Book Reports

· School genre

· Prescribed format

· Summarization

· Very formal

· Lacking feeling, emotion, or opinion.

· Recounts of the entire plot

· No real audience (only the teacher)

Book Reviews

· Real genre

· Form of persuasive writing

· First person voice- semiformal

Quality book reviews should include the following:

· Plot summary that doesn’t reveal the ending- hooks the reader

· Quotes from the book

· Descriptive of effective techniques the author used

· The reviewer’s feelings about specific parts of the book

· Suggestions of who would like this book and wh

“But the book review, a genre that exists in the real world, invites students to discover their passions—and their prejudices—as readers and to teach others what they find in a book so engagingly that others will want to look for it, too” (Atwell 470).