Purpose: (Why you’re writing a book review.)

1. The book review tells the reader (the audience) a little bit about the book so he/she can determine if he/she wants to read it or not.

The Title

The title of your review should be about 4-6 words that either make the reader want to read the book or not want to read the book. For example, if you liked Little House on the Prairie, your book review title could be, “Prairie Looks Appealing” or “Still Love the Little House.” The title of your review is NOT the title of the book.

Audience: (The people reading the book review.)

Your audience is your classmates, friends and students in other classrooms.

The book review reflects your opinion about the book. (See list of questions to ask yourself.)

Please answer at least 5 of the questions.

• Questions to ask yourself to help you form your own opinion about the book:

• 1. Was it a pager-turner? Did I hate to see the book come to an end?• 2. Did I have to force myself to put the book away?• 3. How did it make me feel? Sad? Happy? Frustrated? Exhilarated?

Scared? Curious?• 4. Have I read any other books by the same author?• 5. Did I relate to any of the character in the book?• 6. Did I read it and think, hey, that character reminds of my friend so-and-

so?• 7. What happened in the book that made me think about another book I

read?• 8. How did the characters get along with each other?• 9. Did the characters do or say something that I would or would not do?• 10. What did I think about it? What happened that made me ask questions?

Compare and Contrast

Pick two characters to compare and contrast using the writing skills we have been practicing in class.

You may pick other things to compare and contrast, but please check with me.

Setting

Describe using pictures or words the setting of your book.

Characters

If you did not do a compare and contrast of your characters, then you need to describe them now.

Summary

Write a brief summary of the book.

Include: The information from the beginning of the book, the middle of the book, and the end of the book.

A summary does not retell the entire book, and should be at most three paragraphs.

Quote

Find a sentence or two in the book and type that sentence word-for-word, put quotation marks around it and tell why you liked that sentence.

About the author

Look up information about your author, and write a short paragraph about your author. Please do not copy and paste other people’s writing about the author. A picture is always nice.