We’ve never had a great deal of success with teen book clubs at our library.  Nowadays we usually just try to incorporate books into whatever program we’re doing at the time.  So I was paying very close attention to the YALSA BOOK listserve last week which was practically on fire with all sorts of creative ideas for book clubs.  One in particular caught my eye,  the Missing Ending Book Club. 

 The Missing Ending Book Club idea originated with the Weld County Library in Greely, Colorado.  After viewing their presentation at a conference, Janet Good of North Branch Summit County Library was insipired enough to start her own.  Janet explained the concept of the book club in a recent write-up in her local newspaper:

“Each reader gets a book with a twist:  the final pages stapled off!  At club meetings, readers tell how they would end the story, and then find out the author’s take.  Besides the joy of exercising his or her creativity, the reader with the best guess gets a prize.”

Janet also includes related snacks and crafts during the program, depending on what book is being read.  When their club read The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp by Rick Yancey, the groups craft was to make a sort of self-made coat of arms shield.  The snack was mini corn dogs and Coke because that was the first meal the main character Alfred introduced the knight to in the book.  She also hands out candy to anyone who guesses the ending of the book correctly.  ”I used gold-wrapped chocolate coins that meeting.  The prize for the best guess as to the ending of the story was a DVD of Camelot.”

The model of the Missing Ending Book Club can be adapted using a variety of different books.  Mysterious would obviously be the easiest genre but any book with a twist at the end will do.  If you want to make the program more for older teens then maybe something like What happened to Cass McBride by Gail Giles or Tyrell by Coe Booth would work.  At any rate, it’s a fantastic way to jazz up a book club and help teens get a little more excited about reading.

For more information about creating successful teen book clubs, try The Teen Centered Book Club: Readers into Leaders by Bonnie Kunzel and Constance Hardesty.

*The information/quotes about the Missing Ending Book Club at the North Branch Summit Library was taken from Janet Good’s email to the YALSA listserve, with her permission.  Thank you Janet. :-)