Objective: You will write an online review of a reading counts book.

You will read other online book reviews and select a new reading counts book.  Read ALL of these directions before you begin!

Book Review Content and Directions

10 Points

• Name of book, author, genre, and number of RC points
  • Genres: (You may WRITE into your review multiple genres, but you should post on the page that matches your book the best.)
    • Adventure
    • Boy Book
    • Chick-Lit
    • Classic
    • Crime and Mystery
    • Sci-fi
    • Non-Fiction
    • Historical
  • Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling:  Sci-fi 40 points
  • The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank:  Non-fiction 35 points

• 1-2 sentence book preview.  Do not reveal the climax or conclusion of the story, but explain exposition (who’s who, when, where) and the conflict.
  • Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone places ten-year-old Harry in the middle of a troubled family life looking for an escape.  That escape comes when he discovers he is from a long line of powerful wizards and must leave his home to attend a magical wizard’s school.
  • Set in the middle of the violent WWII in Amsterdam, The Diary of Anne Frank is the true story of a teenage girl’s years hiding in a tiny attic with her family as they try to escape Nazi capture.

• 1 sentence about the highlight of the book.  Do not reveal the climax or conclusion of the story.
  • Rowling’s magical language and vivid descriptions keeps you turning the pages.
  • Anne’s teenage romance within the Annex helps any young girl relate to her situation.

• 1 sentence critical point about the book(one aspect that you did not enjoy).  Do not reveal the climax or conclusion of the story.
  • It is difficult to understand some of the magical situations in this book since it is a science-fiction book.
  • There are references to very brutal historical occurrences because of the way, which makes this book very difficult to enjoy.

• 1-2 sentences to evaluate the book overall and explain why.  Use the “Star” system.  1 star = bad; 4 stars = awesome/must-read.  (You may give half stars, but no quarter stars.)
  • Harry Potter is a three-star book.  Younger readers find Harry and his friends very entertaining, but for a teenager, this book is a bit juvenile.
  • Anne Frank is a two and a half-star non-fiction story.  Anne’s diary rambles from time to time, and she dwells on things that many readers might find tedious.

• If you spoil the book for others by discussing the climax, conclusion, irony, secret identities, etc, your review will be removed, and you will receive a zero.  The goal is to share info about how good or bad books are, not to spoil the ending for people who want to read your book.

• You should go back to the blog to read the reviews your classmates wrote.  Use these to choose your next reading counts book.

This blog was created for my middle school students.  We will be using it in the upcoming months for a variety of assignments.  I’m very excited to include this technology in our curriculum, and I look forward to seeing how it improves student learning.