Book Reports

Book reports and the arts go very well together. In our leveled book list, ideas might come right from the books, such as for Beethoven Lives Upstairs, a student could play a part of “Ode to Joy” on the piano, flute, etc. and explain what its significance is to the book, or, for A Single Shard, the student could make a simple pot using the colors and decorations indicated in the story, etc. Another idea would be for a student to prepare an interpretive dance portraying events or feelings from a book. For example a book report on Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes could be either an origami crane or a dance showing hope at the beginning and sadness at the end.

Other great suggestions from Michael O. Tunnell’s and James S. Jacobs’ Children’s Literature, Briefly (Prentice-Hall, Inc. 2000) are:

1. Make a diorama of an important scene in the book

2. Construct a mobile representative of the book or some part of it

3. Draw a portrait of the main character(s)

4. Draw a mural which highlights events from the book or retells the story

5. Draw a picture in the same style as the illustrator, or using the same medium (pen and ink, collage, watercolor, etc).

6. Decorate a T-shirt with art related to the story

7. Design a new dust jacket for the book

8. Make a poster advertising the book

9. Make a roll movie of the book

10. Construct a scene out of clay

11. Design a costume for a character to wear

12. Make puppets of the characters and produce a puppet show of the book

13. Videotape a dramatized scene from the book

14. Research music from the time of the book, and find some songs the characters may have sung

15. Perform a scene from the book

16. Pantomime a scene from the book

17. For each character in the book, choose a musical selection which typifies that person