Her Next Chapter: How Mother-Daughter Book Clubs Can Help Girls Navigate Malicious Media, Risky Relationships, Girl Gossip, and So Much More

A guide to using book clubs to open up dialogue about and explore issues facing young girls today

 

Mother-daughter book clubs are a great way to encourage your child’s reading and for girls and moms to bond with each other while also socializing with friends, but they can do much more than that, suggests educational psychologist and parenting coach Lori Day. They can create a safe and empowering haven where girls can openly discuss, question, and navigate some of the challenges of girlhood today. In Her Next Chapter, Day draws from experiences in her own club and her more than 25 years in education to offer a unique, timely, and inspiring take on mother-daughter book clubs. She provides clear, succinct overviews of eight of the biggest challenges facing girls and young women today, giving mothers the information they need to moderate thoughtful conversations, while weaving in all the carefully chosen book, movie, and media recommendations; plentiful discussion questions and prompts; and suggested related activities that guide and extend discussions and make clubs fun. It outlines precisely how mothers can work together, using the magic of books, to build girls’ confidence and lessen the negative impact of media on self-image. Also included are relevant quotes and experiences from a wide range of mothers, a list of further resources, and chapter-closing reflections from Day’s now-adult daughter, Charlotte, who shares memories about what the club did for her as a child and observations on today’s girl culture.

Lori Day, MEd, is an educational psychologist, a consultant, and a parenting coach with Lori Day Consulting. She has worked in the field of education for more than 25 years, serving in varied roles in public and private schools and at the college level. She is a contributing blogger at the Huffington Post and several other websites, writing about parenting, education, gender, popular culture, and media. She lives in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Charlotte Kugler, Lori Day's daughter, is a student at Mount Holyoke College. She lives in South Hadley, Massachusetts.