Introduction: For this book club, I would like for you to consider this text in relationship to To Kill a Mockingbird. I'm not exactly asking you to write a compare and contrast, but I sort of am. If you were to put these two books in conversation with each other, what possibilities open up for literary analysis/scholarship on both texts? 

Before you write: take a moment to read the re-cap of the TKAM book club journals on the LT Updates page on this website. Consider the ways you all thought about approaching a literary analysis of that novel and think about what  For Lamb might allow you to write and think about--perhaps similarly or differently. Remember that I'm asking you to think, write, and talk about the novel as literature. 

To Remind You: There are other places where we will and must talk about all the "noise" that surrounds the genre--stuff about teaching, book banning, publishing. Noise isn't quite right, but you know what I mean. In book club, I'm asking you to treat our readings as literature. It is not always seen so, as you must know. It is not always given the literary treatment of other genres. We've discussed at length how YAL is, for many adults, escapist, pleasure reading. And we've talked about how, in other genres, there is an understood difference between high and low art. But we've resisted that discussion in this genre. And, yet, without saying one is better than the other, we should be able to have a discussion of literary merit. 

Here are the general directions for all book clubs: But, for the purposes of this book club, I am asking you to spend some time writing about the novel as you might for any novel's class you might encounter. I'm essentially asking you to do a close reading of the novel in any manner that strikes you. You'll have time to post that brief and highly informal reflection and then, in a small group in a break out room, talk about those close readings. We'll close out book club with each small group reporting out. 

Note that book clubs are stable groups. That means that after you are put into your groups, you'll be each other's book club partners for the rest of our time together. 

Overview: You may be getting tired of me saying that this class is trying to figure out the "young," the "adult," and the "literature" of young adult literature. Sometimes we will consider these all together--as we should and out of necessity, but, also, sometimes, we will try to focus in on one aspect. 

Book Club is a place to hone in on the "literature" part of YAL. There are other places where we will and must talk about all the "noise" that surrounds the genre--stuff about teaching, book banning, publishing. Noise isn't quite right, but you know what I mean. In book club, I'm asking you to treat our readings as literature. It is not always seen so, as you must know. It is not always given the literary treatment of other genres. We've discussed at length how YAL is, for many adults, escapist, pleasure reading. And we've talked about how, in other genres, there is an understood difference between high and low art. But we've resisted that discussion in this genre. And, yet, without saying one is better than the other, we should be able to have a discussion of literary merit. 

To that end, it might be good to start book club with To Kill a Mockingbird. After its release in 1960, and after being a complete commercial success for Lee, the novel one the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. Interestingly, No literary analysis of TKAM has been published in a literary journal in the last 5 years. Rather, since roughly the early 2000s TKAM is discussed most often as a cultural artifact in the classroom. 

Details: But, for the purposes of this book club, I am asking you to spend some time writing about the novel as you might for any novel's class you might encounter. I'm essentially asking you to do a close reading of the novel in any manner that strikes you. You'll have time to post that brief and highly informal reflection and then, in a small group in a break out room, talk about those close readings. We'll close out book club with each small group reporting out. 

Note that book clubs are stable groups. That means that after you are put into your groups, you'll be each other's book club partners for the rest of our time together.