The Bread Winner

The Bread Winner by Arvella Whitemore.

Product description from Amazon:

As her family’s Model T truck rattles along toward Waheegan, Sarah Ann Puckett wonders about her new home. What will life be like in a real town? Will her house be bigger than the one on the farm? She can’t wait to see her first movie at the Aladdin Theater and to make friends at her new school.
But the year is 1932, and life in the midst of the Great Depression is far from easy. Sarah’s parents have been forced to sell the farm, and Sarah is shocked to see that her new house is nothing more than a shack in the poorest part of town. Jobs are scarce, and soon Sarah’s father is forced to leave home to look for work. It seems that Sarah has lost everything . . . except her prizewinning bread recipe.

Helen Keller: Courage in the dark

Helen Keller: Courage in the dark by Johanna Hurwitz.

Product description from Amazon:

When a childhood illness leaves her blind and deaf, Helen Keller's life seems hopeless indeed. But her indomitable will and the help of a devoted teacher empower Helen to triumph over incredible adversity.

We had a blast getting the girls to use their 5 senses! It's amazing to realize how much we depend or focus on only one of our senses, sometimes taking for granted the others. Here are some activities we did with our girls to accompany the book:

• We had a discussion on what 'blind' actually means and how blind people 'read'. This discussion introduced them to braille. One of the mothers had brought a braille book for children so the girls could see and feel what braille is. 
• Using blind folds, and whatever senses they had available, the girls were asked to try and identify toy animals they were given in their hands. 
• One of the mothers brought some 'mystery pots' to the book club meeting. Each one contained different spices/fragrances. Using their sense of smell, the girls tried to guess what was in each pot! They had so much fun with this maasha'Allah.
• We talked about patience and being tested by Allah. Those who are patient with the tests and trials Allah puts before them, will be rewarded justly. 

The girls were also given a printout of the American Sign Language (ASL) alphabet. 

ASL printable

The Hundred Dresses

Soon after the first book, we read The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes

Product description from Amazon:

Wanda Petronski lives way up in shabby Boggins Heights, and she doesn't have any friends. Every day she wears a faded blue dress, which wouldn't be too much of a problem if she didn't tell her schoolmates that she had a hundred dresses at home--all silk, all colors, and velvet, too. This lie--albeit understandable in light of her dress-obsessed circle--precipitates peals of laughter from her peers, and she never hears the end of it. One day, after Wanda has been absent from school for a few days, the teacher receives a note from Wanda's father, a Polish immigrant: "Dear teacher: My Wanda will not come to your school any more. Jake also. Now we move away to big city. No more holler Polack. No more ask why funny name. Plenty of funny names in the big city. Yours truly, Jan Petronski."
Maddie, a girl who had stood by while Wanda was taunted about her dresses, feels sick inside: "True, she had not enjoyed listening to Peggy ask Wanda how many dresses she had in her closet, but she had said nothing.... She was a coward.... She had helped to make someone so unhappy that she had had to move away from town." Repentant, Maddie and her friend Peggy head up to Boggins Heights to see if the Petronskis are still there. When they discover the house is empty, Maddie despairs: "Nothing would ever seem good to her again, because just when she was about to enjoy something--like going for a hike with Peggy to look for bayberries or sliding down Barley Hill--she'd bump right smack into the thought that she had made Wanda Petronski move away."

Here are some activity sheets to accompany the book:

The Hundred Dresses Quiz

Vocab Puzzle

The Hundred Dresses Lesson plan

Here are a few other activities we had the girls do in our book club meeting:

• We had them design a dress using different embellishments (i.e. glitter, sequins, buttons etc.). One of the mothers kindly let us borrow a design stencil set she has for her daughter. 
• We discussed the issue of bullying - what it is and how it makes others feel. To illustrate the point, we had them engage in a role playing activity using scenes from the book. This was led by a mother who asked the girls thought provoking questions. They discussed feelings/emotions and solutions for different bullying scenarios. 
• Each girl was asked to bring a dress of their own choosing which was to be donated to those less fortunate than us. This led to a discussion on helping others and being grateful for what we have. 

The girls in the book club are aged 6 and up. This book was very rich in vocabulary and some issues may have been quite advanced for some to fully grasp and comprehend. I feel as though this is a book that'll be worth re-reading in the future, insha'Allah.

More Little House activities

Here are a few more activity sheets I was able to dig up.
Hope you guys enjoy!

Word search activity sheet

Word scramble activity sheet

Wagon colouring page

Word search activity sheet

Little House in the Big Woods

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder was from the first books we read. The girls really enjoyed it, Alhamdulillah.

Here's a product description from Amazon:

Laura Ingalls's story begins in 1871 in a little log cabin on the edge of the Big Woods of Wisconsin. Four-year-old Laura lives in the little house with her Pa, her Ma, her sisters Mary and Carrie, and their trusty dog, Jack. 

Pioneer life is sometimes hard, since the family must grow or catch all their own food as they get ready for the cold winter. But it is also exciting as Laura and her folks celebrate Christmas with homemade toys and treats, do the spring planting, bring in the harvest, and make their first trip into town. And every night they are safe and warm in their little house, with the happy sound of Pa's fiddle sending Laura and her sisters off to sleep. 

And so begins Laura Ingalls Wilder's beloved story of a pioneer girl and her family. The nine Little House books have been cherished by generations of readers as both a unique glimpse into America's frontier past and a heartwarming, unforgettable story.

In our book club meetings, we discussed what life was like as a pioneer. We talked about the family morals, values and strong work ethic displayed by the characters in the book. 


Here is a list of activities we did with our girls. Try them yourself, or perhaps use them to inspire you for other creative ideas you might have.

• We had the girls make a nature briefcase using manila file folders, twigs and yarn. They were cute! We told them to keep all the book club activity sheets in their new briefcases.
• One of the mothers made simple corn husk dolls for the girls. 
• They attempted to churn their own butter and very soon learned how challenging it was! 
• They made log houses with popsicle sticks. 
• Another mother made maple candy with her daughter

For each book we read and cover, we try to give our girls a club activity pack. These packs will usually contain worksheets printed from various websites and occasionally worksheets that we've put together ourselves. Since we read this book a while ago, I tried going through the links I used to put the activity packs together. Unfortunately, a few of them aren't working anymore. Hopefully, you can use the ones that are still working. I hope they will be of some benefit. Enjoy!


Here's a really nice activity I found on another mothers blog: Practical Pages. Click on the image of the house to check out her post on this activity!

3D Model of Little House in the Big Woods

Word Scramble worksheet

Making butter activity

A series of  pioneer worksheets


Build a pioneer village with these paper models

Little House in the Big Woods Comprehension  worksheets

In addition to the all of these activities, we visited Black Creek Pioneer Village. 

From their website: 

Black Creek is a working village, typical of those established in south central Ontario between the 1790s and the 1860s. At Black Creek you are invited to escape the modern world, and experience Ontario’s rich rural heritage.

The girls really enjoyed their experience. They got to step back into time and really see how pioneers lived their lives. 


Sun Life Financial have sponsored a Museum and Arts Pass (MAP) program. The program offers families passes to a list of art and cultural attractions within Toronto. Each pass admits 2 adults and up to 4 children and are issued by the Toronto Public Library. Black Creek Pioneer Village is on the list of participating venues, so if you're interested in visiting the village and you want to get a hold of a MAP pass, check out your local library. (Toronto only) Click here for more details.

Book Criteria

Asalaamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh

Welcome to our girls book club blog!

This is the first post, so I thought it would be fitting to go through the criteria we use when searching for a book.

Being that we are Muslim, for obvious reasons we stay away from books where shirk is being committed.

We try to avoid stories that:

• have magic, witches or wizards
• promote music or musical instruments
• contain romance or anything flirtatious
• have princesses, fairies and the whole 'fantasy' story line
• are commercialized (like 'Disney' /story line)
• involve time travelling (e.g. magic tree house)
• mention acts of haraam being committed or promoted, UNLESS there is a lesson to learn from that, such as a consequence for that haraam action later on in the story. For example, stealing, lying or cheating 
• have characters with bad attitudes(especially towards parents) and use offensive language.

It is not necessary that the books are "girlish", so to speak, or have girl themes. The main characters don't have to be girls. We welcome books that are well written, that stimulate our children's thinking, use rich vocabulary and have good morals and values. 

In conclusion, we like to provide our children with books that are inline with our Islamic values.