Book Club in a Bag: Narwhal & Jelly Kit

Take-and-make kits; craft kits; programs to go: whatever your library calls these programs in a bag that have become a staple of no-contact offerings, one thing is fairly standard: these kits are well loved, but they take time to make. I love creating materials for kits and thinking about how a family might interact with program materials at home. I’ve introduced a new pair of kits for ages 6-11 this month: Book Club in a Bag (also known as Leap Off the Page, since we already have book club kits at our library, and the original name became confusing). First up: Narwhal & Jelly Kit.

The Book Club in a Bag kits look a bit different from some of my previous kits. Instead of focusing on just one book universe, these kits each feature four characters, hopefully some old favorites as well as some new, diverse characters.

In May, these featured characters or books included (links provided as the bag contents are shared on Book Cart Queens):

Ages 6-8
- Nawhal and Jelly (Blen Clanton)
- Sadiq (Siman Nuurali)
- Pete the Cat (Eric Litwin and James Dean)
- Zoey and Sassafras (Asia Citro)

Ages 8-11:
- Tristan Strong (Kwambe Mbalia)
- Last Kids on Earth (Max Brallier)
- Two Truths and a Lie (Ammi-Joan Paquette and Laurie Ann Thompson)
- Lumberjanes (Noelle Stevenson, Shannon Watters, Brooke Allen, Grace Ellis, Kat Leyh, Faith Erin Hicks)

Check out these previously featured Book Club kits:

– Elephant & Piggie (Mo Willems)
– Mindy Kim (Lyla Lee)
– Yasmin (Saadia Faruqi)
– Azaleah Lane (Nikki Shannon Smith)
– Wings of Fire (Tui T. Sutherland)
– New Kid (Jerry Craft)
– Phoebe and Her Unicorn (Dana Simpson)
– Shuri (Nic Stone)

Each bag contains some repeated resources:

List of kit contents
List of books in the featured series
List of readalike books
Discussion questions
Swag item (button, sticker, bookmarks)
1-3 crafts, games, activities

Narwhal & Jelly Kit

The Narwhal & Jelly Kit can be as simple or as elaborate as you’d like. Most of this kit can be re-created simply using a printer, with the addition of extra items depending on your budget.

Want to use make an Narwhal & Jelly Kit at your library? Download the PDFs at the links below, or write a comment or send an email (bookcartqueens@gmail.com) for editable files.

Narwhal & Jelly Kit General Materials

Each bag contains some of the same basic materials, and the Narwhal & Jelly kit is no different.

Slideshare not working? Download the PDF featuring all kit activities here.

Slideshare not working? Download the PDF listing all book titles here.

Slideshare not working? Download the PDF listing readalikes here.

The Narwhal & Jelly readalikes bookmark features these titles:

Agent 9 Volume 1, Flood-a-geddon! by James Burks
Agent Moose Volume 1 by Mo O’Hara
Baloney and Friends Volume 1 by Greg Pizzoli
Beak & Ally Volume 1: Unlikely Friends by Norm Feuti
Blue, Barry & Pancakes by Dan Abdo
Bunbun and Bonbon Volume 1, Fancy Friends by Jess Keating
Donut Feed the Squirrels by Mika Song
Kitty and Dragon by Meika Hashimoto
Pea, Bee, & Jay: Stuck Together by Brian “Smitty” Smith
Pizza and Taco: Who’s the Best? by Stephen Shaskan
Squidding Around 1: Fish Feud! by Kevin Sherry
Super Detectives! by Cale Atkinson

Slideshare not working? Download the PDF listing discussion questions here.

The Narwhal & Jelly Discussion Questions included:

General Questions:
- What is a Narwhal? Are they real? (Research narwhals to find out!)
- Who was your favorite character? Why?
- Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
Sample Story Questions: Super Narwhal & Jelly Jolt:
- How does Narwhal cheer up Jelly? Have you ever cheered up a friend? What did you do?
- What superpower does Narwhal end up having? How do you know?
- There are some made-up words in this book that sound like real words. Can you find them? What do you think each word means?

This bag also included some 1″ buttons as swag. Download printable PDFs to make those yourself here.

Narwhal & Jelly Crafts, Games, and More

First up: make your own Narwhal & Jelly! This craft was inspired by the paper plate craft from this awesome blog. I don’t have the time or patience to paint paper plates for 50 take home kits, so I turned this into a printable template.

I realized afterward that the sizes are a bit disproportionate, but the craft still works. Everything was printed on white cardstock.

Slideshare not working? Download the PDF of the craft template here.

Slideshare not working? Download the PDF of the craft instructions here.

I also included two printable activity books. One includes a variety of Narwhal & Jelly activity sheets, mostly from the Narwhal & Jelly website:

Download below:

Slideshare not working? Download the PDF of the activity booklet here.

And finally, make your own Narwhal & Jelly comic book. Practice drawing Narwhal before filling in the provided comic panel templates with your own story: