Running a book club: Growing your club

Published on: 07 December 2023

One common theme amongst colleagues who have run book clubs for a while is that for the first year or two they embed the club and create its identity. After a while, if it is working, children want to become part of the project, they start reading more themselves and making recommendations, and a reading culture is created. At this point the question is... where to take it next?

Try author visits

As an RT=RP school we have been privileged to meet authors and read to them through sharing events. This year, now my school has become an Independent RT=RP group, we are intending to club together with other schools and their book clubs to set up a sharing day for our pupils with an author, thus splitting the cost.

Pupil-author face-to-face contact is expensive but creates magical connections that are never forgotten. An alternative to this is a virtual school visit, like those run by BookTrust.

Bring the book to life

It's also great to look for opportunities to bring the book alive and make it real. A couple of years ago my group were reading October, October by Katya Balen. One child wondered how easy it would be to adopt a barn owl.

The next thing we knew we were researching owl sanctuaries, setting up book sales and adopting an owl from the proceeds. The book became far more than a book, but then, as we know, so many books can, and book clubs are a great place to make this happen.

Good luck creating or enlivening yours!