Synopsis
This guide for young adult librarians and teachers profiles fifty titles, including novels, biographies, and plays; it offers notes on their themes, genre, and characters, as well as discussion points. Individual chapters discuss the purpose of reading groups, advertising, scheduling, group size, and creating a comfortable environment. Dicherson (librarian, Cuyahoga County Public Library) includes advice for selecting books, presenting questions to get young adults talking, facilitation skills, on-line resources, and targeting teenage males. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Julie Roberts - VOYA
Part of the Teens @ the Library series, this book is an excellent guide to starting and running book discussion groups for teens. Dickerson clearly outlines the practical procedures for starting a group, such as choosing the place and time, creating rules, giving guidance on publicity, and even what kinds of snacks to bring. She also gives an introduction to choosing the best books for discussion and gives great tips on how to keep the discussion going. A list of online resources for book reviews and book discussion groups is also included. There is even a special section on attracting boys to book discussions. The second part and the bulk of the book is a selection of fifty recommended titles with provocative discussion questions. For each title there is bibliographic information, themes, genre, main characters, and tips for presenting the book to a group, followed by a synopsis of the book and a set of potential discussion questions. Dickerson selects popular and current teen books-great choices to show teens the wealth of literature that is being published for their age group-all of them field-tested by real-life teen book discussion groups. The books are indexed by author, title, and theme. Experience teaches how difficult it can be to run a teen book discussion group, and Dickerson offers teachers and librarians a great start for such a worthwhile endeavor. 2004, Neal-Schuman, 165p.; Index. Biblio. Further Reading., pb. Ages adult professional.