York Suburban’s Book Club not only discusses chosen novels throughout the course of the year, but also reads to two classfulls of Valley View students after school. That’s a lot of squirming, noisy children to amuse.
Book Club members sometimes suffer the teasing of being in a relatively “nerdy” group, but for what reason? These students decide to tackle their daily student workload, read novels to analyze and discuss at meetings, balance social lives, and read to children, all willingly and without complaint. It seems that these students should be commended, not teased. Coercing any high school student into not only reading to children, but enjoying the social interaction with people much younger than them seems almost impossible nowadays. Book club member and junior, Nicole Bega said, “I love it. I leave the sessions thinking, oh, I did such a nice thing.” Why discourage it?
Furthermore, from the reviews Mrs. Kim receives after every Valley View Reading, the readings seem to go very well. Several Valley View students have graciously complimented their readers and so have the teachers present for the event. Book club member, Nicole Bega said, “Oh my god, they love it [the reading]. They are the cutest things. They ask if we’re going to come back.” The Valley View students genuinely enjoy the reading sessions and the high school students enjoy being complimented for their narration skills.
In fact, the next reading at Valley View was on Wednesday, February 6th, some students brought in their own childrens’ books from their personal libraries to read to the children. It was an interesting experience: a high school student reading a cherished book once read to them, now reading to a young child. Librarian and book club advisor, Linda Kim, said that, “I went into just one [classroom] and I think they [book club members] did very well. I don’t think the students even noticed me.” The Book Club hopes the young students at Valley View enjoyed these books as much as the Book Club members once enjoyed them.