Book Discussion: Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal

Which story did you enjoy most? Was there one you didn't care for?

Throughout the book characters intersected in interesting ways. What are some that you made note of?

Which characters story allowed you to connect with Eva the most?

Food is one of the main themes in this book. What are examples from the book where food brought people together or apart. Do you have any examples from your own life?

There are times where the author seems to be poking fun at foodie culture. Can you find some examples of this commentary?

Eva remains very mysterious throughout the novel. What is it about her that draws people to her?

Cindy has always claimed she would never be a good mother. Why does she insist on this and do you believe her? Do you think Eva was better off without her?

The recipes prepared in Eva's feast at the end of the book chronicle her memories and life. How do foods or recipes play a role in your own memory or life story?

Gilmore Girls Trivia Night

I love doing my annual trivia night at my library. They are always a bit of work but totally worth it. I had a feeling I would get a big turnout with this one and boy was I right. I had 57 adults show up and had to cap registration at 65 people! I probably would have had even more register but 15 teams showed up and that was plenty!

I had myself MC, a friend do the scoring and another friend do the greeting, checking-in and seating of participants.
After looking at the answer sheets at the end of the night it looks like many of my questions were really tough, even for die hard fans. The most popular round was number 5 (fashion timeline.) I invited teams to bring their own food and they went all out (as you can see in some pics.)

I encourage everyone to do this program. It was a great group and not our regular patrons either. I spend about $15 to boost the event posting on FB to females ages 18-65 in the local area. This seemed to go a little viral and was the reason we had such good attendance.

Please feel free to use and adapt any of the materials in this posting for your library. If you end up presenting at a conference with this program or an article appears in a professional journal please give me due credit: Leah LaFera.

Thanks and enjoy the below narrative and materials.







Grading Sheets
Team Table Signs
Gilmore Girls Font - The handouts below won't appear right without installing this font on your PC


ROUND 1-Fill-in-the blank
PowerPoint with the Questions (and answers at the end)
Blank pages and answers, what I read from but your could also forgo the powerpoint and hand this out instead)
In this round I project on the screen quotes where they have to give the correct answer for the word or words that are missing.

ROUND 2- Trivia
Handouts and answer key
This is a traditional trivia round. I read each question twice through and only twice through.

ROUND 3-Music
Powerpoint 
Handouts and answer key
I play 30 second clips from songs that appear in the show. They must name the band or artist who sung the song. This was a tough round. I used Quick Time on a Mac to clip the original MP3's down to smaller files.

ROUND 4- Dialog
Handouts, scripts, and answer key
One of my favorite rounds. At the beginning of the night I ask for volunteers to write their name and team number on  a piece of paper and put into a basket to earn one bonus point for their team. In the dialog round I give each reader (A, B or C) a script for short dialog and they perform it in front of the room twice through. Each reader gets 1 bonus point for their team. The audience must correctly ID all the readers in the scene in whichever order they choose.

ROUND 5-Fashion Timeline
Photos
Blank Timelines
Answers
In this round I cut out photos from the show depicting different fashions. They get the timeline and an envelope with the pics and a gluestick. Their job is to put the photos with the season they come from. Each season has 2 photos. Each correct photo is worth one point.

I gave out little piles of GG themed prizes all purchased from Etsy. The 1st place team got first pic, 2nd got second pick and third got the prizes left. I also gave a box of pop tarts to the best team name.

Here are the prizes I purchased. There were a huge hit!

The team names were especially on point: Hep (illegal) Alien, Copper Boom, The Kirkettes, One Night in Paris Geller, Babette Ate Oatmeal, Luke's Diners, Mrs. Slutsky's Neighbors, Firday Night Dinners, Tie Your Tubes, Idiot!, Luke-alikes (all dressed like Luke,)DAR Darlings, Pop Tarts, In Omnia Paratus, A Team by Kirk and Coffee Coffee Coffee!