Another year has ended for our book clubs, to coincide with the end of the academic year. Yet again the children and teenagers from aged 7 upwards enjoyed a variety of well researched titles, sourced by Jane and Breda. There are three book clubs currently running in Thurles for this age group, age 7-9, age 10-12 and Teenage. Book clubs such as these provide children/teenagers with the opportunity to interact with like minded peers in a very free and safe environment. I posed a question to my teenage book club on their last meeting, asking them how they have personally been effected by being part of a book club. Their responses highlight the absolute need for book clubs to continue to be nurtured and how they positively effect the lives of the children and teenagers involved. They said that they were given the opportunity to meet and interact with other teenagers that they otherwise would not have met. One girl said she absolutely loved it and it gave her a chance to be a geek once a month. Sadly reading can often be something to be temporarily mocked amongst their peers. They all said that their reading ability, vocabulary, imagination and ability to think outside of the box were hugely developed by the range of diverse books and themes, both fiction and non fiction. Feeling that they were free to express themselves, whether they liked or did not like a book was important to them, allowing them to develop as individuals within the group. They really enjoy sharing their opinions and debating the themes of the book. Themes running through each book quite often trigger issues that they have experienced themselves and sharing those within the group has also been cathartic for them. They also have had the opportunity to share joyful experiences together.

One girl said that although she knew another member from school, she was not the type of girl who she would normally be friendly with because their set of friends were different, but the club had brought them together and created a very nice friendship. All of them said that they loved the club and looked forward to it every month because each month was varied and it was run completely different to school, in a very informal organic way.

If you want your child or teenager to be a member of any of these clubs, please ring us on 0761066131. These clubs are very popular but we will do our best to get your child in or onto a waiting list.