Monthly
Book Discussion Group
“Pick a Book & Picnic” is a monthly Book Discussion
Group. The group is designated for teens
aged 13-18 and meets every second Thursday of the month for 45 minutes.
Registration is required for this program and the program is free. However, there is a limit of 20 people who
may attend. The group discussion is
genre based and the genre changes after three months. The first genre is post-apocalyptic and the
group will be discussing The Maze Runner
by James Dashner. The librarian has
chosen the first novel, but will present a list of popular post-apocalyptic
novels and let the teens in the program choose which novel they would like to
read for the next two months. To assist
in gathering enough novels, the librarian will meet with local public school
librarians to see if they can provide books for the program as well promote the
book discussion group to their library users.
The goals and objectives for this book discussion group are to get
schools involved in the promotion of the library’s program and providing books
to teen readers, to teach teens to respect all points of view, to teach teens
to value being able to choose their own reading materials, to create a safe and
fun environment for teens to be a part of and feel as though they can be
themselves, helping teens to respect and trust book discussion members, to
create life-long library users, to bring in new teen readers, to show teens
there are different genres of novels, to allow teens to help promote the
program, to promote reading, and to help teens create relationships with people
outside of their everyday lives.
To
prepare for each program, the librarian is going to cut out brown and green paper
to look like trees (creating 3-4 trees) to mount on the wall. The librarian will then place two large
picnic blankets on the floor beneath the trees.
There will be large bean bag chairs as well as large sitting pillows
surrounding the picnic blanket to fit twenty teens. There will be two clear bowls on the
blankets, one for questions from the teens that relate to the current book and
the other bowl is for the teens to put their choices in for the next book choice. The program is going to be in three parts. The first fifteen minutes will have the
librarian asking questions and discussing with the group. The second fifteen minutes will have the
teens write down two questions about the book and place them in the bowl on the
picnic blanket. The librarian will
choose five of the teens to choose one question out of the bowl and have them
start the discussion based on their question.
The last fifteen minutes will have a game similar to jeopardy, hangman,
or wheel of fortune. The teens will ask
each other questions and the librarian will prepare questions to help assist in
the game. The number of attendees in the
discussion group can be no more than twenty.
Therefore, they are able to bring their own packed lunch and the library
will provide drinks out a cooler (as if we are picnicking), and a dessert,
usually themed in some way to look like the book being read.
To entice teens to come and enjoy the program, the
librarian will give attendees “Book Bucks.”
Everyone gets 20 Book Bucks simply for showing up and taking part in the
program. They receive 10 Book Bucks for
creating two questions to put in for discussion, and they can receive 10-40
Book Bucks depending on how much they score during which game they play. They receive 20 Book Bucks for each correct
answer in Hangman and 10 Book Bucks for being the questioner in Hangman. In jeopardy, they can receive 10-40 Book
Bucks depending on which category and question they choose. And lastly, if they play a wheel of fortune
game, they can receive 1 Book Buck for every letter they guess correctly, 5
Book Bucks for each word they get correctly, and a surprising 10-40 Book bucks
randomly if they solve the entire puzzle (There will be 1s -40s Book Bucks in a
bowl and they will pull one bill out of the bowl. If the games are divided into groups of five,
all members in that team will receive the same amount of Book Bucks. The Book Bucks can then be spent on books,
donated toys (from a free your fine program), and other toys/items that were
gifts from summer reading.
For the
first month, the librarian has chosen the genre of post-apocalyptic and the
selected novel is The Maze Runner by
James Dashner. The librarian will create
a list of post-apocalyptic novels with a short synopsis included so that the
teens can write down two books that they would like to read from the list. These votes will be placed in one of the
bowls at the end of the program and the librarian will go through the choices
in the bowl. Whichever novel has the
most votes, that novel will be the book that will be read next. After the third month, the librarian will
have bookmarks with titles that are part of future genre discussions and allow
the teens in the discussion group to help choose which genres they would like
to read throughout the following year using the same method. At the end of the program, the librarian will
give the teens a short survey asking for titles they might want to add to the genre
choices, what they like and dislike about the discussion group, if they would
like to change anything, and what they want to happen to the program in the
future.
List of Materials
1.
2
Picnic blankets ($10/ each)
2.
Large
roll of brown canvas paper ($10/each)
3.
Large
roll of green canvas paper ($10/each)
4.
10
Bean Bag Chairs ($25/each)
5.
10
Large Sitting Pillows ($15/each)
6.
2
Large Circular Bowls ($2)
7.
Soft
drinks ($15/month)
8.
Cooler
($20)
9.
Cupcakes
($20)
10.
White
board (Free—Library Supplies)
11.
White
Board Markers (Free-Library Supplies)
12.
Large
Post-its- (Free- Library Supplies)
13.
Cardstock
for Bookmarks (Free-Library Supplies)
14.
Pens/Pencils
(Free- Library Supplies)
15.
Paper
(Free-Library Supplies)
16.
Flyers
for other libraries (Free-Library Prints)
17.
Books
($15/book—some free from library and other libraries)
18.
Genre
Bookmarks (Free-Library Prints)
19.
Monopoly
Money ($10.00)
Budget
Total from
Above: $604.00
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