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Fun Friday Have Fun with Your Teens Literature

Bookworm Party 2.0

Here’s how my Type A inner voice works. I get an idea to do something: OH, THIS WILL BE FUN! LET’S DO IT.

I get to planning the idea: THIS IS THE MOST FUN EVER! 

(Seriously, planning is the most fun ever.) 

Half way through the planning: Maybe this is a dumb idea. Why am I doing this work when there are 1000 other things to do? No one would want to do this anyway. I’m wasting my time. 

(This is how I talk myself out of numerous things all year long, like hosting a cook out, asking my neighborhood friends over for a glass of wine on the deck, a s’mores roast in the fall. Oh, no one would want to come do that. I manage to ignore that voice in my head a few times a year and do the thing anyway.)

I keep planning anyway because THE FUN. 

Now to run errands for supplies/food: Ugggghhhh, Atlanta traffic is the worst. How much do I really want to do this? How committed am I? Can I quit now? Anything to avoid Atlanta traffic.

I get out in the traffic. I channel Lewis Black and cuss in the car because ATLANTA TRAFFIC: #*%*^! %&^$*%! @*^&! @$*##!!!

I get back home. 

I decorate & set up. 

We have a party. 

And I don’t regret it. Really, why all of the inner angst? I have no idea. You can’t reason with crazy voices. Sometimes you just ignore them and do your thing. (I’m now realizing I should apply that mentality to crazy Atlanta drivers.)

Look, I did my thing.

My teens had fun. We picked a book list for next school year. That was the whole goal for Bookworm Party 2.0. #win

Once I picked about ten or so books from the library, I googled “famous lines from (insert book title),” and Goodreads was the first result each time. I used it to read through some of the lines from each book and pulled out the ones I thought interesting. Book quotes done. 

(Some books I pulled multiple lines because they were just so good.)

I made the book quote cards in Pages. A 3×4 text box with a border, copy & paste the quote into the text box, change the font, make it big or small enough to fill the box, and center it. Cut them out with a paper cutter. Cards done. 

I pulled out some decorating supplies from my son’s last birthday party and taped them to the window. I came across a banner maker on clearance at my local Michaels and snagged it. I let Whole Foods bakery do the baking this time. I made the banner, someone else can make the treats this year. If I’m not going to bake myself, Whole Foods comes the closest to homemade.

I don’t have any kind of orchestrated educational plan of how my teens should interact with the quotes, books, or food. Just that they read the quotes and point out the ones that hook them. Sometimes they’ll try to guess the book its from, but I’m not driving that. When they point out a line that hooked them, I’ll tell them the title if they didn’t guess. Then they’ll grab the book, read the book jacket and decide if they want to read it after all.

This is just a fun way to expose them to different books. No high stakes here, nothing to prove in terms of literary knowledge. We’re simply having fun with books.

Heather

The first bookworm party

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