Book Clubs for the Chattering Classes(1-12, That Is)

Like many authors today, Yee likes meeting her young readers and interacting with kids on her Web site. She even posts book-club discussion questions, including some for “Millicent Min, Girl Genius” from a mothers-and-daughters group called the Mad Hatters. (Among the questions: “If you were a genius, would you tell your first 'real' friend immediately, or would you wait a while?”)

And where videogames and electronics “bring on social isolation for kids,” says Judy Gelman, coauthor of “The Kids' Book Club Book,” “book groups are a place to connect. It's a place to find other kids who love reading.” Ann Martin, who won a Newbery Honor for “A Corner of the Universe,” agrees. "It's a great thing to be able to bond over.” Book groups also help kids “develop critical thinking” and “critical points of view,” she says. Many teen groups choose Laurie Halse Anderson's “Speak,” which leads to talk about date rape. Another popular choice: “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which crosses over generations and raises discussions about racism and tolerance, says Gelman. Many mother-daughter book groups choose Avi's “The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle,” which leads to discussions about independence and relationships.

Getting a list of school questions about a book “takes some of the fun out of the reading,” says Heidi Stemple, who writes books like “Dear Mother, Dear Daughter” with her mother, the highly respected children’s book author Jane Yolen. In school, kids tend to read a chapter at a time and answer questions. Yolen remembers her granddaughter, Maddison, now 12, saying she wanted to just read the book rather than put it down and discuss it after each chapter. “Sometimes in school discussions, they want to stop you at the word level, talk about the grammar, talk about the alliteration,” says Yolen. “The child is saying, 'I just want to read the next chapter'.”

Kids' book groups are getting a boost from the “Today” show’s Al Roker, who will announce four new titles on his new kids’ book club this summer. A month after he tells viewers about his next choice, he will invite the author to discuss the book with him and some kids. Of course, parents are more likely than their kids to watch that show. “I don't know who Al Roker is,” says McGrath, the 9-year-old. But many kids do know Selznick, Roker's first author, who will appear on “Today” on May 18 to answer questions from kids. Like other children's authors, Selznick, 40, wishes book groups for kids existed when he was younger. “Oh, my God, that would have been really wonderful,” he says. He would have loved to discuss his favorites, like “The Borrowers.” He recalls “being really obsessed with the book and thinking it was a true story and there really were little people living under the floorboards of the house.”

Some well-known authors now visit with kids' book groups—in homes or schools, over the phone or over the Internet. For the past five years, Kimberly Willis Holt, author of “When Zachary Beaver Comes to Town” and “My Louisiana Sky,” has dialed in to book groups for a half-hour discussion. She curls up in her pajamas while the kids put her on speakerphone and ask questions about the inspiration for her tales and about certain plot points. Some kids love online book groups, though they're “less intimate than an actual book club,” notes Newbery Honor author Martin, who also writes “The Baby-Sitters Club” and “Main Street” series. (And online book groups don't include food!) Still, Martin likes book groups so much that she is making them the centerpiece of the fifth book in her new “Main Street” series. Tentatively titled “The Secret Book Club” (with a 2008 publishing date), it will deal with four friends who anonymously receive packages containing the same two books—“The Saturdays” and “Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH,” two of her own favorites.

Book groups come in many shapes and sizes. Some use adult facilitators; others are for moms and daughters or dads and sons. Some meet in temples, others at Brownie troop meetings and bookstores. Many gather in homes at night or in school at the end of the day.  Book groups are also popular with home-schooled kids. Teen librarian Elise Sheppard runs the Friday Classic Book Club for Homeschooled Teens in Cypress, Texas, once a month on Fridays at the Harris County Public Library. On Sunday afternoons, she serves as the moderator for the Contemporary Book Club for Teens for ages 12 to 18. “They feel comfortable sitting with strangers, without their parents, discussing all these issues, not having to agree, not getting a grade, not getting judged,” says Sheppard.