Pause and Ponder

What 10 year old would read a book someone else chose, finish it within a month, and then skip recess to talk about it? In my schools, there are a lot! When I came up with the idea of an elementary book club, I wasn't sure if there would be interest. First of all, I was going to choose the book for the group to read. Students would need to read the book on their own time and finish it by a certain date. And, they would need to skip recess to meet and talk about it. I was surprised last year by the response to my idea. Students couldn't wait to be in book club. I was overwhelmed by the  number of students who wanted to be part of this, and actually had to draw names. If students had their own copy of the book, they were able to join the group. The size of the book club was limited to the number of copies I had ... which happened to be 12. I kept track of who was in the book club, so I could make sure all those who were interested had the opportunity to participate at least o