What Works- Book Club on a Budget

A few years ago in our inner-city Middle school, we asked two seventh-grade honor students, "What good books have you read this year?" The girls looked at each other quizzically. "None," they replied. When we asked other students the same question, most responded that reading was "wak" (translation: very uncool). It was clear these attitudes needed to change, not only to improve our students' grades, but perhaps more important, to help them envision a life beyond the confines of their struggling neighborhoods.

We immediately thought of forming a book club, a place with no grade pressure where peers could encourage each other to read for pleasure, and where students and teachers could come together on equal terms. There was just one problem. We couldn't start a club without money to buy multiple copies of books. Our school didn't have the money, and the donors we approached said they didn't want to support an individual school, as opposed to the district, for fear of showing favoritism.

A few months later, we read an article in the ALAN Review called "Literature Reading and Research in a Middle School Classroom" (Fall 1997, pp. 51–58). The authors outlined a project in which students read different books, but researched the same topics or themes. It looked like our problem was solved. We convened a meeting of interested teachers and together planned monthly themes for the remainder of the school year. Then, using our school's collection, we identified books of various reading levels related to each month's theme.

For our first meeting, in January, the teachers donated snacks to give the event a festive air. We simply wanted to introduce students to the club and let them choose books. About 25 students showed up. At the second meeting, we began our actual discussions. Since it was February, the theme was Black History, and the books we read included Gary Paulsen's Nightjohn (Delacorte, 1993). We went around the room asking students and teachers to talk about their books. One girl had that "I-hope-they-don't-call-on-me" look. When her turn came, she confessed to not having finished her book. Our response was, "That's all right. Would you like to share what you've read so far?" Obviously relieved, she began to speak. When she was done, others students joined in, and we had a great discussion, sparked by Nightjohn .To generate more interest in the club, we ran two contests. The first, "Bring a Friend," encouraged members to bring other students to read with us. (The prize was a candy bar.) By June, we had 30 regular members, eight of whom were boys. The other contest challenged students to see who could post the most reviews on our Web site each month. The prize was $5 toward a book-fair purchase. This, too, generated activity—by June, one student had written 16 reviews. The students particularly liked having guest speakers. Our school's book-fair representative came to booktalk and to distribute paperbacks for members to review. At another meeting, two teachers who are published authors discussed their writing experiences. We've also been visited by the weather reporter from a local TV station, who had started her own on-air book club. The students were thrilled to hear their own book club mentioned on her program the following day.

To our surprise, some financial support arrived at Christmas, when a local Barnes & Noble store adopted our club in cooperation with the local PBS station. They threw club members a holiday party, complete with gift-wrapped books donated by customers.

We don't have hard numbers to attest to the book club's success. But we do know that once it began, students we never expected to see were coming to the library to talk about books. The club also gave members a healthy dose of self-esteem and prestige. Not only were they visited by special guests, but club members also got to do things like promote our school book fairs by reading reviews and performing skits over the school intercom. The moral is that it doesn't take lots of money to start a book club—and that it's well worth it.