The second book balance discussion of the year was held on Nov. 17. As a part of the Wellness Center’s host of programs, book balance discussions are meant to be small group book-club type discussions about a book relating to mental health or wellness (ranging from realistic fiction to nonfiction or fantasy). These discussions are led by Dr. Deja Anderson, the Wellness Center’s counselor, Kaitlin Watkins, an Arcadia Public Library Teen librarian, and Shannon Will, an AHS librarian. The book in focus at the meeting was Anxiety Relief for Teens by Regine Galanti, focusing on CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) and mindfulness techniques that adolescents can use for stress relief and overall wellness. 

This meeting had four attendees, allowing for a cozy, personal environment. It began with the members sharing what they thought was notable or valuable from the book. Many coping techniques were mentioned, such as giving yourself “worry time” or doing “square breathing” techniques before a test. This led the conversation to turn to the usefulness of the strategies presented in this book in a classroom setting. The attendees spoke about how they thought strategies could potentially be implemented by teachers or counselors and discussed ways that mindfulness strategies had already helped them through their school days. This connected to the endeavor of the Wellness Center to bring wellness to day-to-day lives rather than making it a scheduled activity.

Discussions tangential to the book itself rose out of the conversation, such as talking about what can cause the anxiety in mention. Much of what rose out of the book discussion was talking about practical implementations, such as the workload that students have and how that makes it harder to practice mindfulness. The meeting was short and sweet, ending at about the middle of lunchtime. Overall, it was a productive and engaging discussion, in which students could talk about wellness in a safe, small-group setting while talking about ways to bring the activity to school, with the base of the conversation on the book itself.

“The idea actually came from our students last year,” Dr. Anderson explained. “Towards the end of the school year, we gave them a survey asking what they would like, and they said they would be interested in a book discussion. I approached Ms. Will, and she was on board with this, and that’s how this came to be.”

“I thought carefully about a variety,” said Ms. Will, the school librarian, who talked about her choice of books for the discussions. “Obviously fiction and nonfiction. I wanted to have a lot of diversity in terms of characters and authors and genre, even within the fiction part of it. There are fantasy and science fiction elements in some of the other books. I took a while picking the books, because I really wanted them to be relevant and engaging and to be attractive to our students. So most of them are pretty recent books.”

To conclude, the most recent book balance discussion was one that was a great way to cultivate important conversations and allow students a space to discuss important topics through the platform of reachable books. The next discussion will be on Jan. 6, 2022 at the AHS Library, featuring the book, Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adim Khorram. To everyone interested in reading and discussing mental wellness, try attending the next book balance discussion to add to the conversation.

Photo courtesy of BOOK BALANCE