gobstoppers game

New fun titles from Macmillan
Chatterbooks Activity Pack
About this pack
Here are four great new books in Macmillan’s Gobstoppers collection, plus ideas for
activities in your Chatterbooks reading group, and suggestions for much more
reading.
A recent survey of children’s and family reading found that above all children want
books that make them laugh. These four books are just the thing!
Frank Cottrell Boyce
The Astounding Broccoli Boy
Andy Griffiths & Terry Denton
The 13-Storey Treehouse
Candy Guard
Turning to Jelly
Garth Jennings
The Deadly 7
This pack is brought to you by The Reading Agency and their Children’s Reading Partners publisher
partner Macmillan Children’s Books.
Chatterbooks is a reading group programme for children aged 4 to 14 years. It is coordinated by
The Reading Agency and its patron is author Dame Jacqueline Wilson. Chatterbooks groups run in
libraries and schools, supporting and inspiring children’s literacy development by encouraging them
to have a really good time reading and talking about books.
The Reading Agency is an independent charity working to inspire more people to read more
through programmes for adults, young people and Children – including the Summer Reading
Challenge, and Chatterbooks. See www.readingagency.org.uk
Children’s Reading Partners is a national partnership of children’s publishers and libraries working
together to bring reading promotions and author events to as many children and young people as
possible.
Contents
3
6
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12
14
17
What are Gobstoppers? Talking about the books. General warm up activities
The Astounding Broccoli Boy – plus discussion and activity ideas
The 13-Storey Treehouse – plus discussion and activity ideas
Turning to Jelly – plus discussion and activity ideas
The Deadly 7 – plus discussion and activity ideas
More reading ideas
2
What are Gobstoppers?!
Gobstoppers are seriously funny books published by Macmillan for children aged 6
upwards, and this pack tells you all about four brand-new Gobstopper books – books
to suit all tastes…..full of fun, adventure, and twists and turns to keep you reading
and laughing and reading some more.
Have a look at the Gobstoppers website
and sign up for the Gobstoppers newsletter to keep up to date with all the fun!
In this pack you’ll find discussion, activity, and more reading ideas inspired by each of
the four featured books.
But first of all here are some book-talking tips and warm up activities to get the
Chatterbooks chat going, whichever book you are reading.
Talking about the books
Introducing the book
Look at the cover and the blurb, set the scene, and read aloud the first chapter to
introduce the book – and maybe one or two tasters further on to attract people into
the story.
Then read the book all the way through, either reading aloud to everyone together,
or letting people read and experience the book for themselves.
Talking about the book: some book-talk questions
Get everyone to share their first responses to this book. This could be with the whole
group – or children could discuss in small groups, and then share their main feelings
and questions with everyone.
Then explore further what people think about the story. Encourage lots of discussion
– there are no wrong answers!
 How did you feel when reading this book? And when you’d finished it?
 Which parts of the story do you remember most?
 Did you skip any parts? Which ones?
 Was there anything that took you by surprise?
 Were there any parts you didn’t make sense of?
 If you gave up on this book can you say why?
 What were the funniest bits for you?
 What single word (or two!) describes this book for you?
3
Warm ups
Comedy Store!
At the back of The 13-Storey Treehouse there’s a ‘Funnies’ page with some jokey
riddles, such as Why did the shark spit out the clown? Because he tasted funny!
Get together a collection of joke books and your Treehouse book, then ask children
to get into pairs and choose their favourite jokes.
Each pair could choose 6 or 7 jokes – they could also have a go at making up some
themselves! Try to get jokes on a similar theme – eg. animal jokes, or jokes about
monsters, colours, school…
Then get each pair to put together a comedy routine, telling their jokes. Give them 20
minutes or so to practise, and then let each pair in turn perform their jokes routine to
the rest of the group. The loudest applause shows the winning routine!
4
Gobstoppers Wordsearch
Here are some words and characters’ names from each of the 4 books featured in
this pack.
See if you can find these words in the squares below - across, down, up, diagonally,
and from right to left.
The answers are at the end of the pack.
From The Astounding Broccoli Boy
RORY ROONEY
KILLER KITTENS
SUPERHEROES
PENGUINS
From The 13-Storey Treehouse
CANARY
SEA MONKEYS
MERMAIDIA
MARSHMALLOWS
From Turning to Jelly
MYF
ROOBS
MISS HADDOCK
WELLIES
From The Deadly 7
NELSON GREEN
POGO
DEADLY SINS
BRAZILIAN JUNGLE
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5
Four new Gobstopper books!
Plus discussion and activity ideas for each
Frank Cottrell Boyce The Astounding Broccoli Boy
978-1405054676 (Hardback)
Rory Rooney likes to be prepared for all eventualities. His favourite
book is Don't Be Scared, Be Prepared, and he has memorized every
page of it. He could even survive a hippo attack. He knows that just
because something is unlikely doesn't mean it won't ever happen.
But Rory isn't prepared when he suddenly and inexplicably turns
green.
Stuck in an isolation ward in a hospital far from home with two
other remarkably green children, Rory is as confused by his new
condition as the medics seem to be. But what if it's not in their genes, or a virus, or something they
ate? What if turning green actually means you've turned into a superhero?
Rory can't wait to make it past hospital security and discover exactly what his superpower might be
That’s when I saw why everyone was scared of me.
My face had changed colour. My face had gone green…
When I say green, I don’t mean greenish. I don’t mean looking-a-bit-pale-about-to-throw-up green.
I don’t mean flesh-with-a-hint-of-green green. I mean a bright, lettucey green.
Frank Cottrell Boyce, father of seven, is an established British screenwriter. He lives in Merseyside.
Frank's first book, Millions won the CILIP Carnegie Medal in 2004 and has has also been made into a
movie directed by Danny Boyle (with a screen-play written by Frank) and was chosen as the
Liverpool Reads book for 2005/06.
His second novel, Framed, was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread Award and the
Guardian Prize. It was also made into a feature-length drama, broadcast on BBC1 in August 2009
(with a screen-play written by Frank). His third novel, Cosmic, was published in June 2008 and was
shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2008, the CILIP Carnegie Medal and the
inaugural Roald Dahl Funny Prize. Frank has also written three books about the flying car Chitty
Chitty Bang Bang.
Things to talk about
Don’t Be Scared, Be Prepared
This is the name of a book which Nelson’s mother has – it tells you what to do in all
kinds of tricky or possibly dangerous situations, such as wasp stings, power cuts, or a
hippo attack…
Together list some possible situations where it’s good to be prepared, and then talk
about what you might do in each situation and how to get prepared – eg. fire drill;
sensible shoes/boots in icy weather; candles and matches in case of a power cut.
And talk as well about how best to cope if you’re not prepared for something –
keeping cool!
6
It’s not easy being green!
What would you do if you woke up in the morning, looked in the mirror, and realised
your whole body had turned green?!
Being astounding (1)
What are you really good at? What is your superpower? Standing on one leg for
more than 5 minutes? Writing poetry? Cooking brilliant brownies?
Activities
Being astounding (2)
They didn’t choose to be heroes. They didn’t even want to be heroes. Something
weird happened and they became astounding. (p12)
This is what Nelson says about how some of fiction’s superheroes got their powers –
Spider-Man was bitten by a radio-active spider, the Incredible Hulk was blown up by
a bomb. And now Nelson is green, he has a superfast brain.
Have a go at creating your own superhero or superheroine – here are some trigger
questions to get you going:
Name
Your astounding superhero/ine!
.................................................................
Special power
Weird thing that happened
to make him/her
astounding
Who or what is their
nemesis?
Every superhero has a nemesis. Batman has the Joker. SpiderMan has the Green Goblin.(p23)
For some more ideas have a look at our Chatterbooks activity pack Superheroes,
comic books, comics and cartoons
7
Similes
A simile is where you compare something to something else, to give a vivid picture of
what you are describing. Often you use the word ‘like’ to make the comparison.
In The Astounding Broccoli Boy the author Frank Cottrell Boyce gives us some lovely
similes – for example:
…like a piece of spooky Playmobil, he sleepwalked right up to the ward door…. (p1)
Miles below, the city twinkled like a massive Christmas tree. (p2)
Have a look through this book and see if you can find 10 more similes. Which one is
your favourite?
Have a go at writing your own similes to complete these descriptions:
……………………………………………………………………………
The sea glittered in the sun like…
The man’s rough voice sounded
like…
The cat’s fur shone like…
The sound of the wind in the trees
was like…
A shot rang out like…
She gobbled up the food like…
8
Andy Griffiths & Terry Denton The 13-Storey
Treehouse 978-1447279785
Andy and Terry live in the WORLD'S BEST treehouse! It's got a giant
catapult, a secret underground laboratory, a tank of man-eating sharks
and a marshmallow machine that follows you around and shoots
marshmallows into your mouth whenever you're hungry! Just watch out
for the sea monkeys, and the monkeys pretending to be sea monkeys, and the giant mutant
mermaid sea monster . . . Oh, and, whatever you do, don't get trapped in a burp-gas-filled bubble . .
.!
The story follows Andy and Terry's crazy adventures in their treehouse as they try to write a book,
and is told through a combination of text and fantastic cartoon-style illustrations.
We live in a tree. Well, when I say ‘tree’ I mean treehouse. And when I say ‘treehouse’ I don’t mean
any old tree-house – I mean a 13-storey treehouse! So what are you waiting for? Come in up! It’s
got a bowling alley, a see-through swimming pool, a tank full of man-eating sharks, vines you can
swing on, a games room, a secret underground laboratory, a lemonade fountain, a vegetable
vaporiser, and a marshmallow machine…
Andy Griffiths is Terry’s best mate. He is also Australia’s number one children’s author. Andy has
worked as a teacher, been the lead singer in a rock band, and a stand-up comedian. He is a
passionate advocate for literacy and lives in Melbourne, Australia. See www.andygriffiths.com.au
Terry Denton is Andy’s best mate. Like Andy he is a best-selling and award winning author based in
Melbourne. His work includes the Horrible Science series for Scholastic UK. See
http://www.terrydenton.com
Things to talk about
Your funniest bit in this story
In pairs tell each other your most favourite, funniest bit in this story – then tell the
rest of the group. Collect all these funny bits on a flip chart - then vote for your
group’s overall FUNNIEST BIT!
To Don’t List – and beyond
On a flip chart make two lists - ‘To Don’t’ and ‘To Do’.
For the 1st list all put down all the things you don’t really want to do (even though
maybe you ought to!)
For the 2nd list put down your dreams and ambitions.
If cats could make phone calls…
…they might order a takeaway pizza, with extra fish… (p32)
you think these animals might make?!
** Hamsters ** Dogs ** Snakes
** Budgies
What phone calls do
** Goldfish
9
Activities
Design your own treehouse
Have a look at the picture of Andy and Terry’s treehouse (pages 6 & 7) and then have
a go at designing your own. What special rooms will you have? What gadgets would
you like?! What will you call the house?
You may want to use this tree sketch to get you going on your design – or you could
download this Treehouse poster.
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Writing and making a book
Andy and Terry realise that it would be great to base their book on ‘stuff that actually
happens’. We don’t have to think anything up. We’ve just lived through a really
interesting day. All we have to do is write it all down, draw some pictures and we’ll
have our book! (p221)
Look at pages 222-8, and think about an interesting day that you have had. Make
notes about what happened and what you did, and plan your story. Draft it in rough
first –like many authors, you may need to do a few versions before your story really
shapes up. You could present your final version as an actual book – here’s a link to a
website with some great ideas for making books.
Self portrait of your toe!
On p46 Terry has drawn a funny selfie of his finger!
Try doing one of your toe – or maybe your ear or your nose!
Sea monsters
One of Terry’s sea-monkeys turns out to be a surprising kind of mermaid (p105):
Mermaidia wasn’t Mermaidia any more. She was a sea monster! …there was her
slimy sea-monstery skin… and her slimy sea-monstery tentacles… and her slimy seamonstery stench…
See what you can find out about these two legendary sea monsters!
The Loch Ness Monster
The Kraken
11
Candy Guard Turning to Jelly
978-1447256106
Big school means big problems in the first book in this comic-bookstyle illustrated series about twelve-year-old Jelly Rowntree and her
friends.
Jelly (who is wobbly only when she runs and when Roger Lovely is in
the vicinity) and her dorky best friends Ruby and Myf are going to
secondary school. They know it’s time to be cool and stop playing
with dolls in their secret club …
But what with winning the cross-country in her wellies, getting her
first not-so-secret admirer, and throwing the worst birthday party EVER, how (on earth) will Jelly
become one of the popular girls?
I am sick of being an embarrassed person…People only really care if they make fools of
themselves – if it’s someone else they’re just thankful and relieved it’s not them. So really it was a
kindness to others to make a fool of yourself, if you thought about it.
Candy Guard is a writer, animator and cartoonist. Her main influences are Beryl the Peril and Claire
Bretecher (look her up!) and she has created Dolly Pond, the feisty yet weedy central character of
her Channel 4 award-winning animated sit.com Pond Life – there’s loads of it on you-tube if you
want to have a look. Candy lives in Catford.
Things to talk about
Being embarrassed – or not
Look at the descriptions of Myfanwy and Rubi on pages 7 & 8 – Myf just doesn’t care
about things, and Roobs , on the other hand, does care.
Talk about the things that you care about – and the things that don’t bother you at
all.
Primary school - Big school
In Chapter 3 Jelly writes and draws about the differences between primary school
and secondary school – on a flip chart make a list together of all the differences your
group can think of. Vote for the things you like and the things you don’t like so much
at each school.
Nicknames
Jelly’s real name is Roberta Rowntree – have a look at page 14 to see why she has the
nickname Jelly. We often make nicknames by tweaking someone’s name – eg. Gary
becomes Gaz – or basing it on a particular characteristic – eg. ‘Storky’ for someone
tall with long legs.
What are the nicknames of people in your group, and how did they get them?
12
Activities
Knitting!
Jelly’s mum gets addicted to knitting (p35) and makes outfits for everyone, including
the family pets.
Your group could get into knitting while you read to them! Maybe not a cat poncho –
but how about squares for a blanket? Here are some instructions for simple stitches
and for knitting squares for a patchwork blanket
Hopscotch
Jelly and her friends play the game hopscotch at school – does your
group know this game? And are there other playground games
which they like?
This school website gives some more games and how to play them
You and your friends
Jelly does some great cartoon-style drawings which show what she and her friends
are like (p7-9). Have a go at doing your own drawings of each other – label them up,
to give more detail, as Jelly has done.
You could put them all together to make a
group picture – maybe for your Chatterbooks noticeboard!
Playing with words!
When Jelly wants to emphasise a word, and make it say even more about itself, she
makes it big and bold – or writes it in a different font - or decorates it.
On page 1 look at how she’s highlighted ‘tomorrow’ to make it look exciting, and how
she’s written NERVOUS in very shaky letters, as if they’re shivering with nerves!
Here’s a short passage from The Astounding Broccoli Boy by Frank Cottrell Boyce.
Try writing it out and emphasising or decorating some of the words to make them
stand out:
He stood completely still, listening for something. There was a sound
like a tap dripping but getting louder and louder, as though the tap was coming towards
us. Suddenly it was a lot louder. Around the corner came the penguin. It must have
been hiding, waiting for us. Tommy-Lee stood still till the penguin flip-flopped past
him and self-catapulted up the steps one by one.
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Garth Jennings The Deadly 7
978-1447251712
When Nelson's beloved big sister goes missing on a school trip, Nelson is
devastated - he's not that good at making friends and his sister is the only
person he can talk to. His parents join the search party and leave Nelson
in the care of his mad uncle Pogo. Uncle Pogo is the caretaker of St Paul's
Cathedral and it is here that Nelson stumbles across a machine, invented
by Christopher Wren and buried for hundreds of years.
Designed to extract the 7 deadly sins, the machine had a fault - once extracted, the sins became
living, breathing monsters who would then follow the sinner around for eternity (unless they ate
him first, in the case of the particularly sinful).
Nelson accidentally extracts 7 deadly monsters from his own soul. Ugly, cantankerous, smelly and
often the cause of much embarrassment, Nelson's monsters are the last thing he needed in his life,
but at least they're fairly harmless (he's a pretty good kid, on the whole). When he learns of their
individual powers he realises the monsters can be put to good use, and together Nelson and the
Deadly 7 set out on a quest across the globe to find his big sister. Along the way, Nelson realises
that he finally has friends, even if they are smelly, lazy friends who like smashing stuff up.
Everything was happening so fast and it was all so . . . mad. It was as if someone had taken reality,
made it into a jigsaw, thrown the jigsaw on to the floor and then said, "Now, hurry up and put it all
together!" as they danced all over the jigsaw pieces in a clown suit, blowing a trumpet.
Garth Jennings has directed many music videos and commercials as one third of the production
company Hammer and Tongs, including videos for Blur, Radiohead, and Fatboy Slim.
He is the director of the feature film The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) and he is currently
directing an animated feature for the studio that created Despicable Me.
Things to talk about
Scary….
Read and talk about this passage – do people find it scary? How does the writer
create a tense atmosphere?
Nelson’s eyes snapped open. Something was moving outside his tent. A hurried sort of
shuffling against the stone floor. It wasn’t the shuffling that alarmed Nelson; it was
the fact that it had stopped so suddenly and he had heard a faint but urgent whisper.
It was silent again. Worryingly silent. (p80)
In pairs tell each other about the most frightening thing that has happened to you –
build up your description, put in some sounds and sinister pauses, try to get your
partner really scared!
The seven deadly sins
To understand more about Nelson’s deadly 7 monsters, talk about what we mean by
sins. Go through a list of the original seven deadly sins, discussing what they mean.
14
Activities
Nelson’s Deadly 7
A strange and ancient machine extracts from Nelson seven sins, which come alive as
monsters and join Nelson in his quest to find his sister. Sometimes they help,
sometimes they hinder!
Here are descriptions of the monsters – they’ve been muddled up and need to be
matched to the right name.
Name Description of each Deadly 7 monster
Miser A bird-like creature stood before him approximately half Nelson’s height and
covered in dazzling golden feathers…looking like a gilded dodo with the voice
and demeanour of a waiter from a very expensive restaurant.
Spike A horned beast with the angriest red skin you’ve ever seen and hands as big
as boxing gloves stomped forward on shiny black hoofs…
Hoot A blue egg-shaped monster that shuffled forward on feet that flopped like
wet socks…long tentacles for arms…a nose that started at the top of his head
and ran all the way down to a small, pinched mouth…
Stan This one had a ginger-coloured body shaped like a cross between a puppy and
a foghorn…it had big, floppy ears like a springer spaniel, four little arms and a
mouth like the bell of a trumpet.
Nosh This one looked like a great pink sack of potatoes with tiny eyes, large hairy
nostrils, coarse skin, useless stick-like arms, hands and legs, and a mouth as
wide as an oven door.
Puff
…a very sad-looking cactus. Its bright green waxy flesh was covered in
hundreds of spikes and its arms were long, thin and trailed on the floor like
spindly branches.
Crush …a furry and very slow-moving ball of purple…It looked as if someone had
deflated a huge purple cat…He yawned and revealed the inside of his mouth,
which was pastel blue except for his teeth, which were banana yellow.
???
Create your own monster here! Write a description and give it a name.
Family trees
On p53 there is a family tree showing Nelson and his relations. As the note in the
book says, it’s useful to refer to this as you read the story – you could draw this tree
and add in more information about each character as you meet them.
You could also ask your group to draw their own family trees, again adding in details
about each person.
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Uncle Pogo’s leg
Uncle Pogo has a false leg which has all sorts of compartments and brilliant devices
(p54).
Design a false arm, using the template below – what useful gizmos could you build
into it?
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More reading ideas
If you liked The Astounding Broccoli
Boy try these…
Frank Cottrell
Boyce
Cosmic
Macmillan
Framed
Macmillan
Millions
Macmillan
The Unforgotten Coat
Walker
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again!
Macmillan
Eoin Colfer
Airman
Puffin
Chris O’Dowd &
Nick Murphy
Elizabeth Laird
Moone Boy
Macmillan
The Fastest Boy in the World
Macmillan
Siobhan Dowd
The London Eye Mystery
Yearling
9780330440868
9780330452922
9781447246381
9781406341546
9780330544191
9780141322216
9781447270942
9781447267171
9780552572316
If you liked The 13-Storey Treehouse
try these…
Andy Griffiths &
Terry Denton
Dav Pilkey
The 26-Story Treehouse (publ. April 2015)
Square Fish
The Adventures of Captain Underpants
Scholastic
Philip Reeve &
Sarah McIntyre
Cakes in Space
OUP
9781250073273
9780439014571
9780192734563
If you liked Turning to Jelly try these…
Candy Guard
Jelly Has a Wobble (publ. March 2015)
Macmillan
Wendy
Meddour
Liz Pichon
Wendy Quill is Full Up of Wrong
OUP
The Brilliant World of Tom Gates
Scholastic
Catherine
Wilkins
My Brilliant Life and Other Disasters
Nosy Crow
9781447256137
9780192794673
9781407120690
9780857631596
If you liked The Deadly 7 try these…
Adam Blade
Beastquest 1: Ferno the Fire Dragon
Orchard
Alan Snow
Here Be Monsters! (The Boxtrolls)
OUP
The Beastly Boys
Sea Monsters and Other Delicacies
Simon &
Schuster
9781846164835
9780192739308
9781847388384
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And here are some great YouTube videos about these books:
13 Storey Treehouse book trailer
Turning to Jelly book trailer
Garth Jennings Q&A
Garth Jennings introduces the monsters in The Deadly 7
Garth Jennings talks about writing
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O
E
S
W
V
D
P
P
L
Y
N
B
R
B
X
S
A
S
T
A
S
N
O
Z
L
L
I
G
M
L
M
C
F
D
L
H
Q
U
G
V
D
K
I
L
L
E
R
K
I
T
T
E
N
S
O
E
X
U
J
E
P
E
M
K
B
V
H
G
N
J
G
P
F
Q
P
G
S
C
V
K
J
H
D
B
P
E
N
G
U
I
N
S
18