Middle Grade Book Club with Amy Hesterman

In today's episode, Alba speaks with Amy Hesterman, Children's Librarian, about the Middle Grade Book Club.  For more information, call the Children's Desk at (614) 837-4765 ext 118.

Transcript

Alba [00:00:00]:
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Junior Librarians podcast. My name is Alba, and today we are going to be talking about the middle grade book club here at Wagnalls.

Ava: Welcome to the Junior Librarian podcast. Podcast. This podcast is written for kids by kids to help them learn more about the Wagnalls Memorial Library. Today, we're speaking to miss Amy Hesterman, the children's librarian. Welcome to the show, miss Amy.

Ms. Amy [00:00:29]:
Thank you, Alba. I am so happy and excited to be here today.

Alba [00:00:34]:
Today, we wanna talk about the middle grade book club, so let's dive in.

Ms. Amy [00:00:38]:
Alba, you're wanting to talk about one of my favorite things that I love to talk about, and that's the middle grade book club. Would you believe that we've probably had 15 books that we've done so far as a group, and we just keep going and going and going? Wow.

Alba [00:00:57]:
It's awesome. We're gonna start by asking you some questions. We'll start with who is it for or what's the age range?

Ms. Amy [00:01:04]:
The middle grade book club is primarily for 4th graders through 6th graders. And the reason we do that is because some of the books that we read are pretty intense. The pacing is fast. The, reading level is probably advanced, and so we think it would be great for 4th through 6th graders to be a part of. And next, why are book clubs important? Book clubs are important for so many reasons. 1, first and foremost, they are so fun. You have a community of readers reading the same book together. And, therefore, when you're reading it, you're thinking about the fact that not only are you reading it, but there's another kid your age or a friend your age that is going through the same adventure that you're going through at the exact same time.

Ms. Amy [00:01:57]:
The only thing that's interesting about it too is that what we're finding in our middle grade book club are there are pin there are opinions all over the map on on how the kids feel about the book once they finish it. We wanna make sure that the child who's going through the middle grade book club with us finishes the book before we get together. So we give them about a month to finish that book.

Alba [00:02:21]:
When do you guys meet?

Ms. Amy [00:02:23]:
We meet once a month on Saturday mornings from 10:30 to around 11:30. And I gotta give a shout out to our parents too because this middle grade book club would not happen without the support of parents. Parents have very busy schedules, but they take time out to take their kids to Wagonell's on a Saturday morning, which is one of only 2 days they probably have off a week. They sacrifice their time to make sure that their kids get to be a part of this book club. So I'm indebted to parents. I really appreciate the support that they get the kids to come.

Alba [00:02:59]:
And how do you pick the books?

Ms. Amy [00:03:02]:
Such a great question. Well, honestly, I have to like the book myself. And most of the time, when I choose a book that we're gonna do for the middle grade book club, I've probably read it already in in advance, and I loved it most of the time. There are times, Alba, that I'll put one in that I haven't read. For instance, the last book we did together just last Saturday was about the Mona Lisa, the painting being stolen. I chose that one because it was a nonfiction book written in a narrative style, a storytelling style, and I knew the kids would be so intrigued by the fact that this painting has been stolen. Who stole it? Why did they steal it? Did anybody ever find it? And this proved to be a very fascinating discussion all across the board.

Alba [00:03:53]:
Wow. So what do you have to do to join the middle grade book club?

Ms. Amy [00:03:59]:
Well, one thing I try to do in advance is put all the books on hold I possibly can of that particular novel, that particular middle grade novel to make sure that we have it for you so that I can I do a lot of talking about this book to kids that come down into the children's library? So I wanna have the book on hand to give to them so that they can start it right away. If I were to talk about a book, if I had kid come downstairs and I was telling them about the book and how wonderful this middle grade book was that we're gonna do together, And I didn't have a copy of it available. I've lost the child. The child is not gonna be interested in being a part of this necessarily because they don't have the book in their hand. They're not seeing the cover. They're not grabbed by it. They're not grabbed by the jacket and all of those things because I don't I wouldn't have it. So what I try to do is get them in advance, the copies in advance so that I have them in hand to give the kids.

Ms. Amy [00:04:58]:
Then they just simply sign up. Then it's on them. They have the book. They've got a month to read it, and then they come back on that, particular Saturday that we're getting together, and then we take a deep dive into talking about it. There's a lot of laughter. There's just there's a lot of, opinions, and that's exactly what I want. I don't want a bunch of robots in the middle grade book club. I want the kids to have experienced the novel in their own way.

Alba [00:05:28]:
And where can you sign up at? Great question, Alba. We have a sign up sheet down at the Children's Library, and you can sign up for the book club there. You get the book right away, and then I'll send you an email about a week in advance just to remind you, hey, we're gonna be getting together this Saturday, and we're gonna be talking about this book. And that's kinda how it goes.

Alba [00:05:51]:
So what do you do at each meeting?

Ms. Amy [00:05:54]:
Well, we round up, get together, and we go into, a room that's been called many different things in Wagnalls history. It's been called the TPC, the Allison room. It's this room, and I've got a bunch of little cushions that the kids can sit on, and we kinda sit in a circle. And a lot of times, we go around and introduce ourselves, but sometimes we don't have to. Do you know why? The reason we don't have to is because the same kids keep returning to the book club. They are committed to this thing. They are with their people. You know, a lot of kids are good at sports.

Ms. Amy [00:06:35]:
A lot of kids might be good at acting. You know, being a part of a a middle grade book club gives you a place to go. If you don't feel like you might be really good at sports or a lot of different things, you're with a group of kids that love reading just like you, and that's what makes it so special. So we we go around, we introduce each other, we might have some new friends that come in, and then we just kinda discuss the book, and that's where it gets very interesting.

Alba [00:07:05]:
So what has your favorite book been so far?

Ms. Amy [00:07:08]:
Oh, wow, Elba. So many so many have been my favorite. I guess one of my favorite ones is was going outside the box for me. I could be a very limited reader, personally. I can only stay in suspense genre or historical fiction. I very rarely do fantasy, but one of my favorites that I did that was outside of my normal genre of reading was Sweep. Sweep is by a guy named Jonathan Astier, and when I say his last name and you see his last name, it doesn't look like that at all. It looks like Austier.

Ms. Amy [00:07:45]:
He has a French sounding last name. And we read Sweep. I don't even remember exactly when we read it as a middle grade book club, but that book left us broken because of what happens at the end, and none of us were expecting it. I was expecting it because I had already read it. But I knew the middle grade book club, every time I handed that book out to a kid, I knew their world was gonna be rocked because of how the book ends. And you close the back of that cover, and you're like, oh my goodness. What just happened here? And so that book was a special one to me. And if I could share one other one too, Alba, that was outside of my comfort zone, was all 13, which was a nonfiction book written very much in a narrative format, and it is was about the Thai soccer team that got caught in the cave.

Ms. Amy [00:08:48]:
I would have never read that book on my own. I just I'm not a sports kinda girl. I just would not have been that interested in it, and that book made me want to learn more about the that's what's so great about the middle grade book club too is making you wanna learn more. So after I read that, I wanted to learn more. What what does the Thai countryside look like? Why did this happen to these kids? How did they get caught in a cave, and what was the rescue process for them? You know? And and and then there's there's a a death in the book that's painful to read about. You know? It's it was so, so good. So those are 2 that I really loved, but most of them that we've done, I I've really loved in some way, shape, or form, but my favorite thing is getting to hear what the kids think about it.

Alba [00:09:35]:
And do you try to stick to a certain genre?

Ms. Amy [00:09:39]:
I try to bounce around. I really do, but sometimes I get stuck in a rut because I I really like I love suspense. And so the next one that we're getting ready to do, is it okay if I mention it? Because it's not a secret. Is it okay if I tell you what it is? Yeah. So the next one we're getting ready to do, we're taking the month of August off because everybody's in back to school mode. Even I'm thinking about that, but going back to school, and I'm not going back to school. So the next one we're gonna do is in September. So this is gonna give the kids a little bit more time to finish it.

Ms. Amy [00:10:15]:
They'll finish it so quickly. I know they will because I've read it myself. We're gonna do Ground 0 by Alan Gratz for, September. And it's important for us to do that book in September because it is about, the whole horrible national event of of 911. So we're gonna be on an incredible ride for that. There's gonna be 2 simultaneous stories going on in the same at the same time in ground 0 by Alan Gratz, and he is the master of taking 2 story lines or 3 sometimes and marrying them together. And so that, I'm gonna be very excited about discussing with the kids. 911 will have already happened by the time we I mean, the date itself will have already happened by the time we meet.

Ms. Amy [00:11:08]:
We'll meet the weekend after to talk about the book, but I'm hopeful that the kids will once that date happens September 11th and they have been in the book, it'll have a whole different significance for them. That's what my hope is.

Alba [00:11:21]:
And what do you love most about the middle grade book club?

Ms. Amy [00:11:24]:
I used to be a school librarian before I worked here at Wagonals. And so having a group of kids to go through a book with together is so meaningful for me. A lot of my conversations downstairs on a day to day basis are just a one on one conversation with kids and putting it in their hands, the book in their hands. The middle grade book club gives me a chance to be with a group of kids group of kids, 4 to 6th grade. That's my sweet spot. That's the grade that I taught when I was a teacher in that range. So to be able to hang out with kids over a middle grade novel, I just I just love it. I love the time, and I love to hear the laughter.

Ms. Amy [00:12:08]:
I love to hear the laughter, and I love to hear what the kids so we give a rating at the end of of the middle grade book club. Personally, Alba, I know you're a part of it, but I think this is the kids' favorite part of the whole middle grade book club. The hour in which we're spending together is that very end where we're going around and everybody's giving a rating of the book. Yeah. That's that's probably personally my favorite part. Yeah. It's so funny because some of the kids, come up with the longest rating, you know, like a, a 3.194567. Yep.

Ms. Amy [00:12:47]:
And, we just roll. We just roll because we think it's so, so funny.

Alba [00:12:53]:
Do you do any other book clubs other than the middle grade book club?

Ms. Amy [00:12:58]:
I don't. There's a couple reasons why I don't. 1, we have so many fun things going on downstairs that we actually don't have time to have another organized one taking place for, like, a second, 3rd grade. The other thing is it's just like I told you earlier, that really is my sweet spot, the 4 to 6th grade. And the the books, the middle grade novels are so well done. I love reading them just as much as the kids do, so we just don't have enough time in our day to have an additional one for others, other, age groups. We do have our story times, you know, for the younger kids, but, no. We we sadly do not have any other ones.

Ms. Amy [00:13:47]:
Oh, Alba. I just thought of something else. We have a family book club that goes on at at Wagnalls, but it's a little bit different than the middle grade book club. This one is a book that you can check out. It's always a picture book, comes out monthly. It also has a activity packet that goes with it, and those family book club books can be taken home and done in your house, you know, on the couch at night when you get to share a book together as a family. Those are a little bit different than the ones that actually made it at Wagnalls at Middle Grade Book Club. This is a family book club that's sort of a a take and go type of thing.

Alba:
So what's in the family activity packs? 

Ms. Amy [00:14:27]:
I'm so glad you asked that. The activity packs complement the picture book. So let's say the book is, like, this month is Jabari Jumps. It's about a kid that goes to a pool. Everybody's swimming right now. Right? We need to. It's so hot out. So Jabari goes to a pool.

Ms. Amy [00:14:48]:
He's afraid to jump off the high dive, which everybody understands. So the activity packet complements the book. So, for instance, it might encourage a family to go swimming after they read Jabari Jumps. There's all sorts of tie ins to the original picture book that help the family experience the book on a whole different level. Elba, I gotta ask you a question. You're such a great question asker. I've gotta ask you a question. What do you love about the middle grade book club?

Alba [00:15:19]:
I like that you take in the opinions of all the kids and include everybody. And I like that you make sure everybody's participating and included. It's just fun. What's been your favorite book so far? Probably Sweep. You love Sweep too?

Ms. Amy [00:15:37]:
Yeah. It's just it's unforgettable, really.

Alba [00:15:41]:
I really like the ending. I have a fill in the blank for you. Okay. Book clubs are great because? Book

Ms. Amy [00:15:49]:
clubs are great because you are with a community of people that are going through the same book that you are. They're turning the same pages that you're turning. They're experiencing the same thing that you're experiencing. They're on the same roller coaster ride of of an incredible book, but sometimes, they end at a different place. That's how those opinions come up. How that's how those ratings are always different. But that's my favorite thing. That's what I that's why I think book clubs are great because you get to be part of a community of readers.

Alba [00:16:24]:
I think that's all of the questions for now. Thanks again for joining us, miss Amy.

Ms. Amy [00:16:29]:
Alba, I am honored that you asked me to be a part of this. It is so fun for me to talk about books.

Alba [00:16:36]:
Please make sure to check out our other episodes on the Junior Librarians podcast. This is Alba, and thanks for listening. Well, that concludes today's episode. I hope that you enjoyed learning a little more about Wagnalls. Bye bye.