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apochemu's review against another edition
3.0
I have very mixed feelings about this book. It certainly does a good job teaching how to analyze a book - its plot, characters, setting, underlining morals, etc. If you want to teach that to your child this book will give you a great framework. Something I'm sure will come in handy in high school and university. However, I'm afraid I don't agree with them about every author tucking away a single secret lesson they're trying to teach. I don't like the approach of analyzing the crap out of a book and breaking it all down into a bunch of little parts and then putting it back together in one specific way. As an adult who thoroughly enjoys book clubs, if I went to one of theirs I'd never go back to a second. I think books can mean something different to every reader and that's ok. It's great to hear about a POV from a reader with a different life/background than me and appreciate their insights. I don't like the idea of guiding my child to the one lesson I've planned for them to learn. I like having meaningful back and forth discussions of what we got out of it, not "who is the protagonist" and "what does this teach us about society", blah blah. Idk, maybe my high school and college over-analytical teachers ruined it for me, but I think this type of analyzing totally kills books for me.
bethgiven's review against another edition
4.0
I love my book club. Talking about a book, even when it wasn't my favorite, helps me to like it more -- I feel like I understand the themes better. Even in casual conversation, I can't resist when people start talking books. (Probably why I enjoy Goodreads so much.)
So it's no real surprise that I devoured this book in a day: it was just like sitting in on a book club meeting! The authors pick apart children's books (some I'd read and some I hadn't -- yet), and the whole thing reads in an easy-to-swallow mix of narration and conversation. I learned some techniques for analyzing fiction that I'll have to try out: identifying the protagonist and antagonist as keys to what the story is really about, the setting as a hint to whether the book will have a happy or a sad ending, and identifying the conflict (which is usually in the middle, not the end of the book). I especially enjoyed the chapter on poetry (surprisingly enough, since I usually don't care much for poetry!).
I don't necessarily agree with all the authors' conclusions (particularly The Giver -- though it could be that I don't understand where they're coming from on that one), and sometimes the know-it-all attitude rankled a bit. And this book wasn't at all what I expected (I was thinking it would be a rah-rah-reading book, like Jim Trelease's wonderful Read-Aloud Handbook -- you know, it would have something about that "bond of reading" the subtitle promised). But this book was just so readable and the ideas so solid that I still "really liked it" (four stars!) in spite of all that. Definitely worth a look if you're a parent or an educator ... or even if you're not.
So it's no real surprise that I devoured this book in a day: it was just like sitting in on a book club meeting! The authors pick apart children's books (some I'd read and some I hadn't -- yet), and the whole thing reads in an easy-to-swallow mix of narration and conversation. I learned some techniques for analyzing fiction that I'll have to try out: identifying the protagonist and antagonist as keys to what the story is really about, the setting as a hint to whether the book will have a happy or a sad ending, and identifying the conflict (which is usually in the middle, not the end of the book). I especially enjoyed the chapter on poetry (surprisingly enough, since I usually don't care much for poetry!).
I don't necessarily agree with all the authors' conclusions (particularly The Giver -- though it could be that I don't understand where they're coming from on that one), and sometimes the know-it-all attitude rankled a bit. And this book wasn't at all what I expected (I was thinking it would be a rah-rah-reading book, like Jim Trelease's wonderful Read-Aloud Handbook -- you know, it would have something about that "bond of reading" the subtitle promised). But this book was just so readable and the ideas so solid that I still "really liked it" (four stars!) in spite of all that. Definitely worth a look if you're a parent or an educator ... or even if you're not.
lizbusby's review against another edition
4.0
I loved the idea of a parent/child book club and I think I will be definitely starting one soon. It was great to get a walk-through of how to get people (and kids) who aren't English majors discussing the deeper themes of a book. A sort of "What you should have learned in high school English" crash course. The only thing I wanted was a more varied book list. They pretty much had 6 choices or so for each grade. Not much for a book devourer to work with.
whitneydrew's review against another edition
3.0
This was my second read of this book. And while it did inspire me and encourage me to begin a book club of my own for 5th and 6th grade homeschoolers, I did think the methods were a bit too rigid. We can discuss a book and still find deeper meaning without getting this technical.
travelgirlut's review against another edition
3.0
A good overview of how to discuss books with kids. I actually learned a lot from this as well, since I don't think I've ever been taught the specifics of protagonists, antagonists, conflict, etc. Even some of the books that they covered showed me new things about the stories I had never considered. My only minor complaint would be that the authors did a lot of showing how they did things, but never really give an explanation of generally how to have a discussion with any book. If we were to read one of the books they covered, it would be a great resource, but without being terribly confident in my book analysis skills, this isn't really a reference book I could come back to for help in analyzing other books.
Overall the writing style was humorous and concise and made the book easy to get through, and it definitely was the springboard I needed to get me on to more complex books on literary analysis.
Overall the writing style was humorous and concise and made the book easy to get through, and it definitely was the springboard I needed to get me on to more complex books on literary analysis.
lschlego's review against another edition
4.0
This was a great way to sort of experience some great book club discussions. It is better if you have read some of the books that they discuss here, but it really gets into the meaning and important lessons that can be learned from each of these selections.
jhamel's review against another edition
5.0
loved this quick read on how to help kids analyze books in an apealing way. I don't really do much analysis and loved the explanations and the reasons given for looking at the deeper level. Makes me want ro lead a book group...