Responses that I received concerning starting a teen reading club.
Thanks for all the input.
My kids loved all the books that were nominated for the Teen Top Ten
last year at the ALA website and are hounding me for this years books.
You could even pull copies of all these titles and let the group talk
about what they've read, what they liked and etc.
I conduct a Teen Book Club with another Media Specialist for any teen in the county
who would like to attend. We call it a "Goth Book Club." We get a good turn out
of kids dressed in the Goth garb. They are really nice and deep-thinking kids.
We've found that getting them to read an entire book each month is difficult. Some
do, most don't. What we're doing now is bringing in books to show them and talk
about and reading a short story (with a goth, sci fi, or otherwise slightly creepy
theme) aloud during the meeting. It's hard to get much discussion out of them. A
lot of giggling. But we encourage them to bring in their artwork and poetry to
share. We're still struggling and learning. My fellow media-specialist takes a
more laid back hands off approach. I tend to do the "teacher" thing without
meaning to. We have to be careful about scaring them off. They don't seem to
scare easily though because they keep coming back!
Last meeting, we met at the local movie theatre to see "Brothers Grimm." Our
regular meetings are at a coffee house.
Last year, our book club (mostly juniors and seniors in hs) read and liked:
teen books:
Breathing Underwater -- Alex Flinn
Speak -- by Laurie Anderson
Split Image -- Mel Glenn
Shattering Glass -- Gail Giles
adult books for teens:
My Sister's Keeper -- Jodi Picoult
She's come Undone -- Wally Lamb
I would recommend all of them for teens from 14-18, with the exception
of She's Come Undone (too "racy" for the younger kids).
Recently the library I work at has put a lot of time and planning into
improving their youth services. Here is their website and there are
booklists on there as well as the teen online book club.
www.tnrdlib.bc.ca <http://www.tnrdlib.bc.ca>
http://www.tnrdlib.bc.ca/teens/onlinebookclub.php
Left for Dead: A Young's man search for Justice for the USS Indianapolis by Pete
Nelson. Totally awesome. AND, my 5/6/7/8 grade boys have holds on it until the end
of the year. Can't beat that
We have a few different venues for this.
Two of our teachers run an after school program once a month. They select books
at the beginning of the year and all read the same things. Meetings are held at
school.
We have a once a month program during lunch periods. We mostly due themed reading
but will try more read the same book this month. copy of an into letter attached.
We also have a whole week program each spring. copy of an intro letter attached.
And we started a blog---www.pthsonlinereaders.blogspot.com. But it has yet to take
off.
Then, we started a book club for staff as well.
Our public library has several programs as well but attract more of a middle school
and down audience.
We do both. Interlibrary loan the same title and discuss other books
we've read that month.
--
Nancy Stiner
nstiner@mchsi.com <mailto:nstiner@mchsi.com>
7-12 Media Specialist Iowa Falls Community School District
<http://www.iowa-falls.k12.ia.us/>, Iowa Falls, Iowa
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