BookHooks

Learn more

• Learn more about language arts, reading, and writing.

Legal

Loved that last book? Want to share a recommendation with students around the world? Add your book review to BookHooks! You may use the simple form to post a traditional report or perhaps you would prefer to post a story, poem, or image. This site is great if you want a review to point you towards your next great read.

Students writing a book report are simply repeating the plot details of the story for a limited audience — the teacher. Unfortunately, everything they need to include in this report can sometimes be found in the plot summary on the back of the book! Suppose that instead of the same old retelling, students were critically reviewing the book? What might change in the standard book report if students knew their audience was not just the teacher and their classmates, but students around the world? Take a look at BookHooks, an online book reporting toolkit for students in grades K-12. Reports are written for publication online, so students are writing for an authentic, world-wide audience. Unlike the traditional book report, the broader audience encourages meaningful student response to the book. In addition, the choices of response are not limited by format; students may chose to post a generative response such as a story, poem, or image.

A report on BookHooks may be used as a reader’s advisory, helping students to figure out what to read next based upon recommendations from students like them. To write a review, students must think critically and make decisions about what must be included to pique interest and what should be excluded so as not to spoil the read. By providing browse and search access to completed editorial responses, the BookHooks site provides students with reviews of many popular as well as required reading titles.

Bookhooks facilitates the publication of online book reviews by providing students with a simple form to fill out. No complex registration is necessary, but students may record the report number and password so they can edit and complete the work in multiple sessions. Students can supplement their reports with illustrative material, use formats such as boldface and headlines, spell check, and even include weblinks in their review. All submitted materials are reviewed prior to publication.

The resources on the BookHooks site are valuable resources for teachers and students. Literary resources include a Guide to Genres, a Glossary of Literary Terms and even simple reading strategies in a Printable Bookmark (Adobe Acrobat Reader required) Teachers will appreciate the literacy activities, reproducible book logs and web research logs, and Write Away! activities for poems, sentences, paragraphs and stories.

Last but not least, the Games on BookHooks are innovative and challenging. Quiz games, trivia competitions, and Bioquizzes are developed and hosted by Hoadworks, the BookHooks site sponsor (free Shockwave plugin required). There are also links to various off-site games and crossword puzzles, some of which are commercial and include pop-ups.