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We had so much fun! We used the Costume Conspiracy for our book club
in conjunction with our mystery months. The kids read
Encyclopedia Brown and the came to book club yesterday. Most of
the kids were 8 and very good out-loud-readers. Everyone got to be a
character and the personalization was so unique. I must say that I
have good casting instincts! Everyone loved being their character and
really got into it! Some brought costumes, but most did not. They
are really not necessary. They all had little notebooks and pencils.
We began the book club by reading the introduction and acting out the
placement of the characters. The only set we had was a table, an
empty cake plate, a punch bowl and a table cloth. We acted it out,
turned out the lights, removed the tablecloth, put it on the ghost,
flipped over the punch bowl and left the empty cake plate. The kids
got a really great idea of the scene before and after.
Then, as narrator, I called all of the kids to court. They were the
jury and the testifiers. I was the judge. We brought each suspect up
in front of the bunch to testify. The three questions were asked by
different jurors. They read their paragraphs and I helped them out by
repeating some of the facts that might (or might not) be important. They had fun deciding which ones were important! They all enjoyed
testifying and many really got into it by saying, "That sounds
suspicious! I better write that down!"
After the trial, I allowed them to mingle around with the other
suspects to ask the special question. That worked out beautifully.
Then, they sat down and wrote what they thought was the solution to
the case. They each came up to the front of the group and accused,
told why and most said that the cake was eaten! At the end, I read
the verdict. Everyone had so much fun! Two of the kids solved the
mystery almost down to the last detail. It was really need to observe
the kids pattern of thought!
We then ate food according to what might be served at a kid's costume
party. We didn't get pizza though. I missed that little detail. We
had sandwiches, cookies, lemonade and the most extraordinary
chocolate cake you could imagine! One of our mom's is a cake
decorator! Check this out!
She went on-line and looked at the pictures of the character. She
just couldn't fit the pirate in. We were AMAZED!!!!!
The kids had dinner and went outside to play. I had moved the cake
into the room on the table where we had the play. When I went in
there to cut it, it was gone! I ran into the kitchen and there were
all of the grown-ups looking very poker faced. I told them the cake
was gone and they said, "No way, you're kidding..." They were good.
They went on for a bit making me second guess myself, but I turned
around and pointed at my mom and said, "You took it and put it on my
sink in the bathroom." She tried to figure out a comeback, but she
just smiled and said, "You're good!" I had seen her exiting my
bedroom for no apparent reason. They were all in on it!
We all had so much fun. Thank you so much for your mystery!
Rebecca Simonfalvi
DeSoto, Texas
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