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ThingsToDoWithBooks

THE CHARACTERS

  • Discuss how the main character is like or unlike people you know.
  • Pretend you're one character and introduce the other characters to your class.
  • As an interior decorator, how would you decorate a character's bedroom and why?
  • Invite one character to dinner and write a note of explanation to your mother.
  • Invite three celebrities to a party for the main character and explain your choice.
  • Write a page about a character beginning with the sentence: "I was (any verb) by ..."
  • Make a time line of the events in the life of the main character.
  • Write a chronology for one character.
  • Make up five interview questions (with answers) for the main character.
  • Explain where you think the main character will die.
  • For a film of your book, which actress would you choose for the leading female and why?
  • For a film of your book, which actor would you choose for the leading male and why?
  • Explain what the main character would prefer for Christmas and why?
  • Explain where the main character would prefer to vacation and why.
  • Explain what the main character would prefer for dinner and why.
  • Explain what the main character would prefer to wear and why.

THE SETTING

  • Make a map of your book.
  • Compare where you live with the neighbourhood or town in your book.
  • Draw the setting of your book and explain it.

THE AUTHOR

  • Write to the author and explain your reaction to his book.
  • Write to the author and explain why his book appeals to your age group.
  • Make up five interview questions (with answers) for the author.
  • Pretend you're the author and explain why you chose the title of your book.
  • Pretend you're the author and describe the part that was most fun to write.
  • Pretend you're the author and tell what else you've written.
  • Pretend you're the author and tell about your life and how this book fits into it.

THE PAST

  • Tell what you think happened before the story began.
  • Imagine that you're an eighteenth century student: How would you react to your book?
  • If your story took place one hundred years earlier, how would your main character act?
  • If your main character is from the past, how would he act if the book took place today?

THE FUTURE

  • If you were a man from Mars, how would you react to your book?
  • Describe what you think happened to the main character after the book ended.
  • Explain why your book should be included in a capsule to be dug up in one hundred years.
  • Make a horoscope for the main character explaining his sign and his future.

COMPARISONS

  • Compare your book with another book you've read.
  • Describe an experience you've had that was like the experience of a character.
  • Compare your book with a movie or TV show of the same kind.

PRESENTING

  • Design a book cover for your book.
  • Draw a comic strip of your book.
  • Draw a portrait of your favourite character and explain something about it.
  • Make any kind of illustration for your book (drawing, chart, graph) and explain it.
  • Cut words or pictures from the newspaper to make a collage or ad for your book.
  • Make a "WANTED" poster for the main character.
  • Make a "thumbprint" book about your book (the figures come from thumbs dipped in paint" and write captions for these illustrations.
  • Make a bulletin board about your book.
  • Create a poster for your book.
  • Write an ad for your book.
  • Make a bookmark for your book.
  • Collect pictures that go with your book and describe each.
  • Write out your title decoratively and for each letter write a phrase about the book.

SPEAKING

  • Deliver a sales talk for your book.
  • Make a tape about your book.
  • Write ten discussion questions for your book.

DRAMA

  • Dramatise your favourite incident.
  • As a famous movie star, you have been asked to play a character: explain your answer.
  • Write a TV commercial for your book.
  • Make a TV script for one scene of your book.
  • Play "What's My Line" with one character: write out questions to portray him.
  • As a movie producer, explain why you will or will not make your book into a movie.
  • Explain how your book could be make into a movie: clothes, setting, cars, props, etc.

CREATIVE WRITING

  • Write any kind of poem about your book.
  • Write a letter to a friend describing this book you are going to send him.
  • Write a different ending for your book.
  • Keep a journal as you read your book: your reactions, thoughts, feelings.
  • Write a five-line "easy" poem about your book: a noun, then two adjectives, then three verbs, then a thought about the noun, and finally a synonym for the noun.
  • Write two articles for a newspaper published at the time of or in the country of your book.
  • Write an obituary for one character.
  • Write a diary for your favourite character.

VOCABULARY

  • Make a small dictionary (at least twenty-five words) for the subject of your book.
  • List fifteen interesting words from your book and tell why each is interesting.
  • List new words learned from your book: Define them and give the sentences in which you found them.
  • Choose some of the following words and explain how each applies to your book: stupendous, exciting, breathtaking, horrendous, fabulous, etc.

LITERARY QUALITIES

  • Quote passages of good description and good dialogue and explain them.
  • Find and write down twenty-five similes and metaphors.
  • Think about who the narrator is: then write one scene from the point of view of another character and explain the switch.

LIBRARY PROJECTS

  • Do research on any topic connected with your book.
  • In the "Reader's Guide" find five articles related to your book and tell how they apply.
  • Find a quotation applicable to your book and tell how it applies.
  • See if your book is in the library: then write a letter to the librarian either congratulating her for choosing it or asking her to order it.
  • Find a poem which applies to your book: write it out and explain how it applies.

CAREER EDUCATION

  • Make a job application for the main character and fill it in.
  • What did you learn about the vocation of the leading adult character?
  • Find newspaper want ads of interest to a character and explain why.

FUN

  • Defend: This book should be read by everyone who hates reading.
  • Defend: This book should never be spoiled by a teacher requiring a book report.
  • Free choice: Do anything you want in connection with your book.
  • How many reasons can you think of to take your book to an isolated Antarctica camp?
  • Describe a field trip you would like to take because of your book.
  • Write one page on this: Why ...... should not read this book.
  • Make a crossword puzzle from your book.

CAREER EDUCATION

  • Write a business letter to the publisher and order copies of your book; explain why.
  • From the yellow pages of a phone book, pick out businesses you think the main character would be interested in and explain why.

VALUES CLARIFICATION

  • How did the book change your way of thinking?
  • Use this as a topic sentence, "This book made me (any verb)."
  • Explain what the main character would be least likely to do and why.
  • Did any character change during the book? Explain how and why.
  • What problems did the main characters have and how did they meet them?
  • If the book has a villain, was his punishment justified?
  • As a psychiatrist, analyse the conflicts and problems of a character.
  • Would you like to have a character as a friend? Explain.

Based on 101 ways to react to books by Nancy Mavrogenes in English Journal May 1977.
Located on Oct. 31, 2008 at http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/resources/books.html.

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Page last modified on October 30, 2008, at 09:47 PM