Join the Club takes you into Katie Doherty Czerwinski's remarkable sixth-grade classroom, where students choose their own texts for discussion in book clubs with classmates. But don't worry - this isn't one of those books with unicorns and hearts dancing in the margins, where you will only read about cooperative students reading above grade level and discussing books with an eloquence far beyond their years. Katie shares the nitty gritty details of building conversation skills from day one with her urban students, many of whom are English language learners and come from impoverished homes. She discusses the challenges of assessing book clubs, when much of the work is done outside her presence. Katie shares her own struggles with book clubs that are floundering, and students who can't or won't read the assigned texts. Most importantly, she demonstrates with practical examples why the collaborative and conversation skills fostered through book clubs are essential literacy learning in middle schools. Join the Club includes text suggestions, sample minilessons, student response guides, and assessment forms. Practical, research-based, and humorous, Join the Club is a succinct guide to middle school book clubs that packs a powerful punch.