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Re: Talking Books: Book Discussion Groups with Kids and Teens
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From: Karen MacPherson <karen.macpherson_at_gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:29:17 -0400
Hi everyone -- We've currently got two main book discussion groups for kids at our library.
For kids ages 5 and up, we run a monthly "Comix Jam," which is essentially a comics book book discussion group. We offer the book club on Friday afternoons after school and invite kids to bring their favorite comics, graphic novels or manga for us to read together, using our ELMO document camera. As we read their selections (just a few pages from each), we also invite kids to join us at the ELMO to "voice" one of the characters. For example, one of us would be Calvin and the kid who brought the book would be Hobbes. This isn't required, however, as some kids are shy and prefer to have our graphic novel guru/library assistant -- who has theater training -- do all the voices himself. While participants in a regular book discussion group would have read the books head of time, in our "Comix Jam" book club we read them together, so it can be quite spontaneous. It's a great way to have book-related fun with young patrons on Friday afternoons!
For middle schoolers, we offer a Banned Books Club, which meets once a month on a Monday evening. This club was the idea of a middle schooler named Alanna Natanson who wanted to create a book discussion group for kids her age and was searching for a way to focus it. At the time, she was reading about Banned Books Week, and when she saw the list of books that have been challenged over the years, she realized that these were just the kind of books she wanted to read and discuss with others. She asked me if our library would host the book club, and if I would moderate it. I'm certainly glad we agreed to go forward with it! Our club has been going for just over a year, and we have read all kinds of books, ranging from "Harriet the Spy" to "To Kill a Mockingbird" to "The Chocolate War." Other books have included: "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank, and "Slaughterhouse-Five." Last December, we took a bit of a break from heavy books (everyone was busy with many holid ay-related activities) and spent an hour reading aloud from picture books that have been challenged (i.e. "And Tango Makes Three," "Heather Has Mommies," etc). We plan to do the same thing this December. This month, we read the first two volumes of a manga series called "Death Note," next month, it's "Candide" by Voltaire, and we're discussing "The Grapes of Wrath" in January. Obviously, our group consists of amazing readers, who love to talk about books! We begin each session by reading aloud (using "Banned Books: 2007 Resource Guide" by Robert Doyle) the list of challenges to our book that month. That helps focus our usually exhilarating discussions. We are fortunate to live in a community that puts a high value on intellectual freedom (our library has never had a formal challenge), and we were thrilled to have our Banned Books Club receive this year's John Phillip Immroth Memorial Award, given by the ALA's Intellectual Freedom Round Table.
One more note: I had tried doing an after-school "Tween" book club (the kids themselves wanted to call it that) two years ago. It was moderately successful -- we read books that were popular with kids ("Diary of a Wimpy Kid," "Stormbreaker," "Hoot" and "12 Again") and I always had some kind of snacks -- very important to kids!. Some kids, of course, came only for the snacks, and because they hadn't read the book, kept trying to push our discussion off course. It was exhausting and not much fun for me, so I've been happy to focus instead on the Banned Books Club for the same age group (Alanna, the girl who had the idea for the Banned Books Club, was a member of the "Tween" book club).
I'd love to add a Mock Newbery to my mix of book discussion groups, but need to find some extra time!
Cheers, Karen MacPherson, children's/teen librarian, Takoma Park Maryland Library, and children's book reviewer, Scripps Howard News Service
Received on Mon 19 Oct 2009 04:29:17 PM CDT
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:29:17 -0400
Hi everyone -- We've currently got two main book discussion groups for kids at our library.
For kids ages 5 and up, we run a monthly "Comix Jam," which is essentially a comics book book discussion group. We offer the book club on Friday afternoons after school and invite kids to bring their favorite comics, graphic novels or manga for us to read together, using our ELMO document camera. As we read their selections (just a few pages from each), we also invite kids to join us at the ELMO to "voice" one of the characters. For example, one of us would be Calvin and the kid who brought the book would be Hobbes. This isn't required, however, as some kids are shy and prefer to have our graphic novel guru/library assistant -- who has theater training -- do all the voices himself. While participants in a regular book discussion group would have read the books head of time, in our "Comix Jam" book club we read them together, so it can be quite spontaneous. It's a great way to have book-related fun with young patrons on Friday afternoons!
For middle schoolers, we offer a Banned Books Club, which meets once a month on a Monday evening. This club was the idea of a middle schooler named Alanna Natanson who wanted to create a book discussion group for kids her age and was searching for a way to focus it. At the time, she was reading about Banned Books Week, and when she saw the list of books that have been challenged over the years, she realized that these were just the kind of books she wanted to read and discuss with others. She asked me if our library would host the book club, and if I would moderate it. I'm certainly glad we agreed to go forward with it! Our club has been going for just over a year, and we have read all kinds of books, ranging from "Harriet the Spy" to "To Kill a Mockingbird" to "The Chocolate War." Other books have included: "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank, and "Slaughterhouse-Five." Last December, we took a bit of a break from heavy books (everyone was busy with many holid ay-related activities) and spent an hour reading aloud from picture books that have been challenged (i.e. "And Tango Makes Three," "Heather Has Mommies," etc). We plan to do the same thing this December. This month, we read the first two volumes of a manga series called "Death Note," next month, it's "Candide" by Voltaire, and we're discussing "The Grapes of Wrath" in January. Obviously, our group consists of amazing readers, who love to talk about books! We begin each session by reading aloud (using "Banned Books: 2007 Resource Guide" by Robert Doyle) the list of challenges to our book that month. That helps focus our usually exhilarating discussions. We are fortunate to live in a community that puts a high value on intellectual freedom (our library has never had a formal challenge), and we were thrilled to have our Banned Books Club receive this year's John Phillip Immroth Memorial Award, given by the ALA's Intellectual Freedom Round Table.
One more note: I had tried doing an after-school "Tween" book club (the kids themselves wanted to call it that) two years ago. It was moderately successful -- we read books that were popular with kids ("Diary of a Wimpy Kid," "Stormbreaker," "Hoot" and "12 Again") and I always had some kind of snacks -- very important to kids!. Some kids, of course, came only for the snacks, and because they hadn't read the book, kept trying to push our discussion off course. It was exhausting and not much fun for me, so I've been happy to focus instead on the Banned Books Club for the same age group (Alanna, the girl who had the idea for the Banned Books Club, was a member of the "Tween" book club).
I'd love to add a Mock Newbery to my mix of book discussion groups, but need to find some extra time!
Cheers, Karen MacPherson, children's/teen librarian, Takoma Park Maryland Library, and children's book reviewer, Scripps Howard News Service
Received on Mon 19 Oct 2009 04:29:17 PM CDT
