Make Books Come Alive: A Book For Puchku

Make Books Come Alive is a series which features activity ideas for the different Indian children’s books from our GetLitt library. Parents, educators, and other adults who work with children’s books and young people can use these resources to make the stories a more immersive and interactive experience.

About The Book:

Puchku has run out of books to read. Then she discovers more books in the top shelf of the library bookcase. But Puchku is small, and the bookcase tall. How will she ever get to her beloved books?

Activity: Make A DIY Board Game

What to do:

Create a board game based on the book.

You can create a simple Start To Finish template for the board game. If you’re feeling more adventurous, you can adapt already-existing games as you work on this one.

Use the setting of the library as the setting for the game. Use the various problems Puchku encounters (and come up with some of your own) in her quest to reach the books she wants.

Get the child(ren) you’re working with to help with the design of the game board, the game pawns, ideas for obstacles which you might encounter in a library, and rewards to help the players move forward.

Once the game is ready, it’ll be time to test it out!

This activity can be adapted to most books. The level of complexity can be varied based on the age of the players and the nature of the story.

What you’ll need:

• Large sheet of drawing paper/cardboard for the game board
• Crayons
• Markers
• Colourful sheets of paper (optional – you can just use crayons to add more colour)
• Game pawns (you can create these out of clay or paper or use any objects lying in the house)
• Dice (Borrow one from a game you own)
• Empty squares of paper (in case you design to incorporate tasks/instructions in your game)

Helpful resources:

You can watch this video where a teacher made a board game in an English class.

Other Activities

1) Visit your local library together.

2) While coming up with ways to get access to more books, Puchku considers using the washing line, her Ma’s sari, and the chairs and tables in the library all stacked up together. Invent some other ways to get to the top of a very tall shelf and illustrate them.

3) Watch The Girl Who Hated Books a short film based on the tale of another girl who had the opposite problem of Puchku’s.

4) Make a bookmark. The internet is full of fun bookmark ideas.

5) If your child owns many books, they can set up a library among their friends. First make a register for all the books they own. Make library cards and a record book. Announce the opening of the library to friends. Lend books to friends (and maybe borrow some too).