Published by rwatstein September 7th, 2008
in book groups and teens.
Since early 2007, Kay Skipper, media-center specialist at Bailey Middle School, has spent nearly every Wednesday evening in detention. Not at her school though – she goes to the Mecklenburg County Gatling Detention Center in Huntersville, North Carolina. There she meets with other volunteers to conduct the “Guys Read Book Club.” Originally spearheaded by Elaine Self from the Council for Children’s Rights after her agency’s attorneys returned from a conference with the idea, the get-together is used as an incentive to keep the boys, aged 8-16, on track. On any given evening, anywhere between eight and 20 boys may attend. “Since there is no way for us to know how many or who will be there each Wednesday evening, we take a set of 20 books in hopes that the boys will be permitted to attend,“ says Skipper.
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Published by rwatstein July 19th, 2008
in books and book groups.
When the phone call came 44 years ago, I was in the full bloom of a second pregnancy. The caller was Diana, a college friend who was also, it turned out, expecting her second child. Diana had moved into a nearby suburb, had found me in the phone book under my husband’s name, and presented this absurd proposition: Why didn’t we start a book group? Read books? With a toddler and a house to manage, I barely had time to read headlines in the local daily. Besides, we were both due to have our babies within weeks. Diana, always a determined sort, dug in. Didn’t I miss reading? Didn’t I miss adult company? We were, after all, former English majors who still might be capable of analyzing symbols and finding important themes in literature.
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