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How to Write a Book Review: The Ultimate Guide
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WHAT IS A BOOK REVIEW?
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Traditionally, book reviews are evaluations of a recently published book in any genre. Usually, around the 500 to 700-word mark, they briefly describe a text’s main elements while appraising the work’s strengths and weaknesses. Published book reviews can appear in newspapers, magazines, and academic journals. They provide the reader with an overview of the book itself and indicate whether or not the reviewer would recommend the book to the reader.
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF A BOOK REVIEW?
There was a time when book reviews were a regular appearance in every quality newspaper and many periodicals. They were essential elements in whether or not a book would sell well. A review from a heavyweight critic could often be the deciding factor in whether a book became a bestseller or a damp squib. In the last few decades, however, the book review’s influence has waned considerably, with many potential book buyers preferring to consult customer reviews on Amazon, or sites like Goodreads, before buying. As a result, book review’s appearance in newspapers, journals, and digital media has become less frequent.
WHY BOTHER TEACHING STUDENTS TO WRITE BOOK REVIEWS AT ALL?
Even in the heyday of the book review’s influence, few students who learned the craft of writing a book review became literary critics! The real value of crafting a well-written book review for a student does not lie in their ability to impact book sales. Understanding how to produce a well-written book review helps students to:
● Engage critically with a text
● Critically evaluate a text
● Respond personally to a range of different writing genres
● Improve their own reading, writing, and thinking skills.
Not to Be Confused with a Book Report!
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A BOOK REVIEW AND A BOOK REPORT?
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While the terms are often used interchangeably, there are clear differences in both the purpose and the format of the two genres. Generally speaking, book reports aim to give a more detailed outline of what occurs in a book. A book report on a work of fiction will tend to give a comprehensive account of the characters, major plot lines, and themes in the book. Book reports are usually written around the K-12 age range, while book reviews tend not to be undertaken by those at the younger end of this age range due to the need for the higher-level critical skills required in writing them. At their highest expression, book reviews are written at the college level and by professional critics.
Learn how to write a book review step by step with our complete guide for students and teachers by familiarizing yourself with the structure and features.
BOOK REVIEW STRUCTURE
ANALYZE Evaluate the book with a critical mind.
THOROUGHNESS The whole is greater than the sum of all its parts. Review the book as a WHOLE.
COMPARE Where appropriate compare to similar texts and genres.
THUMBS UP OR DOWN? You are going to have to inevitably recommend or reject this book to potential readers.
BE CONSISTENT Take a stance and stick with it throughout your review.
FEATURES OF A BOOK REVIEW
PAST TENSE You are writing about a book you have already read.
EMOTIVE LANGUAGE Whatever your stance or opinion be passionate about it. Your audience will thank you for it.
VOICE Both active and passive voice are used in recounts.
A COMPLETE UNIT ON REVIEW AND ANALYSIS OF TEXTS
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ELEMENTS OF A BOOK REVIEW
As with any of the writing genres we teach our students, a book review can be helpfully explained in terms of criteria. While there is much to the ‘art’ of writing, there is also, thankfully, a lot of the nuts and bolts that can be listed too. Have students consider the following elements before writing:
● Title: Often, the title of the book review will correspond to the title of the text itself, but there may also be some examination of the title’s relevance. How does it fit into the purpose of the work as a whole? Does it convey a message or reveal larger themes explored within the work?
● Author: Within the book review, there may be some discussion of who the author is and what they have written before, especially if it relates to the current work being reviewed. There may be some mention of the author’s style and what they are best known for. If the author has received any awards or prizes, this may also be mentioned within the body of the review.
● Genre: A book review will identify the genre that the book belongs to, whether fiction or nonfiction, poetry, romance, science-fiction, history etc. The genre will likely tie in, too with who the intended audience for the book is and what the overall purpose of the work is.
● Book Jacket / Cover: Often, a book’s cover will contain artwork that is worthy of comment. It may contain interesting details related to the text that contribute to, or detract from, the work as a whole.
● Structure: The book’s structure will often be heavily informed by its genre. Have students examine how the book is organized before writing their review. Does it contain a preface from a guest editor, for example? Is it written in sections or chapters? Does it have a table of contents, index, glossary etc.? While all these details may not make it into the review itself, looking at how the book is structured may reveal some interesting aspects.
● Publisher and Price: A book review will usually contain details of who publishes the book and its cost. A review will often provide details of where the book is available too.
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BOOK REVIEW KEY ELEMENTS
As students read and engage with the work they will review, they will develop a sense of the shape their review will take. This will begin with the summary. Encourage students to take notes during the reading of the work that will help them in writing the summary that will form an essential part of their review. Aspects of the book they may wish to take notes on in a work of fiction may include:
● Characters: Who are the main characters? What are their motivations? Are they convincingly drawn? Or are they empathetic characters?
● Themes: What are the main themes of the work? Are there recurring motifs in the work? Is the exploration of the themes deep or surface only?
● Style: What are the key aspects of the writer’s style? How does it fit into the wider literary world?
● Plot: What is the story’s main catalyst? What happens in the rising action? What are the story’s subplots?
A book review will generally begin with a short summary of the work itself. However, it is important not to give too much away, remind students – no spoilers, please! For nonfiction works, this may be a summary of the main arguments of the work, again, without giving too much detail away. In a work of fiction, a book review will often summarise up to the rising action of the piece without going beyond to reveal too much!
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The summary should also provide some orientation for the reader. Given the nature of the purpose of a review, it is important that students’ consider their intended audience in the writing of their review. Readers will most likely not have read the book in question and will require some orientation. This is often achieved through introductions to the main characters, themes, primary arguments etc. This will help the reader to gauge whether or not the book is of interest to them.
Once your student has summarized the work, it is time to ‘review’ in earnest. At this point, the student should begin to detail their own opinion of the book. To do this well they should:
i. Make It Personal
Often when teaching essay writing we will talk to our students about the importance of climbing up and down the ladder of abstraction. Just as it is helpful to explore large, more abstract concepts in an essay by bringing it down to Earth, in a book review, it is important that students can relate the characters, themes, ideas etc to their own lives.
Book reviews are meant to be subjective. They are opinion pieces, and opinions grow out of our experiences of life. Encourage students to link the work they are writing about to their own personal life within the body of the review. By making this personal connection to the work, students contextualize their opinions for the readers and help them to understand whether the book will be of interest to them or not in the process.
ii. Make It Universal
Just as it is important to climb down the ladder of abstraction to show how the work relates to individual life, it is important to climb upwards on the ladder too. Students should endeavor to show how the ideas explored in the book relate to the wider world. The may be in the form of the universality of the underlying themes in a work of fiction or, for example, the international implications for arguments expressed in a work of nonfiction.
iii. Support Opinions with Evidence
A book review is a subjective piece of writing by its very nature. However, just because it is subjective does not mean that opinions do not need to be justified. Make sure students understand how to back up their opinions with various forms of evidence, for example, quotations, statistics, and the use of primary and secondary sources.
EDIT AND REVISE YOUR BOOK REVIEW
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As with any writing genre, encourage students to polish things up with review and revision at the end. Encourage them to proofread and check for accurate spelling throughout, with particular attention to the author’s name, character names, publisher etc.
It is good practice too for students to double-check their use of evidence. Are statements supported? Are the statistics used correctly? Are the quotations from the text accurate? Mistakes such as these uncorrected can do great damage to the value of a book review as they can undermine the reader’s confidence in the writer’s judgement.
The discipline of writing book reviews offers students opportunities to develop their writing skills and exercise their critical faculties. Book reviews can be valuable standalone activities or serve as a part of a series of activities engaging with a central text. They can also serve as an effective springboard into later discussion work based on the ideas and issues explored in a particular book. Though the book review does not hold the sway it once did in the mind’s of the reading public, it still serves as an effective teaching tool in our classrooms today.
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Teaching Resources
Use our resources and tools to improve your student’s writing skills through proven teaching strategies.
BOOK REVIEW GRAPHIC ORGANIZER (TEMPLATE)
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101 DIGITAL & PRINT GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS FOR ALL CURRICULUM AREAS
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Book and Movie review writing examples (Student Writing Samples)
Below are a collection of student writing samples of book reviews. Click on the image to enlarge and explore them in greater detail. Please take a moment to both read the movie or book review in detail but also the teacher and student guides which highlight some of the key elements of writing a text review
Please understand these student writing samples are not intended to be perfect examples for each age or grade level but a piece of writing for students and teachers to explore together to critically analyze to improve student writing skills and deepen their understanding of book review writing.
We would recommend reading the example either a year above and below, as well as the grade you are currently working with to gain a broader appreciation of this text type .
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BOOK REVIEW VIDEO TUTORIALS
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OTHER GREAT ARTICLES RELATED TO BOOK REVIEWS
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Transactional Writing
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How to write a text response
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How to Write a Compare and Contrast Essay
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How to Write Excellent Expository Essays
How to Write a Book Review
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Read any good books lately? Want to share your thoughts about them? A book review is a great way to shed insight and give your opinion on a book you’ve read, whether it’s nonfiction, a mystery novel, or a collection of poems.
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Table of contents
What is a book review, how do you write a good book review, 4 tips for writing a book review, book review outline examples, book review faqs.
A book review is an honest reaction to a book that generally analyzes its themes, plotline, characters, dialogue, and use of literary devices (if applicable). Through this analysis, written in the first person, a reviewer combines their opinions with insights about the book, sometimes comparing it to other books by the same author or books in the same genre.
Book reviews have a few different purposes. As an academic assignment, a book review requires students to build their analytical skills by engaging with the text and writing a coherent critique. Book reviews on blogs and in magazines often serve to tell readers what to expect from a book so they can decide whether they’re interested in reading it. This type of book review gives readers a preview of a book’s content, themes, and storyline.
Think of your book review as a conversation with a friend: You want to share your opinion and insights without giving everything away. Don’t spoil the book’s ending or its surprises, but do discuss how effectively you think the writing navigated its literary elements —such as plot, theme, and conflict—throughout the text.
How long is a book review?
Generally, book reviews aren’t long. In most cases, they’re between 500 and 750 words. Keep your book review concise and focus on the book’s big-picture aspects, such as its character development, pacing, reliance on tropes, and use of literary devices. Summarize the plot, then focus on analyzing the book. Mention what you did and didn’t like, and support these positions with quotations from the book. An effective book analysis is more than sharing your opinion; it’s interacting with the text and demonstrating that you’ve read it critically and formed a well-developed opinion about it.
How are book reviews structured?
Book reviews tend to follow similar layouts to other kinds of essays. An essay reviewing a book should begin with an introduction paragraph that summarizes the plot and includes the reviewer’s thesis statement. Following the introduction, a book review should have one body paragraph per point it critiques. For example, a review may have three body paragraphs, one that discusses the book’s themes, one that discusses its characters, and one that discusses the author’s use of metaphor. A book review ends with a conclusion paragraph that summarizes the points made in the body paragraphs and shares any final thoughts the reviewer has about the book. It may include a rating, like giving the book three stars out of five.
1. Avoid repetition
A book review is its own piece of writing . By that, we mean your book review shouldn’t just repeat the book’s plot. It should add a new perspective about the book.
2. Be concise
Don’t ramble in your book review. Keep it focused on your analysis of the book since that’s the content your readers are looking for.
3. Support your claims and positions
Sharing your opinion is a significant part of writing a book review, but be sure to support your positions with insights from the book—as you’d support any claims you made in an academic essay with evidence from your sources.
4. Proofread
Before you upload, send, or submit your book review, proofread it. Read it with a critical eye to catch any grammatical or spelling mistakes you may have missed in a previous round of edits.
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
A powerful look at life during and following the iranian revolution.
In the introduction paragraph, the reviewer summarizes the plot of Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis , briefly describes its protagonist, and provides a general statement about their thoughts on the book.
Satrapi’s color choices
In this section, the reviewer discusses the author’s choice to tell the story through black-and-white illustrations, analyzing the mood these illustrations create and the role they play in telling the story.
Hearing an adult’s story through a child’s narration
In this section, the reviewer discusses the author’s choice to tell the story through the voice of its child protagonist. They may discuss whether the author successfully captured a child’s voice and how the protagonist’s vocabulary and perspective shaped how the reader engaged with the plot.
Does Persepolis successfully tell its story?
In the conclusion paragraph, the reviewer summarizes the content of the previous body paragraphs and includes succinct statements of their thoughts about each. The reviewer then reiterates their thesis statement from the introduction and includes a few more of their thoughts about the book as a whole.
Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
Good advice.
In the introduction paragraph, the reviewer summarizes the plot of Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad and the goals Kiyosaki set out to meet in writing it. This paragraph may also touch on how well known and beloved the book is and how it’s influenced many people since its initial release. This paragraph ends with a thesis statement summarizing the reviewer’s opinion on whether Rich Dad Poor Dad gives effective advice.
Who is it for?
In this section, the reviewer discusses the target audience for Rich Dad Poor Dad and their opinion on whether it effectively speaks to that audience. The reviewer may support their position by comparing it to other personal-finance books.
Does the narrative work?
Rich Dad Poor Dad is characterized by its narrative style as it explains financial concepts through a story. In this section, the reviewer may examine this narrative choice, analyzing how it affects the messages delivered and offering their own opinion on the style’s effectiveness.
How does Rich Dad Poor Dad pay off?
In the conclusion paragraph, the reviewer restates their thesis statement and summarizes the points they made in the review’s body paragraphs. They may end the review with a recommendation that the reader either read or skip Rich Dad Poor Dad .
A book review is an honest reaction to a book that generally analyzes its themes, plotline, characters, dialogue, and use of literary devices (if applicable). Book reviews are written in the first person and combine their authors’ opinions with insights about the book.
How long should a book review be?
A book review should be about 500 to 750 words.
What should a book review include?
- Plot summary
- Thesis statement
- Critical analysis supported by quotations from the book
- Reviewer’s opinion based on their critical analysis
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How to Write a Book Review: A Comprehensive Tutorial With Examples
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You don’t need to be a literary expert to craft captivating book reviews. With one in every three readers selecting books based on insightful reviews, your opinions can guide fellow bibliophiles toward their next literary adventure.
Learning how to write a book review will not only help you excel at your assigned tasks, but you’ll also contribute valuable insights to the book-loving community and turn your passion into a professional pursuit.
In this comprehensive guide, PaperPerk will walk you through a few simple steps to master the art of writing book reviews so you can confidently embark on this rewarding journey.
What is a Book Review?
A book review is a critical evaluation of a book, offering insights into its content, quality, and impact. It helps readers make informed decisions about whether to read the book.
Writing a book review as an assignment benefits students in multiple ways. Firstly, it teaches them how to write a book review by developing their analytical skills as they evaluate the content, themes, and writing style .
Secondly, it enhances their ability to express opinions and provide constructive criticism. Additionally, book review assignments expose students to various publications and genres, broadening their knowledge.
Furthermore, these tasks foster essential skills for academic success, like critical thinking and the ability to synthesize information. By now, we’re sure you want to learn how to write a book review, so let’s look at the book review template first.
Table of Contents
Book Review Template
How to Write a Book Review- A Step-by-Step Guide
Check out these 5 straightforward steps for composing the best book review.
Step 1: Planning Your Book Review – The Art of Getting Started
You’ve decided to take the plunge and share your thoughts on a book that has captivated (or perhaps disappointed) you. Before you start book reviewing, let’s take a step back and plan your approach. Knowing how to write a book review that’s both informative and engaging is an art in itself.
Choosing Your Literature
First things first, pick the book you want to review. This might seem like a no-brainer, but selecting a book that genuinely interests you will make the review process more enjoyable and your insights more authentic.
Crafting the Master Plan
Next, create an outline that covers all the essential points you want to discuss in your review. This will serve as the roadmap for your writing journey.
The Devil is in the Details
As you read, note any information that stands out, whether it overwhelms, underwhelms, or simply intrigues you. Pay attention to:
- The characters and their development
- The plot and its intricacies
- Any themes, symbols, or motifs you find noteworthy
Remember to reserve a body paragraph for each point you want to discuss.
The Key Questions to Ponder
When planning your book review, consider the following questions:
- What’s the plot (if any)? Understanding the driving force behind the book will help you craft a more effective review.
- Is the plot interesting? Did the book hold your attention and keep you turning the pages?
- Are the writing techniques effective? Does the author’s style captivate you, making you want to read (or reread) the text?
- Are the characters or the information believable? Do the characters/plot/information feel real, and can you relate to them?
- Would you recommend the book to anyone? Consider if the book is worthy of being recommended, whether to impress someone or to support a point in a literature class.
- What could be improved? Always keep an eye out for areas that could be improved. Providing constructive criticism can enhance the quality of literature.
Step 2 – Crafting the Perfect Introduction to Write a Book Review
In this second step of “how to write a book review,” we’re focusing on the art of creating a powerful opening that will hook your audience and set the stage for your analysis.
Identify Your Book and Author
Begin by mentioning the book you’ve chosen, including its title and the author’s name. This informs your readers and establishes the subject of your review.
Ponder the Title
Next, discuss the mental images or emotions the book’s title evokes in your mind . This helps your readers understand your initial feelings and expectations before diving into the book.
Judge the Book by Its Cover (Just a Little)
Take a moment to talk about the book’s cover. Did it intrigue you? Did it hint at what to expect from the story or the author’s writing style? Sharing your thoughts on the cover can offer a unique perspective on how the book presents itself to potential readers.
Present Your Thesis
Now it’s time to introduce your thesis. This statement should be a concise and insightful summary of your opinion of the book. For example:
“Normal People” by Sally Rooney is a captivating portrayal of the complexities of human relationships, exploring themes of love, class, and self-discovery with exceptional depth and authenticity.
Ensure that your thesis is relevant to the points or quotes you plan to discuss throughout your review.
Incorporating these elements into your introduction will create a strong foundation for your book review. Your readers will be eager to learn more about your thoughts and insights on the book, setting the stage for a compelling and thought-provoking analysis.
How to Write a Book Review: Step 3 – Building Brilliant Body Paragraphs
You’ve planned your review and written an attention-grabbing introduction. Now it’s time for the main event: crafting the body paragraphs of your book review. In this step of “how to write a book review,” we’ll explore the art of constructing engaging and insightful body paragraphs that will keep your readers hooked.
Summarize Without Spoilers
Begin by summarizing a specific section of the book, not revealing any major plot twists or spoilers. Your goal is to give your readers a taste of the story without ruining surprises.
Support Your Viewpoint with Quotes
Next, choose three quotes from the book that support your viewpoint or opinion. These quotes should be relevant to the section you’re summarizing and help illustrate your thoughts on the book.
Analyze the Quotes
Write a summary of each quote in your own words, explaining how it made you feel or what it led you to think about the book or the author’s writing. This analysis should provide insight into your perspective and demonstrate your understanding of the text.
Structure Your Body Paragraphs
Dedicate one body paragraph to each quote, ensuring your writing is well-connected, coherent, and easy to understand.
For example:
- In Jane Eyre , Charlotte Brontë writes, “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me.” This powerful statement highlights Jane’s fierce independence and refusal to be trapped by societal expectations.
- In Normal People , Sally Rooney explores the complexities of love and friendship when she writes, “It was culture as class performance, literature fetishized for its ability to take educated people on false emotional journeys.” This quote reveals the author’s astute observations on the role of culture and class in shaping personal relationships.
- In Wuthering Heights , Emily Brontë captures the tumultuous nature of love with the quote, “He’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” This poignant line emphasizes the deep, unbreakable bond between the story’s central characters.
By following these guidelines, you’ll create body paragraphs that are both captivating and insightful, enhancing your book review and providing your readers with a deeper understanding of the literary work.
How to Write a Book Review: Step 4 – Crafting a Captivating Conclusion
You’ve navigated through planning, introductions, and body paragraphs with finesse. Now it’s time to wrap up your book review with a conclusion that leaves a lasting impression . In this final step of “How to write a Book Review,” we’ll explore the art of writing a memorable and persuasive conclusion.
Summarize Your Analysis
Begin by summarizing the key points you’ve presented in the body paragraphs. This helps to remind your readers of the insights and arguments you’ve shared throughout your review.
Offer Your Final Conclusion
Next, provide a conclusion that reflects your overall feelings about the book. This is your chance to leave a lasting impression and persuade your readers to consider your perspective.
Address the Book’s Appeal
Now, answer the question: Is this book worth reading? Be clear about who would enjoy the book and who might not. Discuss the taste preferences and circumstances that make the book more appealing to some readers than others.
For example: The Alchemist is a book that can enchant a young teen, but those who are already well-versed in classic literature might find it less engaging.
Be Subtle and Balanced
Avoid simply stating whether you “liked” or “disliked” the book. Instead, use nuanced language to convey your message. Highlight the pros and cons of reading the type of literature you’ve reviewed, offering a balanced perspective.
Bringing It All Together
By following these guidelines, you’ll craft a conclusion that leaves your readers with a clear understanding of your thoughts and opinions on the book. Your review will be a valuable resource for those considering whether to pick up the book, and your witty and insightful analysis will make your review a pleasure to read. So conquer the world of book reviews, one captivating conclusion at a time!
How to Write a Book Review: Step 5 – Rating the Book (Optional)
You’ve masterfully crafted your book review, from the introduction to the conclusion. But wait, there’s one more step you might consider before calling it a day: rating the book. In this optional step of “how to write a book review,” we’ll explore the benefits and methods of assigning a rating to the book you’ve reviewed.
Why Rate the Book?
Sometimes, when writing a professional book review, it may not be appropriate to state whether you liked or disliked the book. In such cases, assigning a rating can be an effective way to get your message across without explicitly sharing your personal opinion.
How to Rate the Book
There are various rating systems you can use to evaluate the book, such as:
- A star rating (e.g., 1 to 5 stars)
- A numerical score (e.g., 1 to 10)
- A letter grade (e.g., A+ to F)
Choose a rating system that best suits your style and the format of your review. Be consistent in your rating criteria, considering writing quality, character development, plot, and overall enjoyment.
Tips for Rating the Book
Here are some tips for rating the book effectively:
- Be honest: Your rating should reflect your true feelings about the book. Don’t inflate or deflate your rating based on external factors, such as the book’s popularity or the author’s reputation.
- Be fair: Consider the book’s merits and shortcomings when rating. Even if you didn’t enjoy the book, recognize its strengths and acknowledge them in your rating.
- Be clear: Explain the rationale behind your rating so your readers understand the factors that influenced your evaluation.
Wrapping Up
By including a rating in your book review, you provide your readers with additional insight into your thoughts on the book. While this step is optional, it can be a valuable tool for conveying your message subtly yet effectively. So, rate those books confidently, adding a touch of wit and wisdom to your book reviews.
Additional Tips on How to Write a Book Review: A Guide
In this segment, we’ll explore additional tips on how to write a book review. Get ready to captivate your readers and make your review a memorable one!
Hook ’em with an Intriguing Introduction
Keep your introduction precise and to the point. Readers have the attention span of a goldfish these days, so don’t let them swim away in boredom. Start with a bang and keep them hooked!
Embrace the World of Fiction
When learning how to write a book review, remember that reviewing fiction is often more engaging and effective. If your professor hasn’t assigned you a specific book, dive into the realm of fiction and select a novel that piques your interest.
Opinionated with Gusto
Don’t shy away from adding your own opinion to your review. A good book review always features the writer’s viewpoint and constructive criticism. After all, your readers want to know what you think!
Express Your Love (or Lack Thereof)
If you adored the book, let your readers know! Use phrases like “I’ll definitely return to this book again” to convey your enthusiasm. Conversely, be honest but respectful even if the book wasn’t your cup of tea.
Templates and Examples and Expert Help: Your Trusty Sidekicks
Feeling lost? You can always get help from formats, book review examples or online college paper writing service platforms. These trusty sidekicks will help you navigate the world of book reviews with ease.
Be a Champion for New Writers and Literature
Remember to uplift new writers and pieces of literature. If you want to suggest improvements, do so kindly and constructively. There’s no need to be mean about anyone’s books – we’re all in this literary adventure together!
Criticize with Clarity, Not Cruelty
When adding criticism to your review, be clear but not mean. Remember, there’s a fine line between constructive criticism and cruelty. Tread lightly and keep your reader’s feelings in mind.
Avoid the Comparison Trap
Resist the urge to compare one writer’s book with another. Every book holds its worth, and comparing them will only confuse your reader. Stick to discussing the book at hand, and let it shine in its own light.
Top 7 Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Writing a book review can be a delightful and rewarding experience, especially when you balance analysis, wit, and personal insights. However, some common mistakes can kill the brilliance of your review.
In this section of “How to write a book review,” we’ll explore the top 7 blunders writers commit and how to steer clear of them, with a dash of modernist literature examples and tips for students writing book reviews as assignments.
Succumbing to the Lure of Plot Summaries
Mistake: Diving headfirst into a plot summary instead of dissecting the book’s themes, characters, and writing style.
Example: “The Bell Jar chronicles the life of a young woman who experiences a mental breakdown.”
How to Avoid: Delve into the book’s deeper aspects, such as its portrayal of mental health, societal expectations, and the author’s distinctive narrative voice. Offer thoughtful insights and reflections, making your review a treasure trove of analysis.
Unleashing the Spoiler Kraken
Mistake: Spilling major plot twists or the ending without providing a spoiler warning, effectively ruining the reading experience for potential readers.
Example: “In Metamorphosis, the protagonist’s transformation into a monstrous insect leads to…”
How to Avoid: Tread carefully when discussing significant plot developments, and consider using spoiler warnings. Focus on the impact of these plot points on the overall narrative, character growth, or thematic resonance.
Riding the Personal Bias Express
Mistake: Allowing personal bias to hijack the review without providing sufficient evidence or reasoning to support opinions.
Example: “I detest books about existential crises, so The Sun Also Rises was a snoozefest.”
How to Avoid: While personal opinions are valid, it’s crucial to back them up with specific examples from the book. Discuss aspects like writing style, character development, or pacing to support your evaluation and provide a more balanced perspective.
Wielding the Vague Language Saber
Mistake: Resorting to generic, vague language that fails to capture the nuances of the book and can come across as clichéd.
Example: “This book was mind-blowing. It’s a must-read for everyone.”
How to Avoid: Use precise and descriptive language to express your thoughts. Employ specific examples and quotations to highlight memorable scenes, the author’s unique writing style, or the impact of the book’s themes on readers.
Ignoring the Contextualization Compass
Mistake: Neglecting to provide context about the author, genre, or cultural relevance of the book, leaving readers without a proper frame of reference.
Example: “This book is dull and unoriginal.”
How to Avoid: Offer readers a broader understanding by discussing the author’s background, the genre conventions the book adheres to or subverts, and any societal or historical contexts that inform the narrative. This helps readers appreciate the book’s uniqueness and relevance.
Overindulging in Personal Preferences
Mistake: Letting personal preferences overshadow an objective assessment of the book’s merits.
Example: “I don’t like stream-of-consciousness writing, so this book is automatically bad.”
How to Avoid: Acknowledge personal preferences but strive to evaluate the book objectively. Focus on the book’s strengths and weaknesses, considering how well it achieves its goals within its genre or intended audience.
Forgetting the Target Audience Telescope
Mistake: Failing to mention the book’s target audience or who might enjoy it, leading to confusion for potential readers.
Example: “This book is great for everyone.”
How to Avoid: Contemplate the book’s intended audience, genre, and themes. Mention who might particularly enjoy the book based on these factors, whether it’s fans of a specific genre, readers interested in character-driven stories, or those seeking thought-provoking narratives.
By dodging these common pitfalls, writers can craft insightful, balanced, and engaging book reviews that help readers make informed decisions about their reading choices.
These tips are particularly beneficial for students writing book reviews as assignments, as they ensure a well-rounded and thoughtful analysis.!
Many students requested us to cover how to write a book review. This thorough guide is sure to help you. At Paperperk, professionals are dedicated to helping students find their balance. We understand the importance of good grades, so we offer the finest writing service , ensuring students stay ahead of the curve. So seek expert help because only Paperperk is your perfect solution!
What is the difference between a book review and a report?
Who is the target audience for book reviews and book reports, how do book reviews and reports differ in length and content, can i write professional book reviews, what are the key aspects of writing professional book reviews, how can i enhance my book-reviewing skills to write professional reviews, what should be included in a good book review.
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Writing a Book Review
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Book reviews typically evaluate recently-written works. They offer a brief description of the text’s key points and often provide a short appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses of the work.
Readers sometimes confuse book reviews with book reports, but the two are not identical. Book reports commonly describe what happens in a work; their focus is primarily on giving an account of the major plot, characters, and/or main idea of the work. Most often, book reports are a K-12 assignment and range from 250 to 500 words. If you are looking to write a book report, please see the OWL resource, Writing a Book Report.
By contrast, book reviews are most often a college assignment, but they also appear in many professional works: magazines, newspapers, and academic journals. They typically range from 500-750 words, but may be longer or shorter. A book review gives readers a sneak peek at what a book is like, whether or not the reviewer enjoyed it, and details on purchasing the book.
Before You Read
Before you begin to read, consider the elements you will need to included in your review. The following items may help:
- Author: Who is the author? What else has s/he written? Has this author won any awards? What is the author’s typical style?
- Genre: What type of book is this: fiction, nonfiction, romance, poetry, youth fiction, etc.? Who is the intended audience for this work? What is the purpose of the work?
- Title: Where does the title fit in? How is it applied in the work? Does it adequately encapsulate the message of the text? Is it interesting? Uninteresting?
- Preface/Introduction/Table of Contents: Does the author provide any revealing information about the text in the preface/introduction? Does a “guest author” provide the introduction? What judgments or preconceptions do the author and/or “guest author” provide? How is the book arranged: sections, chapters?
- Book Jacket/Cover/Printing: Book jackets are like mini-reviews. Does the book jacket provide any interesting details or spark your interest in some way? Are there pictures, maps, or graphs? Do the binding, page cut, or typescript contribute or take away from the work?
As You Read
As you read, determine how you will structure the summary portion or background structure of your review. Be ready to take notes on the book’s key points, characters, and/or themes.
- Characters: Are there characters in the work? Who are the principal characters? How do they affect the story? Do you empathize with them?
- Themes/Motifs/Style: What themes or motifs stand out? How do they contribute to the work? Are they effective or not? How would you describe this author’s particular style? Is it accessible to all readers or just some?
- Argument: How is the work’s argument set up? What support does the author give for her/findings? Does the work fulfill its purpose/support its argument?
- Key Ideas: What is the main idea of the work? What makes it good, different, or groundbreaking?
- Quotes: What quotes stand out? How can you demonstrate the author’s talent or the feel of the book through a quote?
When You Are Ready to Write
Begin with a short summary or background of the work, but do not give too much away. Many reviews limit themselves only to the first couple of chapters or lead the reader up to the rising action of the work. Reviewers of nonfiction texts will provide the basic idea of the book’s argument without too much detailed.
The final portion of your review will detail your opinion of the work. When you are ready to begin your review, consider the following:
- Establish a Background, Remember your Audience: Remember that your audience has not read the work; with this in mind, be sure to introduce characters and principles carefully and deliberately. What kind of summary can you provide of the main points or main characters that will help your readers gauge their interest? Does the author’s text adequately reach the intended audience? Will some readers be lost or find the text too easy?
- Minor principles/characters: Deal only with the most pressing issues in the book. You will not be able to cover every character or idea. What principles/characters did you agree or disagree with? What other things might the author have researched or considered?
- Organize: The purpose of the review is to critically evaluate the text, not just inform the readers about it. Leave plenty room for your evaluation by ensuring that your summary is brief. Determine what kind of balance to strike between your summary information and your evaluation. If you are writing your review for a class, ask your instructor. Often the ratio is half and half.
- Your Evaluation: Choose one or a few points to discuss about the book. What worked well for you? How does this work compare with others by the same author or other books in the same genre? What major themes, motifs, or terms does the book introduce, and how effective are they? Did the book appeal to you on an emotional or logical way?
- Publisher/Price: Most book reviews include the publisher and price of the book at the end of the article. Some reviews also include the year published and ISBN.
When making the final touches to your review, carefully verify the following:
- Double-check the spelling of the author name(s), character names, special terms, and publisher.
- Try to read from the vantage point of your audience. Is there too much/enough summary? Does your argument about the text make sense?
- Should you include direct quotes from the reading? Do they help support your arguments? Double-check your quotes for accuracy.
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Book Reviews
What this handout is about.
This handout will help you write a book review, a report or essay that offers a critical perspective on a text. It offers a process and suggests some strategies for writing book reviews.
What is a review?
A review is a critical evaluation of a text, event, object, or phenomenon. Reviews can consider books, articles, entire genres or fields of literature, architecture, art, fashion, restaurants, policies, exhibitions, performances, and many other forms. This handout will focus on book reviews. For a similar assignment, see our handout on literature reviews .
Above all, a review makes an argument. The most important element of a review is that it is a commentary, not merely a summary. It allows you to enter into dialogue and discussion with the work’s creator and with other audiences. You can offer agreement or disagreement and identify where you find the work exemplary or deficient in its knowledge, judgments, or organization. You should clearly state your opinion of the work in question, and that statement will probably resemble other types of academic writing, with a thesis statement, supporting body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
Typically, reviews are brief. In newspapers and academic journals, they rarely exceed 1000 words, although you may encounter lengthier assignments and extended commentaries. In either case, reviews need to be succinct. While they vary in tone, subject, and style, they share some common features:
- First, a review gives the reader a concise summary of the content. This includes a relevant description of the topic as well as its overall perspective, argument, or purpose.
- Second, and more importantly, a review offers a critical assessment of the content. This involves your reactions to the work under review: what strikes you as noteworthy, whether or not it was effective or persuasive, and how it enhanced your understanding of the issues at hand.
- Finally, in addition to analyzing the work, a review often suggests whether or not the audience would appreciate it.
Becoming an expert reviewer: three short examples
Reviewing can be a daunting task. Someone has asked for your opinion about something that you may feel unqualified to evaluate. Who are you to criticize Toni Morrison’s new book if you’ve never written a novel yourself, much less won a Nobel Prize? The point is that someone—a professor, a journal editor, peers in a study group—wants to know what you think about a particular work. You may not be (or feel like) an expert, but you need to pretend to be one for your particular audience. Nobody expects you to be the intellectual equal of the work’s creator, but your careful observations can provide you with the raw material to make reasoned judgments. Tactfully voicing agreement and disagreement, praise and criticism, is a valuable, challenging skill, and like many forms of writing, reviews require you to provide concrete evidence for your assertions.
Consider the following brief book review written for a history course on medieval Europe by a student who is fascinated with beer:
Judith Bennett’s Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women’s Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600, investigates how women used to brew and sell the majority of ale drunk in England. Historically, ale and beer (not milk, wine, or water) were important elements of the English diet. Ale brewing was low-skill and low status labor that was complimentary to women’s domestic responsibilities. In the early fifteenth century, brewers began to make ale with hops, and they called this new drink “beer.” This technique allowed brewers to produce their beverages at a lower cost and to sell it more easily, although women generally stopped brewing once the business became more profitable.
The student describes the subject of the book and provides an accurate summary of its contents. But the reader does not learn some key information expected from a review: the author’s argument, the student’s appraisal of the book and its argument, and whether or not the student would recommend the book. As a critical assessment, a book review should focus on opinions, not facts and details. Summary should be kept to a minimum, and specific details should serve to illustrate arguments.
Now consider a review of the same book written by a slightly more opinionated student:
Judith Bennett’s Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women’s Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600 was a colossal disappointment. I wanted to know about the rituals surrounding drinking in medieval England: the songs, the games, the parties. Bennett provided none of that information. I liked how the book showed ale and beer brewing as an economic activity, but the reader gets lost in the details of prices and wages. I was more interested in the private lives of the women brewsters. The book was divided into eight long chapters, and I can’t imagine why anyone would ever want to read it.
There’s no shortage of judgments in this review! But the student does not display a working knowledge of the book’s argument. The reader has a sense of what the student expected of the book, but no sense of what the author herself set out to prove. Although the student gives several reasons for the negative review, those examples do not clearly relate to each other as part of an overall evaluation—in other words, in support of a specific thesis. This review is indeed an assessment, but not a critical one.
Here is one final review of the same book:
One of feminism’s paradoxes—one that challenges many of its optimistic histories—is how patriarchy remains persistent over time. While Judith Bennett’s Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women’s Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600 recognizes medieval women as historical actors through their ale brewing, it also shows that female agency had its limits with the advent of beer. I had assumed that those limits were religious and political, but Bennett shows how a “patriarchal equilibrium” shut women out of economic life as well. Her analysis of women’s wages in ale and beer production proves that a change in women’s work does not equate to a change in working women’s status. Contemporary feminists and historians alike should read Bennett’s book and think twice when they crack open their next brewsky.
This student’s review avoids the problems of the previous two examples. It combines balanced opinion and concrete example, a critical assessment based on an explicitly stated rationale, and a recommendation to a potential audience. The reader gets a sense of what the book’s author intended to demonstrate. Moreover, the student refers to an argument about feminist history in general that places the book in a specific genre and that reaches out to a general audience. The example of analyzing wages illustrates an argument, the analysis engages significant intellectual debates, and the reasons for the overall positive review are plainly visible. The review offers criteria, opinions, and support with which the reader can agree or disagree.
Developing an assessment: before you write
There is no definitive method to writing a review, although some critical thinking about the work at hand is necessary before you actually begin writing. Thus, writing a review is a two-step process: developing an argument about the work under consideration, and making that argument as you write an organized and well-supported draft. See our handout on argument .
What follows is a series of questions to focus your thinking as you dig into the work at hand. While the questions specifically consider book reviews, you can easily transpose them to an analysis of performances, exhibitions, and other review subjects. Don’t feel obligated to address each of the questions; some will be more relevant than others to the book in question.
- What is the thesis—or main argument—of the book? If the author wanted you to get one idea from the book, what would it be? How does it compare or contrast to the world you know? What has the book accomplished?
- What exactly is the subject or topic of the book? Does the author cover the subject adequately? Does the author cover all aspects of the subject in a balanced fashion? What is the approach to the subject (topical, analytical, chronological, descriptive)?
- How does the author support their argument? What evidence do they use to prove their point? Do you find that evidence convincing? Why or why not? Does any of the author’s information (or conclusions) conflict with other books you’ve read, courses you’ve taken or just previous assumptions you had of the subject?
- How does the author structure their argument? What are the parts that make up the whole? Does the argument make sense? Does it persuade you? Why or why not?
- How has this book helped you understand the subject? Would you recommend the book to your reader?
Beyond the internal workings of the book, you may also consider some information about the author and the circumstances of the text’s production:
- Who is the author? Nationality, political persuasion, training, intellectual interests, personal history, and historical context may provide crucial details about how a work takes shape. Does it matter, for example, that the biographer was the subject’s best friend? What difference would it make if the author participated in the events they write about?
- What is the book’s genre? Out of what field does it emerge? Does it conform to or depart from the conventions of its genre? These questions can provide a historical or literary standard on which to base your evaluations. If you are reviewing the first book ever written on the subject, it will be important for your readers to know. Keep in mind, though, that naming “firsts”—alongside naming “bests” and “onlys”—can be a risky business unless you’re absolutely certain.
Writing the review
Once you have made your observations and assessments of the work under review, carefully survey your notes and attempt to unify your impressions into a statement that will describe the purpose or thesis of your review. Check out our handout on thesis statements . Then, outline the arguments that support your thesis.
Your arguments should develop the thesis in a logical manner. That logic, unlike more standard academic writing, may initially emphasize the author’s argument while you develop your own in the course of the review. The relative emphasis depends on the nature of the review: if readers may be more interested in the work itself, you may want to make the work and the author more prominent; if you want the review to be about your perspective and opinions, then you may structure the review to privilege your observations over (but never separate from) those of the work under review. What follows is just one of many ways to organize a review.
Introduction
Since most reviews are brief, many writers begin with a catchy quip or anecdote that succinctly delivers their argument. But you can introduce your review differently depending on the argument and audience. The Writing Center’s handout on introductions can help you find an approach that works. In general, you should include:
- The name of the author and the book title and the main theme.
- Relevant details about who the author is and where they stand in the genre or field of inquiry. You could also link the title to the subject to show how the title explains the subject matter.
- The context of the book and/or your review. Placing your review in a framework that makes sense to your audience alerts readers to your “take” on the book. Perhaps you want to situate a book about the Cuban revolution in the context of Cold War rivalries between the United States and the Soviet Union. Another reviewer might want to consider the book in the framework of Latin American social movements. Your choice of context informs your argument.
- The thesis of the book. If you are reviewing fiction, this may be difficult since novels, plays, and short stories rarely have explicit arguments. But identifying the book’s particular novelty, angle, or originality allows you to show what specific contribution the piece is trying to make.
- Your thesis about the book.
Summary of content
This should be brief, as analysis takes priority. In the course of making your assessment, you’ll hopefully be backing up your assertions with concrete evidence from the book, so some summary will be dispersed throughout other parts of the review.
The necessary amount of summary also depends on your audience. Graduate students, beware! If you are writing book reviews for colleagues—to prepare for comprehensive exams, for example—you may want to devote more attention to summarizing the book’s contents. If, on the other hand, your audience has already read the book—such as a class assignment on the same work—you may have more liberty to explore more subtle points and to emphasize your own argument. See our handout on summary for more tips.
Analysis and evaluation of the book
Your analysis and evaluation should be organized into paragraphs that deal with single aspects of your argument. This arrangement can be challenging when your purpose is to consider the book as a whole, but it can help you differentiate elements of your criticism and pair assertions with evidence more clearly. You do not necessarily need to work chronologically through the book as you discuss it. Given the argument you want to make, you can organize your paragraphs more usefully by themes, methods, or other elements of the book. If you find it useful to include comparisons to other books, keep them brief so that the book under review remains in the spotlight. Avoid excessive quotation and give a specific page reference in parentheses when you do quote. Remember that you can state many of the author’s points in your own words.
Sum up or restate your thesis or make the final judgment regarding the book. You should not introduce new evidence for your argument in the conclusion. You can, however, introduce new ideas that go beyond the book if they extend the logic of your own thesis. This paragraph needs to balance the book’s strengths and weaknesses in order to unify your evaluation. Did the body of your review have three negative paragraphs and one favorable one? What do they all add up to? The Writing Center’s handout on conclusions can help you make a final assessment.
Finally, a few general considerations:
- Review the book in front of you, not the book you wish the author had written. You can and should point out shortcomings or failures, but don’t criticize the book for not being something it was never intended to be.
- With any luck, the author of the book worked hard to find the right words to express her ideas. You should attempt to do the same. Precise language allows you to control the tone of your review.
- Never hesitate to challenge an assumption, approach, or argument. Be sure, however, to cite specific examples to back up your assertions carefully.
- Try to present a balanced argument about the value of the book for its audience. You’re entitled—and sometimes obligated—to voice strong agreement or disagreement. But keep in mind that a bad book takes as long to write as a good one, and every author deserves fair treatment. Harsh judgments are difficult to prove and can give readers the sense that you were unfair in your assessment.
- A great place to learn about book reviews is to look at examples. The New York Times Sunday Book Review and The New York Review of Books can show you how professional writers review books.
Works consulted
We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.
Drewry, John. 1974. Writing Book Reviews. Boston: Greenwood Press.
Hoge, James. 1987. Literary Reviewing. Charlottesville: University Virginia of Press.
Sova, Dawn, and Harry Teitelbaum. 2002. How to Write Book Reports , 4th ed. Lawrenceville, NY: Thomson/Arco.
Walford, A.J. 1986. Reviews and Reviewing: A Guide. Phoenix: Oryx Press.
You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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Book Review Writing Examples
Examples: learn from the efforts of others.
Learning how to write strong reviews takes time and not a little effort. Reading the reviews others have done can help you get a feel for the flow and flavor of reviews.
If I Never Forever Endeavor Review by Hayden, age 4, Southeast Michigan Mensa
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This book was about a bird who didn't yet know how to fly.
The bird has to decide if it will try to fly, but it was not sure if it wants to. The bird thought, "If I never forever endeavor" then I won't ever learn. On one wing, he worries he might fail and on the other wing he thinks of how he may succeed. He worries that if he tries, he may get lost in the world. That makes him want to stay in his nest where he's safe.
I think this book would help other children to learn that trying new things can be scary, but sometimes when we try, we can find things that make us happy too. And this book will help others know that mistakes are okay and part of learning.
My favorite part is that the bird tried and learned that she could fly. I also liked that I read this book because it gave me a chance to talk to mom about making mistakes and how I don't like making them. Then I learned they are good and part of learning.
Boys and girls who are 3 to 8 years old would like this book because it teaches about trying a new thing and how it's important to get past being scared so you can learn new things.
I give the book 5 stars since I think it's important for other children to learn about courage.
Flesh & Blood So Cheap Review by Umar B., age 8, Central New Jersy Mensa
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I liked this book. People who are interested in national disasters and US history as well as immigration will most probably be interested in reading this book.
Readers can gain knowledge of what it was like to work in New York City in the early 1900s. One of the things that was especially interesting was that there were no safety laws at work. Also, there was a big contrast between the rich and the poor. Some people may not like this book because it is very depressing, but it is an important event in history to remember.
This book was very well written. It has black and white photos along with descriptions of the photos. These photos give us a better idea of what people's lives were like. This book is suitable for 9-20 year olds.
I give this book 5 stars.
Galaxy Zach: Journey to Juno Review by Young Mensan Connor C., age 6, Boston Mensa
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Journey To Juno is the second book of the Galaxy Zack series. It is just as good as the first one. It's awesome!
Zack joins the Sprockets Academy Explorers Club at school. They fly on a special trip to Juno, a new planet no one has ever visited. Zack gets paired up with Seth, the class bully, and that's dreadful but Zack is excited when he finds a huge galaxy gemmite. A gemmite that large had not been found in 100 years! Kids will love this book!
Boys and girls will both like it. It's an easy chapter book with pictures on every page. I love the illustrations. I think ages 6-8 would like this but younger kids would like the story being read to them.
My favorite parts are the galactic blast game (it is similar to baseball except there are robots playing), recess at Zack's school where everything is 3-D holographic images, the rainbow river in a crystal cave on Juno, and the galaxy gemmite that Zack finds on Juno. I also loved when a life-size holographic image of his Earth friend appears in Zack's room because he calls him on a hyperphone. I give this book one hundred stars! There is a "to be continued" at the end so you have to read the next book see what's in store. I can't wait to find out what happens!!!
I Capture the Castle Review by Lauren W., age 17, Mensa in Georgia
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Dodie Smith's novel I Capture the Castle is a journey through the mind of a young writer as she attempts to chronicle her daily life. Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain has recently learned to speed-write, and she decides to work on her writing skills by describing the actions and conversations of those around her.
Cassandra lives in a fourteenth-century English castle with an interesting cast of characters: her beautiful older sister, Rose; her rather unsociable author father and his second wife, artist-model Topaz; Stephen, the garden boy; a cat and a bull terrier; and sometimes her brother Thomas when he is home from school. One fateful day they make the acquaintance of the Cotton family, including the two sons, and a web of tangled relationships ensues.
While I definitely recommend this book to other readers, I would recommend it to older teenagers, mainly because it will resonate better with them. The writing is tame enough that younger teens could also read it, but most of the characters are adults or on the verge of adulthood. Older readers would take the most from it since they can not only relate, but they may also better pick up on and appreciate Cassandra's sometimes subtle humor.
Over the course of the novel, Cassandra undergoes a definite transformation from child to mature young adult, even though it's only over the course of several months. I love that I could see into her mindset and read exactly what she was feeling when she thought out situations. Her thoughts flowed well and moved the book along very quickly.
Cassandra's narrative voice is wonderful. She is serious at times, but also very witty, which makes for an engaging read. It feels absolutely real, as though I'm reading someone's actual journal. Sometimes I forget that I am reading a story and not a real-life account. Her emotions and the dialogue are so genuine, and they are spot-on for a seventeen-year-old girl in her situation.
Cassandra has many wonderful insights on life, on topics ranging from writing to faith to matters of the heart. I personally have had some of the same thoughts as Cassandra, except Ms. Smith was able to put them into words.
Capture the Castle should be essential reading for aspiring writers, those looking for historical fiction or romance, or anyone who loves reading amazing classic books. Dodie Smith is an exceptional writer, and I Capture the Castle is a book that will never become obsolete.
Frankenstein's Cat Review by Zander H., age 12, Mid-America Mensa
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I appreciated Frankenstein's Cat for its fascinating explanation about the often baffling subject of bioengineering and its sister sciences. Emily Anthes explains the many sides of today's modern technology, such as gene modification, cloning, pharmaceutical products (from the farm), prosthesis, animal tag and tracking and gene cryogenics. This book provides a well-rounded summary of these complicated sciences without being boring or simply factual. Her real world examples take us on a journey from the farm, to the pet store and then from the pharmacy to the frozen arc.
Have you ever wondered if the neighborhood cat is spying on you? Read about Operation Acoustic Kitty and find out if this feline fantasy fiction or fact. Do you think bugs are creepy? What about a zombified cyborg beetle? Is Fido so special that you want two of him? Money can buy you an almost exact copy of your pooch BUT don't expect the same personality. Emily Anthes makes you crave more information. She makes you want to know the future of Earth's flora and fauna, as well as humanity itself.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who desires a guide to the future of biological science and technology. Frankenstein's Cat is best read by the light of a glow-in-the-dark fish, while cuddling your favorite cloned dog and drinking a glass of genetically modified milk.
About Marsupials Review by Connor C., age 6, Boston Mensa
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About Marsupials is the title so the book is about...marsupials, of course. It's non-fiction. I really think everyone would like the book. I think someone who likes animals would especially like to read it.
The glossary of facts in the back of About Marsupials is the most useful part. I thought the most interesting parts were that some marsupials have their pouch at their back legs and one marsupial, the Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby, is very small but can jump 13 feet wide!
Kids in the 4-8 age range would like this book. Even though it's not a story book, 4 year olds would like the few words on each page and they would love the beautiful pictures. But older kids would like it because of all the facts in the back of the book. There's a lot of information for each animal. I think boys and girls (and parents) would enjoy reading it. This book is very interesting. I give it 4 stars.
Mapping the World Review by Umar A., age 10, Central New Jersey Mensa
![examples of book review for high school students Mapping the World cover](https://static.americanmensa.org/Assets/MFK2/assets/Image/Teach/Guides/Guide_bk_mapworld.jpg)
Every day, people around the world use maps. Whether it is an airplane pilot or businessman, housewife or museum group, maps have always and will continue to provide useful information for all.
Mapping the World talks about the uses of maps, as well as how to differentiate between the type of map projection and type of map.
In this series, we travel to the past and learn about historical mapmakers, from Claudius Ptolemy (who stated the idea that the Earth is at the center of the universe) to Gerardus Mercator (who created one of the most widely used map projections) and more. This series goes into tremendous detail on the cartographer's life and maps. We then journey to the present era to learn about map projections and the diverse types of maps used today. You might ask, "What is the difference between the two? They sound the same to me." No map projection is perfect, because you cannot really flatten a sphere into a rectangle. An uncolored projection could be used in many ways. We could use it for population concentration, highways, land elevation, and so many other things!
For example, we could make a topographic map of the U.S., which shows land elevation. We could make it a colorful map that shows the amount of pollution in different areas, or it could be a population map, or it could even be a map that shows the 50 states, their capitals and borders! Our last step in this amazing excursion is the near future, where we see some hypothetical solutions as to what maps will be used for. Currently, we are working on better virtual map technology.
Now, scientists have been able to put maps on phones. Back in the early 1900s, people had to lug a lot of maps around to find your way from place to place, or just keep asking for directions. Now, all the information is on a phone or global positioning system (GPS). It is amazing how much maps have changed technology and the world in this century.
The Mapping the World 8-book set goes into amazing levels of detail. It is a long read, but it gives an immense range and amount of information that you would not find in any other book or series on maps. The flowing way the chapters and books are organized makes it easy to link passages from different books in this series together. Mapping the World is a treasure box, filled with the seeds of cartography. Collect and plant them, and you soon will have the fruits of cartography, beneficial to those who want to be cartographers. Use this series to the utmost, then the fruits of mapping will be sweet for all who endeavor to succeed in cartography.
This series of lessons was designed to meet the needs of gifted children for extension beyond the standard curriculum with the greatest ease of use for the educator. The lessons may be given to the students for individual self-guided work, or they may be taught in a classroom or a home-school setting. Assessment strategies and rubrics are included at the end of each section. The rubrics often include a column for "scholar points," which are invitations for students to extend their efforts beyond that which is required, incorporating creativity or higher level technical skills.
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Blog – Posted on Thursday, Nov 11
The only book review templates you'll ever need.
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Whether you’re trying to become a book reviewer , writing a book report for school, or analyzing a book, it’s nice to follow a book review template to make sure that your thoughts are clearly presented.
A quality template provides guidance to keep your mind sharp and your thoughts organized so that you can write the best book review possible. On Reedsy Discovery , we read and share a lot of book reviews, which helps us develop quite a clear idea what makes up a good one. With that in mind, we’ve put together some trustworthy book review templates that you can download, along with a quick run-through of all the parts that make up an outstanding review — all in this post!
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Book review templates for every type of review
With the rapid growth of the book community on Instagram, Youtube, and even TikTok, the world of book commentary has evolved far beyond your classic review. There are now many ways you can structure a book review. Some popular formats include:
- Book reports — often done for school assignments;
- Commentary articles — think in-depth reviews in magazines and newspapers;
- Book blog reviews — short personal essays about the book; and
- Instagram reviews — one or two-paragraph reviews captioned under a nice photo.
But while the text in all these review styles can be organized in different ways, there are certain boxes that all good book reviews tick. So, instead of giving you various templates to use for different occasions, we’ve condensed it down to just two book review templates (one for fiction and one for nonfiction) that can guide your thoughts and help you nail just about any review.
![examples of book review for high school students examples of book review for high school students](https://images-cdn.reedsy.com/discovery/image/13329/image/large_68f31b25790d9392bff5367612fbb02389cf1ca3.jpg)
⭐ Download our free fiction book review template
⭐ Download our free nonfiction book review template
All you need to do is answer the questions in the template regarding the book you’re reading and you’ve got the content of your review covered. Once that’s done, you can easily put this content into its appropriate format.
Now, if you’re curious about what constitutes a good book review template, we’ll explain it in the following section!
Elements of a book review template
Say you want to build your own book review template, or you want to customize our templates — here are the elements you’ll want to consider.
We’ve divided our breakdown of the elements into two categories: the essentials and the fun additions that’ll add some color to your book reviews.
What are the three main parts of a book review?
We covered this in detail (with the help of some stellar examples) in our post on how to write a book review , but basically, these are the three crucial elements you should know:
The summary covers the premise of the book and its main theme, so readers are able to understand what you’re referring to in the rest of your review. This means that, if a person hasn’t read the book, they can go through the summary to get a quick idea of what it’s about. (As such, there should be no spoilers!)
The analysis is where, if it’s a fiction book, you talk more about the book, its plot, theme, and characters. If it’s nonfiction, you have to consider whether the book effectively achieves what it set out to do.
The recommendation is where your personal opinion comes in the strongest, and you give a verdict as to who you think might enjoy this book.
You can choose to be brief or detailed, depending on the kind of review you’re writing, but you should always aim to cover these three points. If you’re needing some inspiration, check out these 17 book review examples as seen in magazines, blogs, and review communities like Reedsy Discovery for a little variation.
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Which additional details can you include?
Once you’ve nailed down the basics, you can jazz things up a little and add some personal flavor to your book review by considering some of these elements:
- A star-rating (the default is five stars but you can create your own scales);
- A bullet-point pros and cons list;
- Your favorite quotation from the book;
- Commentary on the format you read (i.e., ebook, print, or audiobook);
- Fun facts about the book or author;
- Other titles you think are similar.
This is where you can really be creative and tailor your review to suit your purpose and audience. A formal review written for a magazine, for instance, will likely benefit from contextual information about the author and the book, along with some comment on how that might have affected the reading (or even writing) process.
Meanwhile, if you’re reviewing a book on social media, you might find bullet points more effective at capturing the fleeting attention of Internet users. You can also make videos, take creative pictures, or even add your own illustrations for more personal touches. The floor is yours at this point, so go ahead and take the spotlight!
That said, we hope that our templates can provide you with a strong foundation for even your most adventurous reviews. And if you’re interested in writing editorial reviews for up-and-coming indie titles, register as a reviewer on Reedsy Discovery !
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Book Review Writing
Book Review Examples
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Book Review Examples to Help You Get Started
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How to Write a Book Review - A Step By Step Guide
A Complete Book Review Format Guide For Students
Are you in desperate need of some assistance to up your book review writing game?
We know that penning down a review can come off as a tricky challenge, but do not worry!
To help you write book reviews that carry the essence of the book and engage readers, we have collected a handful of book review examples in this blog.
The included examples will enable you to understand different writing styles and approaches taken toward book review writing . So, you can use your words effectively to craft the perfect book review.
Let’s kickstart things off!
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- 1. Good Book Review Examples for Students
- 2. Short Book Review Examples for Fiction Books
- 3. Non-Fiction Book Review Examples
Good Book Review Examples for Students
You might be a professional writer, or you may not have any experience in writing book reviews. Rest assured, we’ll show you how to write perfect book reviews with the help of a sample template and great examples.
See this template to know what you should include in your book review:
Book Review Template
Here is a good book review example for 4th-grade students:
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Book Review Examples for Middle School Students
Reading reviews written by others can help you get a feel and flavor of good book reviews. Learning how to write a perfect book review can help students to:
- Critically analyze a text
- Give a personal opinion on the text
- Improve analyzing and critical thinking skills
Here are some interesting book review examples suitable for middle school students.
Book Review Example for Middle School Students
Book Review Example for Kids
Book Review of Any Book in 300 Words
Science Book Review Example
Book Review Examples For High School Students
Below, you can also find some good book review examples for high school students. These real-life examples can help you get a clear understanding of the standard book review format that you should follow.
Book Review Example for High School Students
Book Review Examples for Class 9
Book Review Example for Grade 10
Book Review Examples for College Students
As a college student, you are required to demonstrate that you have examined the book from different angles. The points you raise in your book review need to be supported with clear facts and evidence.
The following are some interesting critical book review examples for college students to learn how to write a perfect review.
Book Review Example for Class 12
Short Book Review for Students
Conclusion of Book Review Example
Short Book Review Examples for Fiction Books
Fiction book reviews follow the same basic formula as writing book reviews of any other genre. For your help, we have compiled exciting examples of fiction book reviews that you can get valuable assistance from.
Short Book Review Example for Fiction Books
Book Review of Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
“The Hazel Wood” by Melissa Albert is a work of fiction and falls into fantasy and young adult fiction genres. The novel revolves around fantastical fairy tales, and magical realism, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy.
Here is an example of a comprehensive review of the book Hazel Wood:
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Non-Fiction Book Review Examples
For reviewing a non-fiction book, you are required to describe the book and summarize major points of interest. You should evaluate the author’s contribution to a subject that you may know very little about.
Here is a great non-fiction book review example to help you come up with a critical perspective on a text.
Non-Fiction Book Review Example
Hopefully, with the help of the above examples, you get a better idea of how to write a perfect book review.
To wrap it up, Writing a great book review is a tricky task, no matter if you are a high school, college, or university student. Book review writing might seem like a simple task, but it requires excellent analyzing and critical thinking skills.
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Book reports may be a staple of elementary and middle school education, but they are far less frequently assigned in the higher grades. High school ELA teacher Nancy Barile thinks that should change. Students in 6th grade and above can learn a lot when they are challenged to use higher order thinking skills to understand and interpret the literature they read via a good old-fashioned high school book report template.
To start, Barile recommends that students choose the books they want to write about themselves—with teacher approval, of course. See the book list at the end of this article for engaging young adult titles and book report ideas, including books with thematic elements that are particularly appealing to older readers.
Writing the Report
To structure the book reports, Barile recommends eight sections of analysis that will “require students to provide evidence of their choices and reasoning, which helps them think more deeply about what they have read.” For each section, students should give examples from the book to back up their analysis. The below book report template can help.
If your students need to review the elements of fiction before beginning this assignment, Teaching Powerful Writing is a great resource. This collection of personal narratives and writing activities highlights different writing techniques and covers literary elements such as voice, using flashback, and point of view.
Book Report Breakdown
Students should identify the setting of the novel and explain why the setting is important.
- How are the time and place significant to the events of the story?
- How does the setting contribute to the overall meaning of the novel?
2. CHARACTERIZATION
Beginning with the protagonist and then moving on to the supporting characters, students should discuss the characterizations in their novel.
- Is the character well-developed, or are they a stock or stereotypical character?
- Is the character static (unchanging throughout the story) or dynamic (changes by the end of the novel)?
- What personality traits does the character possess, and how does this affect the outcome of the novel?
- Do the character's inner thoughts and feelings reflect their outward actions? Explain.
3. POINT OF VIEW
Students should identify the novel’s point of view and why it is significant.
- What advantages does telling the story in (first person/second person/third person) have? Why?
- Why do you think the author chose this point of view?
4. CONFLICT
What is the primary conflict in the novel? Is it human vs. human, human vs. nature, human vs. society, or human vs. themselves? Your students should delve into conflict much more deeply than they may have in the past. If their story has more than one major conflict, they should detail the additional conflicts as well.
- Explain the conflict and how the protagonist deals with it.
- Does the protagonist overcome the conflict? Or do they succumb to it?
Students should identify the theme of the novel and the specific meaning of the book they chose. They should avoid stock themes such as “Don’t judge a book by its cover” and think more critically on their author’s message.
- What was the author’s purpose in writing the book?
What are the symbols in the novel and how are they significant?
- How do the symbols help develop the story and contribute to the overall meaning of the book?
7. FORESHADOWING
Students should identify the foreshadowing in their novel and give examples from the text.
- Did you know what was going to come? Why?
- Were there any hints as to what might occur?
- Why do you think the author chose to use or not use foreshadowing?
Finally, students should evaluate the ending of the book.
- Was the ending justified? (Was the ending viable and believable?)
- Was it a satisfactory ending that fit the rest of the novel?
- Was there a catharsis of some kind? Explain.
If your students follow this structure in their book report, it will help them explore each of the elements of fiction in a very specific way. As Barile discovered in her decades of teaching: “Students who explain, interpret, and synthesize what they have read gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of literature.”
Shop great classroom titles for book reports below! You can find all books and activities at The Teacher Store .
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How To Write A Book Review: 6 Steps To Take
Adiba Jaigirdar
Adiba Jaigirdar is an Irish-Bangladeshi writer, poet, and teacher. She resides in Dublin, Ireland and has an MA in postcolonial studies. She is currently working on her own postcolonial novel and hopes that someday it will see the light of day outside of her computer screen. Twitter: @adiba_j
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Whether you’re a student, a novice blogger, or just someone looking to become a more active user of Goodreads, writing a book review is an important skill to have! Here are six steps for how to write a book review for school and beyond.
![examples of book review for high school students How To Write A Book Review in 6 Steps](https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/How-To-Write-A-Book-Review-in-6-Steps.jpg.webp)
1. Begin with a brief summary of the book
This is probably the best way to introduce any review because it gives context. But make sure to not go into too much detail. Keep it short and sweet since an official summary can be found through a quick google search!
2. Pick out the most important aspects of the book
I usually break this down with character, world-building, themes, and plot. But this might vary between books, genres, and your tastes!
Dedicate a paragraph to each of these important aspects, discussing how well the author dealt with it, along with what you enjoyed and what you didn’t enjoy.
3. Include brief quotes as examples
Including quotes is always a great idea, because it gives examples for everything that you’re saying! If your review talks about a character being particularly witty, a witty line from the character lets your readers see exactly what kind of witty character you’re dealing with here.
But be careful: lengthy quotes can take up big chunks of space and overpower your review. Short quotes will usually get your points across while letting your work shine through.
4. Write a conclusion that summarises everything
Like your introduction, keep your conclusion short and sweet! It should bring up the main points of your review, along with your overall opinion of the book.
5. Find similar books
A great way to wrap up a review is to find similar books to the one you’re reviewing. So you can say, “if you were a fan of X book, I think you’ll definitely like this one!”
You can also be more specific, looking at the exact things that might make two books similar. So you can suggest something like…“if you liked that the main character in X book was a kick-ass superhero, then you’ll love the main character of this book!”
6. Give it a star rating
A star rating is obviously encouraged in a lot of review sites, but they’re not necessary! If you do want to give a star rating, you can go the conventional “out of five/ten” route. You could also try something slightly less conventional, and break down your star-rating into different categories for character/plot/world-building, etc.
Now go forth and review! And share any tips you have for how to write a book review in the comments.
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Book Review Lesson Plan: Teach Students How to Write a Successful Book Report
- Categories : High school english lesson plans grades 9 12
- Tags : High school lesson plans & tips
Teaching Students to Write a Book Review
I’ve always been an avid reader, but I hit a snag around high school and college when it came to choosing books for reading pleasure. I started reading book reviews out of my People magazine and online to help narrow down my choices. Through reading reviews, I was introduced to some of my all-time favorite novels, like The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold and The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Book reviews are a useful resource for reading fans, but can also be an alternative assessment tool for teachers.
Before students can write a book review, you must introduce them to professionally written pieces. Take them to the computer lab and go to sites that have notable book reviews, like the New York Times or Barnes and Noble Review. If you do not have access to the internet, you can always clip reviews from magazines, like People or from the newspaper. Read several reviews as a class and discuss the format reviewers use when writing about a book. Be sure to point out that reviews provide a general summary, name major characters, introduce the major conflicts in the story, and give either a positive, negative, or neutral opinion of the work. Good reviews will never reveal the resolution to the conflict, so encourage them to avoid giving away the ending!
I also use this time discuss how reviewing books, movies, and other media can easily turn into a profession. We discuss how writing and expressing one’s opinions clearly can benefit a future reviewer. Students are in awe at the many different types of reviewers that are in our mainstream media today. There are reviewers for video games, phone apps, computer software, as well as the typical book and movie reviewers. As a class we discuss how much fun a career in reviewing could bring to someone who has an avid interest in the subject matter they are critiquing. Tying a real-world application to the assignment helps middle school kids to see the answer to the eternal adolescent question, “Why do I need to know this” that every teacher seems to encounter on a daily (if not on a daily basis)!
How to Implement and Assess Student Reviews
Develop a structure for the book review, depending on the length you desire the review to be. I usually like students to implement the “Plot Pyramid” structure that they learn early on in the year, which follows the five steps of plot organization: Exposition, Conflict/Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action/denouement, and Resolution. Of course, I have them leave off resolution, so the ending to the novel is not revealed to the reader. This ends up being a four paragraph structure (minus the resolution), and then I have them add an “opinion paragraph” at the end of their plot assessment to make the structure a five-paragraph essay form.
If you have advanced students, or if you think your students are ready, you can also require quote integration into the article. Using the Quote Burger Method , assign students to integrate a certain number of quotes within their writing to bring a flavor and voice to the article that mirror’s the book. You will also be able to pick up on who actually read the book, and who is “writing blind”, based on the relevance of their quotes. At the end of the article, students can also rank the book on a four star system (one star being a horrible book and four stars being an awesome book). Students can draw the stars and color them in, or you can use clip art in Microsoft Word….either way, assigning a star ranking adds visual appeal to their review and peaks student interest in the review.
- Teacher experience.
Book Review Template
![examples of book review for high school students Book Review Template](https://www.readwritethink.org/sites/default/files/styles/focal_point_350x350/public/839_1.jpg?h=96298ce0&itok=IZMNs-68)
About this printout
Students can use this template as a means of communicating about a book that they have read.
Teaching with this printout
More ideas to try.
As students begin reading books at a young age, it is important to teach them to communicate their thoughts and ideas about the books they read. This template is a good way to teach students to begin putting their thoughts on a text into written form. Students will be able to process the information they read in a given text and process their ideas. Additionally, the Book Review Template allows the teacher to check a student's comprehension of a certain text to assess and inform instruction.
- Create a bulletin board with book reviews done by different students. The bulletin board can be organized by different genres of books or in other ways that are useful to students. Students can use this bulletin board as a way to read about their peers' thoughts on different books and to find books that they, too, might enjoy reading.
- At the beginning of the school year, do a read aloud and have students each do a book review on the same book that was read to the class. Have select students share their book reviews and/or thoughts on a book. Follow up by having a class discussion about why all of the book reviews are not alike, even though they were done on the same book. This discussion will familiarize students with different opinions and thoughts on the same books, and will also give struggling students a more concrete idea of how to do future book reviews on their own.
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Book Review Templates
50 best book review templates (kids, middle school etc.).
A book review template enables you to illustrate the intentions of the author who wrote the book while creating your own opinions and criticisms about the written material as a whole. By writing this template, you formulate your own opinions about the ideas presented by the author. In some cases, teachers assign students with the task of writing a book review template too. Through this, the teachers can determine how well the students understood the book.
Table of Contents
- 1 Book Review Templates
- 2 How long should the book review template be?
- 3 Book Review Templates For Kids
- 4 Parts of a book review template
- 5 Book Review Templates Middle School
- 6 Planning to write your book review
- 7 Book Review Templates High School
- 8 Starting to write your book review
- 9 Book Review Templates for College
- 10 What to include in your book review?
![Download book review template 01 Free book review template 01](https://templatelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/book-review-template-01.jpg)
How long should the book review template be?
One main purpose of a book review template is to help other people determine whether or not they would feel interested to read a book . A book review worksheet serves as a “sneak peek” at a book. Written well, it can encourage others to read the same book to see what all the fuss is about.
Just don’t make your review too short as it might not serve its purpose. Conversely, a review that’s too long might bore the reader, thus, prompting them not to finish reading all the way to the end. Instead of focusing on the length of your review, focus on what you want to say in it.
Book Review Templates For Kids
![Download book review template 10 Free book review template 10](https://templatelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/book-review-template-10.jpg)
Parts of a book review template
If you’re a student, all you have to do is give your own opinions and thoughts about the book you have read. But if you want your review to stand out, you may want to include more information:
- A brief summary When writing a book review template, include a brief summary along with some background information about the topic and the author. As you write, don’t assume that the readers have already read the book. This is why you should explain the main ideas and topics you have read and their significance.
- Background information about the topic As you write the background information, do a lot of research about the main topic to provide comprehensive data. Even if it’s a fictional story, doing research is essential. That way, the opinions and evaluations you share about the book come from your own good understanding of what you have read. For non-fiction, you may choose to include studies or research about the topic of the book to come up with a comprehensive review that your readers will appreciate.
- Your evaluation Conclude your book review worksheet with an evaluation of what you’ve read. More than just your opinions, provide an evaluation of the strong points, weaknesses, and even the objectives of the book and if the author met these objectives. After this evaluation, you can include your opinions. Explain your reactions and the reasons for these reactions. Don’t just say “I didn’t like the book.” Specify the parts you didn’t appreciate and your reason why. This makes your review more believable, especially when you’re writing for a book that’s available for purchase.
Book Review Templates Middle School
![Download book review template 20 Free book review template 20](https://templatelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/book-review-template-20.jpg)
Planning to write your book review
You can write a book review template for books of all genres and for different purposes. Of course, writing a book review template for different genres requires skill. While you would follow a single format for these reviews, the content varies greatly. Part of the writing process is to plan what to write in your review. Here are some tips to guide you:
- Create an outline that includes all of the most important points that you want to include in your review. In the outline, include information about the plot, the characters, and other important details in the book.
- For each point in your outline, create a paragraph that talks about it.
- You should have a good understanding of the plot so that you can write your review effectively.
- Analyze the writing techniques that the author used. This makes it easier for you to understand why and how the author wrote the book.
- Analyze the characters of the book to see if they seem realistic, believable or even logical, especially in terms of the roles they play in the plot of the story.
- Decide whether you would recommend the book you’ve read to other people. If you want to recommend it, explain why. If not, provide an explanation for this decision too.
Book Review Templates High School
![Download book review template 30 Free book review template 30](https://templatelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/book-review-template-30.jpg)
Starting to write your book review
Most book review templates start with a brief summary of the book. If you decide to start the “traditional” way by writing a summary, make sure that you don’t give away too many details about the book. You shouldn’t retell the story or share too much information that the reader won’t even bother to read the book because they already know what it’s about. More importantly, people don’t appreciate it when reviews include spoilers.
When it comes to reviews, you can also begin in different ways depending on your preference or the requirements given to you by your teacher. Here are some suggestions for you:
- Provide background information about the book Here, you share what makes the book interesting or important. It might have a well-known author, it may be part of a series of books or it may even be a bestseller. The background information you provide should hook the reader and make them feel curious.
- Explain an important term used in the book If you think that an important term or phrase in the book might confuse the readers, you can start your review by providing a short explanation for it. This makes it easier for readers to understand the book and not feel intimidated by it.
- Share an interesting fact about the book This way of starting your review is particularly effective for nonfiction books. By sharing an interesting fact that you have taken from the book, you will catch the interest of your readers.
- Start with a quote Finally, you can also begin your review using a striking quote you’ve taken from the book. This is a powerful way to begin your review and it also makes the whole document more interesting to read.
Book Review Templates for College
![Download book review template 40 Free book review template 40](https://templatelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/book-review-template-40.jpg)
What to include in your book review?
Thinking about what you want to say in your book review template can feel like a challenge. But it doesn’t have to be. As long as you have an idea of the content to include in your review, the words may start flowing easily. Here are some ideas of what your book review may contain:
- General information Talk about what kind of book is it – is it an adventure book, a fantasy book, a nonfiction book, a novel, and more. State if it is a standalone book or if it’s part of the series. You can even share interesting facts about the author of the book if you feel like this information can help your readers. Here, you can also compare the book to others of the same genre or topic. Talk about the style of the book and the language the author used for it. You can even recommend the age groups the book is most recommended for.
- Plot Writing this part is the most challenging since you want to provide your readers with a taste of what the book is all about without divulging too many details or spoilers. When writing a book review for stories, never give away the ending!
- Characters Your review should provide good information about all the characters in the story. You can learn more about the characters by analyzing their dialogues, actions, and how they interact with the other characters in the story. When talking about the characters, you can share some examples of instances that stood out in your mind. But again, don’t give away too much.
- Theme Here, you talk about what the book is really about. Apart from the plot, you should also try to share the ideas behind the story that you’ve read. For instance, is the book about hope, love, friendship, the triumph of good over evil, and so on. This is another important piece of information that your readers may appreciate.
- Setting This refers to the place and time when the story happens. When including this information, don’t just share the location. You can even add descriptions to make this part more interesting to read.
- Opinions and analyses Finally, this is where you would share your reactions to the book. After giving the facts, it’s time to talk about how the book moved you, what you thought about it, and how you interpreted everything you’ve read. This would be the “meatiest” part of your book so you should spend more time on it. This also happens to be the main purpose of the book – your review – which is why it’s called a review!
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![examples of book review for high school students Literature Review Templates](https://templatelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/literature-review-template-28-790x1022.jpg)
Literature Review Templates
👀 Book Review Example
🔗 references, ❓ what is a book review.
A book review is a form of literary criticism. There are several important elements to consider when writing one, such as the author’s style and themes of interest. The two most popular types are short summary reviews and critical reviews, which are longer.
![examples of book review for high school students The two most popular types are short summary reviews and critical reviews, which are longer.](https://custom-writing.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/book_review_1.jpg)
Summary Book Review
The format of a book review depends on the purpose of your writing. A short summary review will not include any in-depth analysis. It’s merely a descriptive piece of writing that overviews key information about the book and its author. An effective summary review consists of:
- Reference to a chosen book in the form of a citation.
- A few words on the book’s purpose.
- Description of the main themes, ideas, and issues highlighted by the author.
- Brief information about other works on this topic, if applicable.
- A note about the author and visual materials of the book, along with its structure.
Critical Book Review
A critical book review is much longer than its summary counterpart and looks more like an analytical essay. You may be asked to write one as a college student. It includes:
- Book citation and a hook in the introduction.
- A few words about the author’s intentions.
- An academic description of the main ideas and themes.
- Mention of errors in the text, if you found any.
- Discussion of the chosen book’s significance and how it has influenced the field.
- Some information about the author and the physical content of the book.
- Description of the audience and whether the writer’s style and ideas are engaging.
🧩 Book Review Outline
Check out the book review outline template below to learn more about structuring your paper.
Introduction
The introduction of a book review should include some background information and your thesis statement.
- What is this book about?
- Who is the author?
- What were the reasons for writing this book?
- Who is this book for?
- What is the general problem the book addresses?
Brief book summary
A brief summary should provide an outline of the book’s main ideas or events.
- What are the main themes/ideas of the book?
- What is the plot?
- Who are the characters?
- What is the major emphasis of the work?
Critical review
A critical review should focus on your evaluation of the author’s approach to writing about a particular issue.
- What did you like/dislike in the book?
- What are the book’s strengths and weaknesses?
- What do you agree/disagree with? Why?
- How does this book compare to other books on this topic?
- What matters does the book leave out?
The conclusion of a book review should finish with your personal assessment of the work.
- Has the author achieved the purpose of writing the book?
- Is this book worth reading?
- To whom would you recommend this book?
- What is your final opinion about it?
- What steel needs to be written on this subject?
Book Review Outline Example
We have prepared for you a book review outline example on Looking for Alaska by John Green. Check it out:
- Hook: Have you ever searched for meaning amidst the chaos of teenage life? John Green’s Looking for Alaska embarks on that very journey, unveiling the messy realities of adolescence.
- Overview of the book.
- Information about the author.
- Thesis statement: In Looking for Alaska , John Green skillfully crafts a narrative that delves into the turbulent journey of adolescence, exploring themes of friendship, identity, and the quest for meaning.
- Introduction of the protagonist, Miles Halter.
- Introduction of other characters and their roles in Halter’s life.
- Key events of the book.
- Green’s writing style and its effectiveness in portraying the turbulent emotions and confusion of adolescence.
- The character development of Miles and his journey of self-discovery, grief, and understanding.
- Exploration of how themes of friendship, identity, and the quest for meaning are depicted throughout the narrative.
- Restated thesis.
- Brief summary of main points.
- Recommendation: I would recommend this thought-provoking book to fans of realistic fiction that doesn’t shy away from difficult topics.
📋 Book Review Format
Here are several practical tips that can aid you in formatting your book review:
- Start with the book citation. Provide the necessary publication information about the book, including the author’s name, the full title of the book, and other elements required by your chosen citation style (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).
- Italicize the book title in the text. Whenever you mention the book title in your review, remember to type it in italics without using quotation marks. However, if you include the title of a book chapter, enclose it in quotation marks and don’t italicize it.
- Use a readable font. Type your book reviews using a 12-pt Arial or Times New Roman font.
- Apply standard document settings. These include 1-inch margins on all sides, double spacing, and flush left paragraph alignment.
- Use in-text citations. Always cite the information borrowed from other authors. This way, your readers will understand the origin of your ideas and distinguish your thoughts from those of others.
- Keep your review to 500-1500 words. When the professor does not indicate how many words to include in your book review, keep it to 2-5 double-spaced pages.
✍️ How to Write a Book Review?
The structure of a book review is like any other essay. That said, the process of writing one has its own idiosyncrasies. So, before moving to the three parts of the review (introduction, main body, and conclusion), you should study the chosen piece and make enough notes to work with.
Step #1: Choose a Book and Read It
Being interested in a book you’re about to analyze is one thing. Reading it deeply is quite another.
Before you even dive into the text proper, think about what you already know about the book. Then, study the table of contents and make some predictions. What’s your first impression?
Now, it’s time to read it! Don’t take this step lightly. Keep a note log throughout the reading process and stop after each chapter to jot down a quick summary. If you find any particular point of interest along the way and feel you might want to discuss it in the review, highlight it to make it easier to find when you go back through the text. If you happen to have a digital copy, you can even use a shorten essay generator and save yourself some time.
Answering the following questions can also help you with this process.
❓ | How does the book compare to others you might have read or heard about on the same subject? |
❓ | Did it meet your expectations? |
❓ | How clear are the ? |
❓ | To what would the target audience pay more attention? |
Step #2: Create Your Book Review Outline
A solid outline should be the foundation of any worthy book review. It includes the key points you want to address and gives you a place to start from (and refer back to) throughout the writing process.
You are expected to produce at least five paragraphs if you want your review to look professional, including an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion .
While analyzing your notes , consider the questions below.
❓ | What’s the book’s theme? How well can you understand it? |
❓ | How engaging is the plot? Was there ever a point where you felt like putting the book down? |
❓ | How effective is the author’s writing technique? Can you read anything between the lines? |
❓ | Are the characters well-developed? Is their behavior logical? |
❓ | Is the book worth recommending to others? How can you tell that it’s good? |
❓ | What could be improved? Here’s your chance to criticize the author. |
Step #3: Write Your Book Review Introduction
With a layout firmly in place, it’s time to start writing your introduction. This process should be straightforward: mention the name of the book and its author and specify your first impression. The last sentence should always be your thesis statement, which summarizes your review’s thrust and critical findings.
Step #4: Write Your Book Review Body
Include at least three main ideas you wish to highlight. These can be about the writing style, themes, character, or plot. Be sure to support your arguments with evidence in the form of direct quotes (at least one per paragraph). Don’t be afraid to paraphrase the sentences that feel off. It’s better to aknowledge the mistakes yourself than have someone else point them out.
Step #5: Write Your Book Review Conclusion
Compose a brief summary of everything you wrote about in the main body. You should also paraphrase your thesis statement . For your closing sentence, comment on the value of the book. Perhaps it served as a source of useful insight, or you just appreciate the author’s intention to shed light on a particular issue.
Now you know how to write a book review. But if you need some more inspiration, check out the following sample review, which follows the basic outline described above.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: Book Review Example
Mary Shelley’s is a perennial classic and has been translated into many languages. Few know, however, that it came into existence thanks to a contest that Shelley and her friends organized to entertain themselves. In addition to setting the stage for much horror fiction to follow, the book highlights timeless themes of revenge, prejudice, and excessive ambitions. | |
Victor Frankenstein becomes deeply obsessed with the idea of conquering the power of nature. So intent is he on knowing the secret of life that he distances himself from society until he finally succeeds. Only when he sees the Monster he has created does he realize the magnitude of his mistake: “I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished.”The abandoned Monster’s tragic fate appears to be much more complicated than it seems at first glance. He despises the whole world for rejecting him and seeks revenge against his creator. Such feelings become his sense of life: “revenge, henceforth dearer than the light of food.” Thus, a vicious cycle of hate is set in motion as Victor chases the Monster to exact revenge on him for killing his family.Despite his fearsome appearance, the Monster is gentle and kind inside. But he knows that humans are naturally biased and will always judge his exterior: “All men hate the wretched.” There is a hidden irony in the fact that the Monster decides to act the part of the dangerous creature people take him to be. | |
The themes of are still relevant in today’s world. We continue to be overly ambitious, judging every book by its cover against unreachable ideals of beauty and success. But our failure to forgive and empathize with others creates a chain of hate and revenge that is hard to break. Through the moral lessons of her fiction, Mary Shelley managed to show us that the horrors of real life are even darker than those on the printed page. |
If you want more examples, check out the list below!
- “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”: Book Review
- The Great Gatsby: A Book Review and Summary
- Book Review: “They Say I Say”
- Book Review “Religious, Feminist, Activist ” by Laurel Zwissler
- “Tell My Horse” by Zora Neale Hurston Book Review
- “Emotional Intelligence” by Daniel Goleman Book Review
Book Review Essay Topics
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: book review.
- The symbolic nature of the Canadian consumption culture in The Donut: A Canadian History by S. Penfold.
- The key lessons of the book Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.
- Big Talk, Small Talk by Shola Kaye : a guide to effective communication.
- Review of the book The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.
- The main ideas promoted in Thinking About Crime: Sense and Sensibility in American Penal Culture by M. Tonry.
- Exposition of young boys’ problems in Nikkah’s Our Boys Speak .
- Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf: book review.
- Discuss the message to future entrepreneurs in Phil Knight’s Shoe Dog .
- The main ideas of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey.
- Magical realism in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Juno Diaz.
- Book review: Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer.
- Psychological struggles of identity and isolation in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
- The principle of negotiation in the book Getting to Yes .
- Analyze the symbolism in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 .
- The role of family in Montana 1948 .
- Weaving the Web by Tim Berners-Lee: book review.
- Discuss the main topic of the book Death of a Salesman .
- Tragedy of the family in A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor.
- Realistic features of Afghanistan in The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.
- Review of the book Montley Fool Money Guide .
- Description of the gap between two cultures in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman.
- The effect of Puritan beliefs in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown .
- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad as a prominent example of symbolism.
- The philosophical value of Oedipus the King by Sophocles.
- Discuss the description of gradual personality changes in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Black Cat .
- Review of the play Much Ado About Nothing by W. Shakespeare.
- Analyze the core theme of Sherman Alexie’s book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian .
- Family values and culture preservation issues in J.D. Vance Book Hillbilly Elegy .
- Problems of teenagers’ behavior in Nothing but the Truth by Avi.
- The role of women in society in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar .
- Satire on the Victorian society customs in The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde .
- Danger of obsession with new technologies in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Birthmark .
- Describe the controversial messages of Why Don’t You Dance by Raymond Carver .
- Examine the central problem of the novel Motorcycle Ride on the Sea of Tranquility by Patricia Santana.
- Review of the book Billy Budd by Herman Melville.
- The fundamental philosophical problems of perception and consciousness in The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares.
- Discuss the role of the illusory world Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie .
- Gender roles in A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen.
- Analyze the main topic of Death by Landscape by Margaret Atwood.
- Book Review – The New York Times
- Book Reviews – UNC Writing Center
- Writing a Book Review – USC Writing Center
- Books | The Guardian
- Book Reviews : NPR – NPR
- Book Reviews // Purdue Writing Lab
- Book Reviews | Nature
- The New York Review of Books: Home
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I need a seven page Book report on Booker T. Washington. Instructions below from instructor title, your name, and then seven paragraphs and seven pages – no more no less.
get rid of the outline format.
They combine your ideas into seven paragraphs.
Each paragraph that has quotes should have a topic sentence followed by the five sentences with quotes and endnotes, followed by the concluding sentence.
You do not need any quotes in the introduction or in the summary.
So seven paragraphs total.
Each paragraph needs to be 13 – 17 lines, lines on a page and not sentences.
So, delete the outline format.
Combine your ideas into seven paragraphs.
Make sure that each paragraph has between 13–17 lines.
And make sure your overall length is in seven pages, no more no less.
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Home » Blog » How To Write A Book Review For High School In 2023/2024
How To Write A Book Review For High School In 2023/2024
As a form of definition, book reviews are written assessments of an already or recently published book of all genres. It’s usually a brief yet concise description of a text, the ideas about its content, analysis, style, and an evaluation of its overall strength and weakness, thus, providing the readers with an overview of what it talks about.
The most popular types of book reviews include; scholarly review, summary review, and opinion review, each a sideline of analytic skills and critical thinking. The book review isn’t only settled on the plot summarization which must be encircled with strong argumentative prowess, the bulk of the book must be interpreted in clear language adequate for the reader’s consumption.
How To Write A Book Review For High School
You are sure to encounter book reviewing as a high scholar but be sure to follow these steps to write a perfect high school book review.
Step 1: Introduction
Introducing the book should entail; the name of the book, the author, and the year of publication. Your Introduction should be brief and clearly written explicitly so the readers are already wrapped up in the book even before they begin to read.
Step 2: Thesis
You should write a strong thesis and presentation of the overall idea with a general outline of the reviews you are constructing. Here, you must have a full understanding of what it is you are writing about so you do not carve up the incomplete or erroneous thesis that may ruin your work or the writer’s work because this part is a milestone that may pulley the writer’s work or let down crashing to the soil.
Step 3: Plot Summary
This step should narrate more in the plot; the characters, events, places, and the idea enveloping the book. The style of ‘who, what, where, when, and why questions can help make this part as brief as can be, making the person who reads the review briefly informed about general elements of the book and realize that writing is familiar with the book.
Step 4: Outline On The Literary Qualities
This step is your moment to reflect on the structure and elements of the text. Deliver your personal view on the entire book, here you are free to criticize or support certain rules captioned in the book. You can recommend the book if you find it worth it, however, when criticizing the book, be sure to mind your choice of words and do not be irrationally vague, keep it constructive.
Step 5: Conclusion
You can conclude with a short narrative of the text and the type of readers you feel would be interested in this book and how well it might impact their lives.
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Book review writing prompts for high school students
by Kim Kautzer | May 3, 2017 | High school , Writing & Journal Prompts
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Not that long ago, it seems, we would look to magazine writers and newspaper columnists for book reviews. Today, every online customer is a potential book reviewer. No matter what you’re reading, someone wants to know your opinion.
Ask your high schooler to choose one writing prompt for a one-paragraph book review. Or, combine several prompts for a longer critique. Don’t forget to post the polished review on Amazon, Facebook, or a personal blog!
1. As Clear as Crystal
Explain your opinion of the author’s writing style . Are his arguments clear? Are his directions confusing? In his fiction, does he balance internal character development and external action to keep the story moving? Overall, do the author’s word choice and sentence structure make you want to read more?
2. Like Flowers in Spring
Evaluate the fictional characters . Are their actions consistent with their strengths and weaknesses? Are their speaking habits believable? Provide some examples. Analyze the story’s ending: does it flow naturally from what you’ve learned about these characters?
3. As Old as Time
With hard work and imagination, an author can reveal her distinctive creativity within the limits of classic plot structure . Describe the originality–or the copycat features–of her fictional storyline.
4. As Good as Gold
A work of nonfiction, whether a biography or a cookbook, claims a certain amount of special knowledge. Considering how this book advertised itself in the title and table of contents, did the actual product meet your expectations ? Was it accurate and well-researched? Did the facts outweigh the propaganda? Did you find extensive, organized information or only repetitious jargon?
5. Like Water in a Desert
We characterize an author as a harsh critic or a compassionate mentor depending on their tone. Did you find this author to be condemning or inspiring ? Give examples. Since you have familiarized yourself with the author’s viewpoint, add a recommendation about which readers will find this book most appealing.
If you enjoyed these book review writing prompts, be sure to check back each week for more Writing Prompt Wednesdays ! Once a month, we feature topics especially suited for high schoolers.
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25 Essential High School Reads From the Last Decade
We asked members of our community to share recently published novels they would love to have read in high school. Here are your top picks.
Way back in 2016, we asked our community to share what they would consider essential reads for high school students. The final list of 20 recommended books was dominated by what many would consider the classics: John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men , J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye , F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby , Shakespeare’s Macbeth .
For decades, these works have been required reading in classrooms across the country, but more recently educators like Lorena Germán and advocates for the #DisruptTexts movement —not to mention the millions of students who’ve come and gone during the era—have challenged the notion of a traditional canon, advocating for a more “inclusive, representative, and equitable language arts curriculum.”
“There are problems with teaching only classics—the stories are overwhelmingly told from a white and/or male perspective, and more needs to be done to diversify that,” writes eighth-grade English teacher Christina Torres . “In addition, there’s merit in introducing our students to more recent literature.”
This year, we circled back and asked our community a version of the same question—What novels do you wish you could’ve read in high school?—but this time we specified that titles must have been published within the last decade. Hundreds of responses flooded in, and the contrast to six years ago was stark. Nominations were diverse, representing a broad range of topics, themes, genres, and author identities, as well as a wide variety of characters and experiences—queer protagonists and protagonists of color, characters with differing abilities, and fictional roles representing a refreshing spectrum of body sizes and shapes.
The Hate U Give , by Angie Thomas, was a clear standout, earning the most votes and thus the number one spot on our list. Some authors were multiple winners: Jason Reynolds’s Long Way Down and All American Boys made the cut, and Nic Stone’s Dear Martin and its sequel Dear Justyce were both favorites, but we selected only one for inclusion in the top 25. While fiction titles represent the lion’s share of the final list, a number of memoirs and autobiographies made the grade, including Malala Yousafzai’s I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban and the comedian and late-night host Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood.
The Top 25 Indispensable High School Reads
1. The Hate U Give Angie Thomas’s emotionally wrenching debut novel finds Starr, an African American teen, torn between the affluent, predominantly white school she attends and the impoverished neighborhood where she lives. The fatal shooting of her childhood best friend by a police officer shatters her equilibrium, forcing her to choose where she stands. Primary themes of interest to high school students: identity, race and racial injustice, grief and loss, activism.
2. Educated: A Memoir Tara Westover’s story of growing up alongside—and eventually growing beyond—her decidedly iconoclastic family of Mormon survivalists in rural Idaho is an autobiographical paean to the transformative power of education. Primary themes of interest to high school students: autonomy, family dynamics, learning and education, loneliness and isolation.
3. Dear Martin Author Nic Stone drops readers deep into the life of her 17-year-old main character, Justyce, who suddenly finds himself on the wrong side of an unprovoked, racially charged encounter with a police officer. Primary themes of interest to high school students: privilege, friendship, race and racial injustice, discrimination, the criminal justice system.
4. The Poet X Elizabeth Acevedo’s National Book Award–winning novel-in-verse tells the story of Xiomara Batista, a 15-year-old Dominican-American girl living in Harlem who discovers that slam poetry unlocks answers to questions about her religion, her mother, and her identity and greater purpose in life. Primary themes of interest to high school students: sexuality, self-acceptance, family dynamics.
5. Long Way Down Jason Reynolds, author of Ghost and Ain’t Burned All the Bright , thrusts readers inside an elevator alongside 15-year-old protagonist Will Hollomon, who has about 60 seconds to make one of the hardest decisions of his life. Primary themes of interest to high school students: justice, grief and loss, family dynamics.
6. Refugee Three refugee children—each living in separate parts of the world during different time periods, from Nazi Germany to Syria in 2015—fight to escape the violence of their home countries in Alan Gratz’s timely and moving work of historical fiction. Primary themes of interest to high school students: warfare, family dynamics, trauma, the experiences of refugees.
7. Homegoing The Ghanaian American novelist Yaa Gyasi traces the impact of the Gold Coast’s slave trade on the lives of two African stepsisters and several generations of their descendants. Primary themes of interest to high school students: slavery and human rights, identity, race and racial injustice, family dynamics, oppression, trauma.
8. Firekeeper’s Daughter Witnessing a murder launches Angeline Boulley’s protagonist Daunis—a Native teen torn between her white and Ojibwe culture—into an FBI investigation where she must go undercover in search of the truth. Primary themes of interest to high school students: family dynamics, addiction, risk-taking, authority.
9. All The Light We Cannot See Set during World War II, this is Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize–winning tale of two teenagers—a blind French girl on the run and a German boy forced to join the Nazi army—whose separate lives ultimately converge. Primary themes of interest to high school students: warfare, grief and loss, disability, power and conformity.
10. Beartown Author Fredrik Backman investigates the ripple effects of a sexual assault, committed by the star athlete, on a small hockey town in rural Sweden. Primary themes of interest to high school students: justice, trauma, power and conformity.
11. I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter A tragic accident causes Erika Sánchez’s main character, Julia, to reflect on the perceived image of her “perfect” sister, Olga—as well as the secrets she may have been hiding. Primary themes of interest to high school students: grief and loss, perfectionism, mental health, sexuality, identity.
12. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption Bryan Stevenson’s memoir details his work at the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit organization providing legal counsel to the wrongfully convicted, as well as those without the funds for effective representation. Primary themes of interest to high school students: the criminal justice system, race and racial injustice, poverty, trauma.
13. Patron Saints of Nothing In Randy Ribay’s National Book Award finalist, 17-year-old Jay Reguero leaves the University of Michigan and returns to his extended family in the Philippines when he learns that his cousin was recently murdered there—all the while secretly planning to investigate the crime. Primary themes of interest to high school students: grief and loss, culture and identity, the criminal justice system, truth and justice.
14. The Invention of Wings Set in the antebellum South, Sue Monk Kidd’s novel explores the meaning of freedom to two girls from vastly different backgrounds—Sarah, a white girl of means, and Handful, a slave gifted to Sarah on her birthday. Primary themes of interest to high school students: friendship, slavery and human rights, race, privilege.
15. The Midnight Library What if you could read your way into another story of your life? In Matt Haig’s charming fantasy novel, 35-year-old Nora Seed peruses the books in an infinite library and discovers that each magical volume gives her a glimpse into a life she might have led. Primary themes of interest to high school students: identity and purpose, mental health, fantasy.
16. The Nickel Boys In this Pulitzer Prize winner, Colson Whitehead’s main character, Elwood Curtis, experiences firsthand the horrors of a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy—based on the real-life Dozier School for Boys, a now-closed reform school in Florida with a 111-year history of abusing students. Primary themes of interest to high school students: activism, trauma, abuse, race and racial injustice.
17. The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row Convicted of a crime he did not commit, Anthony Ray Hinton relates the story of his 30 years on death row. Cowritten with Lara Love Hardin, the memoir reveals not only how he managed to survive but also how he ultimately found his way to joy. Primary themes of interest to high school students: race and racial injustice, redemption, innocence and guilt, the criminal justice system.
18. The Tattooist of Auschwitz Inspired by true events, this is Heather Morris’s heart-wrenching World War II tale about Lale Sokolov, a Jewish man who—forced to work at Auschwitz as a serial number tattooist—falls in love with an imprisoned woman as she waits to be branded. Primary themes of interest to high school students: warfare, race and racial injustice, the power of love.
19. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood Comedian and political commentator Trevor Noah’s memoir mines his experiences as a mixed-race child in apartheid South Africa—a period during which the Immorality Act of 1927 outlawed interracial relationships, ostensibly making Noah’s very existence a crime. Primary themes of interest to high school students: identity and purpose, race and racial injustice, oppression.
20. I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban Written by the world’s youngest Nobel Prize laureate, Malala Yousafzai’s memoir tells the story of her fight for the rights of young girls and women in Pakistan—despite an assassination attempt that gravely wounded her in 2012, when she was only 15 years old. Primary themes of interest to high school students: activism, women’s rights, learning and education.
21. The Marrow Thieves Cherie Dimaline’s book is a dystopian vision of a bleak, postapocalyptic world in which humans have lost the ability to dream—except for North America’s Indigenous population, who are hunted for their bone marrow, which holds the key to a cure. Primary themes of interest to high school students: trauma, the climate crisis, family dynamics, oppression.
22. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe In this novel set in 1987, author Benjamin Alire Sáenz traces the story of two Mexican American boys, Aristotle and Dante, who could not be more different but form a bond that makes them confidants—and gives them the courage to share life-changing secrets. Primary themes of interest to high school students: identity and purpose, sexuality, self-acceptance, trauma.
23. Sing, Unburied, Sing: A Novel Jesmyn Ward’s dark but lyrical tale follows a Mississippi family on a road trip haunted by ghosts of the past and present. Primary themes of interest to high school students: race and racial injustice, identity and belonging, mortality.
24. The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives In this journalistic piece of nonfiction, author Dashka Slater reveals the complexities of what transpired between two teenagers on a bus in Oakland, California—Sasha and Richard—and the aftermath that ultimately transformed two families. Primary themes of interest to high school students: gender and sexuality, race, discrimination, the criminal justice system.
25. The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet Adapted from his podcast of the same name, John Green’s humorous collection of 44 essays covers topics ranging from the computer-generated velociraptors in the movie Jurassic Park and sunsets to air conditioners and penguins—rating them all on a five-star scale. Primary themes of interest to high school students: the human condition, mental health, humor and absurdity, the climate crisis.
MSL Book Review
Sample nonfiction book reviews.
Nonfiction Reviews
Bomb The Race to Build – and Steal – the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon is an engaging non-fiction book which had me from the first page. The book begins with a Prologue: May 22, 1950 the FBI arrives at Harry Gold’s door; Harry, still in pajamas, stares at two agents with a search warrant for his home as they are investigating his spying activities from the 30s and 40s. The jig was up and Harry declares “There is a great deal more to this story. It goes way back, and I would like to tell it all.” Thus begins the tale of the Manhattan Project from its inception. Even though we know the outcome of the race and understand the destruction, the excitement of the academics working on the bomb is felt.
This is an intriguing story of WWII, the atomic bomb, and the historical figures who played major roles in the development of atomic power. Many pictures and excellent source notes, quotes notes, and index make this a well documented book. Included in the Epilogue is the original letter from Albert Einstein written to F.D. Roosevelt, advising that a new energy form had been discovered by splitting the atom and that it needed to be monitored. This book is an excellent companion book to the fictional Green Glass Sea, which is set in Los Alamos and is the story of children and wives of the men working on the Manhattan Project.
Author Steve Sheinkin crafts a compelling thriller about the development of the atomic bomb in his book, Bomb: the Race to Build – and Steal- the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon. Sheinkin, using effective narrative techniques, introduces readers to the major personalities involved in the Manhattan Project as the Americans raced to construct an atomic bomb while keeping the knowledge from the Germans during World War II. The book takes us from the US to Great Britain, Norway, Germany, Russia, and Japan where scientists, politicians, and spies are all engaged in winning the war (and becoming a world power) through the creation of the “ultimate weapon.”
This volume will be especially useful for middle and high school students conducting research on World War II weapons and war strategy, as well as those looking for biographical information on the Manhattan Project scientists. Along with a detailed index, the author provides copious source and quotation notes. Black and white photographs of the important personalities and bomb testing site are sprinkled throughout. An essential purchase for American history and science collections.
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Book Review Style Sheet
Thank you for agreeing to review for HSNS . We are pleased to have your contribution. In formulating and formatting your review please refer to the following guide.
Formatting Guidelines: Main Text
At the top of the first page, flush left, begin your article with:
Article title
Author name(s), followed by a starred headnote*
*In the starred headnote, provide full contact information, including institutional affiliation, address, and e-mail address.
Provide full bibliographical information in this form :
Peter J. Westwick. Into the Black: JLP and the American Space Program, 1976 – 2004 . New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006. xxii + 416 pp., illus., index. ISBN 978-0-3001-1075-3. $40 (hardcover).
David E. Rowe and Robert Schulman, eds. Einstein on Politics . Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007. xxxiv + 523 pp., illus., index. ISBN 978-0-3001-1075-3. $29.95 (paper).
For each book under review:
• All book information should be followed by one of two designations: (hardcover), (paper).
• List price of reviewed books in U.S. dollars.
Main Text: General
• Cite specific references to the books being reviewed by inserting page numbers, within parentheses, into the main text. Place them inside punctuation. References to all other sources should be included in the footnotes.
• Place footnotes at the end of the sentence. Where two or more references are within a sentence, combine them into one footnote.
• List continuing pages number to two digits (e.g., 108–09, not 108–109)
• For page- or year-ranges, use an en-dash instead of a hyphen: 1970–71, not 1970-1971.
• pp. is not used before page numbers.
• Use serial comma (A, B, and C).
• Use city names as they are recognized in the U.S. (e.g., Warsaw, not Warszawa).
Formatting Guidelines: Citations
We follow the Chicago Manual of Style. Seewww.chicagomanualofstyle.org.
Examples of the most common citation forms are given below.
Authored Books [ Chicago 17.16]
Robert Bud, The Uses of Life: A History of Biotechnology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 213.
Edited Books [ Chicago 16.85]
Michael Thad Allen and Gabrielle Hecht, eds., Technologies of Power: Essays in Honor of Thomas Parke Hughes and Agatha Chipley Hughes (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001).
Article in an Edited Volume [ Chicago 17.69]
Jack M. Holl, “The Peaceful Atom: Lore and Myth,” in Atoms for Peace: An Analysis after Thirty Years , ed. Joseph F. Pilat, Robert E. Pendly, and Charles R. Smith (Boulder: Westview Press, 1985), 149–59.
Journal Articles [ Chicago 17.154 ; include the full page range of the article ]
Catherine Westfall, “Rethinking Big Science: Modest, Mezzo, Grand Science, and the Development of the Bevalac, 1971–1993,” Isis 94, no. 1 (2003): 30–56, on 31.
Online Original Content [ Chicago 17.237 ; include access date ]
Ethan Watters, “DNA Is Not Destiny,” Discover Magazine , published online on 22 Nov 2006, http://discovermagazine.com/2006/nov/cover (last accessed 22 May 2009).
Short Form [ Chicago 17.230]
HSNS uses short form in footnotes to indicate a source that has already been fully cited in a previous footnote. Shorten titles to four words or fewer . Indicate page number (unless the reference is general).
General format: Author’s Last Name, Shortened Title (ref. #), page #.
Bud, Uses of Life (ref. 5).
Stokes et al., Pasteur’s Quadrant (ref. 9), 178.
Note: Add author’s first name only in cases where there is ambiguity.
About the Book Review Section
HSNS reviews are typically extended discussions of one or more books. The Book Review Editors will have agreed with you on the list of works and suggested length. Please write for an audience of generally interested historians of science, who may not necessarily be specialists in the field of the books you are reviewing. You are encouraged to reflect not only on the works under review, but also on larger historiographic issues they raise. References to other scholarly works are welcome.
From the Foreword to HSNS 38:1 (2008)
Overseen by editors Angela N. H. Creager and Michael D. Gordin, the book review section will be guided by a new principle of selection. Other journals in our field already fill the need for maximal coverage, reviewing as many worthy books as they are able. Instead we have decided to offer depth, nuance, and comparison. We will give our reviewers and readers the space to reflect on specific works of scholarship and recent trends in their fields, in, for example, historiographical review essays, exploring the state of a subfield and the variety of approaches deployed in it, and in-depth reviews of single, particularly interesting books. Further, we are intent on including more studies published in languages other than English, giving detailed discussions of methodology and approach to serve a reading community that still communicates mainly in English.
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It is a fantasy, but the book draws inspiration from the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Rape of Nanking. Crime Fiction Lover reviews Jessica Barry's Freefall, a crime novel: In some crime novels, the wrongdoing hits you between the eyes from page one. With others it's a more subtle process, and that's OK too.
The first step is to plan and create an outline that includes all the points that you will have to cover in the review. Don't forget to include all the information about the characters, plot information, and some other parts of the chosen book. The three parts of a book review are: 1. Provide a Summary.
The real value of crafting a well-written book review for a student does not lie in their ability to impact book sales. Understanding how to produce a well-written book review helps students to: Engage critically with a text. Critically evaluate a text. Respond personally to a range of different writing genres.
Book Review Examples for High School Students. Title: Paper Towns. Author: John Green. Genre: Realistic Fiction. John Green's amazing way of writing has not let us down yet. With his mesmerizing book, Paper Towns, he has captured the interests of teens around the country. Paper Towns has a setting that corresponds to our time and gives teens ...
4 tips for writing a book review. 1. Avoid repetition. A book review is its own piece of writing. By that, we mean your book review shouldn't just repeat the book's plot. It should add a new perspective about the book. 2. Be concise. Don't ramble in your book review.
Step 1: Planning Your Book Review - The Art of Getting Started. You've decided to take the plunge and share your thoughts on a book that has captivated (or perhaps disappointed) you. Before you start book reviewing, let's take a step back and plan your approach.
By contrast, book reviews are most often a college assignment, but they also appear in many professional works: magazines, newspapers, and academic journals. They typically range from 500-750 words, but may be longer or shorter. A book review gives readers a sneak peek at what a book is like, whether or not the reviewer enjoyed it, and details ...
The student describes the subject of the book and provides an accurate summary of its contents. But the reader does not learn some key information expected from a review: the author's argument, the student's appraisal of the book and its argument, and whether or not the student would recommend the book.
Examples: Learn from the efforts of others. Learning how to write strong reviews takes time and not a little effort. Reading the reviews others have done can help you get a feel for the flow and flavor of reviews. This book was about a bird who didn't yet know how to fly. The bird has to decide if it will try to fly, but it was not sure if it ...
Blog - Posted on Thursday, Nov 11 The Only Book Review Templates You'll Ever Need Whether you're trying to become a book reviewer, writing a book report for school, or analyzing a book, it's nice to follow a book review template to make sure that your thoughts are clearly presented.. A quality template provides guidance to keep your mind sharp and your thoughts organized so that you can ...
Book Review Template. Here is a good book review example for 4th-grade students: "Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White — A Heartwarming Tale of Friendship. "Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White is a heartwarming tale of friendship that takes us to Zuckerman's farm, where a special pig named Wilbur forms an unlikely bond with Charlotte, a clever ...
lazy eye--and high reading level) at school. Curtis tries to shoehorn in more characters and subplots than the story will comfortably bear--as do many first novelists--but he creates a well-knit family and a narrator with a distinct, believable voice." Title: Sample Student-Friendly Book Reviews
To structure the book reports, Barile recommends eight sections of analysis that will "require students to provide evidence of their choices and reasoning, which helps them think more deeply about what they have read.". For each section, students should give examples from the book to back up their analysis. The below book report template ...
Here are six steps for how to write a book review for school and beyond. 1. Begin with a brief summary of the book. This is probably the best way to introduce any review because it gives context. But make sure to not go into too much detail. Keep it short and sweet since an official summary can be found through a quick google search!
Below, check out 10 great books recommended by and for young people: 1. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. Susan Eloise Hinton wrote The Outsiders while she was a high school student in Oklahoma. Fifty years later, her fictional account of two rival gangs still provides a riveting look at teen friendship, rebellion, and class issues.
Using the Quote Burger Method, assign students to integrate a certain number of quotes within their writing to bring a flavor and voice to the article that mirror's the book. You will also be able to pick up on who actually read the book, and who is "writing blind", based on the relevance of their quotes. At the end of the article ...
At the beginning of the school year, do a read aloud and have students each do a book review on the same book that was read to the class. Have select students share their book reviews and/or thoughts on a book. Follow up by having a class discussion about why all of the book reviews are not alike, even though they were done on the same book.
A book review template enables you to illustrate the intentions of the author who wrote the book while creating your own opinions and criticisms about the written material as a whole. By writing this template, you formulate your own opinions about the ideas presented by the author. In some cases, teachers assign students with the task of ...
Step #4: Write Your Book Review Body. Include at least three main ideas you wish to highlight. These can be about the writing style, themes, character, or plot. Be sure to support your arguments with evidence in the form of direct quotes (at least one per paragraph).
Step 4: Outline On The Literary Qualities. This step is your moment to reflect on the structure and elements of the text. Deliver your personal view on the entire book, here you are free to criticize or support certain rules captioned in the book. You can recommend the book if you find it worth it, however, when criticizing the book, be sure to ...
No matter what you're reading, someone wants to know your opinion. Ask your high schooler to choose one writing prompt for a one-paragraph book review. Or, combine several prompts for a longer critique. Don't forget to post the polished review on Amazon, Facebook, or a personal blog! 1. As Clear as Crystal.
Way back in 2016, we asked our community to share what they would consider essential reads for high school students. The final list of 20 recommended books was dominated by what many would consider the classics: John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Shakespeare ...
Nonfiction Reviews. Example #1. Bomb The Race to Build - and Steal - the World's Most Dangerous Weapon is an engaging non-fiction book which had me from the first page. The book begins with a Prologue: May 22, 1950 the FBI arrives at Harry Gold's door; Harry, still in pajamas, stares at two agents with a search warrant for his home as they are investigating his spying activities from ...
For each book under review: • All book information should be followed by one of two designations: (hardcover), (paper). • List price of reviewed books in U.S. dollars. Main Text: General • Cite specific references to the books being reviewed by inserting page numbers, within parentheses, into the main text. Place them inside punctuation.
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