I’m teaching a book club class in the afternoons for students who want to take their independent reading a little further. We meet twice a week, discuss their reading and generally do book clubbish things, such as share ideas, questions, and, occasionally, chocolate. There are only two students in the class at the moment, and we’ve been together for nine weeks, so we’re starting to get used to each other as readers and thinkers.
We pick the books that we’re reading together, and so it was a pretty normal day when we arrived at a local book store to pick out our next text, as well as some new books for the library that I had ordered.
Of course, the book we had selected wasn’t in. But we found something else.
A student handed me a black, hard cover book, with the words "Cathy’s Book: If found call (650) 266-8233" written with what appeared to be silver marker on the cover. She asked me what I thought. On a hunch, I asked her if she had her cell phone with her. She pulled it from her pocket, at which point I instructed her to dial the number.
She was nervous about that, so she asked me to instead.
I’m going to interrupt this narrative to ask you to dial that number, so long as it’s reasonably cost-effective for you to do so. If you’ve a Skype account, it’s probably a free call for you at the moment — go ahead and dial. I’ll wait.
From the moment we heard that message, we were curious. Then, we opened the book. Alongside a pretty standard looking book was a pouch full of documents and other stuff: ripped up photographs, a menu, some old letters, and some other odd items. We shared the find with the other student in the class, dialed the number for her, she took a listen, and we headed to the register with our new read in hand.
This is an interesting book.
Written by one of the creators of I Love Bees, an early incarnation of an ARG (alternate reality game), Cathy’s Book is a puzzle wrapped inside a book and scattered around lots of voice mail boxes, collections of documents, websites, and . . . well, we’re not sure what else yet. We just know it’s addictive and contagious. At least one other student here at school is waiting to read the book, and we’re all reading voraciously; we even met up today during lunch to check in on the progress that we’ve each made. (All of us had discovered different clues that allowed us to access various hidden puzzles. We needed each other to make the picture begin to be complete. VERY COOL.)
I like the idea of a novel that uses a narrative that exists in lots of places. I’ve written about this before, but I really, really think there’s potential in these types of stories, stories where we have to access different types of information and begin to make sense of what’s real, what’s relevant, and what’s important to the story.
After only a day of reading Cathy’s Book, I’m hooked, as are my students. The only problem I see with that excitement is that in a week or two, we’re going to need another book that engages us in this way.
Got any ideas?
Have You Seen Cathy’s Book?
October 27th, 2006 · 7 Comments
Tags: Books · Cell Phones · Democratic Classroom · Games · Storytelling · Writing
7 responses so far ↓
rick // Oct 27th 2006 at 6:57 pm
have you seen this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHn4XB4tLH8
or this?
http://www.myspace.com/cathy_vickers?
i n t e r e s t i n g
Keri // Oct 29th 2006 at 6:50 pm
I checked out your link to I Love Bees. Have you ever read the book Born to Buy by Juliet Schor. Schor discusses these marketing campaigns to children which I found troubling. The wiki you provided said I Love Bees was part of a viral marketing campaign for Halo 2.
What’s Cathy’s Book trying to sell?
zombyboy // Oct 30th 2006 at 11:35 am
Sean Stewart is a wonderful author–although I’m not sure I would recommend all of his stuff to younger readers. His book Nobody’s Son tackles the fantasy genre by exploring what happens after “happily ever after” and might be a good one for younger readers. It’s funny, touching, fun, compelling.
Better books for more advanced readers–and, honestly, older readers–A Perfect Circle, Galveston, and Mockingbird. Just brilliant stuff. Unfortunately, some of those might be out of print. A Perfect Circle, in particular, caught my attention. It’s a ghost story, a midlife crisis, and an introduction to great indy music all in one wonderfully crafted book.
I think that Stewart and Weisman are simply trying to apply the same viral ideas that they used in their online game/story/things to the literary world. The only thing they’re trying to sell is books (although they did go in for a bit of paid product placement, which has turned out to be a little controversial.
J.D. // Nov 29th 2006 at 8:48 pm
What age of students are in your book club? I teach 6th grade, picked up this book and read it after seeing your blog post. I’m not sure if I should put it in my classroom or not. I know that there isn’t anything in there that isn’t on prime time tv, but I think I would only give the book to some of my higher students (reading and mature wise) after informing their parents about the book.
Bud Hunt // Nov 29th 2006 at 8:58 pm
My students are high school, and older high school students at that. I don’t think I’d read Cathy’s Book with 6th graders, either, but it would depend on the 6th graders.
Keith Bergstrom // Apr 20th 2007 at 9:53 pm
Excellent to see a teacher working through this with his students! A colleague of yours recommended I check out your page after I posted a brief review of Cathy’s Book on our blog. I hope you don’t mind if I link to you.
Not quite as engaging, but almost as interesting, I’ve been reading the second “book” in the E-mail mysteries. The story is told through E-mails sent in “real time” to your E-mail inbox. I enjoyed the first one, Daughters of Freya, but the second one, Suzanne, isn’t as good. Anyway, it’s a fun concept.
Amanda // Oct 8th 2007 at 7:49 pm
I just started reading Cathy’s book a couple of days ago. I googled it just now and read your article and called the number, I never thought that would acctually be real. And all the “evidence” inside. It just amazes me how far out they went with this book. I am very interested. I think more books should be this way!
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