5 elements of a book report
But no matter the length, book reports need to include these essential elements:. Fiction : Summaries can be challenging. Remember doing story maps? If your book is fiction, start with a story map to jot down the story elements: setting; beginning, middle, and end or problem and resolution ; and main characters.
How to Write a Killer Book Report
Download the PDF version of this lesson plan. If you love to read, at some point you will want to share a book you love with others. You may already do this by talking about books with friends. If you want to share your ideas with more people than your circle of friends, the way you do that is by writing a review.
By publishing the reviews you write, you can share your ideas about books with other readers around the world. It's natural for young readers to confuse book reviews with book reports, yet writing a book review is a very different process from writing a book report. Book reports focus on the plot of the book. Frequently, the purpose of book reports is to demonstrate that the books were read, and they are often done for an assignment.
A book review is a totally different task. A book review's purpose is to help people decide whether or not the book would interest them enough to read it. Reviews are a sneak peek at a book, not a summary. Like wonderful smells wafting from a kitchen, book reviews lure readers to want to taste the book themselves.
This guide is designed to help you become a strong book reviewer, a reader who can read a book and then cook up a review designed to whet the reading appetites of other book lovers. The first question we usually ask when writing something is "How long should it be?
A general guideline is that the longer the book, the longer the review, and a review shouldn't be fewer than words or so. For a long book, the review may be words or even more. If a review is too short, the review may not be able to fulfill its purpose. Too long, and the review may stray into too much plot summary or lose the reader's interest.
The best guide is to focus less on how long to write and more on fulfilling the purpose of the review. The title of the review should convey your overall impression and not be overly general. Strong titles include these examples:. Although many reviews begin with a short summary of the book This book is about… , there are other options as well, so feel free to vary the way you begin your reviews. In an introductory summary, be careful not to tell too much. Here are some examples of summaries reviewers from The New York Times have written:.
And the man Jack — who killed the rest of Nobody's family — is itching to finish the job. Deciding what to say about the book can be challenging. Use the following ideas as a guide, but remember that you should not put all of this into a single review — that would make for a very long review! Choose the things that fit this particular book best. Writing about the plot is the trickiest part of a review because you want to give the reader a feel for what the book is about without spoiling the book for future readers.
The most important thing to remember is that you must never give away the ending. No one likes a spoiler. One possibility for doing this is to set up the premise A brother and a sister find themselves lost in the woods at the mercy of an evil witch. Will they be able to outsmart her and escape? Another possibility is to set up the major conflict in the book and leave it unresolved Sometimes the waiting is the hardest part or He didn't know what he stood to lose or Finding your purpose in life can be as easy as finding a true friend.
Try to avoid using the tired phrase "This book is about…" Instead, just jump right in The stuffed rabbit wanted more than anything to live in the big old house with the wild oak trees. Reviews should answer questions about the characters in fiction books or non-fiction books about people. Some possible questions to answer include:. What is the book really about? This isn't the plot, but rather the ideas behind the story. Is it about the triumph of good over evil or friendship or love or hope?
Some common themes include: change, desire to escape, facing a challenge, heroism, the quest for power, and human weaknesses. Sometimes a book will have a moral — a lesson to learn. If so, the theme is usually connected to that moral. As you write about the theme, try to identify what makes the book worth reading. What will the reader think about long after the book is finished? Ask yourself if there any particular lines in the book that strike you as meaningful.
The setting is the time and place the story occurs. When you write about the setting in a review, include more than just the location. Some things to consider:. You may spend half of the review on this section. Some possible questions to address include:. Are there parts that are simply not believable, even allowing for the reader's understanding that it is fiction or even fantasy?
Some of the tips and ideas above work best for fiction, and some of it is a little too complicated for very young reviewers. Use a few quotes or phrases keep them short from the book to illustrate the points you make about the book. If there are illustrations, be sure to comment on those. Are they well done? Has the illustrator done other well-known books? Make sure you include a conclusion to the review — don't leave it hanging. The conclusion can be just one sentence Overall, this book is a terrific choice for those who….
You can use the transition word handout at the end of the Writer's Toolbox to find ideas for words to connect the ideas in your review. If you would like to read some well-written reviews, look for reviews of books for young people at The New York Times or National Public Radio.
Most places you post reviews ask you to rate the book using a star system, typically in a range of from one to five stars. In your rating, you should consider how the book compares to other books like it. Don't compare a long novel to a short poetry book — that's not a valid comparison.
It's important to remember that it's not asking you to only give five stars to the very best books ever written. Continue to examples. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Praesent suscipit iaculis libero sed tristique. Quisque mollis dolor non tellus placerat vitae sodales lectus porta. Curabitur ut suscipit tellus. Maecenas rhoncus, ante vitae vehicula vestibulum, metus sapien dapibus tellus, et mattis dolor neque vitae nisl.
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Introduction If you love to read, at some point you will want to share a book you love with others. Form: What should the review look like? Here are some examples of summaries reviewers from The New York Times have written: "A new picture book tells a magically simple tale of a lonely boy, a stranded whale and a dad who rises to the occasion. This quote begins George Orwell's novel Background: What makes this book important or interesting? Is the author famous? Is it a series?
Process: What should I write about? Picture book? Historical fiction? Does the book belong to a series? How long is the book? Is it an easy or a challenging read? Is there anything that would be helpful for the reader to know about the author? For instance, is the author an expert in the field, the author of other popular books, or a first-time author?
Characters. Characters are the people or animals in the story. Setting. The setting of a.
Print This Page. Terrill Martinez. In this lesson students review the elements of fiction and key components of a book report.
Write better book reports using the tips, examples, and outlines presented here. This resource covers three types of effective book reports: Plot summaries, character analyses, and theme analyses, and features many specific examples of how to structure each one.
Download the PDF version of this lesson plan. If you love to read, at some point you will want to share a book you love with others. You may already do this by talking about books with friends.
Writing a Book Report
Bethany has taught special education in grades PK-5 and has a master's degree in special education. Log in or sign up to add this lesson to a Custom Course. Log in or Sign up. Zach has to write a book report on a book he read over the summer. But what makes a good book report?
6 Elements of a Good Book Review
By Karen Ball. On March 11, For the readers. Helping readers decide if this is a book for them. So here are some things, based on book reviews out there, for reviewers to keep in mind. A good review is balanced. Hey, it could happen! Yes, share your honest opinion. Your opinion. No more, no less.
In this guide, we will describe in details how to write a book report college level; we will provide you with top tips on how to successfully organize the paper writing process. Keep reading to learn about the basic steps needed for completing college book report projects.
Please enable JavaScript in your web browser; otherwise some parts of this site might not work properly. Writing a book report can be a lot of fun. It gives you a chance to read a new book and then tell your teacher and friends what you thought about it. List the name of the book and who wrote it.
How to Write a Book Report: Lesson for Kids
This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. Learn more Got it! A book report is a formal essay discussing the contents of a book. It summarizes the important aspects of a book such as the title, author, plot, and characters while showing that a student understands what he or she has read. It is not a book review , which requires the writer to give personal opinions about the book. We show you how to write a book report by following five simple steps. These steps will help ensure that your book report is a positive reflection of your writing skills. If you are allowed to choose your book, select a title that you are genuinely excited to read. This could be a fiction or nonfiction book, as long as the subject is appropriate for a classroom setting. However, choosing is not always an option. In this case, you should try to be open-minded. Although some students believe they will not like an assigned book, they often end up enjoying the book once they give it a chance. It seems logical that reading the book is needed in order to write a book report. Some students may choose to just skim a book, read only certain parts, or access information about the book online. However, to really know and understand the book, a thorough reading should be done in a quiet place free from distractions.
