Book Club Reading Course by Dixie Plata – Pathfinder Historian
Book Clubs In 1907 the first Missionary Volunteer Book Club was begun for youth of the Seventh- day Adventist Church. At that time there were very few Adventist writers with fewer books that had been published. The book club was developed that youth would have good reading materials available to them with guidelines on what books would be the best to read.
The Junior Book Club began in 1908 with Child Life in Mission Lands by various authors and Christ Our Savior by Ellen G. White. The 1909 book list included: Letters from the Holy Land by Henry A. Harper and My Garden Neighbors by L. A. Reed. In 1910 the list included: How the Earth Was Clothed by F. G. Carpenter, The Story of Pitcairn Island by Rosalind A. Young and Those Bible Readings by L. D. Avery-Stuttle.
The first lists of books are ones that today’s youth would not be apt to read for a variety of reasons including: No pictures, the books held much information but were not always shared in story form, and many youth today would think them more for adult reading.
It was not until later that the requirements changed to: one book on Missions, one book on Nature, one Biography and two books of your choice, from the last two years, that were published by the Seventh-day Adventist printing presses. Even so not all the books were written by Seventh-day Adventist Church members, one case in point is Sam Campbell who wrote a series of nature books that have been loved by generations, beginning with Too Much Salt and Pepper which was a reading course book in 1946, followed with On Wings of Cheer in 1949.
Many Church Schools and Church Libraries obtained the books that they could be checked out to be read without having to purchase your own copy. I was fortunate that our parents gave my sisters and brothers and I the Reading Course Books as presents for birthdays and Christmas. We could hardly wait to see what book each of us received that we could be the first one to read that particular book, before sharing it with our siblings. Many of these cherished books are still part of my personal library.
When the required books had been read for the designated year the JMV Leader or Church School Teacher would send the list to the local Conference and at Investiture time the certificates would be awarded.
NOTE: Our goal is to have all the reading course books in the resource library of the Adventist Youth Ministries Museum to be located in Battle Creek, Michigan for your enjoyment.
