As hosts of the Summer Tales Book Club reading program delivered in Canvas in the summer of 2020 as a joint initiative of Summer Session and New Brunswick Libraries, we are delighted to share our initial experiences as the first session is nearing an end this week. We hope to continue to inspire everyone to read more and perhaps even join us in the second and third sessions.
In the first session from May 26 to June 19 we read and discussed a popular short story entitled How to talk to girls at parties by Neil Gaiman. He is one of the most prolific authors of fantasy and young adult fiction today and has published across a wide range of genres. Our invitation said “If you’ve enjoyed comics like Sandman or novels like Good Omens, American Gods, and Coraline — or if you’ve ever felt nervous at a party or awkward around a crush — come enjoy his Hugo Award-nominated short story about two boarding-school boys attempting to talk to girls (or so they think)!” Gaiman uses hints of supernatural forces at work to capture the anxiety and confusion of being a teenager, trying to play it cool when you’re only dimly aware of what’s really going on.
To get the discussion going, first we asked students to quickly introduce themselves, including their reading and other extracurricular interests, which sparked quite a discussion! Late comers were welcome and they jumped right in. A Reading Suggestion Exchange discussion thread has been set up to share student-to-student recommendations from a wide variety of genres. This perfectly complements the book recommendations related to the short story of the month that we had collected in the freely available Summer Tales LibGuide, linked from every module under Supplemental Reading from Rutgers Libraries.
A live event held via BigBlueButton (the conference software in Canvas), on Friday, May 29, 2020 kicked off the Summer Tales Book Club. Participants were greeted with a playlist of eclectic but story-related music, and then introduced to the program through an innovative use of Canvas and links to library resources and the Summer Tales LibGuide. Nick’s convincing arguments on why we should read in the summer were a great hit and are also available in this video.
New discussions questions were posted every Tuesday, four altogether, ranging from story-specific topics and reader reactions to broader ones on the genre of science fiction or fantasy in general. In the process we touched on music, gender and sexuality, and teenage identity crises. The threaded structure of Canvas discussions allowed participants to respond to each other’s points, creating a sense of an ongoing dialogue.
Our second live discussion on Wednesday, June 17, 2020 polled participants on their interest in science fiction and more. We were glad to see that the Neil Gaiman story seems to have been a good choice for both seasoned sci-fi nerds and genre newbies alike. Our live discussion expanded on some of the points raised in the online forum, digging deeper into the cryptic dialogue of the “girls” at the party and what they might be trying to say.
This was the occasion when we announced the recent acquisition of an engaging and inspiring interview with Neil Gaiman from the 3rd Annual Rutgers University – New Brunswick Writers’ Conference on May 31, 2019, courtesy of the Rutgers Division of Continuing Students and New Brunswick Summer Session Office. In the interview, available in the Neil Gaiman module in Canvas, David Bianculli (TV critic and guest host from NPR) asks Neil Gaiman about his journey to becoming an accomplished author, including how he became an early reader and which books and comics influenced him the most. Neil Gaiman’s wisdom in this interview not only makes him more delightful and relatable both as an author and as a person, but will even win over science fiction and young adult literature skeptics to give his work a try.
The second big announcement was the invitation to participate in the Summer Tales Creative Contest, in addition to the ongoing Summer Session Instagram Writing Contest. We’d like to stir up everyone’s creativity by soliciting text, images, and videos that reflect readers’ experience with the Summer Tales Book Club. Submissions related to one or more of the short stories we read will be accepted in Canvas from June 17, 2020 through August 3, 2020.
Session 2 starts on Monday, June 22, 2020. We will be reading and discussing a classic short story entitled Sleeping and Waking by F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century,a figure often associated with the “Jazz Age.” You may know him as the author of The Great Gatsby and a member of the “Lost Generation” of the 1920s. If you have ever had trouble falling asleep or staying asleep during difficult times, it will be easy to relate to his portrayal of insomnia. The kickoff event of Session 2 will be held on Wednesday, June 24, 2020 at 4:30 pm.
Takeaway:
- The Summer Tales Book Club is a great opportunity to meet new people of similar interest as well as read and understand diverse points of views via the chance to experience the same text from different angles.
- Everyone has their own preferences in terms of the level and intensity of participation, spanning full-fledged discussion mode to Canvas lurkers. According to our tacit Summer Tales Book Club etiquette, it’s all okay with us. Come and read, come and talk, Summer Tales are there for your needs till mid-August. After that, there is the Books We Read program at Chang Science Library. Stay tuned!
- Canvas as a Learning Management System has a lot to offer. As such, it also has a steep learning curve. We are not only watching students new to Rutgers and Canvas learn to navigate, but we are there to help. The Summer Tales Book Club is a fun, no-pressure way to ease into remote learning without fear of “missing” a crucial assignment due to technical issues.
- A side effect of the “course” is learning how to navigate library resources in a fun way, which was our hidden agenda from day one. It is easy to get lost in the overwhelming amount of information, and the Summer Tales Book Club stealthily helps participants develop research skills in addition to communication and writing skills.