Name____________________________

Date__________________ Hour_______

Book Projects

To get full credit on these projects, you must follow all directions and provide enough information to prove you read the book and to make someone else want to read the book. If the directions say write a letter, write the correct kind of letter. When drawing a picture be neat and colorful and use unlined paper. When appropriate, please mount typing paper on construction paper to create a quality product. All writings must use the writing process and be typed--handwritten projects will not be accepted.  If you have any questions or are not sure what something means, please ask me. And remember, a Write Source 2000 book would be a valuable aid.

1. Give an oral book talk on the book you read. Before the presentation, you must submit a typed outline of your book talk to the teacher. The outline must use the Roman numeral format. In the presentation you must discuss the following areas:

                 1.  Author background
                 2.  Setting of the story
                 3. Major characters-discuss and describe
                 4. Major conflicts
                 5. Major plot happenings
                 6. Your favorite part
                 7. An evaluation of the book
                 8. Anything else you would like to point out.

2.  Choose three characters in the story and write a letter to each one of them. Each letter should be about a page long. In the letter you may want to give a character some advice, ask him/her questions, or praise them/be angry with them for something they did in the story. Make sure you use a friendly letter format and address envelopes using the new style.

3.  Design a trivial pursuit type board game based on your book. You will need to create a game board and make up the rules to your game. Also, you need to make any pieces that are necessary for your game, and you must include at least 40 questions over your book for this game.

4.  Write in a diary as if you were one of the characters from the story. (This activity may be written to look like a real diary.) You will need to use first person pronouns like I, me, we, and us. You will need to have at least 15 diary entries for this project. Begin each entry with “Dear Diary.” Be sure that each entry is ½ to 1 page long and signed with your/the characters name.

5.  Pretend you are a talk show host. Write a series of question you would ask a particular character from your story. Then create your own talk show video. Get some friends or family members to participate in the show. Have one of them act as the host. Since you have read the book, you will need to be the character. Have them ask you the questions you created and answer as the character would. For this project, you would need to turn in a typed list of at least 15 questions and the videotape.

6.  Create a T-shirt for one of the major characters in your story. The t-shirt should display a special message, quote, or personal idea that would fit the character you have chosen. Your t-shirt may be decorated with paints, markers, computer iron-ons, and many other craft items. In addition to creating the t-shirt, you will need to write a paragraph identifying the character you chose and explain why you decorated the shirt this way.

7.  Make acrostics for the title of the book and three characters. On a sheet of construction paper or art paper, write the title/characters name down the side. For each letter, construct a sentence that begins with that letter and tells something significant about the story.

8.  Make a scrapbook for your main character. Think about all the kinds of mementos that you would put in a scrapbook if you had one. Then make a scrapbook for your character, cutting out pictures from magazines and pasting them to your scrapbook pages or designing the pages on a computer. But, keep in mind that journaling or adding detailed captions is a very important part of any scrapbook. Your captions should include enough information to prove you read the book and to make someone else want to read the book.

9.  Write a Dear Abby letter. Dear Abby is a widely read advice column and is printed in the newspaper. For this project, you will choose 2 characters from your book. Have each character write a letter to Dear Abby asking for advice on his/her particular problem or sounding off on a gripe he/she may have about something that went on in the book. After writing each letter, pretend you are Abby and write a response to each character’s letter.

10.  Make a dictionary of unfamiliar terms you encounter in your novel. For this project, you will look through your book and make a list of important, specialized, or troublesome words. They should be words you are unfamiliar with. Then look each word up in the dictionary, copy the part of speech and pronunciation, and write the correct meaning for each word. For this project, you will need to use at least 30 words, alphabetize them, and present them in book format.

11.  Make a crossword puzzle for the book you read. Include a list of 30 questions (try to make 15 down and 15 across), the puzzle, and the answer key. You must use a puzzle maker or graph paper for this project. A free online puzzle maker may be found at www.puzzlemaker.com. Your questions should cover the important parts/points of the book.

12.  Design a movie poster (must be larger than a piece of typing paper) for your book. Cast the major characters in the book with real actors and actresses. Include a scene or dialogue from the book in the layout of the poster. Remember that you are trying to convince someone to see the movie based on the book, so your writing should be persuasive. Also, the poster should be appealing to the eye. It needs to attractive in order to catch an audience’s attention. In addition you need to write an explanation that tells why you chose those particular actresses and actors to portray the characters from the book.

13.  Create a test over the book. Your test must have thirty questions. Five of the questions must be short answer/essay questions. The other 25 questions may be true/false, matching, vocabulary, fill in the blank, or multiple-choice. Your project must include a blank test and an answer key.

14.  Complete a series of five drawings that show five of the major plot events in the book. Write captions for each drawing so that someone who did not read the book could understand the illustrations and know what happens in your book. Please mount you drawing on construction paper or poster board.

15.  Create a poetry booklet for a character from your book. Choose three poems your character would like and copy them into a booklet. Create a title and decorate the cover of the booklet. For each poem included, you must have a paragraph explaining why your character would like that poem.

16.  Draw a cartoon for your book. Your cartoon should have a picture and caption for each box and should cover your entire book. Please mount the cartoon on construction paper or poster board.

17.  Turn your book into a song. You may create your own song or use a well-known tune. The song should include the major parts of your book. For this project, you would need to turn in a copy of the tape and the typed lyrics.

18.  Design a CD for a character you know well, being sure that the songs include music that expresses as many aspects of the character as you are aware of. You will need to include at lease10 songs that the character would like or listen to. For this project, you would turn in a burned CD and a typed explanatory paragraph for every song you chose to include.

19.  Design an advertising campaign to promote the sale of the book you read. Include each of the following in your campaign: a poster, a magazine or newspaper ad, a bumper sticker, and a button. Make sure that you use enough information from the book that your audience will know what your book is about.

20.  Write 3 found poems for your book. Select three chapters that you consider powerful or interesting. Then select words, lines, and phrases that you think project strong images and show the impact the chapter makes. Arrange this material into a poem. Please mount poems on construction paper or poster board.

21.  Make models of four objects that were important in the book you read. On a card attached to each model, tell why the object was important in the book. These should be models you create. Make your models and cards tell enough information that your audience will understand what your book was about.

22.  Create a book in a bag. Choose 10 objects that represent something important from your book. Make sure they are small enough to fit inside a brown lunch sack. Decorate the outside of the bag with the title of the book and the author. Include a typed explanation for every object in the bag.

23.  Write a letter to the author of the book telling her/him your likes and dislike of the book. Also, include general questions that you have concerning the book. This writing need to be anywhere from two to three pages long. This project is like an evaluation of the book, so it should be very detailed and thorough.

24.  Select two or three people your character would think of as a hero or superhero. Describe the characteristics of the hero and why those characteristics would be important to your character. Also, describe 3 of hero/superheroes characteristics your character would like for herself/himself.

25.  Create a grab bag full of presents for your favorite character. This grab bag should include 5 gifts that your character would love to have. These gifts may be real or imaginary, but you have to draw a picture and write a paragraph explaining what the item is and why your character would like it.

26.  Design a PowerPoint presentation for your book. You must present the PowerPoint presentation and turn in a hard copy printed in handout format. Your presentation needs to contain at least 10 frames with related music and graphics that explore/discuss the following:

             1.  Author
             2. Characters
             3.  Setting
             4. Plot line
            5. Point of view
            6. Theme
            7. Conflicts
            8. Other information you feel is important.

27.  TV Guide is organized to give its readers a day-by-day schedule of each channel’s programming and synopses of their plots. In one or two quick sentences, the highlights of the show are explained—the purpose being to pique the viewer’s interest. For this project you will:

 

28. Create a post-it after every chapter. Be sure your post-its are top quality observations/questions that you have about the story. Try to relate the l literature to your life and/or to the world as a whole. After reading the book, take a look at all of the post-its. Choose 5 of them that you feel are really good. Write a letter to me discussing the comments you made on the post-its. Examine the reasons why you wrote what you did. Also, take all the post-its, put them on a piece of paper, and turn them in with your letter.

29. Make a collage that represents major characters and events in the book you read. Use pictures and words cut form magazines in your collage. Your collage needs to be on paper that is larger than 11X17 and should not have any white space showing. In addition to the pictures, you must write a paragraph explaining the way you decorated your collage.

30. Create a Jeopardy game that covers the major characters and events in your book. See me for a planning guide and more information.

31. Rewrite the last chapter of the book to make it end the way you think it should have ended. This should be at least 3 pages long and should keep the same tone and feel of the original book.

 32. Create your own project. Your project must include a form of writing and be creative. You must also see me for approval before you do this.