Digital Book Club Kit

The text you select, likely a book, will be the lynchpin of the book club.

Selecting a text will likely be the most challenging part of running a book club, and ideally, should  happen before the book club is introduced to anyone - even staff. The text needs to be appropriate and engaging for a group of people with diverse interests, ages and backgrounds. Significant criteria include:

• Reading Level
  
• Length
  
• Representation
  
• Appropriate Content
  
• Engagement
• Substance

Reading Level

The text should be accessible to the entire school community. Ideally, this would mean selecting a book in the "independent reading level" for all students. Because this is impossible, you may find success in looking at the approximate Lexile levels of all students in the building. A text that is within the independent reading level for about 2/3rds-3/4ths of the population should be engaging and accessible for the majority of readers. Additional support should be provided for students who are likely to struggle with the text chosen.

Lexile.com is an excellent resource for additional information on the Lexile levels of individual texts and information about matching readers with texts. However, it is important to note that Lexile is only one way to assess the accessibility of a text and all factors on this list should be considered equally.

Length

The shortest text a school in Care and Treatment has read for a book club was 144 pages. The longest was 496 pages. While a text of any length can be chosen for a book club, the longer the book, the more likely it is that students will abandon it halfway through. Also, with a longer book, students will need additional supports to stay engaged and it is more challenging to keep momentum within the community. In general, we have had the most success with books that are under 300 pages.

Representation

Appropriate Content

Some of our populations have special restrictions around more controversial content areas (violence, sex, illegal activity, etc). Common Sense Media can be a good tool for helping to assess whether the content of a book is appropriate for a given population. However, there is no substitute for previewing the book yourself.

Engagement

Different student populations will have different levels of tolerance for a book that is not engaging from page one. More reluctant readers will need a book that draws them in within the first chapter, or ideally the first page. More experienced readers may have more patience for books with slower pacing.

Substance

A fast-paced, engaging book makes for a fun read, but won't always set the stage for a successful book club by itself. There also needs to be plenty of meaty content to discuss. As you preview a book, consider what moments or themes might lend themselves to interesting conversations with your students. Publishers of young adult books often provide accompanying discussion guides which are worth perusing.

Look for complex characters, moral choices, varying points of view, non-traditional plotlines and strong authorial voices.  Students are often drawn to books with predictable genres, plots and characters because they have a lower barrier to entry.  However, a book that uses these elements to draw students into a more sophisticated story tend to make for more successful book clubs.

Purchasing books

If budget allows, we have found significant benefit in purchasing a new copy of the book club book for each of our students to keep. Many of our students have never owned a book before and this fairly inexpensive gesture means a lot to them.

Staff copies of the book club book are collected after the event and used to build classroom sets.