Regular Book Reports are So Last Century – Spark Yours up With Some Creativity

Book reports are just boring. But instructors still assign them, and students still must write them. It’s the same old song and dance:

• Summarize the Plot
• List and analyze the main characters
• Describe the setting
• Identify and speak to the author’s themes
• Provide your opinion – would you recommend it?

If, however, your instructor lets you loose from the “chains” of the traditional book report and decides to assign creative book report projects instead, then you at least can have some fun while you prepare you report.

Now to Get Those Creative Book Report Ideas

You are so used to writing the old boring book reports, you may have trouble coming up with a unique idea to present your book in a creative way. Long ago and far away, in the days before the Internet, this would have been a real problem. You would have to rely on your own ingenuity or suggestions from family and friends. Today, however, you have the web, and you know how to find ideas for creative book reports – a simple Google search will give you loads of websites that have fresh ideas. And if you refine that search and ask for examples of creative book reports, you will get actual images and explanations for crafting them.

Watch the Level

One of the things you have to be mindful of as you search for creative book report ideas is that a lot of websites are for elementary level students and teachers. And the ideas will be elementary and simple as well. On the other hand, you can get some ideas that will trigger ways to enhance and expand a simple project into one that is more complex than the one meant for a young child.

Refining the search even further, go for high school or college ideas- you’ll find more sophisticated products such as podcasts, power point slide presentations, dioramas, murals, storyboards, etc. One student even produced a book report that took on the format of a science lab report with the author’s theme as his hypothesis.

Consider Collaboration

If others in the course have read the same book, this is a perfect opportunity to divide and conquer. Many heads are certainly better than one, so a group book report project may result in a far more creative report than you would have designed and developed on our own. And group reports lend themselves to many more presentation possibilities – role playing, panel discussions, etc. And if any members of the group are artistically inclined, think of the possibilities – poems, art, songs.

A Few Ideas to Get You Started

If you are still struggling with ideas, here are a few that are relatively simple that you can pull together, even if it is the last minute.

• Write a letter to the main character and tell him/her what you think of her or what you think he should have said or done differently. You can also write a reply from that character back to you.
• Be a late night talk show host and have the character on for an interview
• Create a book jacket – an enticing cover, a summary and characters on the inside flap, an author bio on the other inside flap, and some intriguing comments about the book on the back that will motivate someone to read it. You can use real book covers to give yourself ideas.
• Write a news story or a press release about the events in the story
• Prepare an advertising campaign for the book – write a commercial; write a blog post; create a social media post about it.
• Create a Facebook page for the main character and post the events of the story and have the other characters in the story comment on those posts
• Compose chat room type questions that would inspire discussion of the book. This is a great idea for a group project, because members of the group can then participate in the chat discussion.
• Create a video, re-enacting the tale – another great group project
• Compose a song or a rap that tells the story
• Create a storyboard
• Write a different ending for the plot. This is not the type of assignment that you had in elementary school. You will need to have dialogue, descriptions, and events that are in keeping with the actual tale and characters.
• If you are artistic or working with someone who is, make a mural.
• Create an adult coloring book that includes the story and the characters.

These are just a few ideas – your search will come up with many more. The complexity of your project will really depend upon how much time you have, the others you are working with, and how much interest you have in it. The weight of the grade compared to other assignments in the class should also be considered. If exams and papers are worth more, then keep your project simple.