In the Classroom: Book Reviews

One of the most important homework I give is nightly reading.  Most of the time the kids read whatever they wish, but occasionally I do give a more directed assignment.  Recently, for example, I pulled together a bunch of old favorites, forthcoming galleys, and recent publications; book talked them; then asked the kids to each chose one to read. When they were finished, I told them, they would write reviews of the books on their blogs.  And if, I also told them, the reviews were well-done, I’d write a blog post here with links to their reviews.  Of course, the possibility that outsiders (you all) might read their reviews was very exciting!

Happily, they LOVED the books they chose.  They couldn’t stop talking to me about them as they read them and were primed to write those reviews. But before they did I did a lesson on review writing.  First I showed them several reviews of Frank Cotrell Boyce’s Cosmic, a book I’d just finished reading aloud, and then asked them to come up with a list of attributes for good reviews. Here’s the blog post for that lesson. After that they were off to write their own reviews and, in no particular order, here they are:

• Clete Barrett Smith’s Aliens on Vacation
• Pam Munoz Ryan’s The Dreamer
• Kate Messner’s Sugar and Ice
• Jeanne Birdsall’s The Penderwicks at Point Mouette
• Audrey Couloumbis’s Jake
• N.D. Wilson’s Leepike Ridge
• Elizabeth Partridge’s Dog Tag Summer
• Roderick Townley’s The Door in the Forest
• Adam Rex’s The True Meaning of Smekday
• Thanhha Lai’s Inside Out and Back Again
• Rita Williams-Garcia’s One Crazy Summer
• Cal Ripken Jr.’s Hothead
• Tom Angleberger’s The Strange Case of Origami Yoda
• Margi Preus’s Heart of the Samurai
• Chris Rylander’s The Fourth Stall
• Dan Gutman’s The Genuis Files: Mission Unstoppable
• Walter Dean Myers’ and Ross Workman’s Kick
• Ellen Potter’s The Kneebone Boy
• Tove Jansson’s Comet in Moominland