Book a Book Group!

Suggestions for Leading a Book Group Discussion

This is intended as a resource and a rough guide – please feel free to run with your own ideas.  I’m preparing for my summer book group that I’m holding at a local nature center to discuss  Wesley The Owl.  I hope you find this helpful . . .

A.  Before the Discussion

It’s probably a good idea to have the group prepare a little before the discussion – give them a few things to look for and jot down.  You might have them respond to a prompt or two on the inside cover of the book, on a notecard, or on the back of their bookmark.  Some possibilities:

~ Pick three key lines or passages and be ready to explain why they’re important.
~ Write three questions you’d like to discuss at our meeting.
~ Write a sentence explaining what you think is the most important idea from the book.

B.  Book Group Discussion

The actual discussion should last about an hour.  A typical discussion will have three phases:

1. Ice-breakers — Warm up with a review of names and/or introductions if necessary.  It might also help to have participants answer a general question as they say their names – this gets everyone participating immediately and helps break the ice.   Some possibilities: What’s the best movie you’ve seen this summer?  What’s your favorite thing about summertime?  What’s one thing you really are looking forward to senior year?  Where is the coolest place you’ve ever visited?  What is one of your favorite all-time books?  What character from a book you read in school would you most like to go on vacation with?  What character would you most like to “vote off the island” Survivor-style?

2. Starters –  It will probably be helpful to begin actual discussion of the book with a basic starter activity or two.  These activities help focus the group and ensure that everyone responds.  Let the participants recall and review the basic plot events of the book – help them a little if needed, but try to let them provide most of the information.  You might go around the circle and have everyone name a character until you can’t name any more.  You might also have each student give a one-word response to the book or name a moment from the book that really sticks in their mind.

3. General Questions — After the basic questions, the discussion should get a little meatier, with participants analyzing, asking questions, expressing their opinions, and talking about ideas.  As a general rule avoid asking yes/no questions and encourage students to explain single-word answers.  Be sure to allow every participant the opportunity to participate.  As for preparing points and questions to discuss, it’s definitely better to be a little over-prepared than under-prepared.  Better to be left with a few questions you don’t quite have time for than to be scrambling for something to talk about after 20 minutes.  Having 10 to 15 open-ended questions ready to go should probably be enough.

If you’ve asked participants to select key passages or jot down some questions, these should lead to some interesting conversation.

C.  More Discussion Questions

These will keep the conversation going . . .

~ Respond to the book in ten words or less.
~ Which character was your favorite/least favorite?  Why?
~ Which of the characters would you most like to spend a day or a week with? Why?
~ Imagine one of the characters were to enroll at your school – what would happen? What activities would the character be involved with?
What sort of student would the character be?
~ What important decisions did characters in the book make?  Did the make the right decisions?  What could they have done differently?
~ If you were to make a movie of this book, what actors would you pick to play the various parts?
~ What did you like or not like about the ending?  How might the book have ended differently?
~ What did you learn from this book?
~ What makes the book distinctive?
~ Did anything in the book remind you of something else you’ve read or seen?
~ What scene or image from the book will stick in your mind the longest?
~ Did any part of the book make you angry?  Explain why?
~ What part of the book was the funniest?  The saddest?
~ Did you like how the book is written?  Why or why not?
~ Was the book easy for you to understand?  Why or why not?
~ Was the book believable?  Why or why not?
~ On a scale for one to ten, how would you rate this book?  Why?
~ Do you like the title of the book?  What is its significance?  What else might you title the book?
~ Is there anything about the book you didn’t understand or aren’t sure about?
~ Who would you recommend this book to?  Why?
~ What is the author of the book trying to get you to think about?  Why did the author write this book?
~ Is the author trying to persuade you or convince you of something?  Do you agree with the author?
~ If you could meet the author and tell or ask him or her something about the book, what would it be?
~ Would you read another book by this author?  Why or why not?

One final idea:  pull up reviews from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.com.  See if the group agrees with the written reviews.

Happy Reading!!

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