MANSFIELD — Courtney Hardy always liked to read until she was assigned a book.
“If it was something I didn’t want to read, I wasn’t going to read it,” she said.
Now a teen services librarian at Mansfield-Richland County Public Library, Hardy is leading a teen book club with 3rd Cup Tea.
The club has six Thursdays on the calendar, each with a loose theme that can apply to whatever books participants want to read.
“We didn’t want to assign all the same book because then it feels like school,” Hardy said. “I think anything that encourages reading or venturing out of your comfort zone is going to be a good thing.”
The teen book club is scheduled to meet at 3 p.m. at 3rd Cup Tea on the following dates with these themes:
- Sept 19: Your favorite book from the summer
- Oct. 31: Scary books — thriller, mystery, horror or fall books. Bonus points if you show up in costume
- Nov. 21: cozy books
- Dec. 20: fairytale retellings
- Jan. 30: books we love to hate
- Feb. 27: “BookTok” titles
Hardy said the book club is open to any teenagers.
“We’re largely marketing it to grades 6 through 12, but if someone’s younger siblings come in and want to read too, that works,” she said.
“My idea is to have them share a little bit about the book that they read and I want to let them go with it and ask each other questions too. We have some homeschool kids that are planning to come, so they’re looking forward to getting out and being in a group of other teens their age.”
3rd Cup Tea owner Braxton Daniels said he is working on creating a menu with items and teas ranging from $1-3 for the events.
“I’m not necessarily looking to make money with this,” he said. “It’s just for the community and to introduce some youth to teas they might like.
“It will be decaffeinated tea at that time. Bubble teas or bubble teas and lemonade are pretty popular with teenagers.”
Daniels said it was an “immediate yes” when the library’s team asked to partner with him on a book club.
“We’ve introduced some more fun teas, the bubble teas, and even collaborated with the Renaissance for the Spongebob Musical special menu,” he said.
“We hire high school students and are trying to become a community hangout spot. If we can do positive things and make it educational for the youth, I want to do more of that.”
Hardy said the library will have some teen librarians at the book club to moderate and suggest books for next month’s theme.
“We’ll try to bring some books for the next theme ahead of time if any of them are stuck,” she said. “And our outreach department is trying to get remote check-out to work if they want to pick up anything without having to walk back to the main library.”
Hardy said she plans to visit some school districts and hang up some posters inside the schools to get the word out about the book club.
“Sometimes, I think we struggle to get teens in the library because it’s a ‘learning place,’ ” Hardy said. “I thought it would be good to partner with a business where they’re at already and they might feel more comfortable.”
More information can be found on Instagram at @mrcplteen and @3rdcuptea.
