HELP ME WORK ON A CLUB IDEA: Miss Kay's Middle School Book Club

[GayKitten]

Hi all! If we haven't met, I'm Kay (she/her), aaaaaaand I have a club idea that I want to start, but I want to workshop it with y'all / gauge general interest before I get too far ahead of myself.

 

THE PITCH: Miss Kay's Middle School Book Club, where we can read and discuss "grownup" (i.e. non-sexy, just mature-themed) books, with creative writing/response prompts (and other teacherly flourishes as requested)

 

WHAT THE F#$% ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

So, some background/possibly-fun facts about me -- I used to be a middle school english teacher, and one of my favorite things in the world was giving students challenging books about mature topics (when asked for, and with the appropriate support, of course). And there were lots of activities that were essentially creative prompts to the text -- practicing writing in the authors' style, using themes as a basis for original poetry, making art/music/plays about important scenes, stuff like that!

And honestly.......I miss it! I don't just miss getting to teach it, I miss getting to do these activities myself, both as a model for students and for own personal creative outlet.

Also, like a lot of people, I started reading a loooooooooot more books during quarantine, and it's taken me into some weird niche areas/topics/genres/styles/eras/etc. -- and I wanna geek out with other folks about it!!

 

WAIT, ISN'T THERE ALREADY A BOOK CLUB HERE?

Totally, and I'm not trying to siphon participants or step on anyones' toes! My motivation is more along the lines of: the books I'm reading and want to share and discuss and whatnot are pretty not likely to send a person into littlespace, so I thought it might be prudent to have a more "mature"/middle-themed book club that tackles more mature-themed books!

 

SO WHAT ARE YOU ACTUALLY OFFERING?

If there's enough interest, I'd love to (at base) provide:

• A reading assignment / list (with participant input) and schedule/cadence, which I will commit to reading through with participants
• Creative writing / response prompts, based on actual (not-lame!) assignments I used to give to my students (and myself!), which I will commit to demoing and participating in
• An annoying amount of info-dumping about whatever I can drudge up re: context, history, literary movements, critical lenses, etc. about our books
• I dunno, I guess I can actually behave like a teacher if you want me to?

 

AAAAAAND WHAT KIND OF FEEDBACK ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?

Great question! There are a few open-question-y things floating around my head that I wanna bounce off others:

• I know reaching consensus about what to read is tricky by itself, and I don't want to just be........tricking people into reading what I'm reading so I feel less lonely. 🤦‍♀️ But I can't lie, part of my motivation is also that my reading is leading me into weird niches (examples: texts considered "the first novel" in various languages/civilizations, modern Vietnamese short fiction, Tolkien's non-middle-earth fantasy writing and satire, pretty much every era of sci-fi from the 1800s to now). I'm interested in going down all these (and about 100 more) rabbit-holes even further..........but again, this is a journey I want people to embark on WITH me! 😅 So: how would a club like this decide on books to read? Should a list / some options come directly from me / someone in charge of that? Should everyone make suggestions and we all vote on one? Should we decide on a pool of books, and arrange them into some kind of timeline/syllabus for ourselves?? Am I just overcomplicating this whole thing and the only real options are "assign something" or "let us suggest and vote"???
   
• Do y'all even want prompts for creative projects / responses / etc.? Like obviously it wouldn't be mandatory, but I also don't wanna do a bunch of brainstorming for something no one even wants. So: would you be interested in having creative prompts of some kind? Are there specific kinds of prompts / "assignments" you'd like to see?? Or is that just overcomplicating the whole thing???
   
• What sort of leadership / role would you like to see from me or any club leader? i.e. Is this a type of club where you would want someone to post regular discussion topics, timelines for reading chapters, make other administrative decisions -- or would this be better as a fully-collaborative, decision-by-vote space? And in terms of how you'd like someone to lead the club -- do you want someone to step into a "middle school teacher" role, and try to engage / respond / prod people to discuss further like a (supportive) teacher would, or is that just uncalled for???

 

Okay it's like 3:30am where I am and I feel like I'm rambling as I write/revise this stuff, sooooooo I'm just gonna leave it here for now + invite your feedback!

THOUGHTS? ❤️ QUESTIONS?? ❤️ COMMENTS??? ❤️ CONCERNS???? ❤️ Uhhhhhhh EARLY-BIRD SIGN-UP VIP-LIST REQUESTS?????  ❤️❤️❤️ 

[Daddylyfe]

Are lurkers allowed? I can't say I can commit to something like that, but I'd like the knowledge of good books for higher level middle school kids. I have family I try to suggest books to challenge themselves with.  I really didn't read much in middle school.

I can always try and keep up... There's just a lot on my plate atm. 

[DaddysMonkey]

WILL RESPOND WHEN I HAVE MORE TIME , PUTTING THIS HERE SO I DONT FORGET CAUSE I HAVE STUPID MONKEY BRAIN 🧠 

Lol , so I have Monkey brain still so this might be all over the place but I’m too excited for you to wait any longer. 

 

-Do y'all even want prompts for creative projects / responses / etc.?

Because of the amount of slow readers there probably are (I actually read stupid fast , I always have and then sit there waiting impatiently to talk about it lol) I think maybe a broken down area for the book would be good. If you haven’t gotten to play with the format of a club it might sound confusing , but each book could have its own section with threads underneath it for certain chapters of the book. Within those chapter threads (For example , Into the Wild , Chapters 1-5) , you could place prompts in those areas that are optional for members , and then if someone is further behind they can not have any parts of the book spoiled by staying within the chapters they’re at. Just a thought. 😇

Just another random thought , creative projects can vary SO SO much ! I like the idea of this , because my first thought is taking pictures or drawing pictures of what you think it *looks* like going on in the story or the characters. 

-What sort of leadership / role would you like to see from me or any club leader?

From you ? Be yourself , you rock < 3 heh. From any leader and you in general without me being silly , perhaps consistency is the word I’m looking for. I try to be consistent with the club I’m doing , and it can admittedly be difficult with so many other life things going on. Slow paced consistency is the answer that feels right. 

I think the word teacher could create a lot of pressure , I think just a leader who is ~willing~ to collaborate with others ideas but is able to grab the bull by it’s horns and make executive decisions when it’s necessary is…. Balance. Balance , support , and from everything I’ve seen you contribute on the forum I believe you have a great ability to be able to teach as well. 

-So: how would a club like this decide on books to read? 
 

Voting is a double edged sword. As mentioned , it can create stale mates. I guess this in my mind is a play it by ear sort of thing ? When members join it would make it easier to kind of get a feel for what those people might want. There has been great suggestions about perhaps genres per month , or just per book. At the end of the day as a member , I personally would be okay with executive decisions being made if there is a lack of response within a time frame or just in general if there are stale mate situations. 
 

I think accessibility is also a question that comes to my mind. If members cannot afford to buy a certain book online or are unable to find it at a good price in real life … how would that play out. 
 

I’m sure I’ll think of more to add to this , and will do so when that time comes !

Edited September 8, 2022 by DaddysMonkey

[Nuvien]

100% love this idea, mostly cause I'm also a book nerd that would love to have another's to talk to about more mature books. 😅

As for the three questions (only suggests since you seem to have put a lot of thought into this already)

• As for picking which books I've seen a few book clubs pick a genre for a given month then vote on a few books. 
• For creative / response / etc. This would definitely interest me as I love to see what others think cause they could have interpreted the story differently than I did.
• Leadership: 
  • Post regular discussion topics? (Yes, please!) 
  • Timelines for reading chapters? (Everyone reads at their own pace, I always enjoy a book more when I can sit, relax, and take in the world the author is presenting to me. I don't like to be rushed)
  • Make other administrative decisions? (Coming of with neat events for holidays would be pretty cool)
  • Decision-by-vote space? (Having the chance to vote feels more freeing and acceptable) 

[GayKitten]

16 hours ago, Daddylyfe said:

Are lurkers allowed? I can't say I can commit to something like that, but I'd like the knowledge of good books for higher level middle school kids. I have family I try to suggest books to challenge themselves with. 

Great question, and I really appreciate your specific interest -- I can't lie, I'd be SUPER happy to hear a recommendation being picked up by kiddos!

I personally don't have any issue with lurkers, and would welcome people popping in and out! BUT, I don't want to close the door to people requesting specific threads be locked/private (if that's even possible, I haven't looked at the club thread functionality that closely yet). Just wanna account for a situation where, like, a member requests that for a discussion where something super-sensitive comes up -- I wanna respect that talking about books can bring up some extra-vulnerable stuff.  

tl;dr: probably yes, until someone requests otherwise! ❤️

 

12 hours ago, DaddysMonkey said:

WILL RESPOND WHEN I HAVE MORE TIME , PUTTING THIS HERE SO I DONT FORGET CAUSE I HAVE STUPID MONKEY BRAIN 🧠 

*WAITS EAGERLY IN ANTICIPATIONNNNNNNNN*

I APPRECIATE YOU GASSING ME UP TO DO THIS AT ALLLLLLLLLL ⛽📚💞

 

5 hours ago, Nuvien said:

100% love this idea, mostly cause I'm also a book nerd that would love to have another's to talk to about more mature books. 😅

As for the three questions (only suggests since you seem to have put a lot of thought into this already)

• As for picking which books I've seen a few book clubs pick a genre for a given month then vote on a few books. 
• For creative / response / etc. This would definitely interest me as I love to see what others think cause they could have interpreted the story differently than I did.
• Leadership: 
  • Post regular discussion topics? (Yes, please!) 
  • Timelines for reading chapters? (Everyone reads at their own pace, I always enjoy a book more when I can sit, relax, and take in the world the author is presenting to me. I don't like to be rushed)
  • Make other administrative decisions? (Coming of with neat events for holidays would be pretty cool)
  • Decision-by-vote space? (Having the chance to vote feels more freeing and acceptable) 

I really appreciate the interest and feedback! 😊

Definitely love the idea of organizing by genre (or theme or something along those lines) -- heard loud and clear!

And I wholeheartedly agree that timelines for reading can be counterproductive, aaaaand I say that as a REALLY SLOW AND INEFFICIENT reader myself! 😅 One thing I want to balance that against is the sense that "it's more fun when people are reading at the same time, and can talk about what they're reading/thinking with that immediacy" -- but I would certainly prioritize slowness over any kind of rush. Great feedback!

Re: voting, no argument that voting is so good and normal it's.....almost expected! 🤣 The one situation I want to avoid is decision paralysis, especially with a slower format like forum-writing. So maybe the solution is, even though the reading goes slowly, the voting happens quickly? I'll definitely give some more thought to this!

Thank you again, I hope I can get a club going that'll scratch that book-nerd itch we both have! 🤓📚🥰

[Daddylyfe]

4 minutes ago, GayKitten said:

Great question, and I really appreciate your specific interest -- I can't lie, I'd be SUPER happy to hear a recommendation being picked up by kiddos!

I personally don't have any issue with lurkers, and would welcome people popping in and out! BUT, I don't want to close the door to people requesting specific threads be locked/private (if that's even possible, I haven't looked at the club thread functionality that closely yet). Just wanna account for a situation where, like, a member requests that for a discussion where something super-sensitive comes up -- I wanna respect that talking about books can bring up some extra-vulnerable stuff.  

tl;dr: probably yes, until someone requests otherwise! ❤️

 

 

Ah ok, I can try my best to be a good student Miss. Kay too! I'm just dealing with a major recovery atm. I'm always afraid of stretching myself too thin. 

[GayKitten]

1 minute ago, Daddylyfe said:

Ah ok, I can try my best to be a good student Miss. Kay too! I'm just dealing with a major recovery atm. I'm always afraid of stretching myself too thin. 

Miss Kay sez: Health in all forms -- physical, mental, emotional, and environmental -- always come first! 👩‍🏫 💝

Don't worry about overextending/overcommitting yourself, all levels of participation are welcome!  

[Daddylyfe]

Honestly this is the first club I've been interested in. I think the more you know about the media available the better you can help widen people's views on things or suggest books that younger family might like. I'm kinda that role in my family right now. I went and bought a hardcover of Sideways Stories from  Wayside School with the original art because my family member doesn't get this where they stay for most of the year and i've always had a passion for that sort of stuff. 

It gets harder and harder as they get older though because SOOO much has come out since I was in middle school too. So the perspective would be wonderful. I just want the best for them. They are smarter than their parents combined and I'd rather them not fall behind because of a bad situation.  

[Daddylyfe]

2 minutes ago, GayKitten said:

Miss Kay sez: Health in all forms -- physical, mental, emotional, and environmental -- always come first! 👩‍🏫 💝

Don't worry about overextending/overcommitting yourself, all levels of participation are welcome!  

Thanks for being so understanding. It's a long story but I'm finally getting out of my bad health situation. And honestly a lot of books for the tweens and younger teens are great. One of my favorite books of all time is A Wrinkle In Time. It got me interested in how far we could actually push physics realistically and the story was great too! 

Have you ever read "They Cage the Animals at Night"? I think a lot of people would be interested. It's at a higher reading level but also I think it would engage littles because it's about stuffies. Though even I who am usually against tw or cw not as a hard rule or as a whole but still,  would mention there's a few scenes that might need to be known about first. 

It's something we could talk about if this takes off and I can tell you the parts of the book that people might want to know about before reading, and there's not many spoilers the way the book is written so we wouldn't have to worry about that. 

[DaddysMonkey]

Got home , went to check the site real quick while my shower water heats up… and realized I had edited my post instead of posting a new reply this morning 😅 and that you might not see it. So here is me fixing that , PLEASE I OFFER MY LOOKING LIKE A FUDDY DUDDY THAT CANT USE THEIR PHONE AS PENANCE ! 
 

Lol , so I have Monkey brain still so this might be all over the place but I’m too excited for you to wait any longer. 

 

-Do y'all even want prompts for creative projects / responses / etc.?

Because of the amount of slow readers there probably are (I actually read stupid fast , I always have and then sit there waiting impatiently to talk about it lol) I think maybe a broken down area for the book would be good. If you haven’t gotten to play with the format of a club it might sound confusing , but each book could have its own section with threads underneath it for certain chapters of the book. Within those chapter threads (For example , Into the Wild , Chapters 1-5) , you could place prompts in those areas that are optional for members , and then if someone is further behind they can not have any parts of the book spoiled by staying within the chapters they’re at. Just a thought. 😇

Just another random thought , creative projects can vary SO SO much ! I like the idea of this , because my first thought is taking pictures or drawing pictures of what you think it *looks* like going on in the story or the characters. 

-What sort of leadership / role would you like to see from me or any club leader?

From you ? Be yourself , you rock < 3 heh. From any leader and you in general without me being silly , perhaps consistency is the word I’m looking for. I try to be consistent with the club I’m doing , and it can admittedly be difficult with so many other life things going on. Slow paced consistency is the answer that feels right. 

I think the word teacher could create a lot of pressure , I think just a leader who is ~willing~ to collaborate with others ideas but is able to grab the bull by it’s horns and make executive decisions when it’s necessary is…. Balance. Balance , support , and from everything I’ve seen you contribute on the forum I believe you have a great ability to be able to teach as well. 

-So: how would a club like this decide on books to read? 
 

Voting is a double edged sword. As mentioned , it can create stale mates. I guess this in my mind is a play it by ear sort of thing ? When members join it would make it easier to kind of get a feel for what those people might want. There has been great suggestions about perhaps genres per month , or just per book. At the end of the day as a member , I personally would be okay with executive decisions being made if there is a lack of response within a time frame or just in general if there are stale mate situations. 
 

I think accessibility is also a question that comes to my mind. If members cannot afford to buy a certain book online or are unable to find it at a good price in real life … how would that play out. 
 

I’m sure I’ll think of more to add to this , and will do so when that time comes !

[GayKitten]

17 minutes ago, DaddysMonkey said:

Got home , went to check the site real quick while my shower water heats up… and realized I had edited my post instead of posting a new reply this morning 😅 and that you might not see it. So here is me fixing that , PLEASE I OFFER MY LOOKING LIKE A FUDDY DUDDY THAT CANT USE THEIR PHONE AS PENANCE ! 

OH SHITE I TOTALLY BLEW IT AND MISSED THE EDIT!!! Might be a good site suggestion, giving alerts on posts edited on threads you start.......yknow, for dopes like meeeeee

 

19 minutes ago, DaddysMonkey said:

each book could have its own section with threads underneath it for certain chapters of the book. Within those chapter threads (For example , Into the Wild , Chapters 1-5) , you could place prompts in those areas that are optional for members , and then if someone is further behind they can not have any parts of the book spoiled by staying within the chapters they’re at. Just a thought. 😇

OKAY while I have seen this used as a way to organize forum book clubs and I totally agree that it is probably the best solution for self-paced reading, one tiny wrinkle -- this won't work if I haven't read the book myself yet! 😅

BUTTTTTTTTTT  ( _ ( _ )  maybe this would work if someone on a given book (who maaaaaybe reads a lil faster) would be willing to take the reins and start the next thread.....? I definitely don't want to buck the responsibility of generating prompts and whatnot, but I definitely don't want to slow you + others down.....especially cuz I'm so damn slow myself.  >.<

Another alternative would be, to get this thing off the ground, we could start with stuff on my re-read list so I can at least set things up properly.

Open to more ideas from you and others on this, of course!

 

1 hour ago, DaddysMonkey said:

I think the word teacher could create a lot of pressure , I think just a leader who is ~willing~ to collaborate with others ideas but is able to grab the bull by it’s horns and make executive decisions when it’s necessary is…. Balance.

Definitely a good call out -- I guess one (but not the only 👀😝😇) motivation re: the ~teacher~ role is the sense that maybe that's on theme for the site generally, and thus good branding for the club?? It seems like clubs that have a distinct ~personality~ kinda generate their own momentum, and not being a middle myself......being "the teacher" feels like the only "role" I could fit into??

But maybe I'm overthinking this -- and the solution is to play it by ear, and be ready to snap into that role for folks that want that (I dunno, maybe someone wants their work graded or marked up or something?? How could I say no??? ❤️), and just be......regular ol' me. 

Or maybe the whole "teacher" shtick starts and ends with the intros/prompts, and then it just goes away.

THANKS FOR HELPING ME THINK THROUGH THIS 😊 and of course I'm veeeeeery curious if others have a take on this, i.e. "would a book club like this be more appealing / engaging to you if there was a (non-sexy) teacher-type role being played".

 

1 hour ago, DaddysMonkey said:

At the end of the day as a member , I personally would be okay with executive decisions being made if there is a lack of response within a time frame or just in general if there are stale mate situations. 

Hmmmmmm can't say I dislike the idea of having executive-decision-stalemate-breaking-power..... 😈 Duly noted!!

 

1 hour ago, DaddysMonkey said:

I think accessibility is also a question that comes to my mind. If members cannot afford to buy a certain book online or are unable to find it at a good price in real life … how would that play out. 

THANK YOU for bringing this up, iiiiiiiiii was in no rush to mention that "holy shit it's a pain to find and buy a damn book for some online rando" is......a tough barrier to overcome for book clubs. 😓 (And I really appreciate you framing it in terms of accessibility, as it should be. You rock 💪)

You're right -- as fun as it is to read really obscure/rare stuff, if given the choice in a vote, I'd essentially have to demand that whatever is easiest to find -- especially if there are free online editions out there. Lots of classics are on on Project Gutenberg https://www.gutenberg.org/ [sfw], so maybe the first few rounds could draw from that, until participation stabilizes/levels off?

This might also be a good argument for us to start with shorter texts, specifically short stories and novellas. (Which is great for me, because I love both of those. 🤪)

 

KEEP THE GOOD STUFF COMIN' MONKEY, AND WE'LL HAVE OURSELVES A BOOK CLUB YET! 🏴‍☠️📖👹

[GayKitten]

Hi all, I know there hasn't been much activity/momentum here the past few days -- so currently considering my options for if/when starting the club might be a good idea. (Kinda no point if it starts and no one joins, right??)

BUT, in the meantime -- I HAVE been brainstorming and setting aside books/stories that might make for good candidates, and just wanted to share a little sneak preview of what Miss Kay's personal library looks like 😛

 

 

Stay golden, ponybois ❤️