This weeks bloggers are some of my favorite people in Baton Rouge. While at Louisiana State University I meet a lot of people and made many friends. Among those are these three women. Jackie and I were faculty members in the School of Education and Charity and Candence were faculty members at the LSU University High School.
You can check out their brief biographies and their pictures at the bottom of their blog post.
You can check out their brief biographies and their pictures at the bottom of their blog post.
The Not-So-Young-Adult Young Adult Book Club: Why Reading YA Books as Adults Works
Much obliged! (Candy)
Like all good book clubs, ours features food as an essential component. Once a month, we gather around a dining table, plates piled high with (often) home cooked food and warm bread. Our official start to the meal is our traditional toast: “Much obliged.” This toast, which is part blessing and part celebration, acknowledges the gratitude all of us share in this monthly ritual. As the newest member of the group, I have attended these gatherings for the last seven years. I am told that the founding members have been meeting for around 20 years. Through the years, only two rules govern our book club: everyone contributes to the shared meal, and everyone shows up.
Over the last forty years, scholars have asserted, supported, and cajoled teachers to include young adult titles on their syllabi. Early scholarship acknowledges the role that YA literature has in helping students to navigate adolescence (Samuels, 1983). We know that YA literature helps students not only to feel seen, but also to see and empathize with others (Bishop, 1990). However, there is not a great deal of research or discussion on the role that young adult books can have on adult readers. Anecdotally, we know lots of adults read YA titles for lots of reasons. Teachers and librarians are often voracious YA readers so that they can recommend titles for students. But there is a growing number of adults who read young adult titles with no opportunity or need to share them with children. Our book club (comprised of current and retired secondary teachers and university faculty, along with one lone male who worked in a field completely unrelated to teens or books) reads young adult literature almost exclusively. While the teachers and retired teachers in the group often imagine what kind of student might like a book or how we might teach a particular book in our classes, such ideas are not the intention of our book club.
Like all good book clubs, ours features food as an essential component. Once a month, we gather around a dining table, plates piled high with (often) home cooked food and warm bread. Our official start to the meal is our traditional toast: “Much obliged.” This toast, which is part blessing and part celebration, acknowledges the gratitude all of us share in this monthly ritual. As the newest member of the group, I have attended these gatherings for the last seven years. I am told that the founding members have been meeting for around 20 years. Through the years, only two rules govern our book club: everyone contributes to the shared meal, and everyone shows up.
Over the last forty years, scholars have asserted, supported, and cajoled teachers to include young adult titles on their syllabi. Early scholarship acknowledges the role that YA literature has in helping students to navigate adolescence (Samuels, 1983). We know that YA literature helps students not only to feel seen, but also to see and empathize with others (Bishop, 1990). However, there is not a great deal of research or discussion on the role that young adult books can have on adult readers. Anecdotally, we know lots of adults read YA titles for lots of reasons. Teachers and librarians are often voracious YA readers so that they can recommend titles for students. But there is a growing number of adults who read young adult titles with no opportunity or need to share them with children. Our book club (comprised of current and retired secondary teachers and university faculty, along with one lone male who worked in a field completely unrelated to teens or books) reads young adult literature almost exclusively. While the teachers and retired teachers in the group often imagine what kind of student might like a book or how we might teach a particular book in our classes, such ideas are not the intention of our book club.
We read YA titles because the books are good great. As adult readers, we can attest that books written for young readers often capture a moment in growing up perfectly. The books we have read not only remind us of our childhoods, but they help us navigate complex contemporary issues: global politics, gender expression, and grief, to name a few. Our book club challenges the notion that books have an intended audience. As readers, we engage with the characters and themes of YA books in the same ways we engage with titles geared toward grown ups. We, too, are sometimes reluctant readers. We, too, sometimes need a gentle nudge to try a new author or a new genre. We, too, need a community of readers to guide us through tough content, offer new perspectives and celebrate the magical qualities of stories with us.
So what do we read? (Charity)
As rewarding and enjoyable as each month’s book discussion and shared meal are, the what-do-we-read-next conversation is also lively and fun. As the book club’s resident school librarian, it often falls to me to bring a stack of potential reads along to each meeting for book talks and a group vote. I love browsing the carts of new library books and grabbing ones my students have been talking about to put these stacks together. Reader’s advisory is my favorite part of school librarianship, and book club gives me another outlet for sharing recommendations and putting great books in the hands of readers.
The keys I strive for are variety and “discussability.” Just like in any group of readers, we have some members who prefer realistic fiction, some fantasy buffs, some nonfiction enthusiasts, some who enjoy graphic novels and some who read them only reluctantly. We like to vary our age ranges, reading middle grades along with YA, as well as the very occasional adult or children’s book. One notable series of meetings found us reading each member’s childhood favorite book. Whatever the genre, we try to choose books that will spur conversation and offer us something to consider.
As rewarding and enjoyable as each month’s book discussion and shared meal are, the what-do-we-read-next conversation is also lively and fun. As the book club’s resident school librarian, it often falls to me to bring a stack of potential reads along to each meeting for book talks and a group vote. I love browsing the carts of new library books and grabbing ones my students have been talking about to put these stacks together. Reader’s advisory is my favorite part of school librarianship, and book club gives me another outlet for sharing recommendations and putting great books in the hands of readers.
The keys I strive for are variety and “discussability.” Just like in any group of readers, we have some members who prefer realistic fiction, some fantasy buffs, some nonfiction enthusiasts, some who enjoy graphic novels and some who read them only reluctantly. We like to vary our age ranges, reading middle grades along with YA, as well as the very occasional adult or children’s book. One notable series of meetings found us reading each member’s childhood favorite book. Whatever the genre, we try to choose books that will spur conversation and offer us something to consider.
| Our richest discussions have sprung from books that encourage us to make connections–to one another, to our outside lives, to societal issues. We read Elizabeth Acevedo’s Clap When You Land after it was challenged on the summer reading list at the school where two of us work. Our conversation focused largely on why the book is so valuable to young adult readers and prompted an evening of talk about censorship and intellectual freedom. |  |
 | Occasionally a book surprises us with its pure delight, like T.J. Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea. We were unanimously charmed by Klune’s characters and left wanting more of their story. The mastery with which the author wove in messages of acceptance without being didactic was a key component of that evening’s book talk, as was the sense of hope and happiness the novel filled us with. |
| Not all books give us the warm and fuzzies, though. Case in point: Tiffany Jackson’s Monday’s Not Coming. Without spoiling it for those of you who haven’t read it yet, let’s just say we were blown away in an entirely different way by that one. That night’s discussion focused not only on Jackson’s unparalleled ability to twist a plot, but also on the inequity with which our society deals with missing black and brown girls. |  |
We have been moved to tears by the experiences of authors Rex Ogle (Free Lunch) and Tyler Feder (Dancing at the Pity Party: A Dead Mom Graphic Memoir). We’ve laughed out loud at the adventures of Scoob and G’Ma (Nic Stone’s Clean Getaway, which also prompted some independent research on The Green Book and travel in the 1960s South). We’ve been angered by injustice against women (Joy McCullough’s Blood Water Paint) and grappled with our own privilege as we considered the experiences of characters whose lives are different from ours (Tara Sullivan’s The Bitter Side of Sweet, Angeline Boulley’s The Firekeeper’s Daughter). We’ve debated the pros and cons of format: Why was this book written in verse? How do I read this graphic novel?
We don’t always agree, and that only serves to make our conversations richer. We do always receive one another’s ideas and opinions with respect. More than once, a perspective has changed by the end of the evening as another member’s experience shed light on a facet of the book we hadn’t considered.
5 ways to Sustain a Book Club (Jackie)
As we have noted, this book club has been in existence for decades. While the membership has changed over the years, the fundamental characteristics have not. Here are the five characteristics essential to a successful Not-So-Young-YA Book Club:
As we have noted, this book club has been in existence for decades. While the membership has changed over the years, the fundamental characteristics have not. Here are the five characteristics essential to a successful Not-So-Young-YA Book Club:
- Everyone contributes. If there is an obligation for you to contribute something to the evening’s dinner, then you are less likely to miss. For example, each month we are each obligated to bring something for the meal (salad, wine, main course, etc.) While it seems ridiculous, one member was once (laughingly) turned away when she forgot to bring the bread. It was easy enough for her to go to the local grocery store, and we let her in once she had bread in hand, but her forgetfulness has become legendary. Knowing that you are responsible for a portion of the meal and have to find a replacement if you can’t attend is incentive to attend. It’s also a good reason to limit membership to a manageable number: host, red wine, white wine, (we are in Louisiana), salad, bread, main dish, and dessert.
- Everyone connects. Each of us has a unique reason for attending meetings. For some, it’s remaining aware of current trends in YA. For others, like me, it’s the only way that I remain connected to my field now that I am an administrator. For some, it’s being able to make rankings for a GoodReads account. And for others, it’s being able to recommend books to relatives.
- Everyone cares. As many did during the pandemic, we pivoted to the internet. Zoom allowed us to continue our meetings, and we were able to connect with a former member who had retired and moved to Florida. We share weddings, surgeries, deaths, and medical procedures. We try not to instill expectations on each other, but we genuinely care about each other.
- Everyone collaborates. As Charity has noted, we all get to decide on the book. At times, I have felt victorious when the book I recommended was chosen (The House in the Cerulean Sea) and equally dismayed when the book I voted for was not enjoyed by all (probably one of those graphic novels). I feel at times when we rely solely on Charity for recommendations–everyone should contribute ideas.
- Everyone celebrates. While books remain at the center of our meetings, we cannot help but celebrate our milestones. Whether it’s a 50th birthday (which was mine last year) or a wedding of a child, we relish in incorporating those milestones into our monthly meetings.
We hope that this post encourages you to create, revive, or sustain a “not-so-young YA book club. We have found it the best way to keep up with the field, learn what our students might enjoy reading, and maintain and grow friendships.
References
Samuels, B. G. (1983). Young Adult Literature: Young Adult Novels in the Classroom? The English Journal, 72(4), 86–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/817086
Bishop, R. S. (1990, March). Windows and mirrors: Children’s books and parallel cultures. In California State University reading conference: 14th annual conference proceedings (pp. 3-12).
Samuels, B. G. (1983). Young Adult Literature: Young Adult Novels in the Classroom? The English Journal, 72(4), 86–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/817086
Bishop, R. S. (1990, March). Windows and mirrors: Children’s books and parallel cultures. In California State University reading conference: 14th annual conference proceedings (pp. 3-12).
Biographies
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| Charity Cantey is the middle/high school librarian at the LSU Laboratory School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She is National Board Certified and earned a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on young adult literature. Dr. Cantey has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in YA literature, children’s literature, school librarianship, and nonfiction for children and teens. She has been in the Not-So-Young-Adult Book Club since 2004. | Candence Robillard is a National Board Certified teacher at LSU Laboratory School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who has spent the last 28 years encouraging students and adults to read young adult literature. She teaches dual enrollment and International Baccalaureate English, and one of her very favorite things is keeping in touch with former students through a mutual love of books. She is the newest member of the Not-So-Young-Adult Book Club. | Jacqueline Bach is a vice provost at Louisiana State University and the Elena and Albert LeBlanc Professor in the school of education. She was accepted to the Not-So-Young-Adult Book Club in 2006 after sharing her opinion of The Golden Compass. |
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