A lot of teen book clubs at libraries fade after two or three meetings, some book clubs get no attendance at all. There is no concrete answer for this but I think it partly has to do with the book choices we make.
For example, when we're picking a book for a book club, we'll pick something popular and something that's been critically acclaimed like The Hunger Games or The Book Thief, right? And while these books are great, I think most teens will squirm at the thought of reading something that is popular and that everyone raves about. If teens ever read a book like that, they'll have to do it on their own and the popularity of these books have proven that teens WILL do that if they're interested. Now, I'm not saying this about ALL teens because there are some that will come to a book club that is reading The Hunger Games. I'm just saying this could be a problem for some teens.
If you remember a little about being a teenager like I do, you'll know they want to question everything. "NY Times says The Book Thief is genius?! Lame!" So you want to pick something that's interesting to them but also unconventional. There are other options that I will discuss later (horror, fantasy and sci-fi,) but the first thing I think of? Zombies!
Yes, for some reason lately, teens have it bad for Zombies. I honestly don't know why, I mean, zombies are okay, I'll watch zombie movies and enjoy them but I can't understand why people are obsessed with them!
With The Walking Dead tv show coming out last Winter, various video games and movies, it's clear that zombies are rising up everywhere in popular culture. Just don't tell the teens who come to your library that!
Here are some book suggestions to start your zombie fiction book club:
-World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks (although I personally wouldn't start with these...they're the most popular zombie books out there and if teens are into zombies, they probably have read it already.)
-Brains: A Zombie Memoir by Robin Becker
-Breathers: A Zombie's Lament by S.G. Browne
-Feed and Deadline by Mira Grant
-The Walking Dead series by Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard and Tony Moore (Like Max Brooks, I wouldn't start with this either. These are very popular among zombie fans.)
-The Affinity Bridge by George Mann
-The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
-Zombies: Encounters with the Hungry Dead, Book of the Dead and Book of the Dead 2: Still Dead by John Skipp
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