I have blogged about our daughter’s school book club and about the book club that she and I share but there’s a third book club that she’s involved with. It’s a neighborhood kids’ book club. Members take turns hosting the monthly meetings and whoever is hosting chooses the book for that month. One of the moms kindly asks the local library to borrow extra copies of the selection so it’s easy and free to get a hold of the selection that month. Generally the kids discuss the book for 15 minutes if you’re lucky, then have a snack and play for the remainder of the hour. Today we hosted and our daughter’s selection was Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.

If you haven’t read it, do. Even if you don’t have a child in your life, it’s a sweet read. This charming book from 1974 sits with you like a warm bowl of soup on a cold day. We decided to make rat cupcakes to celebrate the kind-hearted rats in the book. Knowing how kids love this kind of thing, we sent out word to the kids involved that we’d “be serving rats for the snack.” We had some extra buttercream frosting in the freezer that I tinted to the right colors.

Sophie used the pastry bag to pipe the mouse bodies, eyes and nose and used Rice Krispies for ears and chow mein noodles for tails.

The meeting was held in a well-furnished fort under the dining room table (using the fort cozies described in an earlier post) that Sophie spent all afternoon Sunday constructing specifically for the meeting. Although the book discussions are brief I tell myself that she read one more book than she would have had she not been part of the club and there’s something to be treasured that the first words out of her mouth this morning at breakfast were, “I can’t wait for the book club after school today!”

Long live the rats I say!