Guess who? is a fun activity to encourage children to engage with books and characters. Children draw or dress up as their favourite book characters and play a giant game of ‘Guess who?’ together. This hands-on approach supports reading for fun in families, schools, libraries, and community groups.
Why it works
This activity encourages children to think about characters in books and discuss their traits. It supports creativity, reading comprehension, and social interaction. Children can practise describing characters, asking questions, and listening carefully while enjoying a playful game.
Who is it for
- Families and carers
- Teachers
- Librarians
- Booksellers
- World Book Day partners
- Community groups
- Children’s activity providers
How to use it
- Print the coloured or blank character card templates
- Draw, colour, or dress up as book characters. Add photos in the image boxes if you like
- Create multiple character cards – at least 15 is recommended
- Arrange the characters on the floor to make a giant game board
- Children take turns to choose a character and ask yes/no questions to guess it
- The first to guess correctly wins; incorrect guesses are out
Get started
Print and cut out the character cards and set up the game board in a clear space. Demonstrate asking yes/no questions and then encourage children to take turns and enjoy the game together.
Further Pawprint resources
This activity is one of several Pawprint resources that support reading for fun. Using the set together can help families, schools and groups build positive daily reading habits. The full set includes: