Come to The Middle School Chapter (grades 6th through 8th) of the Young Readers Society Book Club!

Meet-ups will be held on the third Friday of each month in the bookstore from 5:30 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. Book Club selections will be announced the month prior to Book Club Meet-Ups and the discussions will be facilitated by one of our Word After Word team members. Young Readers Society Members get 20% OFF monthly Book Club selections using Coupon Code YRS20, plus other surprise special offers.

Our next meet-up will be on Friday, November 15th. We'll be discussing Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Summary of the book:

A modern-day classic and New York Times bestseller that celebrates the power of individuality and personal expression from beloved Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli.

Stargirl. From the day she arrives at quiet Mica High in a burst of color and sound, the hallways hum with the murmur of “Stargirl, Stargirl.” She captures Leo Borlock’ s heart with just one smile. She sparks a school-spirit revolution with just one cheer. The students of Mica High are enchanted. At first.

Then they turn on her. Stargirl is suddenly shunned for everything that makes her different, and Leo, panicked and desperate with love, urges her to become the very thing that can destroy her: normal. In this celebration of nonconformity, Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli weaves a tense, emotional tale about the perils of popularity and the thrill and inspiration of first love.

Recommended age range: 12+

Join us for a bi-monthly Writing Series at Word After Word Books!

We're continuing to focus on and support National Novel Writing Month in November, and for our upcoming session on Wednesday, Octobr 20th, we'll welcome special guest Gayle Brandeis, an accomplished local author with her own personal experience of NaNoWriMo (and much more) to share with the group! 

Gayle Brandeis is the author, most recently, of the memoir The Art of Misdiagnosis (Beacon Press), and the poetry collection The Selfless Bliss of the Body (Finishing Line Books). Her other books include Fruitflesh: Seeds of Inspiration for Women Who Write (HarperOne), and the novels The Book of Dead Birds (HarperCollins), which won the Bellwether Prize for Fiction of Social Engagement; Self Storage, which began as a NaNoWriMo novel (Ballantine); Delta Girls (Ballantine); and My Life with the Lincolns (Henry Holt), a state-wide read in Wisconsin.

Her upcoming novel in poems, Many Restless Concerns, will be published February, 2020 by Black Lawrence Press. Her poetry, essays, and short fiction have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, O (The Oprah Magazine), The Rumpus, Salon, Longreads, and more. She teaches at Sierra Nevada College and Antioch University Los Angeles.

Writing sessions are held in the store every 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month (unless otherwise specified), from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., and will focus on building writing practice through prompts, writing exercises, and shared readings.

Sessions will incorporate general writing practice with timed prompts and reading out loud (always voluntary), as well as at least one writing exercise every session, varying based on the theme. Themes include character building, description, grammar, word play, short stories, memoir, etc. We'll do something new each week!

We invite special guest authors and writers to lead occasional sessions, so if you know someone who might be interested, of if you would like to lead a session yourself, please contact us at the bookstore!

Sessions are $15 in advance or $20 at walk-in. Want to save money by attending more than one session? Purchase a 4-pack and attend any four sessions of your choice (they do not have to be consecutive) for just $50!

Sign me up!

The December meet-up of the Kids Chapter of the Young Readers Society Book Club will be held on the first Friday of the month, December 6th, from 5:30 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. 

The December book selection is You Go First by Erin Entrada Kelly.

Young Readers Society Members get 20% OFF monthly Book Club selections using Coupon Code YRS20, plus other surprise special offers.

Summary of You Go First:

Funny and poignant, Newbery Medalist and New York Times bestseller Erin Entrada Kelly’s national bestseller You Go First is an exploration of family, bullying, word games, art, and the ever-complicated world of childhood friendships.

In a starred review, School Library Journal wrote that Erin Entrada Kelly can “capture moments of tween anguish with searing honesty.”  

Twelve-year-old Charlotte Lockard and eleven-year-old Ben Boxer are separated by more than a thousand miles. On the surface, their lives seem vastly different—Charlotte lives near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, while Ben is in the small town of Lanester, Louisiana.

Charlotte wants to be a geologist and keeps a rock collection in her room. Ben is obsessed with Harry Potter, presidential history, and recycling. But the two have more in common than they think. They’re both highly gifted. They’re both experiencing family turmoil. And they both sit alone at lunch.

During the course of one week, Charlotte and Ben—friends connected only by an online Scrabble game—will intersect in unexpected ways as they struggle to navigate the turmoil of middle school. The New York Times-bestselling novel You Go First reminds us that no matter how hard it is to keep our heads above troubled water, we never struggle alone.

Recommended age range: 8 to 12