Writing Corner: Fiction Book Reviews

For the past two weeks, 3R has been learning to write fictional book reviews. The students have been very excited and the reviews are turning out really well. In fact, I had quite a few parents ask if their child had written the book review themselves or had gotten help. Rest assured, all of the students wrote their reviews entirely on their own.

At our school, we use Write Source as a text to guide student writing. I love this resource! The text is wonderful for students because it is visually appealing, simply laid out and presents topics in a manner that is easy to understand. In the book, there is a specific formula to follow when creating a fictional book review and we used it for multiple stages in the writing process.

A fictional book review consists of three paragraphs:

1. The first paragraph tells what the book is about and includes the title, author, main characters. It includes what happens to the main characters without giving away the ending.
2. The second paragraph tells why the writer likes the book. The paragraph should tell why the writer is drawn to the book and what emotional connections the author makes to the book. For example: Is the book funny? Does it have a lot of action? Are the characters likeable? Do you have a favorite part? Tell why.
3. The closing paragraph tells about the main idea the author wanted share. The writer should include what they learned from the book and why they think the author wrote the book.

I created some pre-writing activities to go with this lesson. You can download them free here from google docs or click on the image below.