Content of this PowerPoint:

Text and ideas were taken from• Jones, Patrick. Connecting Young

Adults and Libraries. Neal-Schuman:New York, 1998.

What is a booktalk?

• It is like a commercial. It is an attention grabbing presentation created to catch the audience’s attention and make them want to read the book being presented!

When you do a booktalk you are:

• A performer

• And

• A salesperson

Four Styles of Booktalks:• 1. Plot Summary: Create a cliffhanger ending by

summarizing the plot to a particular point and then stopping. This is the easiest and most common approach.

I AM FIFTEEN -- AND I DON'T WANT TO DIE

Christine Arnothy is 15 years old and living in Budapest. The world is engaged in a terrible war and Christine and her family are caught up in it.  

Their building has been shelled by the Germans. Now all the residents are living in the basement among the coal bins. Food and water are scarce. There is danger everywhere. A neighboring building was bombed. All the residents were trapped in the basement and died. Christine worries that the same thing might happen to them. She feels selfish worrying about her self instead of others but she prays to live. She’s only fifteen; she doesn't want to die.

Four Styles of Booktalks:• 3. Mood Based: Create a mood by

voice, words you choose, and emphasis. You may want to include the actual words the author has written by reading a passage from the book.

“For any one of us our forever could end in an hour, or a hundred years from now. You can never know for sure, so you'd better make every second count…What you have to decide is how you want your life to be. If your forever was ending tomorrow, would this be how you'd want to have spent it?”

A year and a half after the death of her father, Macy is the perfect, in-control child, who is her workaholic mother's dream. But when her boyfriend leaves for summer “Brain Camp,” and Macy spends all day at the boring library desk job, she begins to wonder if she really likes this quiet, controlled, and supposedly perfect life that she has shut herself into.

On a quiet weekend, she steps away from her routine and gets a job at Wish Catering. But the Catering job turns out to be much more. As Macy forms unexpected friendships with her co-workers, she not only learns something about herself, but also about moving on.

Four Styles of Booktalks:

•2. Character Based: Describe a character or pretend to be

a character in the book.

Words.  "A new word.  Bright with possibilities.  A flawless pearl to turn over and over in my hand, then put away for safekeeping."  That's the way Mattie feels about words.

Each day she looks in the dictionary to find a new word.  A new friend.  She reads everything she can get her hands on.  And she writes too.  She writes incredible stories.  But, life for a farm girl in 1906 revolves around cooking, cleaning, taking care of the family and working with the animals.  And, after her mother dies and her brother runs off, it is left to Mattie to take on their roles as well.  Even though writing is her passion, farming is her reality.  With the help of her extraordinary teacher, Mattie is accepted to study at Barnard College.  Even as she secretly plans to attend, her reality is plotting against her. 

And then there's the young woman dead in the parlor.

• 4. Scene Based: Focus on one particularly gripping scene in the book. Tell only what happens in that one scene.

Four Styles of Booktalks:

You can also combine elements of different styles in one booktalk.

• Clay Jensen comes home from school and finds a package by his front door. He's excited. An unexpected package with no return address, for him?

What Clay finds inside is a shoebox full of cassette tapes. He rushes to the old radio/cassette player in his dad's garage to check out these mysterious tapes. What he hears when he inserts the first tape is the voice of Hannah Baker. Hannah, the girl he'd had a crush on, went to school with, and worked with at the movie theater. The girl who had changed, drastically, in the past few months. Hannah Baker, the girl who committed suicide.

Clay soon realizes that these tapes aren't just a suicide note, instead, these are thirteen reasons -- thirteen people, to be exact -- who created a snowball-effect of events that led Hannah to believe that suicide was her only option. But why is Clay on that list? How could he possibly be one of the reasons that she killed herself?

How will you generate interest?• A hook is something

that catches people’s attention. Most songs have a catchy beat, chorus, or sing along part. Think about commercials…

•How will you hook your audience?

What are possible hooks?

• Change your voice and pattern of speech! Is there an accent used by a character that you could use? Can you pretend to be the character?

• Pretend the events of the story really happened to you!

• Present the booktalk as an interview or as a news story.

What are possible hooks?

• Tell the story from the viewpoint of different characters.

• Make it funny…..• Build it around several cliffhangers

that leave your audience wanting to know what happens next!

• Find a phrase that fits to repeat throughout the booktalk.

You can also create interest by:• Adding props

or wearing a costume!

• Having an introductory, concluding, or background piece of music that sets a mood.

The First Sentence

Make it count! Grab the audiences attention by:

• Using a quotation or description of a character

• Focus on a strong feeling• Act out an attention-grabbing behavior• Focus on a shocking event• Relate to something the audience shares

ex. Remember the first day of school….

The Last Sentence

Make it memorable!• If it fits, try to end with the title.• Use the same strategies for the

opening sentence by creating some strong emotion, or include something shocking.

In General:• Keep it simple by focusing on only a few

characters and using short descriptive sentences.

• Maintain eye contact with the audience. Memorize the talk. Even if you are reading a section from the book practice it so you know exactly how you want to read it.

• Keep it short!! Four minutes should be about the maximum amount of time.

• Less is more!!• Remember to be responsible and keep

your behavior and language appropriate!• Never give the ending away!!!

Resources UsedAudio:Like 7th Guest-Dollroom. [Online Sound] Available

http://canvaswerks.com/spookymidi.htm, July 29, 2002.Text:Jones, Patrick. Connecting Young Adults and Libraries. Neal

Schuman: New York, 1998.Visuals:Actor. [Online Image] Available

http://www.andersnelsson.com/images/actor.gif, July 27, 2002.

Booktalk . [Online Image] Available http://www.ic.edu.lb/library/images/ainaarbooktalk1.jpg, July 27, 2002.

Resources UsedChinese costume. [Online Image] Available

http://www.hartfordchorale.org/ChinaTour/George,%20Tracy,%20and%20Henley%20in%20Costume.jpg, July 27,2002.

Cliffhanger. [Online Image] Available http:www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~mcsteven/cliffhanger.JPG, July 28, 2002.

Disaster/Fire. [Online Image] Available http://www.handpen.com/Bio/disaster.gif, July 27, 2002.Harry Potter book jacket. [Online Image] Available

http://www.adventistreview.org/2001-1547/images/harry-potter.sorcerers.jpg, July 26, 2002.

Haunted House. [Online Image] Available http://www.visi.com/~sack/HAUNTED.gif, July 27, 2002.

Resources UsedHook. [Online Image] Available

http://www.goldcrownjewelers.com/hook.jpg, July 28, 2002.

Trumpet player. [Online Image] Available http://soo.studentorg.wisc.edu/images/opportunities/music.jpg, July 28, 2002.

The End

The PowerPoint was created by Ms. Kate Kelley

7/30/02