Conversation starters: Virtual book clubs can help kids connect

Can you think of a better gateway to conversation than a great book? Middle, high school, and new college students pioneering their way into the hybrid 2020-21 school year might consider starting a virtual book club.

Area librarians and booksellers agree it could be just the right vehicle to allow youth to express ideas, whether they want to talk about heavy subjects like racism or social injustice, or simply exchange thoughts on places they want to travel, or historical fiction through a modern lens.

“Books are a great equalizer for people to enjoy and discuss topics,” said Sue Ranney, Ridgefield’s Books on the Common bookseller and children’s and young adult buyer.

Ranney last school year provided some ideas to a Girl Scout working on her Gold Award on how to start an online book club. She observed that young people today after many months of being sequestered in their learning, and most of the summer, might be feeling “disconnected from each other,” starting off the new school year.

“Being part of a book club would be “a great way to interact and take entertainment or solace from books. Books are a good starting point to discuss diverse topics through characters in a book. Everyone has that humanity underneath, so it’s a big plus of reading some of the great books out there, new ones and old ones.”

Ranney noted that young people are reading more since the start of the health pandemic, which she attributes to kids having less access to sports and other extracurricular activities and having more time on their hands (a result of hybrid or remote learning). “I think it’s a wonderful thing that kids are turning to books, without a doubt,” Ranney said.

At Ferguson Library in Stamford, Steve Zampino, teen librarian, runs teen book discussions on the Zoom video conferencing platform and said they “worked out okay.” These have a similar format, though are “less complex,” than a book club, although he likes the idea, particularly for older and college-age students, to be part of one if they could. Young people have become “more isolated so it’s a great opportunity to socialize and share your interests,” Zampino said.

In addition, reading and discussing books helps to develop important learning skills, he said: “If you discuss a story that is presented to you in your meeting, it’s a good way to exercise your brain to think critically.”

Zampino suggests young people turn to books to help them process their ideas on important social issues. “This is also a way to combat the anxiety that we’re all living with these multiple issues and a way to get with other people in an online book club.”

Once you’ve decided on a safe video platform (Skype, Zoom, Google Meet, etc.), there are some easy steps to launching your own virtual book club.

“The first thing I would do is think about what your book club is about,” suggests Chelsie Labrecque, a Trumbull Public Library teen services librarian who has helped run student book clubs at the library.

“Ask the group, what type of book club are you interested in? Nonfiction? Graphic novel? If doing

Ridgefield’s Books on the Common carries a wide variety of youth book titles, such as these above, which Sue Ranney, bookseller and children’s and young adult buyer for the store, recommends. general fiction, how will books be selected each month? Are you interested in themes for each month?” she said. “Decide what it is you are interested in first, then create a name for your book club and a little blurb describing what it’s going to be about and how the club will be run.”

Among Labrecque’s suggestions are to ask your English teacher (in high school) or liberal arts professors (at college) if they would help you promote your book club among students.

“If you are going to be personally responsible for running and managing the club, you will either need to be comfortable giving out your personal contact information so potential members can reach you, or creating an email account just for this purpose. I would especially recommend the latter for high school students since many of them are minors anyway, so divulging any sort of personal contact information may be a safety concern for them and/or their parents,” said Labrecque.

Having a teacher take care of sending an email with the book club information to potential members is ideal, however, to “ensure privacy for the other students unless they want to join,” she continued.

“However you decide to choose books for each month, I cannot stress enough that for each book you should come up with at least eight to 10 questions about the book, both as you read it, and once you are done — sometimes while reading, a question may be answered, but not always. I have found that if I try to run a book club without guiding questions, people tend to clam up or not know what to talk about,” said Labrecque.

Club members should be encouraged to express their thoughts and ideas but having backup questions helps to keep the conversation going.

Perhaps the more challenging step is obtaining copies of the book you want to read for everyone in your club.

Labrecque suggested checking with a local library to see if it has funding to purchase less expensive paperback books for book club members, noting Trumbull Library can do this with program funding ( be sure to allow time for the library to pre-order the books in time for your meeting). Another option is to have everyone purchase their own copy of the book, if they can.

Here is a list of suggested “virtual book club” books provided by Labrecque; the titles range in terms of content, and some are suitable for mid-to-late high school age children. For college students, a few of the books (“Deeplight”, “Not Even Bones”, and “Bent Heavens”) are more mature, but the fantasy-type books suggested are more appropriate for high school-age students in terms of interest levels, she said.

“Bent Heavens” – Daniel Kraus – mystery/thriller/sci-fi

Book suggestions from Chelsie Labrecque, Trumbull Public Library teen services librarian.