International Children's Book Day: book clubs, book stores, and baby books, oh my!

At Doulas of Capitol Hill we love to celebrate all the things, especially those related to mothers and their children.

Today is International Children’s Book Day so we wanted to share some of our tips for this wonderful day of fun and reading!  

Our founder, Emily Smith, started a Mother- Daughter book club when her daughter was in preschool with the hope to continue through the end of high school! The book club was inspired by reading an article in Mothering magazine when her daughter was an infant.  

Emily loved the idea to create and gather a group of girls and women together to tackle challenging topics such as peer-pressure, menstruation, and even death, in the context of classic and contemporary literature, and with the safe space of their friends and their friends’ moms, who they would grow to trust.

Here is a list of the Top 5 Books for Mother/ Daughter Book Club:

Preschool/ early elementary (age 4-7):

1. Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren

2. Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

3. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

4. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

5. Black Beauty by Ana Sewell

Middle to late elementary (age 8-10)

1. Recipe for Adventure (series) by Giada De Laurentiis

2. Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein

3. Wonder by R.J. Palacio

4. Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacquelin Kelly

5. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by Bryan Mealer and William Kamkwamba

Middle school (age 11-12)

1. Fairest by Gail Carson Levine

2. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

3. Hope is a Ferris Wheel by Robin Herrera

4. Harry Potter (series) by J.K. Rowling

5. Seraphina and the Black Cloak

Top local and on the web sites for books and book clubs:

2nd and Charles, Woodbridge, VA and Chantilly, VA

A Mighty Girl .com

Bonjour Books DC, Kensington, MD

Hooray for Books, Old Town Alexandria, VA

Literacy World Wide. org

Novel Books, Clarksburg, MD

Politics and Prose, Conn. Ave NW, The Wharf SW, Union St Market NE

Reading with Lauren VIP (local Usborne distributor and also a former doula client of Emily’s!)

Solid State Books, H St NE Washington, DC

Wonder Books, Gaithersburg, MD

Top 5 books to prepare big sister (or big brother) for the new baby on the way:

1. Where do babies come from?  (a lift-the-flap Usborne book)

2. Everywhere Babies by Susan Meyers

3. Baby Born by Anastasia Suen illustrated by Chih-Wei Chang

4. Contemplating Your Belly Button by Jun Nanao, illustrated by Tomoko Hasegawa

5. Baby on the Way by William Sears, MD, Martha Sears, RN,, and Christie Watts Kelly, illustrated by Renee Andriani