It’s finally here: the post you’ve all been waiting for. I managed to survive my Divergent Book Bash and snagged a few photos in the process!

I believe librarians, just like teachers, should beg, borrow, and steal from one another. So feel free to use any of the ideas you see here for your own programs (though I’d love a shout out if you do).

Choosing Ceremony

I had the teens take a personality quiz to see what faction they belonged in, then sent them off to their home factions. Each student received a “Mission Card” with five tasks: one task for each faction. In order to be eligible for my Divergent raffle, they had to complete all five tasks. At the end of the afternoon, I gave away a copy of the trilogy and tickets to go see the movie next weekend.

        

Dauntless Station

In Dauntless, teens had to do two things: choose a temporary tattoo and play a round of Super Smash Bros on the Wii. Given Dauntless’ fondness for both tattoos and fighting, I thought these tasks were appropriate. 🙂

               

  

Erudite Station

In Erudite, the teens had to work as a team with their fellow faction members. Each teen was given a library scavenger hunt with seven clues. These clues took them all over the library in search of seven envelopes. Inside the envelopes, were puzzle pieces. Once the teens found all the envelopes and completed their hunt, they raced back to Erudite Station to put their puzzles together. I had the puzzles made by Printer Studio for only $4.99 a piece.

        

Amity Station

For Amity, I wanted to capture the fact that this faction houses both farmers and artists. So teens painted flower pots and then planted a flower or herb of their choice.

     

Abnegation Station

Since Abnegation’s focus is selflessness, I really wanted this station to be meaningful.  During a Google search, I stumbled on a wonderful organization called Send Kids the World. This group provides postal address for children with terminal or long-term illnesses. Individuals can then create cards for these sick children to cheer them up. So all of my teens in Amity were given the photo and story of a child. They then worked together to create custom cards to let these little ones know they matter.

         

Candor Station

Since Candor’s main quality is truth, what better way to test your honesty with a round of Divergent “Truth or Dare”? My biggest concern here was that I wanted the game to be fun – not cruel or embarrassing. So I made Truth and Dare cards with pre-selected topics. I had teens take turns and roll a dice to determine their fate. Evens = Truth. Odds = Dare. Teens could switch from Truth to Dare, but not the other way around. The teen with the most truth cards at the end won the game.

       

 

Food

I tried really hard to capture the favorite foods of each faction. Ex: soda for Erudite, chocolate cake for Dauntless, etc. Candor’s ice cream was too hard to manage for a two hour event, so I went with Oreo cookies instead since they’re black and white (Candor’s colors).

       

All in all, I had forty-four tweens and teens turn out: a record breaking number for our small, seaside library. I’m absolutely ecstatic with how things went. Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions or would like some advice on throwing a Divergent shindig of your own!