club
- Number of mother-daughter pairs: 9
- Age of the girls: 11
- Number of years together: 4
- Contact: Tamie Osterloh
Westford, Massachusetts Mother-Daughter Book Club
- Number of mother-daughter pairs: 6
- Age of girls: 10-11, 5th and 6th grade
- Number of years together: 2
- Contact: Wendy Brown
St. Peters, Missouri Book Chicks Mother-Daughter Book Club
- Number of mother-daughter pairs: 4
- Age of the girls: 11 and 12
- Number of years together: 1
- Contact: Gina Davis
Clubs Who Found Pen Pal Connections
Antioch, California Mother-Child Book Club
- Number of mother-daughter pairs: 4 girls/3 boys
- Age of the girls: 2nd to 4th grade
- Number of years together: 5 (younger siblings of club above)
- Contact: Cheryl McHugh
Santa Barbara, California Mother-Daughter Book Club
- Number of mother-daughter pairs: 5
- Age of the girls: 9
- Number of years together: 1
- Contact: Vikki Lane
Brasilia, Brazil Mother-Daughter Book Club
- Number of mother-daughter pairs: 8
- Age of the girls: 11 to 13
- Number of years together: 9 months
- Contact: Marcia Farias
Brasilia, Brazil Mother-Child Book Club
- Number of children: 5 girls/4 boys
- Ages: 8-11
- Number of years together: 2.5 years
- Contact: Marcia Farias
Highland Park, Illinois (near Chicago) Mother-Daughter Book Club
- Number of mother-daughter pairs: 6
- Age of the girls: 9-10
- Number of years together: .5
- Contact: Kim Matthews
Sturbridge, Massachusetts Mother-Daughter Book Club
- Number of mother-daughter pairs: 8
- Age of girls: 10-11
- Number of years together: 3
- Contact: Karen Polga
Suffern, New York Mother-Daughter Book Club
- Number of mother-daughter pairs: 9
- Age of the girls: 11
- Number of years together: 1
- Contact: Yvette Feliciano
Gresham, Oregon West Orient Middle School Library Mother-Daughter Book Club
- Number of mother-daughter pairs: 10
- Age of girls: 11–13
- Contact: Erin Fitzpatrick-Bjorn
We are in Suffern,NY about 45 minutes away from New York City. We started our mother daughter book club in october of 09. We are interested in having pen pals and we think that the Council Bluffs, Iowa would match our book club the best because we have 9 girls.
Mothers and Daughter,
Think the contestants on Survivor Samoa had it rough? Now think Survivor Naliboki-Forest, Poland. What if you were a twelve-year-old girl and outwitted, outran and outlasted the strongest army at the time: the Nazi war machine. And then found true love with a survivor of Dachau, who escaped the German’s death trains. And that’s only the first 70 pages of Broken Birds, The Story of My Momila.
They rebuild their family in America, but their emotional foundation causes them to pass along their wartime fears and trepidations to their five children.
The family is glued together by Momila’s refusals to cut her apron strings. Upon her unexpected death, the threads unravel leaving the family to face the real world for the first time in their lives.
I would like to submit Broken Birds, a non-fiction book, in the same genre as Bitter Freedom by Jafa Wallach and Them: A Memoir Of Parents, for your consideration. The book has been completed and is 374 pages in length.
The book will be of special interest for those who are fascinated by real-life behind-the- scenes chronicles of WWII, and the long ranging effects of the emotional collateral damage it causes. It also will provide a vehicle for survivors of all types to connect with on a basic human level.
Broken Birds is the memoir of my experiences as the daughter of survivors. It is the culmination of years of listening to my parent’s stories, viewing photos and in-depth research. It was all of these bits and pieces, which helped get this story told.
I have published a number of articles about the destructiveness of favoritism by parents and a journey I took to retrace my father’s youth. In addition, I have published articles on an outsider’s view of fighting cancer. They have appeared in Yediot and We Are In America. My book and I are also featured in a number of Internet media locations; Women’s Memoirs, Schmoozenews.com, Wemon.com, The Jewish Magazine, Women’s Book Reviews, BoomersCafe.com, The Compulsive Reader and The Jewish Press.
According to critiques I’ve received, which include 5 star ratings from some amazon.com top reviewers, the book has been well received.
Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you.
Jeanette Katzir
Hello I never heard back from the club in Iowa . So I was wondering if the club in Sturbridge , Massachusetts would be interested because my girls are eager to get penpals. I have nine girls and they range in age 11-12 . This might work .
How cool that I see a Mother-Daughter book club located in Highland Park, Il. Is there a way to know if that club is open to a new mom-daughter team?
Thanks.
-Deanna-