Bonnie's Book Clubs

Della Massey, Community Learning Network

0 8 October 2024

I had the privilege of talking with Bonnie Caron, the Literacy Specialist at Project Adult Literacy Society (PALS) about book clubs. I have previously worked with Bonnie and I know that she has been facilitating book clubs for many years and is very passionate about doing this. When I asked her if she would be willing to share some of her thoughts, she enthusiastically agreed and commented with delight, “I look forward to book club all week!”.

You can imagine all the questions I had for her. I wanted to know everything…

how she structures her book clubs
how she chooses her books
what skills she focuses on and how she does this
the value of offering book clubs
how she advertises
her favourite books
how she encourages adults with various levels of literacy skills to join

...and on and on….really, the list of questions was very long. But then, I read that it was best practice to focus on only a few questions so I whittled down my enormous list and shifted to having a great discussion. I am delighted to share with you some of Bonnie’s thoughts on book clubs:

“You never know where a book is going to take you”

Some of the students will decide to research things about the book that interests them, like the area of the novel setting. They then share this information with everyone. Once it was about Moscow and someone brought in pictures that he found on the internet. The pictures were great, and this led to a discussion about internet searches and digital skills which then inspired several of the book club members to sign up for the basic digital class that PALS was offering.

In another book, we were reading about a family that had moved and discovered a mine.

Within the mine, one of the characters found an amethyst. Well, this sparked an interest in types of rocks which led to great discussions, research and discovery. I gifted everyone with a bag to start their own collection of rocks and this sparked even more sharing of the gems that they were finding.

One of the participants was even inspired to paint a picture of an amethyst. I endearingly started to refer to them as the “Stoneys.”

(This is a picture of some of the stones that were brought in).

One book was about Ottawa, so a learner made a booklet of pictures of touring sites in Ottawa - the canals, the Parliament Building, The Canadian Mint etc. It was very cool and everybody was very interested. I grabbed a book on the shelves in the library about Ottawa and they were so interested that we didn’t start the book club for half an hour while they looked at it!

Another time, the novel was about Italy which inspired one of the participants to create a free hand cross stitched picture of the Colosseum in Rome (this was framed and hanging in Bonnie’s office so I just had to include a picture of it for you see).

“If you create a comfortable atmosphere and… if you can associate being comfortable with reading…then you will become a reader”

Everyone being comfortable, encouraging them to talk about the story, laughing, enjoying the class are all very important objectives. The learners are always interested and supportive of each other. Group rules are set at the beginning: Don’t interrupt. No criticism of anybody ever. Take turns talking. Never correct the reader (that’s the leader’s job).

Routine is very important. I give everyone a question and vocabulary worksheet with every book. When we get together we read the week's chapter out loud. They each read a page, and many of the students find this intimidating. They are assured that they can pass, and no one will judge them. After a few chapters they will decide to try - for me that is their first step to building confidence and it is so exciting!

We stop and discuss what happened during the reading. How does ________ react to this situation, feel about this? How would you feel?

If we have time we do a writing project at the end of the class. We find an interesting concept in the story and do a fifteen-minute writing exercise at the end of the book club. For example, "Sam was really embarrassed when Cathy told a funny story about him. Tell us about something that happened to you that was really funny."

"Just reading the book is a victory!"

I always pre-read a book before I buy enough for the class. I will purchase several different books and let the learners look at them at the end of a 3 month book club session, and they get to vote as to which one they want to try next. Most of the books recommended have 10 to 14 chapters and will fit into a 3 month plan for reading. The learners really like a series of books, so we have done all the Melodie Campbell books, most of the Gale Anderson-Dargatz, most of the John Lawrence Reynolds and Richard Wagamese. Many books are available at Orca Books, the United for Literacy (Frontier College) Bookstore, Grass Roots Publishing and on Amazon - Orca will also sell books digitally for anyone who prefers to download them and read on their phone, laptop or computer. Also, the Anna Sweet Mysteries by Brenda Chapman, Marian Enderson (New Years Eve). The list is just too long.

When we finish a book early we often read a short story from the Vinyl Café or google "funny short stories for adults to download." Laughter is really important, it’s just really fun!

“The most important thing is that they realize reading is fun and they are not alone”

A lot of literacy learners think that they are the only people with literacy issues. They may have been told that they are less than others or that they will never learn. The thoughtless things people say (even teachers) has always horrified me. Coming to book club can be their first opportunity to read a complete book. Also, they get to meet other people who have a similar need as them. They have a lot of fun in book club, so they start to socialize quickly and make friends. They realize that they are not alone, that other people have the same problems as they do, and they are great people! They feel less isolated and their confidence grows.

Some of my favourite times are watching the learners make friends and get comfortable doing something they’ve never done before.

Final thoughts

Book club is fun. Be open, kind, have a sense of humour and be non-judgmental. Relax. Pick interesting material, and books that are often funny, and you are ready to lead a book club.

Bonnie shared with me a comment from one of the book club participants and I think it sums everything up:

“I was in a book club with Bonnie, it was so much fun and now I read.”

For more ideas on setting up a book club, read Emily Robinson Leclair's blog "Easiest Book Club Ever" https://calp.ca/blog/easiest-book-club-ever.htm