sports book, single person or team

pots Lit: Book Review

Choose a sports-related book to read and review. Your book may be about an individual, a team, a historical event that impacted a small or large community, state, or country. It may be fiction, non-fiction, or historical fiction, a biography or autobiography.

What is a book review?

According to the Texas Wesleyan University “Critical Book Review Guide”, “A book review is more than a book report or summary of a book’s contents. A review is a critical essay evaluating the merits of an academic work. Its purpose is not to prove that you read the book—which is understood as a given—but to show that you can think critically about what you’ve read.”

You will add one additional component to your book review. Normally a critical book review does not include your opinion–whether you liked the book or not. But in this case, you will include your opinion (like or dislike) and supporting evidence (why you liked or did not like the book).

Assignment

It is your job to read your chosen book on your own and evaluate and evaluate it in a number of key areas (listed and explained below). You will share your work in an essay of 6-8 paragraphs. Your essay is due at the end of the first quarter. The exact date will be communicated to you by your teacher and will be listed in Google Classroom.

While you read, take notes to gather information for each section of the essay and to answer the questions listed below. A note taking outline is available at the end of this document.

Introductory paragraph:

Title, author, year written. Brief summary of the content (setting, and description of the main theme or thesis/claim). Is the story told in first person, third person, or third person omniscient? Is this a biography, autobiography, historical fiction, fiction, non-fiction.

Critical analysis (3-4 paragraphs):

What gives the author authority to write on this topic?
What is the purpose of the text? The author may have an argument she is trying to make or a thesis (claim) she is trying to support, or an argument/claim she is trying to refute. Maybe the author has written to entertain or to clarify an historical event, or share a life’s achievement.
Is the purpose of the story explicit or did you have to infer the purpose?
Main Characters and description
Share an in-depth description of the theme or the story or the thesis/claim of the argument and important events, information, evidence.
Is the author’s thesis/claim clearly supported or the theme fully explored? Give examples.
If anything is missing or if there are any big questions not answered, give examples.
Is the story well written? Give examples.
Is it easy to follow? Give examples.
If it is a work of fiction or historical fiction, is it realistic?

Op-Ed (1-2 paragraphs): This is your opinion.

Did you enjoy the story? Is it worth reading? Why or why not. Use evidence/examples from the book to support your opinion.

Conclusion (1 paragraph) Summarize the 4-5 main points in your review. Include some from both the critical review and your Op-Ed.

Preferred language style Simple (Easy vocabulary, simple grammar constructions