In Jules Verne’s novel, Around the World in 80 Days, the calm, orderly main character, Phileas Fogg, makes a wager that he can travel around the world in eighty days.  He does this on October 2, 1873.  Today we have fun holiday in honor of this fictional occasion, “Phileas Fogg Win a Wager Day”! If your family hasn’t read Around the World in 80 Days, October 2 would be a perfect time to start. Of course, anytime is a good time to begin such a thrilling adventure.

We chose to “read” this classical story via audio a couple of years ago and the whole family loved it!  The reader from “Loyal Books” was excellent.  Please note that Around the World in 80 Days is not a children’s book. There are some rather mature scenes in Verne’s tale, however my youngest (11 at the time) was fine after some discussion. Actually, this book inspired a lot of discussion.

Here’s a collection of resources to add some extra fun and some lessons to the reading.

Learn to Play Whist   (this is the game that Phileas Fogg was playing when he begins his adventure)                                                                                                                               https://cardgames.io/whist/

Listen to the audio book                                                                           http://www.loyalbooks.com/book/around-the-world-in-eighty-days-by-jules-verne

Read the book                                                                                                   http://literatureproject.com/around-the-world/index.htm

Several Free Printables                        https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Browse/Search:around%20the%20world%20in%2080%20days/Price-Range/Free

Study Guide                                                                                                    https://www.shmoop.com/around-the-world-in-eighty-days/

Map of the trip                https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Around_the_World_in_Eighty_Days_map.png

Interactive Game               http://www.freeworldgroup.com/games6/gameindex/aroundtheworldin80days.htm

Vocabulary Lists (the vocabulary is intensive)                                                                                          https://www.vocabulary.com/lists/204437

Oh, and the movie from 2004 staring Jackie Chan?  Let’s just say it was barely based on the book.  Just barely.

betty jo