BOUNTIFUL — Adelaide Lavallee left 1st grade behind in June and as summer vacation began, she thought about how she would miss all her school friends, she said. She wanted to keep in touch with her classmates, and soon came up with a way to connect with them through one of her favorite activities: reading.
Adelaide, with a little help from her parents, created a Facebook page for a book club she invented, called “Go Reading.” She posted a video inviting everyone at St. Olaf, from age 7 and up, to post videos of themselves discussing a book they read over the summer.
The rules of the club are simple, Adelaide explained in her video: Students choose a chapter book to read and when they finish part of the book, they post a video about what they thought of it. She read the rules in a serious manner, though she also threw in some explosion noises and dramatic flourishes of her arm throughout for effect.
For students who are unsure of what to read, Adelaide suggested the Junie B. Jones series and the Harry Potter series.
“If you need help finding a book, ask your librarian,” she advised her fellow students.
The Harry Potter series holds some of Adelaide’s favorite books, she said. She enjoys the series “because it’s scary and I like scary books,” she said, giggling. She has read all seven Harry Potter books, and will soon begin reading author J.K. Rowling’s stage play set in the Harry Potter universe, The Cursed Child, said Adelaide, who has been reading since she was 5 years old, she said.
Her club is a great idea because everyone should love reading as much as she does, she said. Just being able to open up a new book and experience a whole different story every time is a big part of why she loves to read, Adelaide said.
Go Reading “is an incredible thing,” said Laurie Jacobs, St. Olaf School principal. “We always like the children to come up with their own ideas. They know more about what they enjoy than the teachers do.”
The book club is a great way to keep kids interested in reading over the summer and has captured the attention of parents and teachers of the school as well, because Adelaide “got all excited (about the club) and the fact that she got excited got our parents excited,” Jacobs said.
The club’s reach spread beyond the St. Olaf community when Lorena Needham, principal of St. Marguerite School, asked for permission to use Adelaide’s video to share the club on her own school’s Facebook page.
Seeing the club make a stir in the Catholic schools’ community creates “a stir in my own heart” as well, Jacobs said.
Nothing is more important than for kids to read, Jacobs said, citing the numerous studies that show how reading positively impacts ACT and standardized test scores.
“[Students have] got to be readers to do well in any part of life,” Jacobs said.
This theory is also held by Amber Hart, St. Olaf’s 5th grade teacher, who created a summer reading program for her own class, tasking them with reading the book Old Yeller. Hart decided to have her students meet over the summer and discuss their book, as well as act out a skit. Clubs work because of their social aspect, Hart said, and that aspect works in clubs like Adelaide’s whether “you’re a hands-on learner or book learner,” Hart said.
Though no videos have yet been posted to Go Reading’s Facebook page, St. Olaf School will encourage students to take part during future summer vacations, Jacobs said.
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