Happy First Birthday: The Threaded Origin Story

The Threaded Global Book Project began as The Not So Secret Book Club, and still today, I am amazed at how the idea was sparked.  The NSSBC was born on October 5, 2023.

For teachers, moments are marked by which classroom you were in and who was in your class at the time.  Some of my favorite classes have been second hours.  I can recall so many great students and glimmery moments:  The time Drew made an F. Scott Fitzgerald-inspired holiday card, the time Adrienne wrote and performed a Rose of Sharon monologue, the time Ashlin and her friends performed a skit about Hemingway’s ex-wives, the time Brandon and Sam performed an A Farewell to Arms rap (which I had them perform five more times because we loved it so much), the time Alicia dressed as Lizzy Bennet for a class Jane Austen party, the time MacKenzie made fondant hamburgers for a class Hemingway party, the time my sophomore class did a “come as you will be” party and their parents wrote them hope letters, the time Hayleigh bravely sung a song in front of her peers, the time we raised money to purchase a brick at the commemorative government camp in California, the time we wrote and read our books to the toddlers in the daycare, the time we threw faux Nobel Prize ceremonies, the time we shared some really hard stuff in Th’Adrian’s 7th hour class and ended it with hugs, the time we read “The Scarlet Ibis” and cried, and the time on October 5, 2023 when Max asked if I read Roald Dahl’s The Witches.

My class was English 2, a freshman English class.  That particular one was large–about 30 students plus Joe, a (grown-up) para who accompanied Max to a couple of classes each day in our main building.  By some cosmic alignment of all things good in the universe, Max wound up in my class and wound up asking me on October 5, 2023 at 9:20 am if I’d read his favorite book, The Witches by Roald Dahl.

Here’s how it happened:  The class was talking about a book that came in that week’s library-sample pack, The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton.  Students were chatting about how much they loved it and how they looked forward to it every day in middle school.  That led to smaller discussions among kids about books they loved.  All the chatter sparked me to ask, “What are the books from your childhood that really impacted you?”  Max asked if I’d read The Witches by Raold Dahl.

I hadn’t.  I’d read other titles of Dahl’s.  In fact, Danny the Champion of the World was one from my childhood that really affected me.  I don’t remember which parent-child theme was exposed, but whatever it was cracked me open a little wider in 5th grade, as life-changing books do.

When Max talks, he does a cute thing where his eyes go really bright and he awkwardly dips his chin to his shoulder and then raises his hands and shakes them by his cheeks and says the thing that is important to him.  He did this when he asked if I’d read The Witches.  

I asked what he liked about it and how it changed him.  He just said it was “Oh, so good!” and that I won’t believe the Grandmama and it is “really funny” and that I have to read it.  He said that the Grandmama character and the mice are just “Oh my goodness” and I won’t even believe how good it is.  I believed him.

I asked Max if he had ever read Charlotte's Web by EB White.  It was the book from my childhood that changed me.  Max hadn’t read it. 

I said it was because the purity of love and friendship that was shared among Charlotte, Wilbur, and their friends was so pure that it made you cry and feel those things so beautifully and deeply that you remember why you're alive and a human on this planet.  Max said it sounded good.

Within minutes, I ordered The Witches for me and Charlotte’s Web for Max.  We agreed to read them and to chat about them the following week. 

After those transformative first ten minutes of class, I got my students started on their work, and I couldn’t shake the effect that conversation had on me.  I was able to articulate that we had just had a really powerful conversation about books that changed us.  I was able to identify that my heart was on the verge of exploding due to my class’s and Max’s reactions to that simple question, and deep in my soul I knew I was on the verge of something bigger.  

I kept thinking:  Wouldn’t it be cool if we could harness that joy about the books that really changed us and have more of those conversations and feel more of those good, big feelings together? 

Days and weeks passed, and the question started to be less of a question and more of a declaration—I will create a forum where people share good, big feelings about the books that changed them.  But, how?

I spent October wrestling the idea, and by Thanksgiving, I had figured out that I wanted it to be a spontaneous book sharing system.  But, how?

Maybe a tagging system?  Maybe stickers?  I started telling my friends and enlisting advisors–all of whom helped shape my idea in significant ways.  I tentatively called it “The Not So Secret Book Club."

My guide word for 2024 was "breakthrough," and breakthrough, we did. The advisers became team members, and we refined our vision, established the Threaded metaphor, tentatively named the project, built the site, and shared the message. We planted books, adapted the stickers, and created a sales page on the Loom. We are currently beta testing the site.

One year later, it's October 2024, and we're celebrating our first birthday by sending copies of The Witches to be Threaded at the Headland Hotel in the UK. Producers of the 1990 The Witches movie filmed the resort scenes there! How exciting!

Will you celebrate with us? Thank you for sharing the project with your friends, helping us beta test, and tagging our accounts with pictures of your Threaded books.

If you're in Saint Louis, you can help by donating gently-used copies of transformative books which we will use to test and refine the process. However, the best way you can help us get off the ground is by Threading books yourself, sharing the message with your friends, and supplying feedback. How can we make Threaded better? What is unclear? Where are the breaks in the chain? Let us know what you think!

Thank you for sharing your love of books with the world through fate-guided book Threads.

XO,

Meredith