Kid's Book Club Book

Journal

September 6, 2007

Decatur Book Festival

We were delighted to participate in the Decatur (Georgia) Book Festival over Labor Day weekend. The photograph of us above was taken on the grounds of Agnes Scott College where we gave a talk about The Kids' Book Club Book. Besides meeting some terrific local educators and librarians, we had the opportunity to hear an engaging talk about children's literature by Anita Silvey, an authority on children's and young adult books. We enjoyed the hospitality of the Decatur community, dined at some wonderful restaurants, and reconnected with our friends and relatives in the area.

April 11, 2007

Looking for Book Clubs

How do you find 500 book clubs - twice? We’re often asked about how we identified the hundreds of adult book clubs we contacted for The Book Club Cookbook, as well as youth book clubs for The Kids’ Book Club Book. In researching both books, we wanted to find a a diverse pool of book clubs across the country – groups whose members come from various racial and ethnic backgrounds, that meet in different places, discuss various types of books, and engage in a variety of book-related activities.

The answer: There is no handy list of adult or youth book clubs in the United States.
Combing the Internet through search engines proved to be an invaluable tool in identifying and contacting new book clubs. We placed phone calls to selected groups, but spending hours searching the Internet was our primary tool for discovering book clubs that meet in schools, libraries, bookstores, churches, temples, and community centers from Arizona to Maine. We are grateful to the hundreds of book club facilitators and members who contributed email accounts and phone interviews about their groups.