The Unfinished Angel check-in

Hi there book club members! How is it going with your reading of The Unfinished Angel? Are you enjoying it–are your kids feeling inspired?

Trishna, Jonathan, Elijah, and I wanted to check in and also give you further resources to help you enjoy the club:

A Wacky Word Game for You and Yours

My daughter Trishna, our official club Word Master, loves Madlibs–so she created her own Wacky Word version for you and yours to fill out based on The Unfinished Angel!

(Trust me, it’s been tested by us and is laugh-out-loud funny!) Plus it’s a good way to cover some grammar basics, right?

You can download it here.

 

An Update from the Round Home/Love146

We aren’t the only ones who have been enjoying The Unfinished Angel! Malaya*, who lives in the Love146 Round Home in the Philippines, is too–I loved receiving these photos of her reading our book club title outside.

How is it going with gathering your pledges thus far? We’ve already had a few donations post to our community’s fundraising page–and we haven’t even really gotten started yet! 

Here are a couple of videos you could watch with your kids about the Round Home:

• For ages 8 and up: https://vimeo.com/7462722 (An animated explanation/exploration of the Round Home)
• For all ages: https://vimeo.com/148551868 (A 2016 holiday concert given by the children served by Love146 in the Philippines–music begins at 01:30 in the clip)

Remember, this is the link to pass on to your friends and family to fulfill their pledges if they’re giving over $5: https://donate.love146.org/bookclub146

And if you need to refer back to the template to help you ask for pledges, you’ll find that on this page!

* Name changed to honor and protect her identity

Planning a Feast

Want to plan a celebration feast at the end of this month in your home (or with other friends who are in the book club)? How about including foods that are unique to the setting in The Unfinished Angel?!

Check out all the recipes from Global Table Adventure that come from Switzerland and Italy here to plan your dinner! It even includes recipes for many of the foods that come up in the story: ravioli, artichokes, and figs, too.

If you do have a feast, we’d love to see it! Tag us all on Instagram with #healtheworldbookclub so we can check it out. And it counts to just get take out too, you know! 😉

Questions to Answer (& a chance for an extra donation & a prize!):

Here are a few questions you can ask your kids as you near the end of the book:

• What are some ways Zola helps to heal her corner of the world in The Unfinished Angel?
• How did reading this book inspire you? (or) Which part of it especially touched your heart?
• How have you helped to heal your corner of the world this month? (Share from your list on your reading log!)

We’ll have a private page where your kids can share their answers at the end of the month.

Each child who shares their responses will be entered to win an extra $5 donated to Love146 on their behalf, as well as a small gift to inspire them to keep healing the world!

Heal the World Weekly Challenges

I’ve created a small Heal the World challenge for each week that you can do with your kids if you’d like to! Each week has a theme, so you can use the theme to come up with your own ideas as well.

Isn’t it cool to think of all of us, all over the world, taking part in each challenge week by week? You can tag your challenges on Instagram if you want to inspire others with your efforts!

Week 1 (Feb 5-11): FAMILY
* Do an unexpected kindness for someone in your family (Elijah and I shared this one on IG last week.) Figuring out the love languages for those in your family might help with this!

Week 2 (Feb 12-18): PRAYER
* Create a prayer bowl, fill it with the issues, places, & people on your family’s heart, & begin using it. (See page 33 in Give Your Child the World for instructions!)

Week 3 (Feb 19-25): EDUCATION
* Donate books, curricula, or supplies to someone in need in your community or to an organization like Books for Africa

Week 4 (Feb 26-Mar 4): NEIGHBORS
* Surprise a neighbor with a care package on their doorstep. What does one of your neighbors need most?

Week 5 (Mar 5-11): GRATITUDE
* Write a note to someone who has impacted your life in a positive way, and let them know how thankful you are for them and/or create a positivity bean jar

Week 6 (Mar 12-18): THE HUNGRY
* Find a way to help the hungry (near or far) this week. Ideas: FreeRice.com, The Hunger Site, volunteer at or donate to your local food bank, etc.

Week 7 (Mar 19-25): THE HOMELESS
* Create homeless kits to keep in your car so you can easily pass them out when you have the opportunity.

Week 8 (Mar 26-Apr 1): THE ELDERLY
* Make the life of an older person better this week with a visit, call, card, and/or gift!

Week 9 (Apr 2-8): THE EARTH
* Pick up litter on a road or in a park in your community, recycle, start to compost, or plant a garden.

Week 10 (Apr 9-15): CHILDREN
* How can you bring a smile to the face of another child this week, near or far?

Week 11 (Apr 16-22): THOSE FAR FROM HOME
* Can you invite someone far from home and loved ones over this week for a meal or visit, or send a note of encouragement to someone in the military or to a refugee child?

Week 12 (Apr 23-29): GENEROUS GIVING
* It’s almost the end of our club–time to follow up with all your pledges so we can give big and reach our goal for the children served by Love146 in the Philippines!

Our Book Club Titles for March & April

We’ve been so excited about sharing these titles for March and April with you! Here they are–order your copies now:

For March 2017:

• Extra Credit by Andrew Clements (Our main book club title for ages 9-13ish)

Alternative titles for March:

• How Many Donkeys? (for ages 4-6)
• Nasreen’s Secret School (for ages 6-8)
• Day of Ahmed’s Secret (for ages 6-8)
• Four Feet, Two Sandals (for ages 8-10)
• Shooting Kabul (for ages 11-14)
• I Am Malala: Young Readers Edition (for ages 12 and up)

For April 2017:

• Rickshaw Girl by Mitali Perkins (Our main book club title for ages 6-11ish)
• We’ll suggest some alternative titles for older/younger readers as we get closer to April!

And just in case you missed them:

• Our first update from The Unfinished Angel (email sent in early-February 2017)
• The links to the book club printables for you (email sent when you signed up for the club)

Have a question or comment? Want to share how the book and/or club has been touching your hearts? Share it below and we’ll get back to you!