This past Tuesday, the 6th grade book group met to discuss Magyk by Angie Sage.  This group, which used to be thriving, is definitely suffering from various middle school “things”:  the girls have drifted towards realistic fiction that addresses issues that are important to them, while the boys have wholly shifted to a preference for action, adventure, and fantasy; each of the kids has a much more demanding extracurricular schedule now, so all nine group members never attend at the same time (this last meeting only four could attend); and there is a lot more homework in 6th grade, meaning some of the kids simply can’t finish the book group books, and thus have little to discuss at our meetings.

With that in mind, our discussion was ok, but not great.  One of the four attendees hadn’t read more than the first page of the book, since he thought the first page was boring (this really surprised me, because I had predicted to myself that this particular boy would love Magyk), and one other boy hadn’t been able to finish the book, leaving just two kids and me to really discuss it.  Luckily, the two kids who had read the book in its entirety are both huge Angie Sage fans, and have read the entire trilogy, so they had a lot to say and intrigued the rest of us with previews of the other two books, Flyte and Physik. 

But I left the meeting thinking that perhaps I need to create a “Guys Read” book group for the middle school boys.  I really, really hate to separate the boys from the girls, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that by the middle of 6th grade the tastes of each group are completely opposite.  It is beyond difficult for me to pick books for the 6th grade group and for the 7th – 9th grade teen group that will appeal to both the boys and the girls.  I end up alternating genres from one month to the next, losing the interest of the boys one month, and of the girls the next month.  And then there’s the issue of attendance: inevitably there are months in which there is only one girl attending or only one boy attending book group, and that one boy or one girl feels very awkward and uncomfortable. 

What to do?  Should I create a “Guys Read” group?  Or is better to keep the groups as is, and emphasize that being a member of a book group entails reading books that one wouldn’t normally pick for oneself?  I’m leaning towards the latter option, but would love input from others.