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
