Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

ACTIVITY: “‘Today is theirs, but the future is ours’: What if You Were the Last Book in the Universe?”

In the dystopian future world of The Last Book in the Universe, the remainder of the world’s population is unable to use their memory-making abilities for several reasons. In this activity, students will be testing the boundaries of their own memory, as well as creatively writing and drawing out a story for their own “last book in the universe.”

At the end of The Last Book in the Universe, a “book” is not just a collection of pages bound by a spine. It becomes a living, breathing person – and, perhaps most importantly, it is a creature with a deep, vivid memory of the past. Memory’s Impact on Society is a major theme of the novel. In this exercise you will tell the story, like Spaz does, of you, your family, and your society – based entirely on your memory.

• First, familiarize yourself with the concept of “The Memory Palace,” which is a technique that has been used since ancient times to recall large amounts of information.