The Name of This Book is Secret

The latest book we've been reading for our Family Book Club is The Name of This Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch. It was a really fun book and all of us enjoyed it a lot. Tonight we had our book club activity to discuss the book. First we talked about the author and I asked the kids questions about the book.  I'm always surprised by how much they remembered.

Then, because one of the main characters is really good at breaking codes, we did a break the code activity.

I gave each kid their own "Magicians Notebook" to write their secrets in.  Garrett apparently has lots of things he needs to write down in his!

Then we did a "Symphony of Smells" like the one that is mentioned in the book.  We had 8 test tubes with different scents in each and they had to identify the smells.  They all did really great except for Garrett who apparently has a stuffy nose, and I didn't even know.  Thanks to my resident scientist for the use of his test tubes and I am very sorry that your study reeks of onions now!

Here we are reviewing the results of their Symphony of Smells test. The scents we used were Vinegar, Chocolate, Onions, Cinnamon, Lemon, Peanuts, Grape, and Peppermint.  Peppermint was the hardest.  Lexi was the closest when she guessed "toothpaste." 

It just so happens that there was a character named Amber in the book who had a different Smootchie (chapstick) each week and at the end of the week she would give it away to some "lucky" person.  So of course I had to give each kid a Smootchie (ours were new, unused ones though!).  Can I also mention that Amber was described in the book as being the "nicest girl in the school" and she was very popular.  Go Ambers everywhere!

For our treats we had Cotton Candy.  Part of the book is about a pair of twins who grow up in the Circus and they loved Cotton Candy. My kids almost never get cotton candy so they were in heaven!

Some books are difficult to come up with fun activities to do but this one was so much easier for me. I thought it turned out really good. Our next book is going to be The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo.