To celebrate the start of the National Year of Reading, I’m hosting a weekly Friday Book Club from 9th January to 13th February 2026, and I’d love you and your pupils to join in the fun. Home educated children are very welcome! It’s primarily aimed at KS2 students but you may find older or younger students enjoy the virtual events.

What to expect

Each week, I’ll bring half an hour of book-inspired activities to children, all themed around exciting topics. From dragons to villains, friends to monsters, these free sessions are designed to inspire creativity and a love of stories in every child, no matter their current reading ability. All children need to join in is a piece of paper and a pen or pencil.

We’ll kick off with a short, fun activity designed to get students curious about the theme. Next, we’ll have a mini story time followed by another activity that will let students see the full power of their amazing imaginations. Finally, we’ll meet our special guest author who will teach us something special connected to the world of their books. Finally then there will be time for audience questions.

Before I became an author, I was an English subject lead at secondary school and an Advanced Skills Teacher so I’ll be using these skills to help me plan inspiring activities that work for all children. There will also be competitions, the chance for teachers to share students’ ideas in the chat and the focus will always come back to what students can create when stories ignite their imaginations. It will be a bit of me talking and a lot of children doing.

Weekly Themes (subject to change)

Week 1 (9th January): Dragons

Week 2 (16th January): Villains

Week 3 (23rd January): Amazing Creatures

Week 4 (30th January): Friends

Week 5 (6th February): Cartoons

Week 6 (13th February): Ghosts and Monsters

Why join?

We’re all aware of the huge benefits reading for pleasure offers children. Reading is not only great fun, it can help us children cope with difficult situations, improve empathy and boost academic achievement. Those who find reading a challenge can feel excluded from reading and view books as something that are just not for them. At Friday Book Club all children will enjoy the benefits of reading. I’ll use books to encourage children to get creative and feel part of the community of readers. There will be no ‘best’ or ‘worst’ readers: all will share in the excitement and escapism that books offer even those who’ve never opened a book out of choice.

For children who already love to read, Friday Book Club will be half an hour of joy where they get to meet favourite authors and ask them questions, place themselves in the role of author and let their imaginations run wild. It’s the club I wish I’d been able to attend as a child.

Tell me the practical stuff

Each Friday Book Club will be a virtual event that goes live starting on Friday 9^th of January at 2pm and will run for half an hour. Screens and microphones will be off, but we’ll use the chat function so teachers can share class contributions live and ask questions. If that time doesn’t suit you, recordings will be made available. To take part live or watch the recordings, simply sign up here.

If you have any questions please get in touch at: jennymclachlanwriter@outlook.com

Friday Book Club will be hosted by the brilliant Harper Collins Book Squad. You can find out more about Book Squad here.