We were lucky to catch up with the Student Leadership Team of Durham Book Club recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Durham Book Club thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
As members of the Student Leadership Team, the most meaningful project that we have worked on is definitely Durham Book Club as a whole. To reach out to middle school students and create a safe space for anyone and everyone to enjoy reading means a lot to us, because Durham Book Club is more than just any book club. It’s a community. We enjoy bringing middle school students together through reading who wouldn’t otherwise make these connections. Books are powerful tools, and we want to use that to help people realize that they belong. Durham Book Club is a great way for 5th-8th graders to read all kinds of different books and learn more about themselves and their community.
One of the best projects that we, as Student Leaders, have worked on is organizing author meet-and-greets. Meeting authors is always memorable, and we learn so much from them every time. To see how excited the middle school members of Durham Book Club are to meet their favorite authors is such a joyful experience. It means a lot to see how we can do great things, not despite of but because of our age, since the world often overlooks kids’ ideas and thoughts. Having authors genuinely enthusiastic about our book club and treating us like the people that we are is such a meaningful experience.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Durham Book Club is a really special student-led group here in Durham. Our mission is to unite all of Durham’s middle school students through the power of reading. Run by us, the Student Leadership Team, Durham Book Club is a summer reading program that runs every year from April through July. Together, hundreds of middle school students receive and read one book each month, get together at any of Durham’s regional libraries, talk about the books, meet the authors of each book, and participate in a book-related game, activity, or challenge (that we, the Student Leadership Team created!). We partner with Durham schools, libraries, businesses, bookstores, and museums to bring the community to distribute the books, make really fun games and challenges, and just learn a whole lot about collaboration. Our fearless mentor, Stephanie Mulligan, is a former book publishing professional and children’s librarian, and she helps us with these connections by reading our email drafts and reminding us of deadlines!
It all started back in the summer of 2020 when the world was grappling with COVID. StrongHER TogetHER, a non-profit in Durham, was working to engage older girls in the program during Zoom sessions, and one of the students suggested they all read The Girl Who Drank the Moon. This sparked an interest for the girls of StrongHER TogetHER – many of them hadn’t been a part of a book club before. It didn’t stop there, though. The idea grew, and we got support from the DPS Foundation and the Durham Housing Authority. We worked hard to secure funds and even had virtual author sessions. During those first two years, we gave out books through the DPS food distribution car lines, and we even set up small libraries in some of the places managed by the Durham Housing Authority.
In the fall of 2021, as the pandemic eased, we partnered with our school staff, specifically the librarians and media specialists, strengthening our efforts to communicate to students and distribute the books. We were excited to also open Durham Book Club to all middle school students, regardless of gender. It was at this same time that the Student Leadership Team was officially formed when middle school book enthusiasts were invited to work together to select the four books that would be read by all Durham Book Club participants in the summer of 2022. This group of dedicated middle school students has stuck together and grown year by year.
So why did we join the Student Leadership Team? Well, it’s just really cool to work with others, especially when it’s about books. We get to share our thoughts and ideas without worrying if people will like them, and we create things together. It’s a pretty awesome feeling. Every week in our virtual meetings, we plan everything from picking the books to running the author meetings and book discussions and coming up with all those fun book-related games in the summer. We also manage the website and handle marketing and fundraising!
It all began with just one student’s idea, and now it’s turned into a big thing with the support of our amazing Bull City community. Durham Book Club shows how reading can bring people together when we all work as a team.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
One of the goals of Durham Book Club is to encourage interest in reading among middle school students. We really like to make reading an enjoyable experience for everyone. We also hope to make books more accessible to all kids in Durham, which is why our book club is completely free to anyone who wants to join. When you sign up to join our “reading season,” which is April through July each year, you get to choose and receive the books you want to read with us, which we distribute through school and public libraries.
But the true mission of Durham Book Club is to bring people together through the power of shared stories. We’re not only passionate about providing middle school students with the opportunity to read; we also prioritize the importance of diversity, inclusivity, and making connections among students from various backgrounds and ethnicities. By bringing together kids from different schools, we create a space where they can meet new friends and expand their horizons. This aspect of our mission is essential, as it allows students to interact with peers they might not otherwise have the chance to meet.
As members of the Student Leadership Team, we’re particularly excited for the collaborative aspect of our mission. Working with others is not only cool but also really rewarding. It’s a space where we can participate in book-themed activities, share details about books, and exchange ideas without the fear of our contributions being rejected. We really love the opportunity to design and create alongside our peers; we have truly created a sense of belonging and camaraderie within the Student Leadership Team
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a student leader?
The most rewarding aspect of being a student leader is seeing it all pay off when April comes. After months of work choosing books and planning activities, we finally get to put our plans into motion! Seeing kids our age genuinely enjoy the things we’ve put together is pretty awesome, and it’s like a pat on the back that makes us feel really good about what we’re doing.
We love coming up with questions to ask authors, and getting answers for them always feels like some sort of special insider knowledge, especially since the authors are always so nice to us! Being able to talk to the people we admire and are inspired by is such an amazing experience.
We have made so many friends through Durham Book Club, and helping to make those connections with other people is so rewarding. None of the Student Leadership Team knew each other before we started working together, but Durham Book Club has brought us all together and we are all the better for it!
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Our journey as Student Leaders with Durham Book Club has shown us what it means to be resilient. This group is more than just a bunch of middle school students; we’re a true team. We rely on each other, and there’s complete trust among us. We’ve had the chance to collaborate with adults from schools, libraries, and a lot of other local organizations, and it’s been a remarkable experience.
We’ve gone the extra mile to promote Durham Book Club and make it accessible to as many students as possible. We’ve distributed books, organized and led book discussions at public libraries, interviewed authors, and even embarked on some pretty unique projects. One of our coolest projects was creating a puzzle about the Durham fire of 1914. We teamed up with the Museum of Durham History and an expert Durham historian, Jim Wise, for this challenge. The puzzle was designed to match the style of the one featured in the book we were reading that month, The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson.
But we’re not all business. We like to have fun, too! We all have a good sense of humor and don’t take offense easily. We’re friends who genuinely care about each other, and that’s what keeps us going. When faced with a tough task, whether it’s big or time-consuming, we don’t shy away. We know we need to step up for our friends, and that’s what keeps our resilience alive. We don’t back down from a challenge. Instead, we face it together with determination and a sense of unity.
Contact Info:
- Website: durhambookclub.org
- Instagram: @durhambookclub