About
What is Book Club Buddies®?
Book Club Buddies® is an online book club specifically aimed at primary school children in order to ignite their passion for reading, whilst also improving their literacy skills. Our book club provides an opportunity for children to have fun exploring, discussing and reading a complete book with a small group. These fun group discussions will be guided by a teacher and will be run weekly over 5 weeks, allowing the children to complete independent reading between sessions.
Although our book clubs are guided by teachers, they are not an extension of school. There are no worksheets or book reviews to complete and no assessments to take. Instead, it is an opportunity for your child to read for pleasure in a small, safe and informal setting so that they learn to read for their own enjoyment, which in turn allows them to grow and develop in so many other ways.
How does it work?
Joining Up
Each half term your child will choose a book from the website and will become part of a book club with a small group of up to 8 children. They will then be sent a pack in the post which includes their own copy of the book. Over the course of 5 weeks the group will read the book together and be part of fun, engaging discussions during a weekly online Zoom meeting.
How it works
Each book club meeting will be 45 minutes long and will involve reading chapters of the book and discussing various aspects such as the plot, characters and vocabulary. The children will be following along using their own copies of the books, and may occasionally participate by reading aloud if they would like to. During the meeting, they will be following or reading from their own hard copy books and not from the screen.
Guided by Teachers
The discussions will be supported and facilitated by a teacher, whose role in each book club is most often determined by the group participating, making sure it both engages and challenges the children. The teacher will pose questions and encourage discussions, whilst also allowing children to express their own views.
What Comes Next?
After each Zoom session the children will be asked to read a few more chapters of the book independently before the next meeting and they will be encouraged to annotate the text as they read. We will begin each session by discussing and answering any questions they may have. If the children are unable to read these chapters, the following week will always begin with a short summary so they don’t miss out!
Who is it for?
Book Club Buddies® is for primary school children.
The reluctant reader
Can your child read but chooses not to? Is there always something else to do? Do they think that reading is boring?
- Our aim – To turn reading from a chore into a choice!
The confident reader
Does your child love to read? Do they choose to read for fun? Do they read every day?
- Our aim – To develop critical thinking and enhance an even greater love of reading in a more social setting.
The confused reader
Can your child read but often finds it hard to explain what they’ve read? Do they find it tricky to answer questions? Do they find comprehensions hard?
- Our aim – To support these readers to gain confidence in discussing a book, developing their reading and comprehension skills and combine reading with thinking and reasoning.