Happy June Book Reviewers! June is a great month with warm weather upon us, the hustle and bustle of graduations, and getting ready for the summer break. With all of this
excitement, I am pleased to introduce you all to our June Book Club of the Month: The Palisades Teen Book Club.
This great book club was created by Ms. Catherine Gees, who began working at the Palisades District of Columbia Public Library Branch in October 2013. She had a goal to start a book club for the library’s teens. This book club may be fairly young, but it already has a strong crowd of members from 11-14, and great activities for them. “I try to get books the teens can relate to, something with characters or a plot they might feel they have something in common with,” says Ms. Gees. So, of course, there was a democratic vote! Ms. Gees nominated some selections herself, as did the members; after a survey and a vote, the first Palisade Teen Book Club selection was The Book Thief, a fabulous novel by the Australian author, Markus Zusak. The teens spend about two months on each book. Currently, they are reading their second ever, The Perks of Being Wallflower. Apart from the reading, Ms. Gees also tries to have snacks that have to do with the books but, “It’s harder than it seems!”, she says.
Hope you all enjoyed meeting the Palisades Teen Book Club! If you want to know them better, check out the book reviews that the teens wrote themselves! There are also pictures below.
We’ll be back next month! And remember, feel free to nominate book clubs by sending their information to [email protected]