What Are the Benefits of Having a Teen Book Club?

Power of Choice

• Teen book clubs put the decision of what to read in the hands of group members. Rather than being told what to read for a class assignment, teens in a book club can take turns choosing, or collectively choose, what book to read and discuss, making the process more enjoyable. Additionally, a teen can pursue individual interests in more depth than might be offered in a typical classroom environment by choosing books relevant to those topics for book club.

Power of Voice

• Book clubs give teens the opportunity for conversation and other thoughtful discourse in a small-group setting. As opposed to a classroom discussion of a book, a book club presents a more casual atmosphere with relatively less pressure to contribute. Unconcerned about earning a grade, receiving teacher praise or competing for airtime with fellow students, teens gathered in a book club can think and speak more freely about the story. Likewise, a teen with shy or otherwise introverted tendencies might feel more comfortable offering his thoughts to this smaller, more informal group.

Expanded Viewpoint

• Regularly reading new selections in a book club exposes teens to other points of view. Fiction selections transport a teen reader into the worlds of narrators who speak, think and act differently than the reader herself, while telling a story outside the teen's own frame of reference. Nonfiction selections, through memoir and research-based accounts, teach teen readers about the real world around them and others' experiences in it. And, in responding to these selections, teen book club members provide each other with their own unique points of view and individual interpretations of what they have read together.

Lasting Effects

• Participating in a book club deepens a teen's general interest in reading that will carry over into the college years and beyond. Choosing, reading and discussing books with his peers teaches a teen that books exist outside of schoolwork. He will continue to choose books purely for his own personal enjoyment and intellectual development. In addition, his experiences in book club as a teen will have taught him to engage in the material and communicate his thoughts about it to others who share his interest.