The Have You READ It? Game Show — the Game to Get Kids Thinking and Talking About Great Books

 

The Have You READ It? Game Show, hosted by Bob Bookmark and Rita Digest, is our very playful spoof of a TV Quiz Show about books that is part of every Bodacious Book Show assembly program.

For more than fifteen years, our Bodacious Book Shows have been a featured part of PARP and reading programs at hundreds of Elementary schools. Educators, administrators and parents have seen that the fun approach we bring to books is an effective tool for motivating reluctant readers. Our Bodacious Book Shows work because they help students recall the fun they’ve had with the books they’ve read; help them feel good sharing their reading experiences with their fellow students; and entice them to read more by making everything about books fun and exciting — and an integral element of the success of these programs is “The Have You READ It? Game Show” which gets the entire audience thinking and talking about great books.

Great books make great readers. Discovering that you love a book and want to read it again can begin a lifelong habit of reading. It’s important to expand and reinforce a young reader’s relationship with the books they’ve read through experiential activities that actualize the joy inherent in reading good books. We first created the Bodacious Book Show with a New York State grant to support library reading programs and included this game show component to get kids to share their excitement about books they’ve read and hear about other great books they might love.

Bob Bookmark

Hosts Bob Bookmark and Rita Digest play The Have You READ It? Game with the entire audience all at once — rather than just getting a few students on stage as contestants. We get the whole audience raising their hands to answer questions and even shouting them out when it’s a classic book that everyone knows. The questions range from ones we know that all the students will know (like “What kind of eggs does Sam like with his ham?”) to some tough ones that only the better readers will know (“Who lives in London at 221B Baker Street?”) — because we want to make everyone feel good about the books they’ve read AND give kudos to the best readers, like the 5th grader we saw in one audience getting high fives from her classmates because she knew the answer was “Sherlock Holmes.”

Rita Digest

The competition of a game show is an effective tool for maximizing audience participation, though at the same time we don’t ever want to make a student feel like a loser when we’re talking about reading and books, so the questions are crafted to suit the grade and reading level of each audience and we always make sure all the students are winners by how we set up the teams: for school day assembly programs we divide the audience into two teams, the students vs. the teachers (or kids vs. their parents for family audiences). Yes, the students always win, but we do keep the teachers engaged with some playful questions just for them — while never putting them on the spot. The whole show is played strictly for laughs, with bells and whistles, special bonus questions and comic game show touches like our “Wheel of Reading” and “Name that Animal.”

What a kid reads is as important as how much, so in our assembly programs we focus on tried and true children’s classics and exciting multicultural and adventure stories, with Have You READ It? Game Show questions that draw on special reading lists we’ve devised  in consultation with teachers and librarians for each of the 3 different versions of our Bodacious Book Shows.

Learn more about all of our school programs

New Shows for Library Summer Reading Theme — Dream Big READ

Dream BIG this Summer with Timeless Tales in Two GREAT Shows!

———     SHOW #1:      THE LITTLE MOUSE THAT DREAMED BIG     ——–

Christopher Agostino returns with a special selection of stories for this Summer Reading Club theme. 

The Mouse that becomes an Eagle

Featuring  “The Story of Jumping Mouse, a traditional Native American folktale that captures the power of our dreams to transform our lives. This inspirational tale, made into a children’s book by John Steptoe, is about a brave little mouse that follows his dream and against all odds reaches the far off  land where he is transformed into a mighty eagle. Plus the show includes other exciting tales that encourage young people to dream big and never give up, brought to life through Christopher’s playful storytelling and amazing facepainting.

Magic Frog gives him his Name

Christopher Agostino’s Transformations Storytelling is a very different kind of a show. Audience volunteers are brought on to the stage and facepainted very quickly to illustrate the stories he tells. The amazing facepainting holds kids attention while they listen to folktales from around the world and his original tales. With his extensive repertoire of stories he can perform successfully for any size audience and any age: kids, teens and adults, and each summer he crafts a new selection of stories to fit the Reading Club Theme. In most shows he paints 8 to 12 volunteers while mesmerizing the audience with a theatrical storytelling style and tales that range from the comic adventure of the first time a man met a crocodile to the heroic tale of the boy Punia and the King of the Sharks. It’s surprising and delightful theater for any age. Several themes are available and special shows can be crafted to feature specific cultures and special topics.  Christopher has appeared on the NBC Today Show and the CBS Early Show and performed for hundreds of theaters, schools, libraries and festivals.

See the Transformations-Storytelling video at:

for additional information and videos see: https://thestorybehindthefaces.com/storytelling-show/

————————————————————————————————–

———  SHOW # 2:      The BODACIOUS Book Show CLASSICS    ———-

Including our special version of Jack and the Beanstalk starring kids from the audience and a 60’ beanstalk!

Beatrice the Bookworm

Beatrice the Bookworm is back in the show that’s so much fun it gets everyone inspired to pick up a book and read. Our Bodacious Book Show Classics edition is all about the books that have kept readers dreaming big for generations, from Dr. Seuss and Charlotte’s Web to timeless fairytales like Jack & the Beanstalk. Also featuring the Quiz Show Game that gets the entire audience thinking and talking about great books:“Have You READ It?”

"Have You READ It?" Quiz Show

This fast paced variety show really gets kids inspired to read, because great books make great readers. It features The “Have You READ It?” Game, a TV-style Quiz Show hosted for laughs by Bob Bookmark and Rita Digest in which the whole audience competes, parents included. It’s great to see kids jumping up and down in their seats with answers to such questions as “What kind of eggs does Sam like with his ham?” The questions and challenges are designed to remind young readers of all the fun they’ve had with books they’ve read and to introduce them to other great books so they’ll want to read more. And we bring to life some funny poetry from great authors such as Shel Silverstein and Ogden Nash.

Jack and the Beanstalk starring audience volunteers: The Magic Dancing Bean

Plus there are special guest stars: Professor Fineprint lectures on “1001 Uses for a Book” (but he doesn’t know you can read them); and the very popular Beatrice the Bookworm enlists younger audiences to join in her pledge to “always read my books before I eat them”. The grand finale is a hilarious rendition of “Jack and the Beanstalk” with kids playing the parts onstage and a 60’ beanstalk growing through the audience. The Bodacious Book Show was created to support reading programs in schools and libraries by reminding kids of the fun books they’ve read and interesting them in new ones, because the best way to develop good readers is to let kids discover books so fun they can’t wait to read more.

CLICK HERE for a printable pdf flyer:  BodaciousBookShow1_Flyer2pgs_agostinoarts  (it opens in a new window, click on the link there to get the pdf)

In 2011, the Bodacious Book Show was selected to host the kick-off celebration for the Target Read Across America literacy initiative at the New York Public Library, and introduce the celebrity readers such as Mark Ruffalo and Uma Thurman.

————————————————————————————–

SPECIAL DISCOUNTS available forLibrary Performances.

CONTACT US by email: info@agostinoarts.com, or call 516-771-8086

—————————————————————————————————————————

Agostino Arts Theatre has been presenting programs in schools, libraries, theaters and other venues throughout the Tri-State area for nearly 30 years.

Libraries we appeared at in 2011 include:

Mechanicville Library, Hewlett-Woodmere  Library, Garden City Library, Sayville Library, Atlantic City Free Public Library, Harborfields Library, Wyandanch Public Library, Farmingdale Library, Lynbrook Library, New London Library Festival, East Williston Public Library, Riverhead Public Library, Newburgh Free Library, West Milford Township Library, South Huntington Library, Goshen Public Library, Mastic-Moriches-Shirley Libarary, Burlington Library, Bryant Library, Jamesburg Public Library, Half Hollow Hills Library, West Babylon Library, Rye Free Reading Room, Connetquot Library, Big Flats Library, Horseheads Free Library

When Target planned their launch for the Target Read Across America literacy initiative at the New York Public Library, they asked us to host the kick-off celebration. Beatrice the Bookworm opened the show, then Bob Bookmark and Rita Digest played the exciting “Have You READ It?” Game with the entire audience in between a stellar lineup of celebrity readers, including Uma Thurman and Mark Ruffalo.  http://reading.target.com/read-across-america/

Our Bodacious Book Shows involve the entire audience in the fun

Jack and the Beanstalk - The Singing Golden Harp Duet