My English Lessons

Book Talk

Topic: What was the book about?

· Description and Detail: Could we see it happening? Fee! it? Hear it? Too little description? Too many details?

· Dialogue: Is the talk realistic, full of voice? Could we hear the characters’ voices? Too much dialogue? Too little?

· Lead: How did the author bring readers into the story?

· Conclusion: How did the author leave readers? Was the ending satisfying?

· Flashbacks and Foreshadows: How the author used shifts in time and why.

· Humor/Sadness: Did you laugh? Cry? why?

· Setting: Where and when did the story take place?

· Specific Information: what the reader learned about the world through the narrative

· Main Characters: Who are they? What makes a main character a main character?

· Titles: Was it appropriate? Was it a grabber?

· Realism: Could the reader believe in this plot? In these characters? Did it matter?

· Suspense: Did the reader wonder what would happen next?

· Action: Was there enough happening to hold a reader’s interest? Too much action and not enough character development?

· Theme: What was the author showing about life and living through the story?

· Formula: Could the reader tell too easily what was going to happen in this book?

· Conventions: Ex: Did the reader notice all the extremely short paragraphs in Sooner or Later? Why did the Harts write this way?

· Information: Were there enough specifics about character, action and setting in this book? Too many?

· Brevity/Length: Was this book too long? Too short?

· Narration: Who told the story? Was it first person? Third person? Why this point of view? Did the author switch between narrators? To what effect?

· Grace of Language: Did the sentences flow? Were they choppy? Did the reader notice him- or herself thinking about how well particular lines were written? Metaphors? Imagery?

· Plot: Did the story hold together? Ring true? Go on and on? Come to a point?

· Prefaces and Introductions: How used, and to what effect?