About Book Reviews

To summarize the pool of wisdom we developed in class, here are some features of a good book review to consider including in your own review:

• YOUR OPINION with supporting evidence
• CONTEXT---give us some background on your book
• JUST ENOUGH SUMMARY----not too much/not too brief---(how much is just right?)
• Give some VISUAL DETAILS to help your reader see.

Other things to keep in mind from the pool:

• Keep it interesting.
• Appeal to your reader--in this case the class. Remember. You'll be posting this book review for others in the class to read on our class blog.
• Make connections, if you can, to books and movies you think your audience already knows and likes.

And here are some places to find reviews: four sites with lots of book reviews that can be used as models. If you find another source you like, email me or write it in the comments here and I'll add it to the list.

Amazon, of course

New York Times Books

Los Angeles Times Books

Washington Post Books

And more---------(thanks)---
Barnes and Noble

A Sampling of Web Resources for the English Language Arts Classroom

I. POETRY RESOURCES
Poetry Out Loud
On-line texts of poems especially well-suited for performing out loud.

Poets.org
Academy of American Poets site----lots of resources here--
including poem texts, profiles of poets, and a nifty way to create and share poetry books or anthologies on-line

Poetry Resources for Teens---at Poets.org

How to Read a Poem

Brave New Voices
first episode

Youth Speaks

Poem a Day
180 on-line poem texts created especially for American high schools by Billy Collins, the poet laureate from 2001-2003

Classic Poetry Aloud
Audio versions of classic poems.
This page links to "If" by Rudyard Kipling
Most recent audio poems are available free on iTunes

Favorite Poem Project
Video-documentaries of people reciting favorite poems w/ connections to their lives

II. READING RESOURCES--BOOKS
LibraryThing
Create a catalog of your books on-line. Books you've read. Books you want to read. Easy and attractive way to keep track of reading.

YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association)
Lists, lists, and more lists of books for young adults.
This particular page links to 86 books selected as best books for young adults in 2009

World of Reading
Book reviews by youth. Extensive data base. Can search by book. Sponsored by the Ann Arbor Public Library.

North Carolina Digital Library
Dowloadable audio ebooks

Gutenberg: The Audio Books Project
Free audio ebooks. Can search by title or subject.
example: download Metamorphosis by Kafka to iTunes

LibriVox
Downloadable audio ebooks in the public domain
(The link above links to Homer's Odyssey)

Manybooks.Net
Free ebooks and audio books for download---more than 23,000

III. WRITING RESOURCES
Visuwords
Online graphical dictionary

Online Etymology Dictionary
Word origins

Multigenre Writing
Extensive resources + annotated bibliography

OWL
Online writing lab at purdue

George Mason Writing Resource Center
Another site for writing resources----large number of handouts and links

IV. MYTHOLOGY RESOURCES

What is mythology?

Encyclopedia Mythica

Mythweb

Paleothea: Women in Greek Myths

Your journey through the Odyssey: A Project

Virtual Odyssey

Psychiatrist who uses Odyssey to counsel vets

He wrote Odysseus in America

Web english teacher resources

Hero journey interactive

V. RESOURCES ON USING IPODS
The iPod Experience at Brandeis University

K12 iPod Wiki

iPods in Education
At Learning in Hand

Student Podcasts
from the Nebraska Writing Project. w/ article about the Nebraska Writing Project experience

VI. ORGANIZATION
Evernote