When Hannah Krausz, 12, moved to Powell River with her family last spring from Calgary she was dismayed to discover her new home city had no reading clubs for youth, so she set out to do something about it.
Flash forward to October and Hannah is heading up a reading group for eight homeschooled students like herself at Powell River Public Library.
“We are going to discuss a different book every month,” said Hannah, who has worked on a list of seven books in consultation with other members of the group, with each month taking a different genre, such as humour, mystery, historical and adventure novels.
Young readers in the club, ages 10 to 12, all know each other through the Partners in Education homeschool program and say they look forward to sharing one of their favourite activities with one another.
“It’s fun to discuss what you find funny or good about a book,” said Maya Grace Laramee, 10, one of the members of the group. “If you read a book where a character does something interesting, you want to share that.”
Amongst animated discussion about their current book, Calvin and Hobbes, a compilation of Bill Watterson comics following the misadventures of Calvin and his stuffed tiger Hobbes, the group brainstormed options for making origami-folded paper tigers.
Nicolas Colasanto, 12, joined the club with his sister Isabella, 10, and said he looks forward to teaching the group about baseball, his favourite sport.
According to Nicolas, whether walking in the forest, playing baseball or baking, everything homeschooled students do is a part of learning, including the reading group.
“When you are in homeschool, everything you do is school,” he said, “that means you are always learning.”
According to Sonia Zagwyn, library youth coordinator, interest in the youth reading club has been high, with membership expanding from four to eight members at the first meeting.
“The goal is to get readers into the library and set them on a path of lifelong learning,” said Zagwyn. “Here at the library we’re excited to help facilitate ideas for unconventional, extracurricular learning opportunities.”
The reading group meets the last Friday of the month between 10:30 and noon at the library. For more information on the youth-reading group, or setting up a group of their own, readers can go to powellriverlibrary.ca.
