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Library Guide for Reading 070: Reading Comprehension II
Instructor: Denise Crudup
Assignment: Book Reviews of Novels and Biographies
Winter Semester 2006
Remember that a book review is different from a book report. While a book report
is simply a summary of a book's contents, a book review is both a summary and an
evaluation
of a book.
Essential: As the book reviewer of novels you will want to describe the book's plot, its main characters, and its setting. As the book reviewer of biographies you will want to describe the person about whom the book is written and explain why that person is significant. For both novels and biographies, you will also want to give your opinion of the book and its effect on you and will want to predict if other readers might enjoy it.
Here is a sample of a book review of a novel. Look for the elements described above in Essential and note how many of them the reviewer has included.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in The Night
A Novel
By Mark Haddon
Doubleday, 2003
Reviewed by Kathleen Scot, Librarian, Bailey Library, WCC
Christopher Boone, a fifteen year old Londoner, has Asperger's Syndrome, a type of autism
that enables extreme intelligence in narrow subject areas but leaves its sufferers with
almost complete lack of social skills. Christopher can solve complex math equations in
his head but can not sense other people's emotions nor express his own. When his neighbor's
dog is mysteriously stabbed to death, Christopher decides to carry on in the style of
his idol Sherlock Holmes and solve the mystery himself. His obsession with
gathering clues unnerves his father and disturbs many people around him; and
yet he not only solves the murder of the dog but discovers long withheld truths
about his absent mother.
The story is told through Christopher's eyes. That point of view gives the reader
both compassion for and an understanding of Christopher. One ends the book feeling
more knowledgeable about Asperger's Syndrome and sympathetic to all who have this
basically untreatable condition. And yet Christopher is not pathetic; we admire his
courage and perseverance within a world that is very confusing to him both because of
his condition and because of the odd circumstances involving his father and mother and
the owner of the dog that is killed in the night.
This book is a quick read both because of its short length and because it is hard to put
down once started. If you enjoy The Curious Incident of the Dog in The Night, you might
also enjoy Banishing Verona by Margot Livesey. Banishing Verona also takes place
in London and has a main character who has Asperger's Sundrome, this time an adult
whose form of the condition is not as extreme as that of Christopher's. However,
Banishing Verona is a much less compelling read.
Click on the following website for more information about writing book reviews.
http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/bookrev.html
Copyright 2006 Washtenaw Community College
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