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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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