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Book Club Pot Luck | September 22, 2014

by Catherine Laudone (Editorial Assistant, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

A look at the ECC Board’s first summer book club (NO SPOILERS: GUARANTEED)

Back in June, the ECC decided to host a summer book club for its board members. Each board member pitched a book that they had worked on at their respective houses and/or were most excited to share. The books spanned a wide range of ages and genres, including literary and commercial young adult, quirky middle grade, and fantasy. Everyone voted anonymously for their favorite pick, and the winner was The Riverman by Aaron Starmer, a middle-grade novel published in March 2014 by Macmillan. Check out a full review of The Riverman here.

Each member received a complimentary copy of the book to read. The board members convened for their book club one evening in July after work, and everyone brought a dish for the potluck dinner. Instead of charging someone to lead the discussion, the members selected a conversation topic and let the discussion flow organically from there. The first topic addressed was the cliffhanger ending (don’t worry, there are no spoilers here). Some people felt that the action at the end unfolded too fast, making it difficult to understand exactly what was happening. Others argued that the cliffhanger ending was their favorite part of the story. One board member asked if everyone had read the book knowing that it was the first in a planned series, a question which received a mixed response. Many of the members had read the book as if it was a stand-alone novel, and the rest had looked the book up online and knew that it was the first in a series before they began reading. As one might expect, the discussion then shifted to whether people had changed their minds and liked the cliffhanger ending better, now that they knew it was the first book in a series.

During the next hour and a half, the conversation covered a number of other topics, such as whether people could relate to the main characters, Alistair and Fiona; the accelerated passage of time in Aquavania; the roles and believability of minor characters; and the author’s choices when it came to formatting and opening the story. While individual board members’ opinions varied depending on the topic or question being discussed, everyone agreed that they had enjoyed the book overall. At the end of the night, the board members unanimously voted to plan another potluck/book club for next summer, since the first one was such a success.

 

Gather a few kid lit lovers and have a Book Club Pot Luck of your own! Questions on how to get started? Email us!