acter would call in to and then cre-
ate the conversation he or she would
have with the radio advice giver.
10. Movie recommendations.
From all the movies you’ve seen in
the last couple of years, pick five
you would recommend that your
character see. Give a brief summary
of each movie and explain why you
think the character should see it.
11. Create a home page. Se-
lect several characters and design a
home page for each of them, picking
out appropriate backgrounds and
pictures and then creating informa-
tion that would tell a viewer about
your character. Also, create links to
at least five different sites that you
think your character would be inter-
ested in. Then write up and post on
the page an explanation of how you
made the decisions you did and
what you believe this tells us about
the character.
12. Chat room conversations.
Imagine that your character has
found other people to talk with
while in a chat room he or she found
while surfing the Internet. Describe
the chat room your character was in
and why your character would be
drawn to the kind of group that op-
erates the chat room. Then construct
the conversation your character had
with others while in the chat room.
13. E-mail directory. Create
the e-mail directory of all the people
you can imagine your character
keeping in touch with on e-mail.
Explain why you selected the people
you did and what it shows about
your character. Then construct sev-
eral exchanges between your char-
acter and some of the people in your
character’s directory.
14. Title acrostic. Take a sheet
of construction paper and write the
title of the book down the side of the
paper. For each letter in the title,
construct a sentence that begins
with that letter and that tells some-
thing significant about the story.
15. Cartoon squares. Create
a series of six drawings in six
squares that shows a significant
event in the novel. Under each pic-
ture or cartoon, write a few lines of
explanation.
16. Word collage. Write the
title of the book in the center of a
sheet of paper. Then look through
magazines for words, phrases, and
sentences that illustrate or tell some-
thing about your book. As you look,
think in terms of the theme, setting,
plot line, as well as characters. Work
to get fifty such words, phrases, or
sentences so the whole sheet of
paper will be covered. The visual im-
pact of the collage should tell a po-
tential reader a lot about the book.
17. Yearbook entries. Imagine
what three or four characters from
your novel were like in high school.
Cut out a picture of a person from a
magazine to represent each charac-
ter. Mount one picture per page and
under each picture place the follow-
ing information which you will cre-
ate: nickname of character; activi-
ties, clubs, sports they were in and
what years; class mock award such
as “class clown”; quotation that
shows something about the person
and what is important to him or her;
favorites such as colors and foods; a
book that has had a great impact on
him or her; voted “most-likely-to”
what?; plans after high school.
18. Letter exchange. Create a
letter exchange between a character
and the author or write a series of
self-reflective letters from several
characters on what the character
learned about himself, others, and
life.
19. Awards. Create an award
for each of the main characters
based on their actions in the novel.
One might be awarded “most coura-
geous” for fighting peer pressure,
another might be awarded “wisest”
for the guidance he or she gave
other characters. For each award,
write a paragraph that explains why
this character deserves this award.
20. Talk show on issues in
novel. Create and perform a talk
show around one of the major issues
or themes in the novel. For example,
after reading The Crazy Horse Elec-
tric Game by Chris Crutcher (1987,
Dell) you might want to discuss the
issue of running away from home.
Include people to represent several
points of view on the issue. You
might include characters from the
book, a social worker, a police offi-
cer, a gang member, etc.
21. Dream vacation. Where
do you think your character would
most like to go on a vacation? Pick a
spot, describe it, and explain why he
or she would want to go there or
download information from the In-
ternet on the place. Then write a
day-by-day itinerary of what the
character would do each day and
why you think the character would
enjoy this activity.
22. Scrap book. Think about
all the kinds of mementos you
would put in a scrap book if you
had one. Then create a scrap book
for your character, cutting out pic-
tures from magazines or drawing
the mementos he or she would have
in a scrap book. Think about Willie
in The Crazy Horse Electric Game by
Chris Crutcher. He would probably
have something in his scrapbook to
represent his baby sister, his love of
baseball, his accident, his experi-
ences in L.A., and so on.
23. Photos or magazine pic-
tures. Find two or three photos or
magazine pictures that would have
special significance to your charac-
ter. Mount them on a sheet of paper
and write an explanation of why
they would be important to your
character.
24. Music. After reading a
novel, figure out how you would di-
vide up the book into sections. Then
select a piece of music that you
think captures the feel or tone of
each section. Record the pieces and
if possible do voice-overs explaining
what is happening in the novel dur-
ing the piece of music and why you
felt this piece of music fit the section
of the novel.
25. Poetry. Write three poems
in response to the novel. The poems
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