Online Book Clubs for Kids

Joining a literary discussion group online helps students pursue ideas giving them the time to frame their responses and thoughts carefully. The freedom to openly discuss a wide variety of topics often increases the student’s enthusiasm for the theories and ideas presented in literary works. Any medium that enables students to explore literary ideas without fear of social rejection from their peers should be used. Share these sites with your students. You may be surprised at who decides to look into them. And maybe you’ll join a club and find yourself easily discussing books with students.

Kidsreads.com allows members to exchange ideas about the book they’re reading. Every month the members choose a new book to read from a list of books previously nominated by the members. Membership is free and those who participate in chats are allowed to vote on the book to be read the following month.

Wired for Books, www.tcom.ohiou.edu/books, allows members to chat about the works of various authors. The discussions are not moderated, but any inappropriate material is immediately removed. The site allows students to listen to author interviews, poems, or plays, and to watch literary videos. It includes authors such as John Updike, Kurt Vonnegut, and Robert Creely. The site requests that you use your real name and email address when signing up.

Both The Washington Post and The New York Times have good book clubs for older students, washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/liveonline/books.htm and www.nytimes.com/books/forums, that cover a wide spectrum of fiction and non-fiction. CNN and A&E also have book clubs, www.cnn.com/books and www.aande.com/bookclub, that are relevant to the field the organizations cover.

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