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Monday, January 3, 2011

From Cover to Cover: Evaluating and Reviewing Children's Books

I'm pretty clueless when it comes to blogging. This blog is meant to help me remember all the books I've read, get students excited about reading, and inform parents or teachers about books.  

That said... Kathleen Horning's book, From Cover to Cover: Evaluating and Reviewing Children's Books, is not about blogging but it is about evaluating books in a professional way. What a great tool for helping me know what to look for when evaluating books, why books are written and categorized in certain ways, and how I can write in a way that is useful to my audience.

Chapters are divided by fiction, nonfiction, and picture books. The depth and history of publishing, as well as examples of excellent reviews and books, is extremely helpful to me as a teacher and librarian. I picked up information I didn't know in every chapter and have referred to it when writing my most recent reviews for this blog.

At least that's the gist of it. Now I just have to practice, practice, practice.

Great reference book.

2 comments:

  1. What a great book! I'd love to look at it. I also like how you have organized your titles on the left by 'age'. I still can't believe how many books you get through!

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  2. You could use this book to outline a talk for a parent coffee. I thought of you while reading it. I particularly like the Easy Readers and Transitional Books Chapter. It goes in depth and gives terrific examples of what to look for in that type of book. I will get the book to you.

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