Coffee For The Brain Book Tournament Receives First Book Review

Last night we had our meeting with all the judges. It was a quick and swift meeting where we talked about the tournament bracket and how things would work. I strongly encouraged the judges to please write a book review for each book they read and I would post them here on the blog. I also STRONGLY encouraged them to also write up an explanation of the book they have chosen to move on to the next round. I think it is important for all of us to know their thoughts and reasons because it opens up a dialogue about what we take away from each book. Additionally, it is very important for students to learn how to write and express their ideas.

This morning I was checking my email and already a review was in my inbox. AMAZING! Talk about motivated judges. The criteria for the reviews were quite simple - write about your thoughts, what you liked, disliked, setting, characters, mass appeal, etc. Essentially, you make the review out to be however you want it to be. I did not want to force people to write if they did not want to and therefore kept everything quite open.

Here is the review from a 6th grade guest book reviewer(there was no indication to provide a name so I am leaving it out)

Title: Where the Red Fern Grows
Author: Wilson Rawls

Review

Where the Red Fern Grows is a somewhat small novel about a boy and his two dogs. Many hear that it is sad and dismiss it, but I loved it and it doesn’t fall under my favorite genre. Wilson Rawls writes amazing story about how a boy raises two very special dogs into the perfect hunting team. I had second thoughts about reading because I heard it was very sad. It wasn’t nearly as sad as I thought and I regret ever doubting the book.