Today, we present a Book Art Challenge! We get plenty of interesting items donated through our library recycling program…like this this big, 11″ x 14″ box that previously held “Teas of the World.”
Since the box was designed to look and open like a book, we thought it would be the perfect candidate for our first Book Art Challenge. Namely turn the book into art. So here’s what I turned the box into…
It’s poster board, blue cellophane, card stock, and construction paper illuminated with a black light and my iPhone’s flashlight. It’s a little hard to see, but the woods actually layers backwards into the box.
So we’re keeping our eyes on our recycling piles for anything that remotely looks or acts like a book for our next Book Art Challenge. And I do believe it’ll be Katie’s turn! Maybe we can wrangle a couple guest artists as well…?
Always on the lookout for literary and word games, I spotted this fantastically stylish box on the shelves of JaZams, our local independently-owned toy store. The game came highly recommended by their staff, and has won several awards to boot. Did it live up to the hype? Read on!
Let’s say there are 4 people playing this round. As you can see below, there are 3 identical Code Cards, but only 1 Chameleon Card. Each player randomly chooses a card and keeps it secret from the other players.
The dealer flips over the Topic Card and rolls the yellow and blue die. Players with Code Cards quietly match the die roll results to the appropriate category of the Topic Card. So, in the case of the roll below, the secret category is “The Three Little Pigs.”
Starting with the dealer, each player takes a turn describing the secret category with one word. But if you are the chameleon, you are faking your little heart out, trying to come up with a word to describe a category you have NO idea about. But you can listen to the other players and wager a pretty good guess, all the while keeping a straight face.
The game manufacturer’s recommended age range is 14 & up, but we test ran the game with the 9-12 year-olds in Cotsen Critix, our children’s literary society (we just made sure we pulled out some of the more mature Topic Cards, like ones that included the names of alcoholic beverages). After just a touch of trouble with the instructions and locating the secret category from the dice roll, the kids were off and running!
The books hilariously builds up to P.U. Zorilla inevitably doing what skunks do. We wanted to capture some of that fun, so our skunk box actually “sprays” when startled, courtesy of a rectangle cut in its rear and a white plastic grocery bag…
Also part of the story time project? A police hat for you, and a police collar for your skunk. The hat is from our 
Katie printed 6 images on 8.5″ x 11″ card stock. Half of the images were calm (flowers, puppies, ice cream truck) and the other half were alarming (robber, loud noise, ghost). Katie walked the kids through the training, asking them to react to the different scenes. If it was alarming, the kids pulled the plastic bag out of their skunks and sprayed!