Fifth Grade Historical Fiction Book Review
Your historical fiction book review must be cursive written or student typed in a paragraph format on
notebook size paper. You will turn in your neatly cursive written or student typed five-paragraph book
review to Mrs. Dominguez before your oral presentation.
You must practice your book review many times before you present it. You may use note cards
during your oral presentation, however your note cards should only have the key points listed on them. You
must practice your book review so many times that you will only need to occasionally glance at your
note cards during your oral presentation. During the majority of your oral presentation, you will be
looking at your audience not at your note cards.
Your oral presentation does not have to be exactly like your written book review. You may
paraphrase your written book review during your oral presentation. Your oral presentation will last between
three to ten minutes. It is possible for a three-minute book review to score as high as or higher than a tenminute book review, because it’s not the length of the book review, but the quality of information that is
presented during the three to ten minute time span. Your written or student typed book review will answer
and explain, with specific examples, the following questions.
♥ Paragraph One- What is the who, what, where, when, and how of the story? (Summary) Your
summary should not be more than 12 sentences. A summary only explains the main idea of the story, not the
details.
♥
Paragraph Two- What is a historical fiction story and what elements of this story make it a historical
fiction story? This is a paragraph, you should write five to ten sentences about this topic.
♥
Paragraph Three- What are some of the personality traits of the main character of this story? Do
you have some of the same traits? (Compare and Contrast) Give examples from the book about the main
character and give examples from your life about you. This is a paragraph, you should write five to ten
sentences about this topic.
♥
Paragraph Four- What is the theme and thesis of this story? The theme is big idea of the story.
Some theme examples are love, jealousy, wisdom, finding happiness, unselfishness, and honesty. The thesis
is the life lesson of the story. Some examples of themes are: It’s more important to be nice than popular,
look before you leap, decisions you make now will affect you for the rest of your life, slow and study wins
the race, honesty is the best policy, one good turns deserves another, prepare today for the needs of
tomorrow. Give examples from the book that support the theme and thesis of the book. This is a paragraph;
the topic sentence should have the theme of the book. The next sentence should have the thesis in it. The
supporting/detail sentences should have examples from the book to support the theme and thesis you wrote
about in your topic sentence.
♥
Paragraph Five- What is your opinion of this book and why would you recommend or not
recommend it to your classmates and teacher? This is a paragraph, you should write five to ten sentences
about this topic.