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Writing Book Reviews- Help please

PostPosted: Sun Mar 28, 2004 7:02 pm
by Locke
bleh....

have to write a book review for my school newspaper and im only one of two book reviewers! :(

and I have no idea how ! :?:

I mean what do I write about??
Are their any specifics to it? I’m checking amazon.com for their review on the book and I’ll see if I can’t find any "idea's" I can use ;)

And I’m technically not on the staff but a freelancer (draw write inc. here’s my card :pinned: )

All help is good, very appreciated too :p
darn spell check almost wiped all my smileys @_@

PostPosted: Sun Mar 28, 2004 10:04 pm
by Mangafanatic
Okay, crash course in writting book review. I haven't done book reviews in a year, but I think I remember most of it.

Here we go-- ;)

In the opening paragraph of your article, you should put your biographical information (Title, author, publishing house, and number of pages and possibly a retail price) Also in your opening paragraph, as I recall, you include a short summary.

And I do mean short. (I'll use the The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe as an example, so you'll totally understand. Example: C.S. Lewis' novel The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe , which is set in WWII England, is the fantasy tale of four siblings who discover a magical land in their guardian's wadrobe. In Lewis' 200 page novel, the four main characters are faced with the challenge to rise up and fight for good or embrace the seemingly overwhelming forces of evil.)

That should cover your intro. Now for the body of your paper. In this section of the article, you will analyze the book. Did the author effectively communicate? How vivid were the descriptions? Were the characters believeable? Did the story communicate lesson which we can learn from? These are just some questions to get your mind thinking concerning what you're going to put down on paper.

Next, tell your reader whether you suggest the book or not. Whether you say "yes" or "no", always give good reasons. I assume your teacher/editor/ or whatever gave you a suggested length, but if they didn't I was told that a book review should be no more than a page long. This is probably way too long for a school newspaper, and if that's the case-- the above would be more than enough.

In your last sentences, you just sum up what you said (Using The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe as an example, my summary would be: "In short, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is a beautiful fantasy novel which will last the test of time due to its timeless themes of love, forgiveness, and sacrifice. ")

In reference to your Amazon.com joke, DO NOT TO THIS!!! If you use Amazon. com, only do it for page number or publishing house information. If you just take a summary, that would be plageraism. I don't think I would even read the summaries because you might accidentally use other people's words. (I've done this before-- so I'm just trying to keep you from making my mistakes :lol: :lol: :lol: )

Hope this helped you, and if you have any other questions you can post them below or PM them to me. But I would post them so everyone else who is smarter than me can add to any response I give. :P

PostPosted: Mon Mar 29, 2004 9:16 pm
by Locke
i cannot say thank you enough for your assisstance ! ! :hug:

and thanks for the warning about amazon.com ( hehe i got the book now! w00t! ) :dance:

PostPosted: Tue Mar 30, 2004 7:40 am
by Mangafanatic
No problemo. Just glad I could help.

Tell me how it turns out, k?

PostPosted: Wed Mar 31, 2004 6:35 pm
by Locke
no prob , im typing it right now