Middle School Book Club
Welcome to the 2021-2022 year of the Middle School Book Club at Saint Ignatius! We are very excited to meet with your children in person this year. As Book Club leaders, we would like to share with you a bit about the program’s structure, goals, and the themes we will be exploring.
This year, the Middle School Book Club will meet on Friday evenings from 6:30 to 7:30 pm in the Lannon Chapel. This location will allow for social distancing when necessary. Below are the dates when meetings will take place.
The following COVID-19 safety practices will be followed:
masks covering the face and nose will be required during our gatherings,
social distancing will be practiced during the meal time when masks can be removed (approx. the first 15 minutes of the meeting), and
hand sanitizer will be provided.
To keep our community safe and healthy, please keep your child at home should they not be feeling well.
As part of community-building, we will begin the meeting with a shared meal (typically pizza) to provide the group with the opportunity to socialize and get settled. Our meal will be followed by a focused discussion on a book that they will have read prior to the meeting through the perspective of their faith. Discussions are led by high school students who have participated in the program previously; this year, we will have a college student as well.
Our goals for the program are threefold: to provide opportunities for students in our faith community to get to know one another; to cultivate a space for peer-based reflection, thought-provoking dialogue, and understanding of different perspectives as they relate to important social issues; and to offer structured opportunities for high school and middle school students in our community to connect and to learn from one another.
We have designed the program’s sessions to be framed by the Catholic Social Teaching Principles; each session will cover a separate teaching. As you’ll see in the Google Slides, we have included two book options that correspond to each of the teachings (due to timing, the themes of Rights & Responsibilities and Dignity of Work and Rights of Workers have been combined).
Catholic Social Justice Teachings:
Life and Dignity of the Human Person
Rights and Responsibilities & Dignity of Work and Rights of Workers
Call to Family, Community and Participation
Option for the Poor and Vulnerable
Care for God's Creation
Some of the themes we will be exploring together include: friendship, immigration, displacement, gender discrimination, racism, social isolation, labor, poverty, care for the environment, among others. Once the students have decided on the book selections, we will share the full list of titles.
In developing this list of books, our research involved consulting with others in our community, considering previous book club lists, and reading numerous informed reviews. We sought to balance age appropriateness in content with subjects that will encourage students to think deeply and independently while discussing challenging issues in the context of their peers. If you feel that any content, theme, or issue discussed may be of concern or upsetting to your child, please know that they do not have to read the book or attend book club that particular month. If you have any concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out at any time during the year to either of us or to Andrea Miller.
Finally, at the November meeting, in addition to the book selection, we will review expectations and goals with the students.
We look forward to a stimulating and fun year together!
Middle School Book Club Coordinators:
Dalia Habib Linssen
Past Book Club Reading Lists
The reading list for 2018-2019 was:
Refugee by Alan Gratz
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
Illegal by Eoin Colfer
Lily and Dunkin by D. Gephart
A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park
Wishtree by Katherine Applegate
Hate List by Jennifer Brown