Project Lit: A Club for the Hungry Bookworm

Who wouldn’t want to get free books, have a fun chat with friends, and eat sweet treats? Project Lit club is a national literacy movement with the goal of providing access to culturally-relevant books written by a variety of authors with different cultural experiences. The club takes the pressure out of reading by letting the students choose what they want to read, and they have the freedom to read at their own pace. Once every month (or two months, depending on how long the students need to finish the book), they have an engaging discussion and share their honest opinions about the books while enjoying a snack. Students get to keep the books they read, so the stories will stay with them for a lifetime. 

This year, the club has read The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson, and Legendborn by Tracy Deonn. These novels explore the genres of mystery, realistic fiction, and fantasy. 

“I really like Legendborn because it’s very interesting. There’s so many plot twists,” said club member Amira Noutcha. 

Tomi Bolarinwa, another club member, said her favorite book so far has been The Inheritance Games. 

“It was so realistic with a hint of the unexpected,” Bolarinwa said. “I also really enjoyed getting to know the characters.”

Ms. Carroll, a librarian at Tuscarora and one of the club’s sponsors, agreed, “I really enjoyed The Inheritance Games, but I think what made me enjoy it even more was that the students were so excited about it.”

Ms. Carroll, Ms. Schain, and Ms. Sheetz are the sponsors that manage Project Lit. Before Project Lit was founded at Tuscarora, there was another program called Battle of the Books at THS. It was time for a change, and Project Lit presented a great opportunity to encourage students to read in a more relaxed manner. 

The books read in Project Lit are written by a variety of multicultural writers. Each school gets 20 copies of each book, and the students get to choose which ones they would like to read and what order to read them in.

The club fosters a love of reading because students aren’t forced to read a particular book for class or for a homework assignment. 

 “It gives that natural conversation time to just…be relaxed about a book. It’s not a quiz, it’s not a paper, it’s not an essay…” said Ms. Schain. Students get to simply find joy in the books they are reading and connect to the stories. 

“My favorite part about Project Lit is getting to read books I wouldn’t usually pick for myself,” said Bri Carey, a member of the club, “I have discovered new series I love that I wouldn’t have read otherwise.”

Project Lit is a club for all book-lovers, as well as people who don’t read often but would like to give it a try!