Palmer High School has many club options to join, from fashion club to Science Olympiad. Most of these clubs are student-led, which makes it easier for students to create new clubs based on their interests and hobbies. Among club options for students this year is Palmer’s book club, which is new, and student led.

Palmer’s book club was created from a mutual love of reading between a student and Spanish teacher Ms. Henson. When asked about the origin of the book club, the student expressed surprise at the previous lack of a book club and said she and Ms. Henson were “talking about reading the same books and I said ‘oh like our own little book club’… and Ms. Henson was like ‘oh we should totally (start one)’ … and there’s a good handful of people at our school who enjoy reading. So I’m kinda surprised there wasn’t a book club before.”

When asked about possible goals for the book club, the student shared that it’s too soon to have any set goals yet because “it just started so it’s a little messy… and there are a lot of technical things… so far our meetings have been informational.” However, the student “would love for the book club to remain” after she graduates and hopes the club can continue into her 2024-2025 senior year.

Perhaps one of the most difficult parts of starting a new club is advertising and making sure word gets out. The club’s student reader agrees that it’s “kind of difficult advertising” and explained that she “put up a lot of posters a couple weeks ago and tried to make them stand out, not blend in”. Getting enough information about the club on the posters is a challenge as well, because “if there’s a lot of information, people aren’t going to stop and just stand there looking at it when they’re on their way to their next class.”

While this is the student’s first experience running a Palmer club, she is excited to start reading books together and help bring Palmer’s reading community closer.