A bit earlier this summer, my good friend Cathy Nelson shared her thoughts with me as she began planning for this fall’s Teen Read Week (sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association). She has several great ideas (see her post here), but the one that immediately captured my attention was her Books2Pics slides. For each book, she created a slide containing pictures of several of its key elements. Her plan is to have one displayed each day during Teen Read Week and challenge the students to identify the book.
Because the idea looked just plain fun to me, when I finished reading one of the 2012 South Carolina Young Adult Book Award (SCYABA) nominees, I created a Books2Pics slide and shared it with Cathy and another good friend (and the third of the original Three Media Musketeers) Heather Loy, challenging them to “Name that Book.”
After I had created three of these slides (I’m telling you, it’s addictive!), I finally had that light bulb moment. All of the YA books I am currently reading are from the 2012 SCYABA nominee list (gotta be familiar with those books!). Why not sponsor a “Name that Book” contest during Teen Read Week similar to our YA Lit Jeopardy contest last year?
Name that Tune
For those of you not old enough to remember the “Name that Tune” game show, during the Bid a Note portion of the show two contestants vied for prizes by identifying songs from just a few notes. A bidding “war” took place before one contestant had to name the song. Contestant One would say, “I can name that tune in 5 notes” and Contestant Two would either counter by saying, “I can name that tune in 3 notes” or “Name that tune,” placing Contestant One in the hot seat to name the song from just the number of notes he/she had bid.
Each of the book slides I have created contains five photographs of key elements in the book. I have used PowerPoint’s Customize Animation feature so that only one photograph will appear on the slide each time the mouse is clicked. Two students, or teams of students, will challenge each other to “Name that Book” in 5, 4, 3, 2, or 1 photograph(s). Since all books in the game come from the 2012 SCYABA nominees, there will be no need to give individual hints before each new slide.
“Picture It @ Your Library” is this year’s theme for Teen Read Week making this contest a perfect fit. I can only hope that the students will have as much fun playing “Name that Book” as I have had creating it!