Book club spotlights

Get to Know Our Clubs: Teacher Book Club

Updated: Jan 26, 2023

Blog

Author

Annabel Zane

Our Get to Know Our Clubs series gives you an inside look into book clubs using Bookclubz, in case you need a little inspiration. These clubs are building unique communities on our platform, and we can all take notes on their ingenuity and creativity.

 

Speaking of taking notes, fall is here and the school year is back in full swing, so why not shine a light on a club built upon a community of teachers? 

 

We spoke with one of the creators of the UK-based Teacher Book Club, Tara Cross, to learn more about her thriving club and its over 750 members, all of whom, indeed, are teachers.

 

These dedicated educators use Bookclubz to figure out what literature works best in the classroom. Here’s what they found:

 

Tell us a little about the Teacher Book Club and how it came about.

The Teacher Book Club began when @lhteaches and I (@_tarasteaching) decided to read the same book and chat about it afterwards. We decided to bring this to Instagram to be able to discuss children’s literature with other teachers!

 

We read children’s ‘middle grade’ books! We have two months to read our book - this works really well as we are all busy teachers and need more time to read sometimes! At the end of the two months, we have a group chat about the book and sometimes we even do an Instagram live with the author of the book!

 

How do you choose your book club book?

We let our members suggest new books they would love to read. We then take the top two books that have been most frequently suggested and create a vote for our members to decide which one we should read as a club!

 

Do you have any really good stories from your book club (funny/fun/inspiring)?

We have been lucky enough to talk to some amazing authors on Instagram live! These include; Onjali Raúf, Sarah Hagger-Holt and M.G. Leonard! These chats are always so much fun as we ask the authors the same questions we will have discussed the night before in our book club chat! We’ve had secret new book titles revealed to us before and prequel reveals too!

 

How do your club members stay connected beyond reading?

We have our group chat and also use the Bookclubz app to share our thoughts and updates on reading! We have all connected as teachers via Instagram so we share on our stories updates about us buying and then reading the current book club book!

 

How do you host successful meetings and inspire thought-provoking discussions?

Our book club discussions are held virtually due to us having so many members from all over the UK! We use the same questions each month for our discussions which helps to keep consistency and is also great for comparison from one book to another. It means whilst our members are reading the book, they will already know what questions we will be discussing at the end of the month!

 

Here are our questions:

  1. Who is your favourite character and why?
  2. What was your favourite part of the story and why?
  3. Share your favourite quote from the book!
  4. What do you think the author wants readers to remember most from the book?
  5. Which other character’s point of view would you like to hear the story from?

 

What are the top 3-5 books your club has read this year? Any books that elicited a strong response?

We’ve read some fantastic children’s books together this year! The Night Bus Hero by Onjali Raúf was brilliant and definitely a thought provoking read for us all. Proud of Me by Sarah Hagger-Holt was a great LGBTQ+ read aimed at a slightly higher age range, so it was something different for us all. Amari and the Night Brothers by BB Alston was a fantastic book that definitely lived up to the hype! Twitch by M.G. Leonard was loved by so many - especially my class at school!

 

 

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