Held in the media center once a week, Plainfield South’s Book Club, formerly known as Vines and Verses, encourages students to read more often and talk about their book-ish opinions.
Sponsored by librarian Gwendolyn Kuhns, Book Club works like any other of the same name: after a group decision determining a book that members will read individually, they meet up once a week to discuss what’s happened within the plot.
Even though the club is only a few years old, many students involved already consider it to be a crucial part of their high school careers.
“For me, at least, it’s always acted as a safe space,” said senior Kay Libman, who joined the club their sophomore year. “Because we’re a group of inherently quieter people, nobody steps on anybody else.”
While club details are often sorted out in a vote, much of the organization behind Book Club can be attributed to both Kuhns and senior Abbey Clarke, who helped instate the club after the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown canceled many of the after-school activities here at South.
“It was just the matter of deciding I want to start it up again,” said Clarke. “Nobody else was, so I just started putting up posters.”
Over the years, the book club has read a fair few books that range across multiple genres. Notable names include The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan, and most recently, Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut.
Libman specifically recalls their read-through of The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller during their sophomore year.
“It was a very intellectual read for us,” said Libman. “Something I love about book club is that we’re all reading the same thing but we’re getting different things out of it.”
When posed the same question, Clarke agreed, claiming his favorite group read was the very same novel.
“That’s what really set in stone my love for Book Club,” Clarke said. “Freshmen and sophomores; people we’ve never seen before in school, we got to kind of be like, “I love that book, and you love that book.’”
Though Book Club remains a relatively small club, the members eagerly accept any students who are looking to join in on the weekly discussions.
“If anybody’s looking for friends or a safe space to just talk about whatever they want, that’s what it’s there for,” said Libman.
Book Club meets every Wednesday in the Media Center and spans throughout the entire school year. They invite readers to join by emailing Abbey Clarke at [email protected] or joining the Google Classroom with the code “zlcx7pc.”