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Lil Readers Book Club is a a monthly book subscription for kids ages 5-7. Each box includes 3-4 books and a collection of crafts (with most materials provided), all centered around a theme. Each month will have a new theme to learn about and is a great way to prepare your child for school, and to help make reading exciting for them.
The Cost: $42.95 per month + free shipping.
This box was sent to us at no cost for review. (Check out the editorial guidelines to learn more about how we review boxes.)
Meet your reviewers
I have two kids, ages 3 and 6. We're in that sweet spot where both of them can benefit from what's inside this box, even though my younger is below the recommended age. Reading books to children is beneficial no matter their age, and the books in this box are engaging to my 3-year-old. Excitingly, my 6-year-old is compelled to approach reading parts of these books herself. As for the activities, we love crafting and creating together daily, so that's fun for all of us.
Other subscriptions for kids this age range
This box comes from the makers of The Preschool Box, which our crew has also tried. That other box is for the 3-6 age group, and can be used as supplemental materials for homeschooling, summer learning, or just as constructive play. These two boxes do have similarities, but they don't have overlap, so they would work nicely side-by-side.
What's Inside Lil Readers Book Club?
Our first Lil Readers Book Club box came with a sticker letting us know to proceed with caution if we have certain food allergies. We opened it up to find a parent guide and workbook on top, and a smattering of materials for some great crafting adventures ahead.
Parent Guide and Activity Workbook
The Parent Guide is a great tool for adults to make the most of the box with their kids. It gives quick tips on how to discuss story elements, offers discussion questions about each of the included books, and provides instructions for each of the activities. As you flip through, you'll see photo examples so that kids can follow along too. And toward the back it transitions into a workbook that invites the kids to practice tracing, writing, and includes various educational games.
The books
We were sent three paperback books, all with stories on the theme of camping. My girls were happy to see some familiar characters from some shows they watch, and I remember the Henry and Mudge series from my own childhood, so that was fun to explore together.
Curious George Goes Camping by Margaret & H.A. Rey — Retail Value $5.99
Found on sale here for $4.99
Those who know Curious George know he gets into trouble, but then also find ways to help out. This story is about campfire safety.
Bluey: Camping by Penguin Young Readers Licenses — Retail Value $5.99
Found on sale here for $4
My kids had seen the camping episode of Bluey, so they knew how the story would end, but having it in book form gave me a shot at trying my Australian accent. It's not great. But on top of the always-poignant lessons Bluey teaches, our storytimes with this book have allowed me lead by example with putting myself out there and trying something new.
Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night by Cynthia Rylant and Suçie Stevenson — Retail Value $4.99
My girls loved meeting Henry and Mudge (who doesn't love a giant dog in a story?) and chuckled because of the similarities between Henry's parents and their own. When we go camping, their dad always brings his guitar and I'm usually the campfire guru. The parallels were fun.
Included materials & activities
This campfire activity had my kids cut strips of brown paper into pretend logs, cut tissue paper into squares, glue the squares onto a cup, and when it dried, set the cup on top of a flameless candle for a play fire.
The box also provided cotton balls, and we scavenged for sticks to make pretend s'mores. That's a clever idea, as they're often asking for real marshmallows even when they make pretend fires out of sticks, so these decoys will be used often. My kids took it upon themselves to collect rocks as a fire pit, which delighted me, because that is a great intuition for fire safety.
The next activity is to make play binoculars out of toilet paper rolls, construction paper, and string. Little sister wanted a lion drawn on the binoculars, so big sister designed it for her. Big sister had also made something like this in school last year, so she was happy to take the lead on teaching us how to make these binoculars without using the instructions.
Here's our happy camper.
Next up, we were to color wide popsicle sticks and use them to make a cabin-inspired photo frame. It looks from the Lil Readers sign-up page that there is a popsicle stick craft in every box. I love that! It just goes to show how many things can be done with simple materials.
Our frame turned out so cute, and inherited an accidental disco ball mirror somewhere along the way.
The food allergen warning was for this bird feeder activity. They provided pine cones and string, sunflower seeds, and sun butter for the project.
We spread the sun butter on the pine cones, sprinkled the seeds on, and hung our feeders from our mulberry tree. We're calling them our "critter feeders" because it's likely that squirrels will end up elbowing their way in to have a snack.
Finally, we were provided a blank piece of paper and some fabric leaves for a leaf rubbing activity. We found that the real leaves worked better than the fake ones, and it was fun to collect different-shaped leaves around our yard to try.
Value - Was This Box Worth It?
The Cost: $42.95 per month + free shipping.
While the retail price of the books don't even add up to half the cost of the box (even less when on sale), the value in this box is its curation. The activities and the theme were well designed and age appropriate. Sure I could search for the same crafts online and make sure that I had the proper materials, but the money and time (and energy) it would take more that exceeds the cost of the box. Also, any parent of kids close in age understands the value of a kit that their children can do together in a complementary rather than competitive fashion.
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? Yes. Next month's box will begin shipping the week of September 20th.
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