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 The Book Club Game is an excellent way to spend quality family time
as it builds family bonds through a uniquely paved conversation that
accomplishes many needed goals at the same time. Family members
read or share the same book to begin play, facilitating reading time
as
a priority. Throughout the strategies of the game family members
must listen closely to the answers given by each person about the
story and their own lives so that all can comment on each turn.
In this way the game facilitates “equal expression time” where
a respectful and supportive conversation takes place fostering
an appreciation of differences as well as similarities of viewpoints.
When the family shares in this way through the activities of the
game they build strong comprehension skills, communication skills,
and a genuine understanding of the purpose of reading as the deeper
meaning and connecting threads of each story unwind. Because the
game’s questions focus on the story shared relating to the
players’ lives during the week they are playing, the game
is dynamic and changes with each week. Family members learn so
much
about each others’ ideas, emotions, and experiences in a
short time through the literature as players discuss the settings,
characters,
themes and plots of their week at hand along with those same elements
of the story shared. The result is an enlightening and revealing
conversation where family members are delighted and surprised to
learn what they didn’t know about each other.
Family Counselors, Psychologists, Social Workers, and others who
work with families will find The Book Club Game to be an invaluable
tool and resource.
Model of Communication
The dynamics of the game enable the family to feel what it is like
to communicate in an equally shared speaking, listening, and commenting
venue where answers build upon listening closely. This positive communication
setting is what so many families need to learn to do
and the game provides and sustains that venue offering respect
to each member.
Bibliotherapy
Because you can play with ANY story you can use a book that perhaps
is about a person or family sharing the same issues as the family
being counseled as a source of inspiration or a new way of looking
at an old problem (bibliotherapy).
Please email contact for a book list of just these kinds of books
including picture books for all ages that can be read at one session
and used for play.
Diagnostic Tool
The game can be used as a diagnostic tool for the counselor
as much is revealed about each person through their responses to
the story elements, shared experiences about their lives, and through
their reactions to the other players’ responses. In addition
to the major comprehension levels, the game also covers all of the
emotions as they relate to what was read and the player’s own
week events. The reactions of the players to the events of her/his
week and to the characters and plot do certainly reveal many key
behaviors and insights into that person’s paradigm and keys
of understanding that can be vital to effective therapy.
Resource
The game provides the counselor with a resource to give the family
to use at home that will promote positive family time, teach and
reinforce positive communication skills, build comprehension skills,
and engage the family in reading, which will highly benefit the children
and parents alike. The game offers the family two amazing book lists
of literature where many of life’s issues are uncovered. The
questions in the game are an invaluable resource that empower parents
and children to dig deep gathering the meaning and purposes of each
story. As these generic questions are internalized a heightened awareness
of connections and universals evolves revealing how literature is
but a reflection of life where much can be learned.
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