MHLS - Book Club - Children and Teens

I want to thank EVERYONE for their advice regarding my soon to be formed book club. I had an overwhelming number of responses, many of which suggested that I check out the Multnomah Public Library’s website (<http://www.multcolib.org/talk/index.html which I did and it will be a great resource! I’ve posted the responses that I received, and left names intact to give credit to the amazing librarians who put all of this together; I hope that no one minds...

I’ve been doing a book club for 4^th and 5^th graders for the last year and its been going pretty well. I usually try to mix genres so everyone can have a book they like, however, once the group got started I looked to the regulars for guidance in picking the titles. For example, I would bring in three books, tell them a little about each book, and then let them pick which one would be used. I would usually do this 2 months in advance, because we meet once a month and I found it was important that they got the next month’s book at the meeting or they might never come pick it up later. Some of the books are a little old for elementary, but there are some you could use to get started. Also if you have trouble creating questions yourself, sometimes a simple Google search of the title of your book and ‘discussion questions’ will help out.

Christy
children’s/ya librarian
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I have been running a book discussion group for 9-12 year olds and their parents for almost two years. We meet once a month, after everyone has had a chance to read the book. I have been part of book clubs that meet weekly as the book is read and I find that very problematic. For one thing some people read ahead and others have not had a chance to read the “chapters for the week”. It makes the discussion very difficult, not wanting to hold the discussion back and not wanting to ruin the book for those who have not had time to read it yet. I think a discussion on a book as whole work is more meaningful to all involved.

As for picking the books, I started my first meeting with book talking about 30 titles and then the entire group (parents as well as kids) was each given 6 stickers to vote with. Stickers were placed on file cards that had a short recap of the booktalk (mostly cut and pasted out of our catalog). The six books with the most votes were the books for the next 6 months. I decided the order that the books were read, balancing the list so we didn’t read 3 sci-fi or whatever genre in a row. I have the good fortune of having received a gift of several thousand dollars so I am able to purchase the books for the group and the members get to keep the books, the idea here is to encourage home libraries. The group is very successful. I can send you the lists of books we have chosen as well as the book I have book talked.

The Multnomah County Library system has a great resource for you called Talk it Up. I hope this helps you out. I love this program! It is called Discussion Junction: where parents and children meet to talk about books. You can steal the name if you like. One of my goals with this program is to get parents and kids talking about thoughts, beliefs, fears, ideas, etc., when the kids are young enough to still open up with the hope that it will continue as the kids turn to teens. Good luck, feel free to ask for questions either e-mail or phone 360 699-8869.

Ruth Shafer
Vancouver, Washington USA
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I do not run a book group, but I have the good luck to work with Nancy Pearl, who runs the Washington Center for the Book, an organization devoted to helping book groups. They have some very useful information on their website, including recommended children’s and young adult books for discussion.
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I’ve been running a book club since 1999. For a while, it was geared toward 3-5^th grade, but I changed it this year to 4-6^th. How I pick the books? I’ll go to various online book sites and see what they consider appropriate for that age level. After, I take the book home and read it myself. The kids all pick the book up one month prior to the discussion and then come in to talk about the book (we also feed them snacks, so that’s gets them in). I try to pick books that appeal to both genders, but if I find a great “girl” book, the next month will be a “boy” book. I used to come up with very specific questions about the plot of the book, but now I make it more discussion based.
Below are a few books I’ve read with the group this year:

The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (we did this during Spring Break. It was a 2-hour long program where we had pizza and watched the movie and then talked about the differences afterwards)
In Plain Sight by Carol Otis Hurst (I also tried to introduce different genres this year. I tended to stick to contemporary fiction, so I chose this historical fiction book)
Winnie the Pooh (another genre introduction so to speak - I wanted to introduce them to classic children’s literature).

Authors I’ve had success with: Gordon Korman, Barbara Park, Johanna Hurwitz.

If you need any more information, don’t hesitate to e-mail me. We can share book titles - I’m always looking for more.
Natalie Korsavidis
Youth Services Librarian
Farmingdale Public Library
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We’ve had a youth book group here for about 5 years, and the main age group is 9 to 11 years old. I try to pick fun books that they won’t necessarily read in school, but also keep in mind the overall age level I have in the current group. I also try to stay away from “girl” books, as boys won’t read those, but girls will read “boy” books. I’ll list some of the successful titles that we did below.

As for activities and discussion guides, I’ve done a variety of things. Several times I looked online to find questions, I’ve ordered the Scholastic Literature Guides, I’ve created my own and I’ve left it open for them to discuss. I also always try to have something that’s related to the book, but you wouldn’t have necessarily had to have read it planned for those that come to group and didn’t finish the book or are new and didn’t have a chance to read the book. I’ve also picked books that have corresponding movies, and we watch clips from the movie to compare to the book.

Help! I’m Trapped In My Gym Teacher’s Body (Strasser)
The Lemonade Trick (Corbett)
Number the Stars (Lowry)
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (O’Brien)
Beetles, Lightly Toasted (Naylor)
The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks (McArthur)
Be a Perfect Person In Just Three Days (Manes)
Top Secret (Gardiner)
The Indian in the Cupboard (Banks)
The Secret Life of the Underwear Champ (Miles)
The Twits (Dahl)
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Lewis)

Ruhama Kordatzky
Youth Services Librarian
Burlington Public Library
mailto:rkordatz@burlington.lib.wi.us

I recently did a presentation on my 'tween book groups, and I’ll be doing one on tweens in general tomorrow. Here is what I have to share:

My first recommendation is to go to the kids of this age that you know and have a group of them with varying interests work with you a fabulous volunteer opportunity! When I started a book group for tweens - upper elementary ages - here at my library I went to the source - the kids. What I got from them and have been doing since with minor tweaking from time to time is their number one request: Don’t make it anything like what they HAVE to do in school. I started by bribing some tweens with pizza and the promise that they could do something cool. And that was my first tween book group committee; I can’t remember what they called themselves, but it certainly wasn’t “committee”, each group chooses their own name - it’s not a big deal. None of the groups have really cared that the group have a “hot” name, so much as the content of the program be cool. So, with my chosen volunteers in that first program we began looking at books that they liked, what they had read, what sounded interesting, and what could be a fun - or interesting - program. And talking about what WAS a fun program. What they thought would get other kids their age out of the house and actively participating. I’ll admit I wanted to target both kids that were already reading and non-readers in the hopes of getting some really positive peer promotion (or pressure, if you will) happening. My community is primarily rural - that takes some explaining - we have several village centers, and lots of green space in between to summarize, and incredible high risk. We are above average for school drop outs, substance use, teen pregnancy, illiteracy; in the past five years due to several factors the community has been undergoing a change and a lot of that has begun to turn around.

One of my goals here at my library is to let kids make things happen, so this planning group does have a portion of my budget to plan around (with my final approval), and they have a lot of freedom to plan really cool things (with my direction) - I should also mention that at the same time there is a teen group that operates in much the same capacity. Every school year the group gets new members and loses members to other projects or whatever is going on in their life (sports, work, etc.).All of the kids also participate in the TAC (Teen Advisory Council) and get to do the really cool group projects. If you’re interested I’m happy to share what I do with the groups.

Redwall - Brian Jacques
Love that Dog - Sharon Creech
Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident – Colfer
Skellig - David Almond
Ranma ½, Vol. 1 - Rumiko Takahashi
Holes – Sachar
Cirque Du Freak - Darren Shan (we combined the tween and teen book groups on this one and had a Cirque Du Freak themed Halloween part. I archived our promotional site at: http://www.sover.net/~jmaskell/vampindex.html
Midnight for Charlie Bone – Nimmo
The Goats - Brock Cole
The Lord of the Rings (All three, and the Hobbit) – Tolkien
.hack//Legends of the Twilight, Vol. 1 - Tatsuya Hamazaki
Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury
The Princess Diaries - Meg Cabot

And the list goes on...the common factor in each of these was that this was where the kids were at the time and these were the books that caught their interest that weren’t being done in school, but that they wanted to read. I usually plan my book groups to average about 20-25 kids. My job in helping them choose books is to know what is out there so I can help them decide what to read that they haven’t yet, to help them keep on task, to help them discover how to work together; basically I’m an advisor, but I also have veto power, although I try not to use it too much. The only time I was tempted was one time when I had a mostly girl planning group that wanted to do Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging - given the actual maturity level vs. the wannabe-maturity level I was afraid that this wasn’t a great choice. However, instead of vetoing it, we worked out a way to read it with the group and make a discussion out of it, so that we could talk about the characters and their choices and come out with something positive. They put together a Truth-or-Dare format for the book, the truth part was made up of discussion questions, which got the girls talking about the characters and about the choices, and the dares were some really goofy dares and silly things to keep it all light and fun, but daring enough that not all of the kids were at the same point in the game. If one of the kids did the dare they got a bead or two to add to their bracelet ribbon depending on the difficulty of the question, if they didn’t (or rather, wouldn’t) they not only didn’t get a bead, they had to give one or two back depending on the question. The first person to finish his or her bracelet won a giant snog (A giant Hershey Kiss) and everybody made a cool bracelet. Surprisingly, I had several boys participate.

We’ve always read the book first. The programs that the kids plan are often dependent on knowing the book to enjoy it or not feel left out. However, at the same time they try not to do everything that way so that slower readers who aren’t done yet can participate and so that kids who are coming to a meeting to see what it’s like can have fun too. The only real exception to this was the Halloween Party (Cirque Du Freak) if you knew the book, you knew why some of the games were the way (or why) they were, but generally it was open to anyone whether or not they had read the book. But, that was huge! I had over 100 tweens and teens for that party.

The best, most successful marketing strategy with this age group is peer to peer (aka word of mouth with a little extra). I’ve found that with projects that tweens feel ownership in, they are more likely to bring friends, encourage others, and actively participate than if it’s just something they saw on a flyer. I also create promotional sites (before becoming a librarian I worked in internet community development) for the books and email a link which the kids pass around to each other - if you have a volunteer that can do it then let ‘em, perhaps it could be a tween volunteer opportunity. And create bookmark sized calendars that fit right into the agenda books the schools give them (starting next year I have a cool library pocket that the tween programs can go in that will be included in their agenda. In the marketing industry tweens are an important resource for three major reasons:

than any other tween-demographic before them; although businesses see it in dollars, I prefer to see it in services utilized/circulation.
--Influence Market - Tweens wield an incredible amount of influence over each other and their families. It’s amazing to me still, I’ll see a tween start coming in for programming, get into the books, and then slowly the rest of the family emerges and starts using the library.
--Future Market - Because of studies like Brand Child (largest tween marketing study, looking for relationships between tweens and their products/ideas) there is strong evidence that if you can reach tweens and create a comfortable relationship with them they will continue to use that product throughout adolescence and adulthood. Whether or not that proves to be true for corporate brands, I think that we as librarians have known that if you can reach kids and keep them coming that they will continue to be library users and life-long learners, versus the more difficult road of losing them and trying to get them back as adults.

Making meetings fun - as before, go with the kids, let them help. Tweens really want to help out, if you create volunteer opportunities that are rewarding all the better, they do prefer tangible outcomes, and they look for ways to prove themselves.

I realize I’ve probably given far more than you need- or asked for. What I usually say at the start of each presentation is that what I do works in my community and for my library, and each community like each library is different, feel free to disagree or disregard with whatever doesn’t seem appropriate to your situation. If you have questions or want clarification, you’re welcome to email or call.

Good luck!
Samantha Maskell, Youth Services Librarian
Rockingham Free Public Library
65 Westminster Street
Bellows Falls, Vermont 05101
802.463.4270
youthservices@rockingham.lib.vt.us

I have had a very successful mother/daughter book club for the past 4 years. This group is for grades 4-7 and mothers or mentors and at this point in time has 100 members. Since the girls program was such a success I started a boys program this year for boys, grade 5&6 and fathers or mentors with about 30 members. We meet once every other month (just because of my time - or lack of it) I choose books from a variety of sources: Good books that I have read, recommended titles, the Kathleen Odeon books: Great Books for Girls, Great Books for Boys, The Mother/Daughter Book Club Book by Shireen Dodson, Amazon is a great resource with online reviews. I have found that it works to discuss the book all at once rather than an on-going discussion. I either make up discussion questions on my own, have each member responsible for bringing 1-2 questions or find questions online.

I have publicized the group through school visits - specifically meeting the children during their weekly school library time. Word of mouth has really helped the program grow as well. The meetings consist of a meal (I have had grant funds in the past) either catered or potluck, an activity that relates to the book and a discussion of the book. All participants really seem to enjoy it and I often have a hard time getting them out of the door at the end of the evening. I have attached a biblio of books that the girls group read (includes reads up until June 2003) Here are the titles that we have read this year (I choose two titles each meeting since there is a wide age range - trying to keep within the same genre):

The Trolls by Polly Horvath.
Shadow Spinner by Susan Fletcher.
Honey, I love by Eloise Greenfield.
Hey world, here I am by Jean Little.
Number the stars by Lois Lowry.
The devil’s arithmetic by Jane Yolen.
The Birchbark house by Louise Erdrich.
The ransom of Mercy Carter by Caroline Cooney.

The boys group has read:
Shipwreck at the bottom of the world by Jennifer Armstrong.
Bone by Jeff Smith.
Flying with the eagle, racing the bear by Joseph Bruchac.

I am so excited to see you taking this on! I work with kids who are a little older than yours, but I think the ideas would work with them just as well. Here are some thoughts:
Book selection:
You don’t have to pick a book. Your book club could be a “share-a-read” kind of club, where everyone just brings in the book they’ve been reading and talks about it (and other book’s they’ve read since the last meeting). This is great for peer-to-peer reader’s advisory. You could take books of poetry and let them do a mini poetry slam, reading their favorite poem from the collection (Shel Silverstein, Jack Prelutsky, Poe (the Raven), Carl Sandburg, and Langston Hughes jump immediately to mind. Or even “whole books” of poetry (one of my family’s favorite memories was a Christmas when my brother as a teenager, read his favorite childhood poetry book: Green Eggs and Ham!) I interviewed Andrew Medlar, Chicago Public Library, last year. With his young teens (a little older than yours), he did a collection of urban legends. That’s a little unusual—we normally think fiction when we think book clubs, but it allows for lively discussion (how do you know what you read is true? could this really happen?) and it was the most popular book the club did all year, especially among boys, he said.One local library here in Denver took the same sort of approach but with Teen Ink anthology. Again, not likely to be appropriate for your age group, but there might be a by kids/for kids anthology that’s right for them.

Should I come up with discussion questions on my own or are there resources that may help me? There are lots of resources, but I wouldn’t rely on them; they sound so much like school that kids are put off. Ask the kids to come up with a few questions while they are reading--2 or 3 apiece should fill the day.

Examples: Something they don’t understand—why would so-and-so DO that? What in the world was he/she thinking? Where did the big blue dog come from (this is in the realm of “did I miss something completely obvious here?”)? Did people really think that way back then (or over there)? What would you do in that situation? When you’re coming up with the questions, you’ll want to keep in mind that your age group’s general developmental level is very concrete, so you’ll want to keep your questions based on things like: what would you do? How did that make you feel? etc. > Does it work better to meet once after everyone has read the book or would an ongoing discussion, as we read the book, appeal to kids? I’d like to know the answer to that one as well. I’m working on setting up a teen book club at a middle school for kids who are reading below grade level; one alternative is to read a book together as we go. I’m curious as to how it will work out.

How can I market this and make meetings fun? Keep it kid-centered. It’s not about programming, or even about books. It’s about the kids. Let them make the decisions. Let them choose the books, ask the questions, and facilitate the discussion if they can. When you’re having discussions, keep them on track, but also provide lots of time before/after to hang out. Serve food before, during and after. Ask them what they want, but also provide juice (healthier than soda) and apples or raisins, not just chips and cookies.

Branch out from discussions. Have activities as well—the most obvious is watching the movie made from the book, but you could also have guest speakers (dog trainers, magicians, etc.) who are related to the book in some way. Do mad libs. Do role plays, where kids take on the roles of the characters and answer questions from the “audience” about their lives not just about what happened in the book, but other things (do you like your sister? what will you do when your aunt dies?) Make sure you create a safe environment; that means ground rules about how to talk about the books and how to disagree. Make sure no one feels excluded OR under pressure to perform. (For some kids, just “What do you think?” is too much pressure.) Know your kids, and like them. The most important determinant in whether kids attend book clubs (first meeting or later ones) is whether they have a good relationship with the librarian.

Well, I could write a book...oh wait a minute, I am! For teens. It’ll be out in the fall, after you have your start. But if you have any questions in the meantime, or if you’d like some ideas, feel free to contact me any time. (And if I manage to make it out to your part of the country this summer, might I look you up?)

Constance Hardesty
Readers into Leaders: Teen-Centered Book Clubs in Your Library (with Bonnie Kunzel, Greenwood, 2004)

I have a book club for ages 9 - 13. I pick 4 - 5 books before we meet, booktalk them, and then have the kids choose which one of those 4 or 5 books to read. I also do this so I can have enough copies right there for them to check out. This requires me to place holds on 10 - 15 copies of each title I booktalk. The titles not chosen get sent back to their owning branch but the interesting thing is that some of the kids end up checking out every title to read anyway. The kids all read the same title before we meet. At the end of the meeting, they choose the next book to read. We only meet once a month. As for discussion, I take notes while I read, especially noting a question that might make a good discussion. I try to let the kids bring up their own discussion topics but this sometimes gets out of hand. I always start by asking how many of them had a chance to read and finish the book. The group I have now has been pretty good about reading the whole book but there have been years when only 1 or 2 kids have read the whole book. Makes discussion pretty hard! The hardest discussion is when none of them have liked the book (Rabbit Hill was most recent). I turn the tables on them then and ask why they don’t like the book and what might have made it better. btw, picking titles to booktalk is limited to having enough copies in our library system to check out. I used some grant money at one time to buy multiple copies of certain titles but I can’t keep reading the same ones over and over. I’ve been doing this for about 6 years. My attendance currently is around 12 - 15 kids. Earlier years, I might only have 4 - 7 kids.

You can try doing a survey of the kids that would participate, pick the one most requested or pick two related books that can feed the discussion of the other. Novelist has some good suggestions. You can go to the publisher websites and look to see is they have book discussion guides, many of them do. Good luck,
Kim Villasenor
New Madison Public Library
New Madison OH
email: newmad@oplin.org

We have a program called Chapter Club that we do with children grades 3-5. It’s not a discussion group, but I read a book aloud to the kids. When I’m looking for a new book to read to them I generally look in Books Kids Will Sit Still For, by Judy Freeman. There’s also More Books Kids Will Sit Still For, by the same author. The books were published over ten years ago so they list some older books that the kids aren’t familiar with. Hope this helps.

I am a children’s librarian in Lexington, KY. We have a book group for ages 9-12 (we didn’t do grade levels because we have a lot of home schooled children). We started out meeting twice a month, but when the group grew to about 20, we changed it to once a month. The library supplies all the books. We also offer pizza (which, of course, is one of the reasons it is so successful—our local Papa Johns is a great supporter of our library and offers the pizzas at $5 to $6 per large pizza). I was offering the program at 3:30, but 3:45 worked better for the children coming from public schools.

Ella Enchanted by Levine (surprisingly this one was not well-liked)
The Burning Questions of Bingo Brown by Byars (one of the groups favorites)
Tuck Everlasting by Babbitt
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Paterson
Harris and Me by Paulsen
A Picture of Freedom (Dear America Series) by McKissack
How to Eat Fried Worms by Rockwell
Holes by Sachar
Witches by Dahl (one of the groups favorite—we watched the movie afterwards)
Indian in the Cupboard by Banks
Esperanza Rising by Ryan

In the past, I usually brought three books to the meeting, book talked them and then let the group choose the one that wanted (majority ruled). The past few times I have just brought the book to the group and said this is the next book. Both ways have worked just fine; the second way, however, is much easier on you. I usually do a mixture of making my own questions and using Internet searches to find discussion questions. A great site for questions and activities is http://www.rebeccacaudill.org/ I hope this helps! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Have fun!

Lori Hancock, Children’s Library Associate
Children’s Services
Lexington Public Library
Beaumont Branch
3080 Fieldstone Way
Lexington, KY 40513
Phone: (859) 231-5570
Fax: (859) 422-6878
lhancock@lexpublib.org

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I run a book discussion group for kids in Grades 4-6. I consider all the things you asked when I choose the book, which as you found isn’t that easy. I run it once a month from Sept. - May, the last Tues. of the month. The book is announced at the beginning of each month, or just before. I post signs in the library, and it goes in the monthly program. When I first started it I made a flyer and sent them to all the school librarians in the city... they were more than happy to tell their classes about it and promote it.

As far as choosing the book, if it is at the beginning of the school year, start with a fairly easy read, so the fourth graders can handle it too. I also try to choose a book that will appeal to boys & girls, but once you pull them in you’ll find that they are willing to try the chosen book no matter who the main character is.

1. Vary the genre month to month
2.   Choose books that are not done in school all the time, or things that are super popular that they will read anyway
3. Most books with strong characters and plot will appeal to both boys and girls (who join a book group in the first place) even if the main character is a different sex then themselves. A great story will hold up, and they will read it!
4. I will alternate between books with girl/boy main characters each month-or throw in one with both, or siblings
5.   I usually try to get something that’s in paperback or many copies available through inter-library loan, though it can be a hassle trying to gather books in time. I like to have them on hand when kids sign up, although they can always place a hold on their own card.
6.   Always choose a book that has good discussion material!!

I try to serve snacks that are related to the book, and we always rate the book at the end of the discussion (1-5 stars) This year I have done Because of Winn Dixie, Dial - a - Ghost, Love that Dog, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh, Nory Ryan’s Song, Bud not Buddy, Circle of Doom. You can find discussion questions online, more is available for popular titles, but I usually use some of those and my own questions too.

Good Luck-
Ellen
Warwick Public Library RI
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Have fun—
Kim Villasenor
New Madison Public Library
New Madison OH
email: newmad@oplin.org
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I have run a successful book group for 3^rd and 4^th graders for a couple of years now. It’s really fun once it gets going and you’ll enjoy it as much as the kids. I marketed first by selling it to a couple of kids who I knew were great readers and great library patrons. I told them about the idea and suggested they tell friends. It was helpful to know I was going to have a core group of kids. I also called those parents who had suggested the idea as well. I talked to them about scheduling which was also helpful because they knew when most kids in town have soccer practice, flute lessons, Chinese lessons, etc. We ended up with once a week during summers and Weds. after school from 3:30 - 4:15 (45 min. is perfect -- 1 hour tends to be a little long) I chose books based on other lists I’ve come across. I also ask the group for suggestions during the first meeting. I give them a list of 20 or so books to see which they’ve read before and which ones they are interested in reading. It is quite a challenge because of different reading levels, boys vs. girls, etc.I always had discussion questions ready and usually brought some other resource as well depending on the book. You’ll be surprised at how the kids seem to take over sometimes and discuss amongst themselves! It’s really amazing! I always provide snacks and juice.

Here are the books I’ve used over the past couple of years:

Eyes of the Amaryllis—Babbitt, Natalie
The Borrowers—Norton, Mary
The Great Ghost Rescue—Ibbotson, Eva
Ribsy—Cleary, Beverly
Riding Freedom—Munoz, Pam Ryan
Escape to Witch Mountain—Key, Alexander
Firework Maker’s Daughter—Pullman, Phillip
Yobgorgle: Mystery Monster of Lake Ontario—Pinkwater, Daniel
Frindle—Clements, Andrew
Fantastic Mr. Fox—Dahl, Roald
The Witches—Dahl, Roald
Enormous Egg—Butterworth, Oliver
Search for Delicious—Babbitt, Natalie
Secret of Roan Inish—Fry, Rosalie
Hope this helps! Good luck and enjoy!