What would happen if the thousands of book clubs across the country...
... paired up with the thousands of people in the trenches of literary warfare, the people who daily struggle to bring the power of books to those who need that power most?
Book Club Works gives book clubs and literacy activists a place to find each other, adopt each other, and make a difference.
There are no rules, no programs. Simply one book club finding one literacy worker and using their passion and knowledge of literature to get great books into needy hands.
The primary purpose of Book Club Works is get books -- used or new -- to the people who need them. But many adoption pairs may find themselves expanding their relationships, including notes and letters, pictures, even establishing a joint book discussion once in a while. The relationship you develop with your book club or literacy worker is up to you.
For book clubs, joining Book Club Works means harnessing the passion, wisdom, and resources of thousands of small book clubs in an altruistic mission for which book clubs are uniquely qualified.
It adds an independent activist and philanthropic component to the intellectual and social aspects of our book clubs. It means we can DO something, here and now. Something that’s fun, flexible, and cheap. Something that changes lives.
• Any book club can join, even online clubs, even if it's just you and your daughter reading together. Individuals may join, just be sure you're able to take on the commitment. Most lit-workers need a minimum of a box of 30 books a couple times a year.
For teachers and other literacy activists, it means working with an enthusiastic, knowledgeable book club to get wonderful books into your hands so that you can use them, without any bureaucratic snarles, for the people you know need them most. It means knowing there is a reading group who cares and believes in your work.
• Any teacher, literacy worker or volunteer can join. As long as you struggle to get and keep enough books for those you help.
Just a few of the literacy activists who desperately need books and a book club adoption.
- tribal teachers
- group homes
- homeless shelters
- battered womens' shelters
- juvenile detention centers
- inner city teachers
- disaster relief activists/librarians
- prison educators
- English as second language tutors and teachers
At its heart, Book Club Works demonstrates our belief that stories transform, that through books we can cope, dream, and transcend. Again and again studies show that the most consistent marker of how well students do in school correlates to the number of books read in their homes.
America’s thousands of book club members — with their passion for literature and their independence — are a powerhouse of resources for literature-deprived kids and adults. Book Club Works gives book clubs a vehicle to demonstrate and spread their love of literature and belief in its transforming power into the worlds of those in need.
How it works.
Book Club Works is based on an adoption model. We simply help each group find the other and step out of the way.
- Join Book Club Works by filling out the online form.
- Log-in and start searching for a match.
- Contact potential matches by their listed emails.
- Start a discussion with your match, find out what they need or can provide. Work out the details with your match and start sending books.
- Once you’ve found a match, update your profile to mark yourself or club as taken.
For book collecting ideas, go to stories.
For a glimpse into the kinds of literacy activists who need help go to facts.
