12 Jun Board Game and Book Pairings: Surreal Stories!
Summer Reading Club 2025 “Color Our World” is up and running, so we still have art on the brain! Whether you want a game that will flex your creative muscles or an artistic biography of one of the 20th century’s most famous artists and storytellers, we have something for you! And then if you haven’t signed up for Summer Reading Club yet, don’t forget to check out https://www.plainfieldlibrary.net/summerreading/, where you can find registration, downloadable reading logs, and answers to FAQs – or come into the library, where adults who sign up for Summer Reading can claim a free book to keep!
Board Game: Dixit, designed by Jean-Louis Roubira with art by Marie Cardouat, combines the familiar voting mechanism from games like Apples to Apples with improvised storytelling inspired by surreal artwork. Collect votes to race your piece around the board in this award-winning game!
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- Players: 3-8
- Playing time: 30 minutes
- Age: 8+
From Boardgamegeek: “During each turn in Dixit, one player is the storyteller who chooses one of the six cards in their hand, expresses an idea with sounds or words to reflect the image on the card, and places the card face down on the playing surface. Each other player then selects the card from their hand that best matches that expression and passes it to the storyteller face down.
“The storyteller shuffles all the cards together and turns them over to reveal them. Each player other than the storyteller then secretly guesses which card belongs to the storyteller. If nobody or everybody guesses the correct card, the storyteller scores 0 points, and each other player scores 2 points. Otherwise, the storyteller and whoever found the correct answer score 3 points. Additionally, the non-storyteller players score 1 point for every vote received by their card.
“The game ends when the deck is empty or if a player has scored at least 30 points. In either case, the player with the most points wins.
“The Dixit base game and each expansion contain 84 cards, and the cards can be mixed together as desired.” (Description via https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/39856/dixit)
Book: Dr. Seuss: The Cat Behind the Hat by Carlone M. Smith looks at the art and life of the illustrator/cartoonist/author whose work has impacted countless children and adults. Filled with Geisel’s beautiful artwork, Smith’s book traces how the artist’s life and art shaped each other over time.
From the publisher: “The exuberant and beautifully produced book juxtaposes the secret art of Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel) with his iconic children’s art.
“The comprehensive look at the breadth of art that Theodor Geisel created over his lifetime is an eye-opening peek behind the public persona into the real story of the man who was Dr. Seuss.
“Illustrator by day and surrealist by night, Ted Geisel created a body of previously little-known work during his leisure hours that he called his “Midnight Paintings,” now known as “The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss.” This irrepressible and soulful collection redefines Ted Geisel as an iconic American artist. For sixty years, his “Secret Art” allowed Geisel to expand his artistic boundaries without the confines and pressures of commercial deadlines and influences. These paintings afforded the peaceful distraction that he craved, and through this work, the tenets of surrealism—surprise and juxtaposition—energized his sensibilities.” (description via https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Seuss-Cat-Behind-Hat/dp/1449432603)
Bonus: When we think of powerful storytelling, surreal settings, and fantastic use of color, we think of the 2009 film Up! Join widower Carl Fredricksen as he defeats poachers, processes grief, and helps a young Wilderness Explorer scout earn merit badges.
