To Kill a Mockingbird book club with ideas

"I think, there's just one kind of folks. Folks"

​At a typical book club we will always sit next to a familiar face or an old friend before our meal and or at book discussion time. Since I was the host for this particular book club I wanted to have an experience fitting the novel and that was to have my book friends sit with someone new or someone they don't know well and thus the To Kill a Mockingbird experiment was born.

I used place cards such as these mini chalkboard place cards on Amazon.com to write down book character names and then grouped them by how they stood in the novel such as: The Finches, The Ewells, Tom Robinson, Calpurnia, and the neighbors of Maycomb.  On the drinking glasses I added stem tags with the character names from the place cards and for an extra touch I added a picture of a mockingbird I found online and printed.

​The glasses with the stem tags were placed at each table setting in a way that put all the book character's that conflicted in the novel next to each other: Atticus Finch sat next to Bob Ewell, Jem Finch next to Mrs. Dubose, Aunt Alexandra and Calpurnia etc. When it was time to be seated my book club friends chose one of the names on the place cards and then sat down at the table with the glass that had the same character name on the stem tag.  I then explained to the group the To Kill a Mockingbird experiment and asked that they discuss their characters conflicts in the novel as part of the book discussion as well as getting to know each other on a new and deeper level.

In the end, my book friends sat and ate with different folks and thus concluded my experiment. My goal was to open up a conversation about the folks of Maycomb County as well as (on a lighter note) shake things up at our book club dinner table. As Scout said, "I think, there's just one kind of folks. Folks" ​

More character fun with stem tags

Choose your book character place card

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More ideas

In a perfect world I would decorate my book club table with Mrs. Dubose's camellias, Miss Maudie's azaleas, and Aunt Alexandra's mimosa tree. Unfortunately, there was none to be had so I came up with plan B and bought summer flowers, used chalkboard labels for the mason jars and placed them on a tablecloth with a bird print. Maycomb county would be proud!

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How many sticks of bubblegum are in this vase? The 'Jem and Scouts gum game' will get your group guessing to win a prize! More on Book Party Ideas​

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What would you want to find in a knot hole of a tree?

When I saw this ancient looking tree with the perfect knot hole I immediately thought of Boo Radley and the little treasures he stowed away for Jem and Scout to discover.  I felt like a child for a moment as I wanted to be either like Boo and put something in the knot hole or find something wonderful for myself. Maybe we should do just that and discover the inner Arthur 'Boo' Radley in all of us

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