With the global COVID-19 pandemic spreading across the U.S. in March, closing schools and prompting stay-home orders nationwide, literacy specialist Dr. Deborah Van Duinen, associate professor of English education, pondered how as an educator she could help the school-aged children being affected. As she connected online with colleagues around the country who were in her professional network, it turned out that many of them felt the same way.
The medium and their collective expertise combined to suggest a format. So was born the first National Online Book Club for Kids, an opportunity for 4th through 6th grade students to meet on Zoom to discuss a different selected book each week beginning on Thursday, April 2.
And as a bonus: The authors join them.
“In thinking about how I could respond to the COVID19 outbreak as a literacy professor, it seemed only fitting to explore the ways I could help people, in this case, 4th through 6th graders, come together through reading during this time of uncertainty,” said Van Duinen. “With schools and libraries currently closed, the idea of coming together virtually to talk about books, meet famous authors, and use these conversations to help us cope and respond to our new ‘normals’ seemed most fitting.”
Van Duinen has long been a book-club enthusiast. As a parent, she organizes in-person, mother-daughter and mother-son book clubs. She’s done the same on a grander scale since 2014 as founding director of the Big Read Lakeshore and Little Read Lakeshore, which are Hope-organized programs that each fall engage thousands of community residents in exploring a common text.
The month-long Big Read programs — which are built around books like To Kill a Mockingbird, the Vietnam War memoir The Things They Carried, and the post-apocalyptic novel Station Eleven — and the Little Read programs that feature children’s books emphasize not only the pleasure of reading but exploring the larger issues that the books raise. In the same way, the online club’s selections and discussions are considering themes like hope, grief, loss of control, and caring for and finding strength through connection to others.
“As the director of the Big Read Lakeshore, I’ve seen firsthand the beautiful things that happen when people come together around a common book,” Van Duinen said. “During this time of COVID19, we need more spaces and places where community can be fostered. We also need good books to speak into how we are feeling and making sense of what is happening around us.”
The club’s premiere on April 2, featuring author Ruth Vanderzee and her book Next Year: Hope in the Dust, gathered 100 participants. A week later, with Cece Bell and her book El Deafo, it was 200 children. And the numbers have continued to climb.
Envisioning, developing and running the online book club has very much been a team effort. The organizers, all of whom are volunteers, include about 10 educators, among them not only college faculty like Van Duinen but elementary and high school librarians, teachers and counselors from a mix of rural and urban systems. The Big Read and Little Read programs always bring the books’ authors to Hope or Holland, a model that’s continued virtually with each book club session.
“The authors are valued partners in what we’re doing,” Van Duinen said. “They’ve all been enthusiastic about participating and generous with their time.”
Each club meeting runs an hour. Following a brief welcome and introduction, the authors talk about their book and then participate in a question-and-answer time with the children, after which everyone divides into small-group breakout sessions with discussion questions based on the book. The discussions are guided, led by teachers, professors and school counselors as well as Hope education students. The children then come back together for a whole-group wrap-up.
“As the director of the Big Read Lakeshore, I’ve seen firsthand the beautiful things that happen when people come together around a common book,” Van Duinen said. “During this time of COVID19, we need more spaces and places where community can be fostered. We also need good books to speak into how we are feeling and making sense of what is happening around us.”
Having promoted the online book club through their own social media and (socially distanced) word of mouth, the organizers weren’t sure what sort of turnout to expect, but the response has been gratifying. The club’s premiere on April 2, featuring author Ruth Vanderzee and her book Next Year: Hope in the Dust, gathered 100 participants. A week later, with Cece Bell and her book El Deafo, it was 200 children who Zoom-ed in from throughout the United States with interested participants from Puerto Rico, Canada and England. And the numbers have continued to climb, an enthusiastic response that has prompted the team to continue the club’s run well past the initial plan.
“It’s amazing how wide the reach has been. People none of us are connected with are finding out about it,” Van Duinen said. “We were just going to do it for a few weeks, but because of the positive responses that we’ve received from students, parents and authors, we’re going through the end of May.”
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To learn more about the book club, and especially if you know a 4th-6th grader who would enjoy the club, please visit its website or find it on Instagram or Facebook. In addition to the April 2 and 9 events mentioned in the story, the books and authors currently scheduled are: Merci Suárez Changes Gears, with Meg Medina (April 16); Ms. Bixby’s Last Day, with John David Anderson (April 23); Bridge to Terabithia, with Katherine Patterson (April 30); Front Desk, with Kelly Yang (May 7); Superman Smashes the Klan, with Gene Leun Yang (May 14); and Refugee, with Alan Gratz (May 21).
The club meets at 5 p.m. EST (2 p.m. PST and 4pm CST). Advance registration is required.