I just finished reading The Book Club Exploded from LJ’s July issue, and I must say, I’m becoming more and more enamored with the idea of doing a book discussion blog for teens.  The article mentions that book discussion blogs have had “mixed results” in general but seem to be more successful with teens.  I did a search for for teen book blogs on google just to see if I could find some examples.  I managed to locate three so far, but if anyone knows of more, please leave a link in the comments and once I have a good list I can add them to the teenlibwiki.

Seward Memorial Library
Stow-Munroe Falls Public Library
Prairie du Sac Public Library

One of the biggest obstacles in discussion groups with teenagers is trying to get them to feel comfortable enough to speak up and express their thoughts. The anonymity of blogging, forums and chats could help with this type of anxiety.  I imagine both methods have their pros and cons and I think most librarians would a agree that offering both a standard book discussion group and a book discussion blog would be of great value to any teen department.  I just know that many librarians have voiced frustration with the traditional discussion group and in those cases, opting for a book blog might be a good way to gain more interest and reach their teen population.  The examples above reflect a variety of formats and uses for a book discussion blog.  The posts on the Seward Memorial Library blog seem to focus more on book summaries, whereas Prairie du Sac Public Library is much more interactive.  I think I would prefer Prairie du Sac’s method myself, which seems to resemble more of a discussion by using questions to entice readers to respond.