Book reports summarize the book's contents, scope and style. Reviews present a broad sketch of the contents while evaluating or criticizing the author's success or failure, based mostly on their qualifications to write on the subject. Organizing your ideas is crucial to successful reviews.
Introduction and classification
List author, title, date published. Keep in mind a perspective of when the book was published: Soul on Ice, 1960s civil rights movement. Grapes of Wrath, 1930s depression. List the book's genre e g mystery, biography, historical novel, etc. Compare it mentally to similar books you read. Qualifications? Purpose? Scope? Do you need special knowledge to understand the book?
Body and evaluation
Briefly describe contents and plot. Do characters have depth? What motivates them? Recurring themes? Conflict? How is it resolved?
Did the book succeed in its objectives? Does it meet your standards? Did you interest the reader in the book or discourage attention to it? Quote specific short passages supporting your views. Don't be too detailed or lengthy. What's the book's major contribution? Make your opinion definite and clear. Avoid abstract terms like "interesting."
Conclusion
A final paragraph accentuates the chief point of your review and suggests how readers might respond. Reexamine your review to find if your reader knows the book's scope and intended audience and if the book is a praiseworthy effort. Were you concise, persuasive, fair?
Chain of metaphors, similes, allusions, oxymorons, alliterations, spoonerisms, Malapropisms around a subject and/or its attributes. Choose one, develop it. Try different nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and styles in a sentence to paint a picture or scene. Try different views.
Earth's rotation slows each year. 6 million years ago a day was 21 hours. What would you miss if today ended at 9 p m instead of midnight? Check news, sports, features, TV, events in today's newspaper.
A giant spider web connects your car to bushes beside your driveway. In the middle sits the spider. What do you do?
News story about a city. What's it would be like to be a bug in that city?
Rewrite a traditional ballad, myth, fairy tale, Bible story or whatever, in a contemporary setting.
Write a short poem without using the letter S or whatever letter you choose.
What new use would you have for a paper bag? An extra sock? A paper airplane?
Advocate for a person or thing which can't speak for itself.
Pick a word. Write down words you think of and associate with it.
Write down words you'd use in a strange world like Coleridge's Kubla Khan.
Write 3 adjectives for your favorite team, actor, food, etc.
Write from the point of view of a nonhuman object, living or inanimate.
Write automatically. Don't stop for anything.
Try a poem shaped like a letter or other object such as a swan.
Describe a place or event, real or imaginary, a century ago or from now, or today.
Invoke the Muse of poems or someone or something to inspire you.
Write from someone else's point of view.
Respond to or parody a letter, article, book, poem, film etc.
Invent nonsense words like in Jabberwocky.
How will you get to Mars? What will you do there? Where will you go next?
Write about an abstract idea, with images and details.
Write a letter to a famous person real or imaginary and relate an event.
Pick a character, time, place, event.
Book of Genesis. Imagine God creating something else.
Write about what you know, what you don't know.
Find or make a list. Write substitutes and an account of how you shop for them.
Open a reference book at random. Write about what's on that page.
Write about news or magazine stories.
Write about an animal or plant.
Substitute synonyms, antonyms or homonyms.
Substitute words for other words.
Write an elegy.
Personify an object or idea.
Write about a color, a letter or a number.
Writing SIMILES
Roadkill as flat as -
Party as much fun as -
As orange as -
As eloquent as -
Writing METAPHORS
Fog plumed through gunshot holes in train windows like -
You mine rocks from quarries. You get from a quandary -
The dice rolled from the cup toward him like -
Nothing was the same, now that it was -
Puffy clouds in your glass of wine are -
Up is like down when -
WRITE YOUR VERY OWN POEMS
A million men unite as one
When -- -- failed to get his way
Are you the mermaid/merman come for me?
Thunder cracked above the lake
You - yes, YOU - can write good poems instantly! DO IT NOW!
Line 1 - write a Noun.
Line 2 - write 2 adjectives for the Noun.
Line 3 - write 3 verbs for the Noun.
Line 4 - write a thought about the Noun.
Line 5 - write a word relating to the Noun.
See - YOU DID IT!
EXAMPLE:
Basketball
Hard, fast
Run, jump, shoot
Nothing but net
Swish!
Writing STORIES
He found her attractive but there was something indefinably strange about the look in her eyes.
She suddenly realized the footsteps she heard had followed her for several blocks.
A musky odor, somehow menacing, seeped from the large black box in the corner.
The baby curled up in a peculiar position/ The baby had prodigious strength.
When the doorbell rang she assumed Dick forgot his keys.
His earrings were larger and fancier than hers.
Writing DIALOGUE
MENTAL HOSPITAL VISITING ROOM end of visit, person whose conversation seems unintelligent and without meaning is seen as visitor, not patient
HALLOWEEN elderly mistake 2 hoodlums for kids trick or treaters
PARENT thinks child stole money from wallet, accuses him/her
Writing CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOKS
Characters - Children in active roles, like stories told from their point of view. Adult characters are fine as long as children can identify with them.
Social Change - Encourage critical thinking about social and/or personal
issues. Express these ideas as an integral part of the story.
Format - 15 scenes or sequences, each 50 - 100 words, total 750 - 1500 words. Vocabulary level third grade (age 8) but appeal to a fairly wide age range.
Stories short, language simple. Action, excitement, humor, plot and language inspiring an artist to create images for your words.
DON'T BLINK
Someone you know, a child, your employer, voters, the wind, a war, a really big rock, TV, your first love, a ghost, a stray animal, the world, your newspaper, ignorance, a word, the soft drink industry, a world leader, everyone named Bob, a robbery, technology, Santa Claus, this ad, a saint, a piece of coal, a teacher, a light bulb, a genius, a French fry, the only one who can start a war, a superstar, your shadow, an artist, a lounge singer, the first man on the moon, your conscience, religion, a neighbor, an ant, a freak accident, world peace, Silicon Valley, a million dollars, God, rain, snow, someone with a gun, time, your great-great-great-grandchild, a book, a priest, a guy who knows your dad, your best friend, every living creature, a car, a computer, an inmate, a homeless person, primordial ooze, a world-class athlete, language, your instinct, a schoolmate, your instinct, a 2-pound trout, a Picasso painting, the perfectest day, the Devil, a fly, lightning, music, a movie,
IS ABOUT TO
Make history, be invented, get dressed, be taller, be in the spotlight, get by on looks, give up, sing and dance, turn into a diamond, go to jail, shake things up, cry, tell the truth, be born, wear a disguise, figure out life's meaning, be discovered, pretend not to notice, quit, ignore critics, find his roots, laugh, breathe, get caught, try harder, lose power, think of you, fail, be forgotten, be remembered, find a cure for AIDS or cancer, rob a bank, run out of time, be reincarnated as a frog, make people think, be reinvented, open a fortune cookie, prove Darwin wrong, write a novel, accessorize, be delivered to your door, call you back, forget his name, be rewarded, train for the Olympics, max out his credit card, wish he wasn't famous, win the lottery, clean things up, travel, cheer, sleep in, judge someone, drive people crazy, search for his identity, lead you in the right direction, grow up, give in to temptation, go shopping, change priorities, remember a dream, bake a cake, watch TV