Kiki’s Delivery Service book club

Back when Jeff and I were dating Studio Gibli was all the rage. It’s still very popular, but it created amazing fantastic movies that were actually family movies. They were, as my daughter likes to say, wholesome. Jeff raved about Kiki’s Delivery Service as just this nice slice of life little movie. I stored that idea away, and a few months ago I saw the book was on sale so I scooped it up and read it intending to make a Kiki’s Delivery Service book club for our book and a movie list. I’m so glad I finally read the book because it’s adorable and I highly recommend this coming-of-age book.

Sigh, I just did that big update to my book and a movie list, and I discovered I somehow didn’t get Kiki’s Delivery Service on the list for 4th grade. HOW?

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Kiki’s Delivery Service book club

Sigh, most of the discussion questions I found are related to the movie, which is great and definitely more famous than the book, BUT the movie.

So, here is my one Kiki’s Delivery Service book discussion questions.

I’m thinking of making some official book clubs, so here is a rough suggestion of things to discuss from this book:

• Why is it important for Kiki to go off on her own?
• Does the episodic nature of the book work for a coming-of-age story?
• Could you read the chapters of this book out of order and the story still make sense?
• What lessons has Kiki learned over the time of the book?

Kiki’s Delivery Service snacks

Not surprisingly there are some suggestions for Kiki’s Delivery Service snacks since it’s a Studio Ghibli film and so many people love those films. I took some of those ideas and added a few of my own to the plan.

Most of our snacks are vaguely based off of the book. I had fun picking out some amusing topics from the book, which only get a brief mention in the movie.

• pacifier- Nilla Wafer with chocolate chips added to it, and a Hershey Kiss on the other side
• black cat- a cat from our animal cookie cutters (I’ve linked to the recipe I used for the chocolate cookies)
• belly bands- a hilarious story from the book that was sadly not included in the movie, Sour Strips
• Clock tower- sugar cookie with melted chocolate hands (since I already had the melted chocolate for the pacifier)
• flowers- sugar cookies with sprinkles added while cooking
• New Year’s Meal- in the book they ate meatballs in sauce, so I made some meatballs with my spaghetti sauce
• witch’s dress- the chocolate cookie recipe with a bell cookie cutter, that looks remarkably like a dress
• broom- paper bag full of popcorn with a pretzel rod for a handle (in case you’re wondering, people also use this idea for Harry Potter)

I found this chocolate cookie dough recipe. A couple of changes I made from the dough: I added 1/2 teaspoon almond extract, and I recommend refrigerating the dough for 1/2 hour before rolling it out because it works a bit better, unlike what I did, which resulted in my putting the dough in the freezer for a few minutes

More 4th-grade activities

While I read this book, six months ago just because I was curious, we did a lot of really cool things back when the kids were in 4th grade.

• How do stomach acids work
• France Unit
• Planetary landing shuttle retrieval
• Matilda book club
• French Wars of Religion