Written Requirements:
Address each prompt completely. You should write a paragraph for each answer.
1. Author Summary: Who is the author? Give the author’s purpose for writing this book. Think more deeply than simply “to entertain.”
2. Theme: What is a main theme of this book? Explain your thinking with evidence from the story. Theme is defined as a main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary work that may be stated directly or indirectly.
3. Plot Summary: What is this book about? Explain the main conflict or problem. Don’t tell the whole story.
4. Favorite Scene: What is your favorite scene? Describe the scene. You can use a direct quote. Explain why it was your favorite.
5. Descriptive Writing: Find a vivid example of descriptive writing. Use a direct quote to describe the scene. Explain why you chose this scene and how it helped you see the action and understand the story.
6. Voice: Make a text-to-self connection. Choose a scene that made you feel something (happy, sad, scared, angry, nervous, disgusted, etc.) This is an example of the “voice” in the story. Voice allows you to “feel” the story. Describe the scene and say how it made you feel. Use a direct quote.
7. Character Summary: Who are the main characters? Choose at least two and clearly describe their character traits. Describe how they act and feel. What do they look like? How old are they? Don’t just write their part in the story. How do the characters change/develop throughout the story? Use evidence from the story to back up your claim.
8. Recommendation: Would you recommend this book? Who would you recommend it to? Explain why or why not using evidence from the book.
9. Compare/Contrast: Think of another book/poem/article you have read or a movie you have seen in the past with a similar theme or ideas. How is this book/poem/article or movie like the book you are writing about? How is it
different? Use your deeper thinking. Don’t just say, “It is longer or it was a movie, not a book.”

You need to practice your report so you don’t come up to the front of the class and simply read your report. Practice with the following questions in mind:
1. Did you speak clearly and loud enough?
2. Did you speak with fluency (not too fast/slow/choppy) ?
3. Did you maintain eye contact with the whole audience or did you look mostly at your report?
4. Did you smile and show enthusiasm?
5. Were you familiar with your material? Did you practice?
6. At the end, did you answer questions clearly and completely?
You will not read your entire report for you oral presentation. You will take key words from your summaries and retell the important information in a concise way. You can use note cards to help. You should glance at your notes as you speak to the class but not merely read off them.
For the first book report you will “Build a Better Burger” for your art project.
I will show you how this is done. The remaining four book reports will be projects of your choice. You create a project that goes along with the story to give us a visual representation of the plot/theme/favorite scene. I’ll show you multiple examples in class.