Book Review Projects
How can I find a good book?
Where can my students post a book review?
What websites have ideas for reading and writing projects?
The Internet is a great place
to share ideas about books students are reading. Get students involved
with writing book reviews and sharing them online.
Read Spagetti
Book Club report on the success of this project. This article
quotes
a report on the success and effectiveness of the book club. You may also wish
to skim the entire SRI report
titled The Organization of Learning in Community Technology Centers:
Learning with Technologies in Six Communities (March 2001).
Many classrooms have developed their own Book Review pages to share their student work. Check out Book Reviews from Planet 5th from a group of fifth graders. Some teachers and libraries find building web pages overwhelming or just time consuming and may wish to use an online project or organization to post their reviews.
Use the following resource to learn about writing good reviews:
- How to write a book review from Kids On the Net
Key to Icons
Website
accepts student book reviews
Exceptional
quality website
Book Review Websites
Use the following websites to locate and share book reviews. They focus on book reviews by and for kids. Most access book reviews from students.
- All Levels
- Children's Book Reviews
- Young Adult Book Reviews
- Professional Review Sources
- Links to Book Review Sites
All Levels
Book Hive
http://www.bookhive.org/
One of the best book review sites for kids. Find a book or write a review.
Included both professional and student reviews.
Book Browser
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/subjects/subjects.asp
Barnes and Nobles areas to explore. Also explore authors and
popular
books.
Book Hooks
http://www.bookhooks.com/index.cfm
Lots of great book reviews and reports and an easy way for students to submit
their
own.
Kid Lit
http://mgfx.com/kidlit/kids/artlit/reviews/index.htm
Reviews by children and young adults.
Kids on the Net
http://kotn.ntu.ac.uk/authors/books.cfm
Book reviews by kids all over the world.
On-Lion Kids Reviews
http://kids.nypl.org/reviews/
From New York Public Library, you can read reviews of books, movies,
music, and website. You can also write reviews. Lion prints are used
for ratings.
RIF Book Reviews
http://www.rif.org.uk/rifm8s/bookreviews/bookreviewsindex.htm
Prizes are given for reviews published on RIF.
Yahooligans Book Club
http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/content/bookclub/
Read reviews by celebrities. No longer active.
Children's Book Reviews
Alan Brown
http://www.alanbrown.com/Websites/JustForKids/Menu.html
Reviews by kids. Will post reviews.
Eduplace Books
http://www.eduplace.com/kids/rdg/chall.html
KidViews by and for kids. Send a kidview, see a sample, or search archives by
title or last name. View a sample review.
Kids Read
http://www.kidsreads.com/
Both teacher/student reviews and professional reviews. Check out past
reviews by title. Formal submission process.
Read, Write, Now
http://sunlite.bamaed.ua.edu/ReadWriteNow/
Read and write book reviews. No longer accepting submissions.
Spagetti Book Review By Kids For Kids
http://www.spaghettibookclub.org/
Book reviews by kids for kids. Organized by title and authors. You must
be a participate in the program to submit reviews.
World of Reading
http://www.worldreading.org/
Explore reviews or write your own.
Write On
http://www.thinkquest.org/library/site_sum.html?tname=J001156&url=J001156/
A ThinkQuest project by students.
Young Adult Book Reviews
Middle School Books
http://library.thinkquest.org/4155/
Book reviews by middle school students.
Read a Review: Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
http://www.clpgh.org/teens/read/readreview.html
Lots of book reviews with a 5 star rating system.
TeenReads
http://www.teenreads.com/reviews/index.asp
Book reviews by teens. Listed by title.
Teen Ink
http://teenink.com/Reviews/
Reviews of books, movies, music and more.
Writes of Passage
http://www.writes.org/
Online sources for teens.
Professional Review Sources
Book Muse
http://www.bookmuse.com/
They have an adult section and kid's
corner.
Boston Book Reviews
http://www.bookwire.com/bookwire/bbr/children/children.html
Current professional book reviews.
Booklist
http://www.ala.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Products_and_Publications/Periodicals/Booklist/Booklist.htm
Thousands of book reviews.
Book Review Sites from About
http://yabooks.about.com/cs/bookreviews/
Links to websites (watch for ads)
Carol Hurst
http://www.carolhurst.com/titles/allreviewed.html
Book reviews by title, author, and grade level.
Horn Book
http://www.hbook.com/magreview.shtml
Professional book reviews, not all included without subscription.
Reading Rants
http://tln.lib.mi.us/~amutch/jen/index.html
Book reviews for teens.
School Library Journal
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Great quality reviews
The Scoop
http://www.friend.ly.net/scoop/reviews/index.html
Professional reviews.
Links to Book Review Sites
BookTalks - Book Review Sources
http://nancykeane.com/booktalks/reviews.htm
Nice list of book review sources for all ages.
BookSpot
http://www.bookspot.com/reviews/
Great place to locate links to book review sites for all ages.
Google Directory - Reviews and Criticism
http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Literature/Reviews_and_Criticism/?tc=1/
Links to the book reviews sites.
Yahooligans Book Reviews
http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/school_bell/language_arts/book_reviews/
Links to book reviews for kids.
Try a Book Review
Site
Ask students to critique some book reviews. What are the strengths and
weaknesses of the reviews? Then, ask students to write and submit their
own review.