Book Report Format
The report will be scored on a scale of 100, and five extra credit points are built in. The report must be written on a
book that I have seen you reading in class as reflected in your reading log. The report must be typed.
1.
Title, author, number of pages
5 points
Write the title in italics. Also be sure to include author’s name and the number of pages that are in the
book.
2. Setting
10 points
Tell when and where the story takes place. Include a brief description of the setting, using descriptive
language used by the author and imagined by you. If settings vary, explain.
3. Characters
15 points
Identify and describe the main character. Include details about the character and examples of actions,
reactions, thoughts and feelings that bring the character to life. Do the same for at least four other
characters in the novel. You identify through association, such as “Phoebe Caulfield is Holden’s sister,” or
role, such as “Katniss Everdeen is a teenage girl from District 12 who fights in the Hunger Games.” We
describe through physical descriptions, personality descriptions, and actions. “Phoebe is 11 years old and
she worries about Holden.” “Katniss is very skilled at archery because she hunts for food every day in
District 12 with her friend Gale.”
4. Main Conflict
10 points
Identify and explain the main conflict, which should be the most important one that exists. This conflict
may be one between the main character and another character; the main character and another force, such
as nature, government, or another force that is not a person. These are examples of external conflicts. The
main conflict could also be one that exists within the main character, that is, some struggle happening
within him- or herself. (An internal conflict.) One could say, for example, the main conflict in The Great
Gatsby is an internal conflict within Jay Gatsby, the conflict of his wanting Daisy Buchanan and his
inability to win her heart.
5. Secondary conflicts
10 points
In most narratives there are several conflicts. Once you’ve identified and explained the main conflict, do
the same for three to five secondary conflicts that add complexity and realism to the story.
6. Rising Action and climax
10 points
Describe the action that builds from the beginning of the narrative. Identify the highest point of this rising
action, the climax, which also represents a turning point in the main conflict.
7. Falling action, resolutions
10 points
Summarize how the conflicts become resolved, or not, by the end of the story. The point here is not that the
story has a happy ending or that problems are solved. Rather, you want to tell how the conflicts you listed
in numbers 4 and 5 above ended up at the conclusion of the story and why.
8. Passage
10 points
Select a passage—at least fifty words long—that strike you as important. Copy this passage, word for
word, and cite the page number(s) on which it appears.
9. Commentary on quote
15 points
Explain why you chose the passage in number 8. Express its relevance to the narrative, the impact the
passage had on you, and/or the broader insight into human nature, and the world in which we live, that it
communicates.
10. Book review
10 points
Give a single paragraph review of the book. A good review will give a sense of what the book mainly is
about, and will evaluate the work. What was it about the book that made it worth your time and effort to
read? Was there anything about it that you can identify that made it difficult or, in your estimation, could
have been improved? On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the book, and why?