‘Caste’ing Fun Teen Book Club

Have you heard of the young adult book series The Selection? OMG! I had the chance to read The Selection with my oldest daughter and quickly fell in love with the series. They are so good! I decided to host a book club for my daughter and her friends to get together to discuss The Selection since most of her friends have read the book as well.

I love reading! How about you? Sadly, I don’t read nearly as much as I used to. I just am too tired by the time I get to the end of the day. However, Harper Collins sent me the book The Selection and sponsored this post and I needed to read the book. I very quickly went from needing to read the books to speeding through the whole series….and impatiently waiting for the release of The Heir, the 4th book in the series, on May 5th.

My oldest daughter likes reading, but she isn’t an avid reader. I was so happy that she wanted to do this post with me. I love finding things to do with my kids and reading a fun book together sounded great to me. I’m also careful about what we ingest…whether it be food, books or media. Myself and both of my girls tend to be pretty sensitive to violence and anything remotely scary. I’m a total wimp and they seem to be following in my footsteps. Some of the young adult series that are out there are just not appealing to me or my girls. They wouldn’t be fun to read. They would be stressful.

What is so nice about this series is that it is romantic, but nothing too descriptive or overboard. If you have a super sensitive reader, I want you to know that there are some attack scenes in the books and while they are a bit tense to read through, we found them to be OK. Though a really sensitive child may not do well with the second book in the series. I just want to put all of that out there because I always appreciate that information.

My daughter and I both LOVED The Selection and thanks to Amazon Prime… I didn’t have to wait long to read the 2nd and 3rd books. 🙂 It has been fun to have discussions about what is going on with the characters in the book as well as what we think will happen next.

With how much we have enjoyed reading the books, it was easy to set up a book club for my daughter and her friends. We haven’t had time to host the book club yet because I’ve been out-of-town and we had spring break and so much else going on, but we are going to host it in May. Let me show you what we are going to do. It is going to be so cute and fun!

I bought this iridescent white paper at a craft store. It is 12×12 scrapbook paper. I cut it down to the size that it could run through my printer and created the invitations. I also got the gem sticker at the craft store.

It is a little hard to read, but at the bottom I ask the girls to bring 2 questions with them to add to the book discussion. I also let them know to come dressed as their Caste (which is located inside the envelope).

In the book, there is a caste system. You are a 1 (royalty) to an 8 (homeless). We will have girls come as castes 2 through 6 or 7). There isn’t a lot in the book about the 8’s, and I didn’t want anyone to have to stay outside during the party, so we will leave them out. I will be a 1 since I am the Queen and inviting everyone into my home. 😀 My daughter wants to get her caste by random draw.

I made envelopes with the punch board that I made the spring banner with (it makes envelopes as well). By making my own envelopes, I was able to place one of these little blue doilies inside with their caste number on it. We will make all the invites and put this inside. Then we will mix up the envelopes and randomly write names on the envelope so we aren’t selecting their caste for them.

When the envelope is all sealed up, you can see the caste information poking out. Hopefully no one will miss it because we think it will be fun to have everyone come as a different caste.

Of course, the invitation is coming from royalty 😉 , so we need a bit more bling. This is just bling on a roll that you can buy at a craft store. It is adhesive, but it did come with two rows together and I just cut them apart.

Next up, I need a few little decorations. I found these in the clearance section at the craft store. I thought they were perfect, but not quite the right color. An easy fix!

Use a paintbrush to place decoupage medium in the center portion. Sprinkle with glitter. Of course it had to be blue after one of America’s dresses in the book and the dress on the cover of the book. Which would also be why there is so much blue in all of our book club party.

Voila…took me maybe 5 minutes and now it matches the book club party theme.

I can’t leave the girls drinking out of plain glasses, so I got some sliver glitter tape, the bling on a roll and these pretty blue flowers.

Wrap the tape around the glass, add the bling (I cut mine from two rows to one row), and finally add your flower. Again since everything is already adhesive, this was super quick. Depending on how many glasses you are doing, I would think 5 to 15 minutes.

Aren’t they so pretty? I want to drink out these everyday!

To add just a touch more blue to our theme, we added blue sports drink and polka dot straws. So pretty and royal looking!

I think the details are so pretty.

They remind me of what the maids would have made for one of America’s dresses in the book.

Any good book club party for a teenager should include fun food. I found these cute mini cupcakes that are blue and white. Perfect! The blue represents The Selection and the white represents The One (the third book in the series).

Now, I don’t want to spoil anything from the book, but there is a pivotal moment in the book, where Maxon wins the first date with America in a bet they make over a strawberry pastry. I had to include strawberry tarts in our book club food selection!

Lastly, I found the adorable and perfect blue pom pom garland at the craft store in the clearance section. As you can tell, this was a lot of store-bought things put together with a few things I made to add some extra touches. In my opinion, it all comes together so well! I know we are going to have a great time when we have everyone here in May! I can’t wait.

I’m excited to hear what questions the girls bring about the book and what kinds of discussions 12 and 13 year olds have surrounding the book. I love that my daughter and I got to read a series of books together. A series of books that appeal to both of us. It is one of those moments as a mom of realizing how things are changing and the fun things that lay ahead for us at this age and this stage.

I’m sure you would already guess this, but we loved The Selection as well as The Elite and The One. I highly recommend them for your young adult reader as well as yourself. If you are like me, you will neglect everything for a day to read the whole book in a day! I can’t wait for May 5th! That is when the next book, The Heir, comes out…pretty much my family already knows that nothing will be happening that day. 🙂

Have you hosted a teen book club? What suggestions or ideas do you have for a successful book club/party?

Pop by my Facebook page or leave a comment below with your ideas. Can’t wait to hear!

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I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.