Vancouver Public Library’s Teen Bookclub Experience

The Graphic Novel Bookclub was a summer program designed specifically for teens 16-18 years of age by the Vancouver Public Library in 2004. We provided the books and snacks.

The titles were chosen based upon their enduring popularity: Jimmy Corrigan, Maus, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Watchmen, and Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes. The original intent was to appeal to reluctant male readers, but the vast majority of particpants were female!

Although the program was free, space was limited to 15 participants, so pre-registration was required (I felt anything more than 15 participants wouldn’t be conducive to a good bookclub discussion). Pre-registration could be done by email, phone, or in person; however, all participants who registered still needed to come to our Central Library to pick up the first title in order to read it in time for the first meeting. A bookmark was also handed out to participants, so they new the date we would be discussing each title.

The bookclub took place over 5 Saturdays in July, from 3:30-5:00pm. The Saturday afternoon time slot worked perfectly, and of course snacks were completely devoured! In retrospect, an hour and a half was too long – one hour would have been perfect. Sessions for the bookclub were going to be held in the Board Room on level 7 of the Central Library. This room seemed pretty stuffy though, so in the end we swtiched to a more teen friendly room elsewhere in the library.

The group discussion went very well. I had prepared a list of 20 questions for each title that I could fall back on if necessary, but generally didn’t have to. I really wanted to let them lead the discussion as much as possible, and not have the bookclub feel like a classroom. I did lay down a few ground rules beforehand though, including being respectful of everyone’s opinion.

Often, we’d begin with an open question like, “What did you think?”, and it would go from there, with everybody free to chime in. I didn’t want to limit where the conversation went, and it often went completely off topic! But just when you thought it was time to get things back on track, the conversation would suddenly turn back to the book.

I tried to make sure everyone who wanted to speak got a chance to – it took a while for a few of the participants to feel comfortable talking in a group setting, and in fact one or two hardly said a word the entire time. Oddly, these were the same participants who made a point of thanking me at the end for having a bookclub! They simply wanted somewhere to go, and enjoyed listening to the discussion.

Another benefit of the bookclub, was that it sewed the seeds for our Teen Advisory Group. All the participants were keen to give me feedback on library resources and services to teens. It was a small step to ask them if they wanted to be a part of a TAG, and help plan the next teen program.

Graphic Novel Bookclub Poster