Bastian, the young hero of The Neverending Story, is a true lover of books. They provide him a way to escape from his ordinary life and the cruelty of his peers, and one particularly powerful book connects him to the magical world of Fantastica.
Our Education department has developed an exercise that a book expert like Bastian would enjoy, entitled, not coincidentally, The Book Expert. This activity was originally designed for the classroom, but works for any group of perhaps five or more.
The Book Expert
Assemble your participants and tell them that you have some special guests eager to meet them. These people are so smart that they have two heads. And they are experts at books; they know everything there is to know about reading books and writing books, and they just love anything that has to do with books!
Ask two participants to come to the front of the group and become the two-headed book expert. (Have some fun with it if you like - have them sit together with one's head over the other's shoulder, or squeeze them into a giant oversized sweater.)
Choose one member of the group who has a question for the wise book expert, and ask him/her to share it with the group. All together in one voice, the group asks the question of the book expert. The question should always begin with "Oh, Great Book Expert..." and then into the question. For example, "Oh Great Book Expert, what does it take to be a fast reader?"
The Book Expert has to answer the question one word at a time, one person at a time. If the Expert knows the real answer, then they should answer with that, otherwise they must make it up.
You can mix it up by adding more heads to the Expert, and can get everyone involved by swapping out whichever Book Expert "head" slips up in their answer.
This is a great activity for building cooperation, imagination and spontaneity.
Our Education department has developed an exercise that a book expert like Bastian would enjoy, entitled, not coincidentally, The Book Expert. This activity was originally designed for the classroom, but works for any group of perhaps five or more.
The Book Expert
Assemble your participants and tell them that you have some special guests eager to meet them. These people are so smart that they have two heads. And they are experts at books; they know everything there is to know about reading books and writing books, and they just love anything that has to do with books!
Ask two participants to come to the front of the group and become the two-headed book expert. (Have some fun with it if you like - have them sit together with one's head over the other's shoulder, or squeeze them into a giant oversized sweater.)
Choose one member of the group who has a question for the wise book expert, and ask him/her to share it with the group. All together in one voice, the group asks the question of the book expert. The question should always begin with "Oh, Great Book Expert..." and then into the question. For example, "Oh Great Book Expert, what does it take to be a fast reader?"
The Book Expert has to answer the question one word at a time, one person at a time. If the Expert knows the real answer, then they should answer with that, otherwise they must make it up.
You can mix it up by adding more heads to the Expert, and can get everyone involved by swapping out whichever Book Expert "head" slips up in their answer.
This is a great activity for building cooperation, imagination and spontaneity.
