Food Chains, Frenemies, and Revenge Fantasies: Relating Fiction to Life in a Girls’ Book Club

Abstract

In this article, we explore the experiences of four girls with reading difficulties who participated in a book club designed to promote critical discussion of sociocultural gendered issues. Using the book Dork diaries: Tales from a NOT-SO- fabulous life, they connected content in the book to their lives as relates to school “food chains,”  frenemies, and revenge fantasies. The participants demonstrated the complex ways in which their reading of texts intersects with literary, educational, and societal gender issues,  expounding the need for an ongoing problematization of girls' representations and experiences.