Stella Maris Book Club: An Engaging Experience

Stella Maris Book Club: An Engaging Experience

by Leevia Monica Sutanbuwana (Grade 11 Student)

Joining the Stella Maris Book Club has been a great experience! From the very beginning, my friends and I were invited by Mr. Adam, our school librarian, to help get the club started. He wanted student input on what the book club should focus on and how it would operate, which made us feel involved in shaping the club. Our first task was to design a QR code to recruit new members, and after the open recruitment, we ended up with 13 students from both Junior and Senior High. At our first meeting, we talked about our favorite genres and shared book recommendations. I even had the chance to promote a book I wrote called “History Stops Repeating”. If you’re interested, it’s still available in the secondary library!

Our weekly meetings were held every Friday at 3:00 PM. Because of everyone’s busy schedules, we rarely had full attendance, but we often had non-members join us out of curiosity. During the meetings, we discussed books that were chosen by the group. The process was, each member suggested a book, and Mr. Adam would use a random generator to pick the next one for the club to read and analyze the following week later. I discovered an unexpected favorite through this method! At first, I didn’t think I would enjoy it, but trying new genres turned out to be a lot of fun. The best part was sharing our opinions, both the pros and cons, which made the discussions even more interesting.

One of our contributions to the club was organizing a promotional event during the Stema Festival. We wanted more students at Stella Maris to know about the club, so we came up with a fun game called “Guess the Character.” The idea was simple: students would try to guess famous characters from books, and if they got it right, we rewarded them with a small snack. It was a great way to get people excited about reading and spread the word about the club.

Another highlight for me was when we helped Mr. Adam buy books at the Big Bad Wolf event. This was one of my favorite activities because we got to pick out books that we thought would be great additions to the library. Not only did we get to explore a lot of books, but it was also a really fun experience spending time with other club members who are just as passionate about reading as I am. It felt like we were contributing something meaningful to our school community, and we got to share moments with fellow book lovers along the way.

Overall, being part of the Stella Maris Book Club has been a great journey. From organizing events to bonding with others over a shared love for books, every meeting and activity has made me more excited about reading. I can’t wait to see what other fun activities and events we will be involved in as the club continues to grow.