Introduction to Mini Book Club – At Home

 

Welcome to Mini Book Club – At Home!  Here you will find all the information on how to run the Mini Book Club and the BCiS free resources.

 

Book Clubs in Schools (BCiS) has teamed up with HarperCollins to offer this exciting new activity.  Mini Book Club – At Home is a curriculum enrichment activity supporting young people’s access to books, reading for pleasure and the development of character, communication and social skills.

 

It is a high impact, easy to run activity and requires only a minimal time commitment for teachers. The clubs run for 5 weeks and each weekly session lasts 20 minutes.

 

You will be able to download the following BCiS resources once you register:

  • Pupil information flyer
  • Bespoke questions about the book divided into 4 weekly sessions plus a Live Q&A with the author in the fifth week.
  • Some fun activities to do at home
  • A self-evaluation survey to be filled in online by you and the Book Clubbers

 

The resources have been designed to enable you to run a weekly discussion online, however if this is not possible, they can also be sent home for pupils to work through on their own.

 

We will be reading I Have No Secrets by Penny Joelson, a page turning thriller seen through the eyes of a unique narrator, which was nominated for a CILIP Carnegie Medal and won the FCBG Children’s Book Award for Older Readers.

Supported by

The BCiS Mini Book Club is supported by Electric Monkey and Harper Collins Publishers as part of their work to help children, families and schools to access books and sustain reading for pleasure.

mini book club_logo
Register your details to access Mini Book Club - At Home

Self-Evaluation Surveys

Flyer for Pupils

Take part in the BCiS Mini Book Club

  1. Register on our website. Once you register, download the BCiS questions and activities.
  2. Select pupils for your book club and share the details. Flyer for pupils are included in the downloaded resources.
  3. HarperCollins is kindly offering the ebook version of the book club book for 99p. This offer is available for 6 weeks. If you want to purchase multiple ebooks you can do this through Amazon.
  4. Pupils will need to download the free Kindle app (works on most phones, tablets and computers). If you are asking pupils to purchase their own book they need to follow this link https://amzn.to/2KOHGLF
  5. The Book Clubbers will need to fill in the self-evaluation surveys online before and after the Mini Book Club and you will need to fill one in post Mini Book Club.
  6. The book club is designed to run for 5 weeks and to work as a curriculum enrichment activity at a time which is suitable for you.
      • For each week, there are questions and activities.
      • The questions are designed to support a 20 minute discussion – ideally online, but if that is not possible they can be answered individually.
      • The BCiS activities are designed to be done at home, encouraging creativity and time away from screens.
  7. Encourage pupils to send in photos of their artwork and writing. Share your book club activity and any pupil artwork, writing or images on social media and tag @HarperCollins and @schoolbookclubs with #MiniBookClub
  8. Join in the live Q&A author discussion with Penny Joelson webinar on March 24th at 2pm.
  9. The Q &A will be recorded so that teachers can share it with pupils who may have missed it and will remain on our website.
  10. At the end of Mini Book Club, you will have the opportunity to join the full BCiS programme for next school year at a discounted rate and receive free books if your school qualifies (for a limited number of schools with over 40% pupil premium).
About the book choice
 

I Have No Secrets

by Penny Joelson

I Have No Secrets, by Penny Joelson, was nominated for a CILIP Carnegie Medal and won the FCBG Children’s Book Award for Older Readers.

 

It is a page turning thriller seen through the eyes of a unique narrator. Jemma knows who did the murder. She knows because he told her. And she can’t tell anyone. Fourteen-year-old Jemma has severe cerebral palsy. Unable to communicate or move, she relies on her family and carer for everything. She has a sharp brain and inquisitive nature and knows all sorts of things about everyone. But when she is confronted with this terrible secret, she is utterly powerless to do anything. Though that might be about to change…