Opening Up the Book Club in Time of Lockdown
A book club in Bengaluru for children between the ages of 9 and 13 was started about three years ago. The pattern has been that each month one of the members would choose a book a few weeks in advance and the other members would have a chance to read the book and come prepared for a discussion and an activity related to that book. Typically the child who chose the book would lead the whole event including choosing the next ‘host’. It would be hosted in one of the homes of the children and sharing food and fun were an integral part of the whole happening. Most of the children had been or continue to be homeschoolers and the levels of reading and engagement with books were high. One of the distinctive features of this Children’s Book Club is that it is driven largely by the children’s own energy and initiative. There is an adult moderator in the background and parents do support the children to engage with the different books as needed but there is a kind of expectation of democratic participation and decision making.
In March I was invited by Sreeja Nambiar (the initiator and visionary behind the book club which from the beginning has been strongly supported by a group of enthusiastic moms) to be “a mystery guest” and to select a book that would hopefully enthuse the children. Books that had already been discussed included Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo, Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein, Dear Aunty by Nandini Nayar, Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke and The Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson.
The first challenge was to select a book that would appeal across ages and interests. After some thought I sent a list of six books and asked the children to choose one. These included Book Uncle and Me by Uma Krishnaswami, Farmer Giles of Ham by J.R. Tolkien and Wonder by R.J. Palacio but the book that was selected was I was a Rat or The Scarlet Slippers by Philip Pullman.[i]
By the end of March it was clear that we would have to rethink how the Book Club could be sustained at a time of restricted movement and limited meetings. How could it reinvent itself from being a live interaction to an online session? I was intimidated by my own sense of being technologically challenged! I wanted the children to continue to take a lead as they were accustomed to and yet felt a responsibility to provide some sort of structure that would maximize children’s participation. I found it difficult to imagine how it would play out.
Soon after the book was chosen the lockdown happened and the first challenge to be faced was the fact that most children did not have the book! It was not as complicated as I feared to record and send a chapter every day and the book was just 125 pages so we finished it over a period of two weeks. The children were keen to know what happened next so we accelerated the pace of reading but hearing a story and having the book in your hands are two very different things!
The book has elements of humour, adventure and nonsense with a number of memorable and outrageous characters but also a serious side with an underlying critique of authority in its different forms: school, the bureaucracy, the police, the courts, the welfare system and the class system itself. The main text is frequently interspersed with scurrilous excerpts from the local rag of a newspaper called “The Daily Scourge” and Pullman masterfully mocks at the penchant for panic inducing ‘breaking news’.
The narrative is a fractured version of the fairytale Cinderella as the hero of the book, Roger was a rat until he was magically transformed into a page boy when he accompanied Mary Jane to a ball where she met Prince Richard and her life as a cook was forever changed. Roger’s life was also dramatically changed as he somehow remained a boy albeit with some residual rodent habits! The fairy tale element continues through the book but it is balanced by the earthy, heart-warming response of the honest couple who adopt “the rat boy” as their own. The story concludes touchingly with the words, “The world outside was a difficult place, but toasted cheese and love and craftsmanship would do to keep them safe.”
The next question was how to discuss the book in distance mode. A week before the day we were to meet we sent a choice of activities so that the children could prepare something ahead of the meeting and have something in hand to share. Amongst the suggested activities were the following:
Tapscrew is a fraud. He runs ‘a freak’ show but all his exhibits are actually fakes – the mermaid, the bearded woman, the snake woman and the rat boy. Below is the poster that was made about Roger the supposed “rat boy”.[ii]
Imagine another freak that Mr. and Mrs. Tapscrew might think up and make up a poster to promote the show.
Below are three examples of the children’s work.
In this story, an animal becomes a person but in many fairy stories, people are often transformed into birds or animals through a spell.
Imagine yourself turning into an animal or bird and write about what you could or couldn’t do. How would you change back to your normal self?
The children had all kinds of ideas about what they could or couldn’t do if they turned into a panda, a dog, a cheetah to mention just a few of the animals they imagined becoming.
“The Daily Scourge” always writes sensational and exaggerated stories to get more readers. Design the front page of a newspaper that is telling the story of someone or something you know or an event that happened to you that is made into “a news breaking story”. Make it as dramatic as you can.
See the samples below that Philip Pullman included in the book.[iii]
Here are two very different responses:
Draw an artist’s impression of the ‘monster of the sewers’ for “The Daily Scourge”.
A time was fixed for the “hangout chat” and it was with some trepidation that I had my first encounter with such a kind of exchange. Fortunately, as can be seen from the samples above, most of the children had done more than one of the activities and were eager to share their creations. Without exception these were amusing and original and all enjoyed the surprises of freak show posters, newspaper texts and images.
We had prepared various questions but this kind of forum did not lend itself easily to take the discussion very far as it was often difficult to hear each other and we got into a mode of children taking turns but not interacting with each other or building on what someone else said. It was good to hear the different responses to some of the villains of the story and possibly with more familiarity with this mode of discussion things could become more dynamic and engaging. In hindsight I think it would have been wiser to give at least some of the questions in advance and then ask children to add on to each others’ comments.
Questions could have been devised so that each one had something particular to share such as individual members could have chosen a character from the book and describe their part in the plot. Another point of discussion might have been to ask the children to share at what point in hearing the story they made a connection with the traditional story of Cinderella. This question would have provided an opportunity for children to compare their reading/listening experiences.
Some probing questions that might have elicited a range of responses would have been ‘Do you think this is a book for readers of all ages?’ or ‘Was Roger ever naughty on purpose?’ or ‘How was this story different from other stories you have read?’ I think giving the children a chance to reflect on some of the issues before the meeting would have enriched the discussion. It might have helped to ask questions that called for a personal response and not just a recall of facts. This would be true of any discussion but even more vital for an online exchange which might not be so spirited.
Altogether the “hangout” lasted for nearly one and a half hours and I must admit that I was exhausted by the end with the effort to listen to each one. The best part was undoubtedly the sharing of the children’s creations but we all missed the eye to eye contact of a live encounter and a sense of atmosphere that is difficult to conjure up through the veil of a screen online interaction. The children said that they had sorely missed the food though they had clearly enjoyed the chance to be in some form of virtual touch with each other.
[i] Pullman P., 1999. I Was a Rat or The Scarlet Slippers. London: Penguin Random House.
[ii] Ibid. p.76.
[iii] Ibid. pp. 121, 132.