The Page Turner Society: Building Community, Voice, and Empathy Through a High School-University Book Club

Meet our Contributor

Leilya A. Pitre is an associate professor, English Education coordinator, and Director of Southeast Louisiana Writing Project at Southeastern Louisiana University where she teaches methods courses for preservice teachers, linguistics, advanced grammar, American and Young Adult Literature courses for undergraduate and graduate students. Her research interests include teacher preparation, secondary school teaching, teaching and research on Young Adult literature. 

The Page Turner Society: Building Community, Voice, and Empathy
Through a High School-University Book Club by Leilya A. Pitre

What happens when future teachers and high school students come together around a powerful young adult novel—not as an assignment, but as a shared experience?

This question guided The Page Turner Society, a book club created through a Work-Based Learning Experience grant from the Louisiana Board of Regents, sponsored by the Strada Foundation. As part of this grant, my teacher candidates in the Secondary English Education program at Southeastern Louisiana University and I partnered with Hammond High Magnet School to bring a sustained, discussion-rich book club to life.
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After advertising the book club across the school, we welcomed fifteen student volunteers, each an active, engaged reader eager to participate in discussion. The goal was simple yet ambitious: to build a space where students read deeply, speak honestly, listen generously, and connect literature to the world they inhabit. 

Our Vision Rooted in Collaboration and Voice

From the beginning, The Page Turner Society was designed as more than a traditional book club. Our shared vision emphasized community, empathy, and student voice for the high school participants and preservice teachers. We wanted to model what literature-centered learning can look like when it moves beyond grade points and required writing toward meaning, dialogue, and care.
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Equally important, this project offered authentic work-based learning for teacher candidates. They planned agendas, facilitated discussions, designed creative activities, and reflected on their roles. They were not lecturers, but co-readers and listeners.

Choosing All American Boys

For our first semester, students selected All American Boys (2015) by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely, a novel that invites readers to wrestle with race, identity, justice, and responsibility through two narrators, Rashad and Quinn.
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Over three book club meetings, ninth- and tenth-grade students and university teacher candidates explored the novel together, returning again and again to a central question: What does it mean to be an “All American boy” in today’s society?

Meeting One: Entering the Story Together

Our opening meeting focused on building trust and curiosity. We ensured to create an atmosphere where each student felt safe to voice their opinion. Students created name tags representing who they are, not just what others see. We then introduced a “Story Impressions” activity, where students predicted the novel’s plot using ten carefully selected words, such as dilemma, officer, violence, protest, action, and rage, before reading a single page.

Pre-reading discussions invited students to share what they already knew, what they questioned, and why hearing multiple perspectives might matter. This foundation made it clear from the start: every voice in the room mattered. 

Meeting Two: Wrestling with Perspective and Choice

As students moved deeper into the novel, our second meeting centered on character, voice, and moral tension. Small-group discussions explored Rashad’s vulnerability and Quinn’s internal conflict, supported by quote analysis and lightning-round discussions. Students chose the quotes that were meaningful to them, and together we discussed their significance.
 
One writing activity asked students to offer advice to a character trying to do the right thing. Their responses revealed empathy, nuance, and critical thinking:

• “Two things can be true at the same time.”
• “Even if the people who helped raise you are good to you, it doesn’t mean they are good people.”
• “I suggest you speak up. I now it’s difficult, but you, yourself, are starting to realize that this wasn’t right, so, please, choose to be on the right side of history and speak up.”
• “Use your voice because it matters.”

​These reflections showed students grappling with complexity. They were not rushing to easy answers, but learning to deal with discomfort.

The Final Meeting: Creativity, Reflection, and Action

Our final meeting, held in the Hammond High Magnet School library, brought everything together in an 80-minute celebration of reading and voice.

We planned many engaging activities for students, which included:

• Playlist creation, where students paired songs with themes from the novel
• Blackout poetry, crafted directly from pages of the text
• Protest T-shirt design, connecting the novel to real-world movements
• Scenario cards, asking students what they would realistically do when facing injustice
• Final discussion

​The room was filled with conversation, laughter, thoughtful silence, and moments of deep recognition. Students shared, listened, and responded to one another—not to impress, but to understand.

The Poems

Poem # 1

Poem # 3

Poem # 2

Poem # 4

What Students Told Us​

Student reflections affirmed what we hoped this experience would become. They described the book club as:

• “A safe place where everyone felt equal and valued”
• “Eye-opening”
• “Not what you’d expect from a book club”
• “A reminder of why I love reading”
• “A great opportunity for anyone to deepen their love and understanding of books.”

Many highlighted the creative activities, especially blackout poetry and playlist creation, while others emphasized the importance of hearing different perspectives and feeling truly heard. 

Students Working on Responses

Students Working on Story Impressions

Why This Work Is Essential

The Page Turner Society demonstrates what is possible when schools and universities collaborate with intention. For high school students, the book club created a space for agency, empathy, and meaningful engagement with literature. For teacher candidates, it provided real-world practice in facilitation, responsiveness, and reflective teaching—skills that cannot be fully learned from a textbook.

Supported by the Board of Regents and Strada Foundation, this project affirms the value of work-based learning experiences that are human-centered, community-rooted, and intellectually rigorous.

Most of all, this work reminds us that young people want and deserve—spaces where stories are valued, voices are honored, and reading becomes a shared act of understanding.
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And yes, they enjoyed the snacks, too.