Resources

Amy Tan’s book The Joy Luck Club explores the relationships between four Chinese American daughters and their often-misunderstood, more traditional Chinese mothers. By sharing quotations from the book, Fawn, the author of this literary analysis, intends to show how, as they grew up, the daughters came to understand, respect, and appreciate their mothers more.

A response to literature can take many forms other than a book report. Sixth-grader Mark decided to respond in a poem patterned after the poetry he read in the Redwall series of fantasy books. (These stories are about peace-loving small animals who exhibit human characteristics in a medieval setting, facing day-to-day struggles of good versus evil, life versus death.) The author of the Redwall books never mentions where the “Badger lords” come from, so Mark created this fictional place called Limadastrin and describes how one would find it.

Opening with a quotation is a great way to begin a book review. Kelsey, the author, summarizes the plot well without giving away the whole story, and she shows genuine enthusiasm for the story.

The voice of Joanna, the author of this book review, comes through as she reveals her concern for teenagers’ vulnerability to eating disorders..

For her history class, Samantha created an entry for the diary of a character from A Tale of Two Cities. She focuses on a pivotal event in his life and imagines what it must have been like for him.