A small group of Upper School students had taken time from their lunch period to gather in a circle in a conference room in the school library.  Seniors Laura Donohue and Jake Karr were counseling ninth grader Willa Rubin and sophomore Conor Heins about the horrors of the college application process and the travails of coming up with a good essay.  But this wasn't a peer advisement session, it was a meeting of the weekly book club started by librarian Larry Williams, an informal group of six to twelve students who like to hang out and discuss what books they're reading.

 

Larry, lining up a row of young adult books along a window sill--donations to the club by one of the members' mothers who works in the book industry--called the meeting to order. The students each took a turn to talk about their current book and whether they recommended it.

 

"The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela."

 

"A book on women's roles in society that Valarie Alston gave me to read for my independent study with her. It's great.  I'm also about to read The Vagina Monologues."

 

"On the Road."

 

"Watchmen."

 

"I can't wait 'til that movie comes out!"

 

"Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. It's hilarious."

 

"The Uncensored History of Rock."

 

"Bridget Jones's Diary."

 

The titles were probably a typical smattering of books that interest teens, although Larry says they sometimes tackle more difficult material as a group.  Over the summer Jake Karr recommended that they all read James Joyce's short story Dubliners so they could discuss it together this fall.  "Now they want to do a book together," said Larry.  He also gives the students optional assignments on occasion such as his challenge to have them write a novel in 6 words or less.  It was partly a reasonto discuss Hemingway and Fitzgerald by way of the latter's supposed challenge to the other.  Hemingway's haunting 6-word response was For sale: baby shoes. Never used.  "You can read a whole novel into that," explained Larry.  "There was a couple, they got married, they had a baby, the baby died."

 

His latest assignment for the club was for the students to answer the question what one book would you want Barack Obama to read before he's inaugurated as President?  Larry's own response is Michael Harrington's The Other America, a landmark book about poverty in the United States.  "I think America is at a crossroads now," he said.  "We need to put fire to the President's feet, even if the president had been John McCain."

 

On January 26, 2009 the club will also have its first official field trip when they go hear author Neil McKenna read from his biography The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde.

 

Larry bemoaned the fact that being a school librarian is like being a very public figure in a small pond, and that his responsibilities go well beyond the stereotypes of straightening books and obsessing over the Dewey Decimal System.    "Being a librarian you have to juggle so many constituencies," he said.  "An anxious parent calls to make sure her daughter picked up the book she needed to write a paper that's due tomorrow. A student needs to meet a tutor in the library at 6pm but the library closes at 5."  He's a popular figure with the students, some of whom seek refuge in the library during their busy days, making him part guidance counselor, part teacher and part big brother.   This is especially true for students who like to read.  "It's really exciting to talk to kids about books. It keeps them excited about reading," he said.  "A lot of kids want to talk to me about books but I don't always have time while I'm working so I figured every seven days we'd get together." 

 

Larry hopes the club's membership grows.  For the Obama question he intends to buy the books the students recommend as well as put them on display in the Upper School to help promote not just the club and not just political awareness but the virtues of the library itself.  He mentioned that a friend recently commented to him that teenagers nowadays don't want to read unless it glows, a reference to computer screens.  "This club is a bulwark against that," said Larry.  "Old-fashioned reading saved me as a kid."