Photo by Jay Mullings on Unsplash
One of the joys of my high school library clerk job the past few years has been co-leading my school’s student and staff multicultural book club. Before getting involved with this club, I had never participated in a book club before. I wondered if involving staff would keep students from speaking up, and I feared only two or three people would sign up. Thankfully, students are consistently willing to speak up and share their ideas. We’ve also had good turnouts, even when the club had to pivot to virtual meetings.
Today I want to share a bit about the club and the books we’ve read. If you’ve been thinking about starting a similar club, I hope this post helps. Leave any questions in the comments.
Photo by Tom Hermans on Unsplash
WHAT WE DO
The book club’s primary goal is to promote equity. We want to highlight authors whose voices have often been overlooked and give students a safe place to have tough conversations. One of the perks of joining the club is getting a free copy of the book to keep. Even if students sign up for the club and only show up for one meeting, they get a book. Receiving their own book is a big deal for kids who don’t always have access to books, especially brand-new copies. (We pay for the book club with grants.)
My school holds two book clubs each year, each lasting around 6-8 weeks. At the first meeting, we hand out copies of the book, enjoy some snacks, share who we are, and talk about the text and why we chose it. The rest of the meetings are spent discussing that week’s assigned pages and what’s happening in the world that ties into the book’s subject matter.
My favorite part of the book club is when we can pull in an article, video, or even a person from the community who can help us learn more about what we’re reading and why it matters. When we read Dear Martin, we also read and discussed articles about police violence in our city. A local refugee came in and talked about her experience when we read When Stars Are Scattered. Even when people disagree with each other, the conversations are always respectful and kind. The internet can make it seem like life is just one big comment section with people yelling back and forth, but it isn’t. If people feel safe, they’ll bring their vulnerability to the table and share.
WHAT WE’VE READ
Since our club has a mix of teen and adult members, we read both teen and adult books. Each round of the club has focused on one book, except last spring when we read three graphic novels.
So far, we’ve read:
- The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline
- Dear Martin by Nic Stone
- Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
- The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
- Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob
- When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed
- Borders by Thomas King
Titles we’re considering for future selections are:
- Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
- The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
- Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
- The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
- Messy Roots: A Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese-American by Laura Gao
- Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
- Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
If you run a similar club, do you have any book suggestions for me? What have been some of your book club highlights? I’d love to know.