Book Clubs can remind kids how much fun reading is!
A while back I wrote about great book clubs that are already available online, and there are a number of clubs run through the local libraries and book stores for teens, but sometimes there's just no substitute for getting together with real life friends. Kids' book clubs can be fun and rewarding. It's a great way to build and strengthen friendships and a book club can be a great place to learn without feeling like it's a classroom. Talking about books builds critical thinking, conversational skills, and helps kids discover what they're interested in and passionate about. Best of all, most of the time these things happen with fairly little intervention or direction from the adults involved once the ball is rolling! Kids get extra busy during the school year, but sometimes a fun activity like a book club can be relaxing and give them a break from the pressures of school. Even though they have more assigned reading during the school year, it can be the best time for a book club. A great book club can remind a kid that reading can be fun and recreational, not just something you have to do for school. So how do you get started?
Step One: Build the Group - You want to decide how big a group you can handle. How many adults will be there and how old the kids are make a big difference here. If you're dealing with seven-year-olds, you might want a smaller group or more adults, whereas a group of teenagers can be larger and require very little adult supervision. In general, I recommend keeping groups small (somewhere between four to eight kids, depending on their ages and the discretion of the adults involved). The more people you add, the less any one person gets to participate and since this might the first time many, or all, of these kids will have ever been in a book club, you want them to feel like they mattered. Consider if you want to build the group from kids who are already friends or invite people you don't know so well in, such as kids you know through extra-curricular activities or new kids in the neighborhood. Book clubs can be a great way to get to know someone, but they can also be fun ways for groups of friends to tighten their friendships. Maybe there's a group already built that you can capitalize on, such as a scout troupe. There are lots of ways to build a book club once you start thinking about it.
Step Two: Figure out the Basics - When you invite people to join the book club you're going to need to give them the basic details, the what, where, and when. Make sure you have all of that information ready and confirmed before you start inviting people. Where will you meet? You could meet at your house, the local library, a bookstore, a restaurant (although this gets more expensive and will probably mean including everyone's parents unless you are dealing with teenagers), a local park, just about anywhere. Even the pool can be a great place for meetings! Consider if you're planning to do any activities along with the books when choosing your location, since the library will gladly welcome a book club but might not be so happy about you making cupcakes there! How often will you meet? Once a month is traditional, but you can meet as often as you like. If you have voracious readers, maybe you should meet every week instead (you can always extend the same book over two or three meetings if it's longer, so the kids don't have to read it all in one week). Maybe every other week or every three weeks or even every six weeks is a better fit for your group. Consider that the school year is going on and they'll have homework as well. How much homework do kids their age get and how much should you worry about them not getting to read because of it? Talk to the kids about this if you need to, but try to have some idea of what you would like the schedule to be before you start the discussion. Talk to parents about what days and times are a good fit for everyone before inviting the kids. Then invite the kids themselves, not their parents into the group. You want them to feel like it's a club for them, not something they are being pushed into. This should be fun, low-pressure and for them.
Step Three: Choosing Books - This is the fun part. If you're dealing with younger elementary school kids, you probably want to choose the books for them (if for no other reason than to avoid arguments). You can pick a single book for each month or give them a few options, just make sure the books you pick work together in some way for a discussion. They can all be part of the same series or all be on a theme or in the same genre, just make sure you've read all of them if you're going to need to lead the discussion. If the kids in your group are a little older, you can let them choose the themes and pick a book or set of books from that or let them agree on a book together. Older kids and teenagers could also set up a rotating schedule where each member of the group gets to choose what the club reads in turn. This is a fun way to do it because it allows each kid to share their interests with everyone else and they all get to try something new. Also keep in mind when choosing reading material that you don't have to stick to books. Maybe one month you all read magazines and discuss them, or comic books, or blogs, or newspapers or anything. Fiction and nonfiction are both fair game and you don't have to stick to age-appropriate stuff, either. Teenagers can have a ball with a picture book reading session! Be creative and try to make sure it's fun! Remember that you're picking recreational reading, not school books. Anything is fair game. You can pick from a book or website of recommended titles, talk to a librarian, teacher or bookseller about what might be fun, or pick just anything that you think your group might like. If you think your group would love to read a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure but they're not on any of the recommended lists you've got, don't sweat it and let them read one (or more) anyway!
Tomorrow I'll talk about ways to set up meetings, make things exciting and take reading beyond the books. Book clubs can be about more than just reading! If you have great ideas for book clubs or suggestions for how to set one up, make sure and post them in the comments or let me know!
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