TEENAGE READING GROUPS

The concept of a group of people reading the same book and then meeting to discuss it has been hugely successful in the UK, where there are an estimated 50,000 reading groups. Recently more have been created that cater for young people and they follow a similar format. Many have found the acronym TRG (Teenage Reading Group) appealing to young people (12–15). There are several things to be taken into account when starting a reading group for young people:

• Age of readers – it is harder to convene a group with wide age gaps
• Promotion of group – groups work best with between 8 and 12 regular members. Eye-catching promotion will be required to bring these members in. They need to be convinced this is not an extra English lesson but a chance to voice their views and feelings with people of their own age
• Venue – as for all reading groups the venue should be private and comfortable. This could be when a library is usually closed if no separate room is available. Some libraries/information centres have cafés and these could also be used
• Facilitator – many groups are self-facilitating but when beginning it is best to have someone who will ensure that the conversation is brought back to the book when it wanders too far
• Frequency of meetings – the usual arrangement is every month but it could vary according to its members' needs. Some groups may decide to meet a certain number of times (perhaps to read a particular list) and then disband
• Length of time for meeting – this depends on the group but the usual time is between an hour and an hour and a half
• Method of choosing books – there needs to be an agreed way of choosing books.

    This could be:
    a) from a short/long list of a literary prize
    b) the group take it in turns to recommend a book
    c) each person recommends a book and these titles are placed in a hat and one is pulled out  

    d) each month two books on one theme are chosen. Half the group read one book, the rest the other. The ensuing discussion compares the differing responses of the readers

    e) readers choose from the enCompass web site. Readers can get recommendations for their age group and reading preference. They can contact the online reader is residence or use the discussion boards to get recommendations or share their views around the world.

It is important that there is freedom to choose any book, regardless of 'literary' merit. It is the response of readers that makes the group work. Don't worry if someone suggests a TV spin-off or a graphic novel (100 are listed on enCompass) - this will just make for a more interesting discussion.

Extras
With younger readers (12–14) it can be useful to introduce quizzes and games to the meetings. Book auctions work well with this age group. Each member has three minutes to champion his or her book to the group. When all the group have had their turn everyone votes on which was the book they'd most like to read.

As an icebreaker with a new group in a library try asking everyone to choose three books from the shelves. One for themselves, one for a friend, and one for someone they hate. Each person then discusses the reasons for their choices.

For further advice see our Reading Group Toolkit.

Books for teenage readers

Use the Reading Compass for teenagers, which is divided into Imaginative, Reality and Pot Luck. We also have a bibliography called TBooks that you can download as a booklist.

Teenage Reading Group activities

Listed here are some ideas specifically for Teenage Reading Groups. We also have Adult Reading Group Ideas and Children's Reading Group Ideas that you might like to adapt.

Can you judge a book by its cover?
A game devised to test how closely people look at covers and blurbs. Take 20 books of all genres, colour copy and enlarge to A4 their covers and laminate for longevity. Next type out the blurb of each book and construct two false blurbs to accompany it. Do this for each of the books (it doesn't take long and you can have fun playing with what is actually on the cover). Do the same for each book. When completed you will have 20 A4 book covers and 20 A4 sheets each with three blurbs written on them. Divide your audience into teams. Hold up each cover in turn. Read out the three blurbs. The teams have to guess which is the correct blurb to go with the cover. This leads to interesting discussion about what each genre expects on their covers and how they hook their readers in with short punchy blurbs.

25 words or less
A game to show the importance of brevity and to widen reading. Each young person involved has to write an enticing description of his or her favourite book onto large postcards. No title or author must be mentioned in the description. Each description is placed on the wall/poster board of the library. The participants must then choose one book (not their own) from the postcard descriptions. Once they have chosen they are given the book. They have to read the book before the next meeting when they can compare their response to the book with the original advocate.

Soundtracks
A game to increase understanding of what different readers get out of different parts of a book. Each participant selects a book they know well. They must then divide the story into separate sections and give each section a soundtrack. The group then compare them. This can work well if all the group (or teams within a group) work on the same novel as well if they all do different books. The aim is to allow the participants to verbalise why different passages need particular types/styles of music to suit what is going on in the story.

Capturing the image
It's always useful to use other art forms when working with readers. For this activity participants look at one or a number of books and then try to capture the feeling of the book through photographs. When a group in England did this they looked at several books that dealt with young women in the transition between childhood and adult. To capture this they photographed a group of teenage girls who used to sit on swings in a public park. The swings were for young children and the resulting image perfectly captured their reluctance (and the novel's characters) to leave the sanctuary of childhood too quickly.

Banned books
This activity is based on a promotion by Opening the Book (a UK-based reader development agency) featured on the website. In this version get participants to research which books have been banned throughout the world, and for what reason. When this list has been prepared allow the participants to decide which books the group should read and try to understand what made authorities decide to deny them to readers.

Book tracking
An idea taken from the Book Crossing website which is a fun way of tracking the reading experience across a city, country or even the world. Why not choose a book, read it and then review it on enCompass and use the webboard to ask other readers from across the world what they think of the book.

Book Pushers

Book Pushers are reading advocates who share their views on books they've read with peers, librarians, publishers and other people interested in supporting teenagers interest in reading. The project gives the young people involved the chance to share their love of reading with others. Book Pushers was started by Derbyshire Libraries. They are groups of 12-15 year olds selected from local schools and/or library reading groups by audition; they are asked to stand up in front of a panel and talk about a book they've enjoyed reading and why. Those selected are given training in public speaking, choosing text to read during performances and communication skills. Through the presentations they are able to influence book selection in libraries, inform publishers which books young people like to read and why and encourage other teenagers to broaden their reading and try new books or genres. The project developed by Derbyshire Libraries and Heritage is managed by Will Newman, Development Manager  e-mail:  will.newman@derbyshire.gov.uk

Promotion

Promotions are used to give people more choice and make them aware of the different possibilities available. Most readers know what they want and go back time and again to their favourite authors, and genres. A reader-centred approach to promotion allows the reader to see many different books that deliver a particular reading experience. Promotion of a variety of titles is hugely important. If we consider music as an example, without exposure to lots of different types and styles we would never know what we were missing. That's not to say that one style or type is better than another, it's just that a wide and varied experience is preferable to one that is narrow.

Promotions should engage readers – a display should provoke debate. Why are certain books in the Fear section? What exactly is 'trouble'? This ensures a less passive relationship with reading than simply looking at the same shelves time and time again.

Promotions highlight certain stock. Books displayed face on will always succeed more than spine out titles. By narrowing the number of books to choose from but still giving lots of choice of styles/genre etc., book choosing becomes more intense and interesting for the reader. Promotions for young people have been successful in using printed promotion such as postcards, pens, and mobile phone stickers as well as the more traditional posters and bookmarks.

Promotions around literary prizes have always proved popular with readers, whether it is the Orange Prize, the Whitbread or the Man Booker Prize (prizes won by books and authors can be used as search criteria within the enCompass site). Now there is the Booktrust Teenage Prize which was launched in 2003. Booktrust also have a website specifically aimed at promoting books to teenagers Bookheads.

12–18-year-olds have their own dedicated section on the enCompass website where they can browse information about a wide range of books categorised under Imagination, Reality and Pot Luck (including the titles included in this guide), they can also chat online with a reader in residence, invited authors, reading groups and other teenage readers around the wrold, read and write  reviews and follow links to related websites.

For a website that has been created by 10–15-year-olds for 10–15-year-olds try Cool Reads.

Another UK site that aims to link young people with reading is Boox. There are lots of features on the site and different ways in which books can be promoted/themed.

Author visits

A visit by an author can be a great asset to a promotion, or a reading group. For information about authors including biographies, bibilographies, and critical reviews try the Contemporary Writers website.  For a comprehensive list of readers' and reading websites on enCompass see Creative Reading Websites, many of which have author information or reviews of their books. Also every book listed on enCompass has related weblinks. You can always use a  a search engine such as Google to see if the author has their own website. If so, most will allow you to e-mail them directly. Otherwise see who is publishing that author and e-mail the publicist at that publisher. They will forward your request to the author.

Case study
Author visits can be used as springboards to wider projects. In West Sussex, England, on World Book Day, a short story was constructed by young people (13- and 14-year-olds) in the space of a day. The method was to use six fiction teams (FT) spread across the county in various library ICT suites. At 9.00 a.m. the first FT (15 young people and one author) were given three potential story openings in sealed envelopes. They chose one and with the author acting as facilitator the FT had 45 minutes to map out the possibilities and then one person had to type the finished page and e-mail it to the next FT. That FT had 45 minutes to download the story, read it out loud to the group and construct the second part of the story. By the time the story reached the sixth FT the pressure was really on to download the story and finish it in time. Once finished the story was sent to a designer who laid out the story and bound it to be presented to all the FTs and their authors at a celebration evening just four hours later.

LINKS TO OTHER READING GROUPS

Using enCompassCulture gives you a good opportunity to link up with Reading Groups around the world to read the same books and then post up your reviews on the site.

The British Council has set up Reading Groups in a number of countries overseas and we plan to set up more, some managed and hosted in British Council offices, and others linked to local universities or schools. As they are set up information will be added here.

Using enCompassCulture you will be able to establish links to other Reading Groups around the world. If you would like to establish a link between a UK Reading Group and one in another country then please contact either the Online Reader in Residence or Juliet Wragge-Morley who will help you to do this. We can set up shared webboard threads for you to discuss a book with a Reading Group elsewhere in the World and then organise an online chat for you to discuss the book or meet the author. Or you can share your impressions about the books you read by adding reviews to the site. To see how you can link your reading group with others around the world take a look at the Africa@21 project that involves six UK library authority Reading Groups and six African countries and their Reading Groups.

To find out about Reading Groups in your region visit Where can I join a Reading Group? and click on the map. There are over 4,000 Reading Groups in the UK and currently we only list ones involved in twinning projects with overseas Reading Groups.

If you live in the UK contact your local public library to find out about Reading Groups in your area. There is a list of libraries with online services on this Library website. We also have a database of Creative Reading Projects in the UK.

There are two main organisations working with Reading Groups in the UK:

The Reading Agency

Opening the Book.