For the first time ever, East Union High School has a student book club. The campus club is taking part in the annual Great Valley Bookfest set for today at the Promenade Shops at Orchard Valley.

Melody Haskell, president of the Lancers’ book club, said they will have a table at the Bookfest where they will conduct a book drive, collecting both new and used books. They will then sort all the books and then donate them to different classrooms in the community and to educational programs that may need them.

The book club was formed right at the beginning of school in September.

“There’s no other book clubs on campus, and my friend and I love reading, so we thought it would be a great idea to have,” Haskell said, explaining the genesis of the group.

“Anyone can join,” she said, but those who have done so are “usually people who like reading.”

Meetings are held on Thursdays every other week after school starting at 2:45 p.m. in Brad Edom’s class. Edom is the AP English 2 teacher and is the club’s adviser.

Since the club is new, the members are still in the process of formulating what the meeting agenda should be. At the moment, they vote on a book that they should read and then discuss it at the next meeting. Maxine Hong Kingston’s “The Woman Warrior,” for example, is one of the books that the group has chosen as a group to read. They also have open discussions about books that they have read and their favorite authors. Haskell, for one, says, “I love Nicholas Sparks; I love his books,” but adds that “I love all the popular books” and does not favor just one genre. The last book she has read was “Ender’s Game,” a military science fiction novel by American author Orson Scott Card.

Another group activity that is on the table is “movie night,” when the club members get to watch a movie that was based on a book. The first movie they plan to watch as a group is “The Fault in Our 

Stars” which is based on a similarly titled bestseller published in January 2012 by novelist John Green.

As to the book drive that they are conducting today at the Bookfest, Haskell said, “We’ll accept all books that are appropriate for K – 8th-grade students” and they will be donated to Give Every Child a Chance. All the others will be split up between the public library and their school library.

All of the East Union High School Book Club officers are seniors, like Haskell, with the exception of club treasurer Laquel who is in her sophomore year. The other officers, besides Haskell are Emalee Hauck, vice president; and Alexandra Scott, secretarr.

It was Melissa King of the Great Valley Writing project who was instrumental in getting the East Union Book Club get connected with the Bookfest committee.