Loh, Chin Ee

This article adopts a Bakhtinian understanding of dialogue to explore the affordances of virtual book clubs, and how they can foster dialogues and encourage dialogic thinking in students. Drawing on a qualitative case study of 11-year-old students participating in an online book club, we explore how digital book clubs open dialogic spaces for students to build on discussions of texts. Readers learn to read beyond the text by becoming more aware of the text and other readers, and also learn collaboratively by building on each other’s responses and being exposed to different perspectives and ideas. We demonstrate how online spaces such as virtual book clubs can enhance students’ reading engagement and open dialogic spaces for the different exchanges they have with others. Implications for using online book clubs for offering students opportunities to read and think critical and collaborative learning are discussed.

In a landscape where children report that they enjoy reading less, parents, educators and policymakers are increasingly concerned about how to engage children in reading for pleasure. School libraries are core spaces for encouraging reading for pleasure. This mixed-methods case study examines the reading choices and preferences of students in one primary school to understand what children read, how their reading tastes change across the primary years, and how the school library supports their reading for pleasure. Findings showed a shift in children’s reading tastes across the years as they mature in their reading and interests. Children engage in repeated reading and the multiple reading of many books, series books, and comics remain popular, and recommendations are a key strategy for children to discover new reads. Two key priorities for school libraries keen to promote reading for pleasure emerge: building a contemporary book collection in school libraries that is interesting to children’s similar and diverse tastes and creating opportunities for children to find new materials to pique their interest in reading.