Middle School Book Group - Treasure Hunt & Selection

Out of the Award Lists, with the help of our middle school librarian, I pre-screened to find 10 books, any of which would be excellent reading for this group; books they would like, with characters and situations they could relate to. We also needed quick reads on a 5th/6th grade reading level.

With the 10 books, we had a Treasure Hunt and Book Intro during our 2nd meeting: I gave each student an index card with the title and author of one book, which they went out to find on the shelf in the Media Center. When they came back with their books, I had them each quickly review their book and then we went around the circle and each student introduced their book to the group: the title, the author, and something about what the book was about, from what they could tell looking through it very quickly. I had some additional information on hand to help them out, but they all did really well with this.

After the Book Intros, I had each student vote for three books that they thought might be interesting and they would like to read in the Book Group.

The Winners:

• THE FIRST PART LAST
  by Angela Johnson
• THE WHIPPING BOY
  by Sid Fleischman
  
• MIRACLE'S BOYS
  by Jacqueline Woodson