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.)
FYI: This box comes from the makers of The Preschool Box. That one 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. My children are ages 3 and 6, so we usually do both of these boxes all together.
What's Inside the Jack-O-Lantern Lil Readers Book Club
Lil Readers Book Club comes in a green box with a friendly dragon printed on it. We opened it up to find a parent guide and workbook on top, and a smattering of materials for some great fall-themed 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
Our three books this month include one hardback picture book and two paperbacks. I appreciate that it's a mix of new releases and older titles. The two paperbacks were released in the '90s. I noticed this with our last Lil Readers box, too, and the kids enjoyed them all the same. They don't know the difference!
The Little Ghost Who Lost Her Boo! by Elaine Bickell (Author) and Raymond McGrath (Illustrator) — Retail Value $17.99
Found on sale here for $13.51
This sweet story is a non-spooky ghost tale about a young ghost who tries to "boo" but it won't come out. She wanders through the woods at night asking different birds and even a cow if they can help her find her boo, and while they don't have any "boos" on hand, they each offer their own sound, like "coo" or "moo." At the end we were surprised when the little ghost broke the fourth wall and asked us to help her find her boo. The illustrations are unique, and my kids had so much fun filling in the sounds that rhyme with "boo." This came just in time for Halloween, but it can be enjoyed year-round.
The Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Steven Kroll (Author) and Jeni Bassett (Illustrator) — Retail Value $3.99
In this one, two little mice were tending to the same pumpkin without realizing it, both wondering why and how it was getting so large. One was hoping to bring it to the fair for a pumpkin contest, and the other was planning to carve it into a jack-o-lantern. When they finally met while caring for the pumpkin, they decided they could share the pumpkin and help each other with both endeavors. It's very sweet!
Pink and Rex and the Perfect Pumpkin by James Howe (Author) and Melissa Sweet (Illustrator) — Retail Value $4.99
Lastly, we have a chapter book with the characters Pinky and Rex. This was our first time exploring this series, and as this is clearly not the first book in the series, it was a good lesson in context clues and comprehension to piece together who was who. In the story, two siblings, a neighbor child, and a cousin are taken on a weekend pumpkin patch outing by their grandparents. The neighbor keeps feeling left out and we see her contend with the ups and downs of this experience. There is some mildly intense dialogue between the children at the climax of the story, and then it's resolved. It was interesting for me as a parent—I didn't love that the kids used words like "dumb" and "stupid" to describe behaviors, but then again, these are words that kids might say, and it provided an opportunity for conversation with my own kids about the power of the words we use.
Included materials & activities
Signs that this box is curated by a teacher: it always comes lined with brown paper that can be used to protect your table, and all the worksheets and paper needed for the projects come tucked into a file folder. If you're looking for signs that this is "one of the good ones" in terms of children's subscription boxes, here they are. Included among the project materials folder are two printed recipes, one for pumpkin muffins and the other for pumpkin spice play dough. These thoughtful touches add value far beyond the price tag of the box.
The first activity is to cut out the provided pumpkin print-out and use a small bottle of glow-in-the-dark paint to decorate it. When you sign up for Lil Readers Book Club, you'll be able to indicate how many children the box is for. Our box includes materials for our one kid who's in the 5-7 age range, but we always keep lots of craft supplies on hand, so we can supplement when little sister is around. In this case my six-year-old cut out and decorated her own paper pumpkin, and I cut out an extra one for little sister.
On top is big sister's pumpkin, and on the bottom is little sister's—maybe you can tell that she started to make the ridges and then asked for help finishing. The glow-in-the-dark paint bottle does require a light touch or else it comes out in big globs. We're still waiting for ours to dry 16 hours later, so we're practicing patience before we test out its glow.
Next up is a paper plate jack-o-lantern, which is a 2-step project. You first paint the paper plate orange, wait for it to dry, cut out facial features, then you can play a little game to decorate the face. With the provided clear orange die and guide, you roll to decide which feature to put on next. This is another activity that interested my three-year-old, and I had an extra paper plate and paintbrush on hand so she could join in.
A happy face and a cat!
Here, you simply string beads along a pipe cleaner to create a pumpkin. If a few more orange beads had been provided it could've been big enough to fit as a bracelet for my six-year-old. But no matter, she was able to complete it in about 10 minutes before school and then chose to keep it in her pocket that day to remind her of home.
Simple and sweet.
In this activity we were guided through the steps to stack popsicle sticks together and create a catapult for launching small erasers. This was the trickiest project of the bunch, because wrapping and wrapping rubber bands around stacks of popsicle sticks was fussy. I mostly pieced the catapults together for the kids and then they could launch them toward the target. They didn't go all that far, so our plan is to experiment with adding an additional stick to the stack.
And finally, we were provided tissue paper, construction paper, a little plastic jar, and a battery-operated tea light to make a small lantern. For this one you need to use your own scissors and glue, and again I supplemented the project with a mason jar from home so both kids could participate. The kids cut tissue paper squares and glued them onto the jar, then cut out jack-o-lantern faces and glued those on, too.
Side note: if you're thinking what's the point of the box if I'm over here providing a second set of materials from my home anyway, please let me emphasize how much labor the box is doing. It's way, WAY simpler to grab one mason jar to add to the activity than it is to conceive of the whole project, theme, source ALL the materials, and organize a series of crafts. The box is amazing.
Since it's getting dark earlier we were able to enjoy their glow before bedtime!
Workbook activities
We did these projects over the course of two days, and finished the final one just before dinnertime. It was time to clean up and transition our table for dinner, but the kids were still in "project mode," and I've noticed that this is when the workbook really comes in handy. Since it's catered to 5-7 year olds, my older daughter took the lead and did most of the pages herself. But for a few drawing activities she was happy to let her sister lend a hand. It's awesome to see how far my six-year-old has come with reading and writing in just 2 months since our last box.
Value - Was This Box Worth It?
The Cost: $42.95 per month + free shipping.
This box is SO worth it. There is care put into the projects, theme, provided supplies. There are crafts, fun schoolwork, and extra activities (like baking and making playdough) provided that keep the fun going when the box supplies are used up. And, of course, three great books for our home library!
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 November 20th.
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