Writing Book Reviews:
Getting Started

Library Homepage | Maine South High School

Review #1: Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer

Ever since her mother left, Hope has, with her comfort-food-cooking aunt Addie, been serving up the best in diner food from Pensacola to New York City. Moving has been tough, so it comes as a surprise to 16-year-old Hope that rural Wisconsin, where she and her aunt have now settled, offers more excitement, friendship, and even romance (for both Hope and Addie) than the big city….Like Bauer's other heroines, Hope is a typical teenage girl who works hard, excels at her part-time job, and plans for her future. The adults around her, though mostly one-dimensional, together create a microcosm of society--the best and the worst of a teenager's support system. It's Bauer's humor that supplies, in Addie's cooking vernacular, the yeast that makes the story rise above the rest, reinforcing the substantive issues of honesty, humanity, and the importance of political activism. Serve this up to teens--with a dash of hope. *1

TOP

Review #2: Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer

I liked Hope Was Here because it was funny and sad and so real all at the same time. I felt that I knew Hope and wanted to get to know her as a friend. Didn’t you just cry when G.T. died? I did. It was like Hope had a real father for the first time and then he gets cancer and just dies on her. What a bummer. How cool was it that Braverman and Hope got together! What a great boyfriend. I would recommend reading this book to everyone because the characters were so warm and real and you just wanted to know them. *2

TOP

Review #3 Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer

Hope's used to thinking on her feet-she hasn't become a terrific waitress by accident. But when she and her aunt Addie move from New York City to a small town in Wisconsin to run the Welcome Stairways Diner, she isn't sure she'll fit in. Luckily, she doesn't have much time to dwell on it, what with life at the diner and her new home's upcoming election. G.T., the owner of Welcome Stairways, has decided to run for mayor, and no one in town knows what to think. After all, G.T. has leukemia. And his opponent is the current mayor, who hasn't lost an election yet. Some think G.T. is crazy, but Hope sees the goodness and power in him. Will everyone else see it too? *3

TOP

Some very interesting differences, don’t you think? Here’s why:

TOP

Getting Words on Paper

So how do we write reviews like #1 and #3 and not #2? How do we even get words on paper? Try one of the following experiments to get yourself started. These experiments will not write the whole review for you, but they will move you toward your goal.

Experiment #1 – I don’t really have anything to say about this book…
1. Set the timer on your watch or the microwave for three minutes. Write the name of the book you plan to review at the top of your paper. Start the timer and write non-stop for three minutes starting every sentence with “I liked this book because…” or “I didn’t like this book because….” Don’t lift your pencil off the page!
2. Stop after three minutes.
3. Look at all those prejudices! All of those opinions! You do have something to say. Look at your opinions and choose a few of them that you could change from I like/didn’t like statements into criticism of the book.
4. For example: change “I liked Hope Was Here because it was funny and sad and so real all at the same time” to “Hope Was Here is a heart-warming story combining funny, everyday moments with life’s sometimes painful realities.”

TOP

Experiment #2 – What happened?
1. Sometime we need to make lists. We can organize our thoughts about a book’s events by creating a recipe—an ordered list of ingredients, so to speak, of our book’s plot.
2. Number a piece of paper from 1 to 10. After number #1, write “First, this happened…” After number #2- #10, write “Then, this happened, and this happened…”
3. With your book in hand and pencil in the other (or sitting at the computer keyboard), make an ingredient list of your book’s plot by filling in the statements after “First, this happened, then this happened, and so on…”
4. Look at your list and pick the key moments that you feel you must include in the review. Incorporate these highlights into your draft review, but of course, take out the “First, this happened, and then this…” Just tell us the story of book’s key highlights.

TOP

Experiment #3 -- Book characters aren’t real…
1. Think about your book. What people stand out? Who’s important and why? Do people reading the review need to know some of these people?
2. Write down the names of at least two important characters in your book. For each character, write a mini-biography. It doesn’t have to be full sentences, just words and phrases will do. Describe the color of their hair and eyes, the sound of their voice and how they dress. Use real facts from the book or add some of your own to complete their portrait.
3. By creating a portrait of a character, you make them real. They come alive. They jump off the page! If you can think of a character as a real person, you can more effectively describe in your review why a reader ought to know this person be curious about them.
4. Incorporate a sentence or two of your mini-biographies into your draft review.