A group of mothers of fourth grade girls in my neighborhood got together and created a Mother-Daughter Book Club; three years later, it’s still going strong. My daughter and I dropped out for a time, but found we missed the camaraderie and rejoined. Choosing a book that the girls and moms will enjoy but that is meaty or problematic enough to stimulate interesting discussion can be tricky, but we’re getting better at it. Here are some of the hits.

• Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
This triggered a long and lively discussion of the memorable characters and how the writing foreshadowed the ending, with the girls really taking the lead. A rousing success.

• Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
While not as good as Lowry’s The Giver, which most of the girls read in school, this one generated discussion about the ending and how it might have been, in the girls’ opinions, improved.

• Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
This led mothers to recount stories of their families during World War II — stories that the daughters, in some cases, hadn’t yet heard.

• Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Patterson
While the majority didn’t really like this book, the discussion of sibling relationships and families was wonderful.

• Catherine Called Birdie, Ballad of Lucy Whipple and The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman
Mothers and daughters enjoyed all three. The discussions of how women’s lives have changed (or not) through the ages were lively and fun.

• Holes by Louis Sachar
We missed this one, but I am told it was a hoot.

• The Woman in the Wall by Patricia Kindl
• Shade’s Children by Garth Nix
These were a bit more mature. The former, which mentions a girl’s first period and was read early on, made some a bit uncomfortable. The latter, a dark, dystopian tale with some bad language and adolescent sex (tastefully and responsibly handled), caused some to not attend. But, that we can discuss these subjects with our daughters and that books can give us the opportunity to do so is, I think, one of the great benefits of reading together.