Our Staff Book Club

I worked at my previous school for 13 years. My favorite part of  reading is sharing what I read with others-especially if it's a book that moves me. I tried for years to start a staff book club. I would stand up at pre-service and ask people to sign up and no one ever would. Once an e-mail went out about "book club" Thursday after school and I got really excited--but unbeknownst to me, that was their code for Happy Hour.

When I started at my new campus last year I was struck by how many people were readers. People were actually talking about books! So I asked my principal if I could start a staff book club this year. I spent hours reading reviews trying to decide on a first book for us to read. I didn't want it to be fluff but didn't want it to be too deep either. I landed on :

It has themes of cultural heritage, mental illness and immigration. It's a mystery and considered YA so not too challenging.

I sent an e-mail to my colleagues inviting them to join me in reading and was just astonished when almost 20 people replied! We had our first meeting tonight and I think it went really well. There was a great discussion of the characters and I was really happy with the way it went.

I think it's really important for kids to see adults reading. And if they don't see that at home, they can see us as readers. They hear us talking about the books, they see us enjoying reading. I'm glad I took that risk in putting the idea out there! :)