Tips for Funtastic YA Book Clubs!

Oh the tricky business of  convincing pre-teens/teenagers that a book club could be a super fun, fantastic event. I am here to help! I have scrounged the internet for some interesting or helpful tips when considering a book club for the younger set.

•  Have the kids/students pick out the book

• Keep the meeting relatively short, ~20-30 minutes. You will need to help facilitate the discussion. Some helpful generic questions for YA readers can be found here.

• Have an activity after the discussion. Teachhub.com recommended a Pictionary type game using words, places, etc., from the book. The site also suggested having an archery contest with a Nerf bow and arrow to accompany reading the Hunger Games (which we have!).

• Encourage the kids/students to invite friends.

• Consider themes and let the kids/students choose a book they’d like to read around that theme.

• Always include nibbles.

• Consider inviting the author to the discussion. This can be done remotely via any video meeting service (e.g. Google/Skype). 

• Encourage the kids/students while reading the book to mark parts they found interesting/engaging/thought-provoking with posties to help facilitate discussion at the meeting.

• (for students) Meet during lunch.

• Have a quarterly party, where everyone dresses up cosplay style of their favorite character from their favorite book they read in book club.

I hope this has given you some great ideas. Please share some of your ideas that were a big hit in your YA book club below in the comments!

Talking about books has always been an important and invigorating part of reading them… -Ann Packer