Some children’s bookstores are legendary–and one of them is Saint Paul, Minnesota’s Red Balloon Book Shop which recently began an instore book group (called Chapter and Verse) that would be worth moving to Minnesota for!

Perhaps the only thing more fun than reading a good book is reading a good book that transcends all age categories–and then talking about it. It has always seemed peculiar that more book groups have not been formed for adults who love children’s literature–we at PaperTigers hosted an online bookgroup, The Tiger’s Choice, during 2008 for just that purpose, but the intimacy of a book group does not translate quite so effectively to cyberspace.

On the other hand, bookstores are the perfect venue for book groups. You know, when you go to a book group at your favorite bookstore, that you will have something in common with the other participants–you all love to read and you all love the same bookstore!

When I was pregnant with my first son in Fairbanks, Alaska, I began to rediscover the delights of a well-written children’s book, and was sure that I was the only adult who still frequented the young readers’ bookshelves of my local library. One evening a friend and I were chatting about what we’d read when Georgianna lowered her voice and confessed, “I read children’s books.” Suddenly we were a two-person book group, happily discussing A Wrinkle in Time and Harriet the Spy.

It’s so wonderful to know that children’s literature readers no longer feel clandestine and have places as congenial as the Red Balloon Bookshop to host their discussions! If you’ve been lucky enough to be a member of this group, please tell us about it–if you have another favorite bookshop that provides this opportunity, do let us know. And to Chapter and Verse at the Red Balloon–we’re on our way!

The latest Tiger’s Choice, Naming Maya, by Uma Krishnaswami, is a response to the Books at Bedtime Reading Challenge that was extended to all readers of PaperTigers. Thanks to Marjorie for giving us all a chance to read our way through different countries and cultures–this challenge opens up a whole new reading adventure for those of us who choose to take it.

As Naming Maya unfolds, many of its readers are presented with a new country, new codes of behavior, new flavors, smells, and daily landscapes. The taste of “honey and chili powder” mingled on the tongue, milk delivered by bringing a cow to a doorstep and milking it in view of the person who is soon to drink it, listening to the call of a brain-fever bird, seeing a tree that is adorned with flowers, coins, and a statue of ” the plump, cheery elephant-headed god, Ganesha,” these things are all vividly described and give a glimpse of Chennai, India.

Or it does for me. How about you? As you read, do you see Maya’s new world, and experience her confusion? Do the differing values of her mother’s home country that frustrate this New Jersey girl become clear as the book progresses? And is memory a gift or a curse?

As the Tiger’s Bookshelf progresses on its own adventure of searching for readers who will take part in our online book group, the question persists of how do non-virtual, more conventional book groups solve the dilemma of having members take voice in their group discussions? If you belong to a book group that has found solutions to the silence, please let us know! How do you entice the shyest, least confident members to voice their opinions and express their thoughts?

Before we move on to our discussion of A Girl Named Disaster and the introduction of the next Tiger’s Choice, we want to talk about the latest comments in the discussion of how to turn children into passionate readers.

Parents who read to their children are an essential element in creating readers, and Jeannine and Marjorie both bring up new ways for parents to ensure that this happens. Marjorie, whose sons’ book reviews light up the PaperTigers blog this week, suggests a virtual book group as being a way for children with irrepressible physical energy to come together in a space that doesn’t lend itself to exuberant (and distracting) physical activity. “After all,” she points out, “they are growing up with an affinity for virtuality which we can only wonder at!” Providing a way to link the world of books with the virtual world seems to be a brilliant way to keep reading alive in the brave new world of the internet. If anybody else has ideas on blending these two disparate pastimes, please let us know.

Jeannine, who read three to four books a night with her son when he was small, says that talking about the books was as much fun as reading them. She observes that parents can encourage their children to be engaged readers who can eventually take part in intelligent book discussions by through questions (“Why do you think he did that?”) and through connecting real-life activities with books shared with children. “If you’re reading about a garden, go outside and dig in the dirt,” she urges. And she adds, in the same spirit as Corinne, “As for the TV–just say no!”

Suggestions that add to this conversation, previously posted to the CCBC-net listserv, (the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education), are reprinted here with permission. Megan Schliesman, CCBC Librarian, says, “When my husband, daughter and I gather together for a shared story (we are currently on book 3 of Suzanne Collin’s “Gregor the Overlander series), I am aware–as several have already mentioned–that we are not only experiencing a terrific story, we are also making shared memories.”

Lee Bennett Hopkins, a well-known poet and anthologist, echoes another poet, Sherman Alexie, in advocating The Snowy Day. “Read aloud The Snowy Day by [Ezra Jack] Keats; follow it up with “Cynthia in the Snow” where snow is “Still white as milk or shirts/So beautiful it hurts.” in Gwendolyn Brooks’ Bronzeville Boys and Girls….With every book you read aloud, find a poem to go with it. I believe we spend too much time TEACHING children to READ–and NOT enough time TEACHING them to LOVE to read. GET the difference.”

Let’s celebrate that difference and continue the discussion on how to make it become a vital part of the lives of children.

Most of us know that bright children frequently read books written for adults, but it’s less commonly recognized that bright adults frequently read books written for children. (Harry Potter, anyone?) No matter how old or how young we are, what unites us as readers is that deep feeling of satisfaction that comes with turning the last page and thinking “Now that was a good book.”

T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, A Wrinkle in Time, Harriet the Spy, and The Lord of the Rings are only a few of the books that have been read by adults and children with equal delight, and have been claimed by both groups as favorites. The element that these books all share is the magic created by a writer who placed highly original characters in a world that was constructed by considering the story, not the age of its readers, nor any underlying didacticism.

The people we hope to have in our new book group are readers who can sink into a children’s book with pleasure and want to talk about it in a community of like-minded bibliophiles, whether they be eight or eighty, whether they live in Peoria or Phnom Penh. Our goal is to host an ongoing conversation in which people from all over the world, adults and children, can unite over books that they all love and want to discuss online.

The books that are featured will fall into the range of readers between the ages of eight and twelve and will be set in countries all around the world. We hope that the magic of literature will help to bring together the inhabitants of far-flung continents, in the same way that the book discussions will bring together people of different generations and different cultures.

This is a book group that exists in whatever timeframe you choose – send your responses while you’re still in your pajamas, while you’re eating lunch, or when you should be doing your homework. Send your comments and respond to other readers whenever you like – it’s that easy. If you don’t like the book that’s been chosen, let us know. If it reminds you of others that you’ve read, tell us. If you don’t like the questions that have been posed about the book, write about the points that are meaningful to you. Suggest titles for future discussion. Argue, discover a new point of view, chat about books – for many of us there’s nothing better than that. Opening a book opens a new world to explore, and a good book makes that world a part of its reader forever. Let’s discover new worlds together through the magic of books.