The Book Club

Have you ever had something fit the minute you tried it on? That's the way I felt last night. No, I didn't get a new dress, new shoes or even new jeans. My fit was a brand new Book Club.
There are five of us--all teachers--all lovers of books. We drove up to the new Starbucks in Auburn clutching notebooks, bags of books and datebooks. As we piled out of cars, the chatter was sporatic.
"How've you been?"
"How have the last days of school been for you?"
"When is your last day?"
After grabbing our favorite drinks from the counter we gathered outside--it was so warm--on couches and chairs with a coffee table in front of us. Then the serious business began. We had so much to decide.
We past books. We looked over handouts of book information. We made lists of possible titles. Finally, we made a book pick, figured out a future meeting date and place, and even made a promise to keep our eyes open for future reads.
As we were winding down we talked about personal plans for the rest of the school year and summer. We all loaded into our cars with new dates in our books, addresses to look up on the web and dreams of the newest read to start. As I pulled out of Starbucks, I felt so intelligent, but also so comfortable knowing that my friends would all be reading the same book and then we could talk!
Now, I can't wait to share the experience of a book club with my fourth grade students at Waynedale. They are starting book clubs and I had told them about mine. They had asked, "Why are we going to do book clubs?" My answer: "Because they are so much fun!"
And they are!!!