Remember, the purpose of blogging is to communicate about books and hopefully find some good books to read!

Here are some tips for writing comments on blogs you’ve read:

- Respond appropriately. . . it’s okay to include your opinion but be considerate of others.

- If you like something the person wrote, don’t just write “cool” or “sounds awesome.”  Explain why you think what the person wrote is “cool” or “awesome.”

- If you have a question, ask it!  Maybe you want to know if the person has read any other books by that author.  Or maybe you have a question about how many books are in the series.  Ask away!

- Have fun!

Since many of you ask for book recommendations from teachers and friends, I thought I’d create a place where you can share your opinions of the books you’ve read this year.  If you’ve read a book you think your classmates would enjoy, let them know about it by writing a blog post.  This is a great place to find books, too, since you can visit this blog to see what your classmates are reading.  We’ll also have opportunities to visit other class blogs to see what students around the country are reading.  I’m hoping this site will make finding a good book a little easier for you.

I hope you enjoy blogging! Mrs. Flynn

Please make sure to include the following in your book blog:

• Title and author of the book so other students can locate the book.  Don’t forget to underline the title and capitalize the author’s name.

• What the book is about. This doesn’t need to be really, really long, but it does need to be long enough to explain the basic idea of the story.  What is the genre of the story?  What is the big problem?  Remember – don’t give anything away that would spoil the book for someone who hasn’t yet read it.

• Your opinion of the book.  On a scale from 1-10, how would you rate it?  Remember to be honest.  If you didn’t think it was a really terrific book, don’t rate it a 10.  It’s okay not to love everything you read.  What type of person/reader do you think would enjoy this book?  Why?

• Proofread your post. In addition to running a spell check, be sure to carefully read over what you’ve written.

Here’s an example of a review of Among the Hidden written by Mr. Coley:
Among the Hidden is an amazing book written by Margaret Peterson Haddix.  It is about a boy named Luke who lives in a country where the law states that parents are only allowed to have two children.  Unfortunately for Luke, he is a third child.  This means that he isn’t allowed to go outside and has to hide in the attic all day long.  His life is pretty boring until new houses are built near Luke’s house and some new neighbors change his life forever.  What do I mean?  You need to read the book to find out!
On a scale from 1-10, I would definitely give it a 10.  If you love books that have adventure, drama, and mystery, you have to read this book.  It is also the first book in a series, so if you like it as much as I did, you can continue reading about Luke’s adventures in the second book called Among the Impostors.

If you have any questions, please let me know.  Happy blogging!
- Mrs. Flynn