What’s it take to run a book club with teens? Author Teri Brown shares her experience

When I set out to run a book club for teens at a community center in a low income apartment complex, I thought it would be a piece of cake.

At the time, I was working fifteen hours a week for the children’s program at Community Partners of Affordable Housing, an organization that fights poverty on many levels. As a teen author, I gravitated toward the middle grade and teen members of the community and starting a book club seemed like a natural fit.

First off, free books wouldn’t be enough to fill up the signup sheet. I needed something more. So I decided food would be the draw. Teens love food!

And third, I would lean on my local fellow teen authors for free visits.

The book club ran for almost four years. I watched several of my teens go from freshmen to proud graduates, overcoming obstacles that most of us couldn’t even imagine. Running a book club for teens at a community center was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done … even if I did feel like a fish out of water more than once.

*No matter how much you’re enjoying yourself, someone has to remain firmly in charge. It amazed me just how quickly something fun, such as a spitwad blown through a straw, could disintegrate into a food fight. I know this seems elementary, but it still took me by surprise.

* Two to three times a year I would choose a book from a local author and we would have them come to visit. The visitor would come a bit later so that I could make sure the kids had prepped. They LOVED meeting authors.

One of the things I had to come to grips with is the transitory nature of friendships with teens. They grow up. They move on. Out of the ten kids that started book club with me, three of them are confirmed readers. Two have gone on to higher education, making them the first in their families to do so and I feel confident the third will as soon as she graduates. I’ve lost touch with the others, but hope that they remember our time together with fondness and are still reading books for the love of reading.

Filed under: Book Clubs, Born of Illusion, Teen Programming, Teri Brown, Uncategorized