BookReport Guides are primarily focused on the newest titles and the best of the "lightly aged" novels because the field of children's literature has exploded over the past 15 to 20 years. Great literature for children and teens existed before the early '90's, of course. But the number, variety, and quality of children's literature and young adult novels increased to entirely new levels of achievement in the early '90s and that pace has not slacked off since.
Also, we know it's probably been a few years since you were in school and reading the latest and greatest or just the most popular in children's novels. And the trauma of writing and editing your own long-disappeared book reports has likely mostly healed over (except for the occasional 'presenting in your underwear' nightmare).
But now you are the proud parent of a grade schooler and the dreaded book report is back. And this time, you really haven't read the book. There are so many to keep up with and they weren't around when we were kids. And you are who we want to help. We want to help take the stress out of book reports for you and for your child.
Because Carl Hiassen's Scat or Flush wasn't around back then. Or Twilight. Or Magic Treehouse Numbers 1 through 43. Or possibly you missed out and Harry Potter wasn't around when you were a kid. Ack! True. Harry Potter has not always graced the bookshelves. Uh, don't let the kids know.
We understand that your kid is cutting-edge. Up on the latest and greatest authors. Or not.
Maybe your kid is a reluctant reader who finally ground through a book. One suggested by cool librarians or knowledgeable teachers as accessible because it was published in this decade or even this year.
Whatever the situation, your kid read a book published fairly recently or even last month. And the publishers, and the fabulous authors we all love, just keep making up new stuff. The Gatekeepers series by Andy Horowitz. Tamora Pierce's Open Circle or one of the Tortall series. The Mysterious Benedict Society. The award-winners. The popular. The funny. The scary. The so-fantastic-can't-stop-til-the-last-pagers. The list goes on and on.
To which we say...WOO HOO! Because we love great kids lit. And we love kids reading great books. And we love helping parents and other supporters of literacy in children. We enjoy knowing that we can help with the stress of book reports and homework so parents and kids can enjoy great stories. So we watch constantly for the latest and the greatest so we can help you to help your kid make the most of their reading. Every month we watch the new releases, research the mostly new, and then plan and assign the top titles to add to our library of BookReport Guides.
As book reports and book reviews tend to be more of an elementary grade school activity, we mostly focus on the new children's books published for the 2nd to 6th grade with the occasional dip into middle and high school titles. We also focus more on titles which are widely read so as to be helpful to as many parents as we can.
Basically, it takes seeing and listening and reading a lot of words for your child to become a fluent reader. For instance, the California Department of Education mandates half a million words to one million words EVERY SINGLE YEAR of reading practice for independent readers through 8th grade.
To move from reading 'goodnight moon' to reading 'Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.' with smoothness and comprehension takes a lot of reading practice.
So your child's teacher and school often assign so many reading minutes and/or so many reading titles and/or "points" in certain reading programs to help your kid get all that practice into their days.
As to the question of "why have so many book reports and other literary response projects?" Well, the focus in the elementary grades is obviously on having kids master learning to read, and then to increase their fluency and automaticity in particular, so reading is a smooth and useful and even (gasp!) a pleasureable experience.
Because of the need for so much practice, the elementary school teachers need some kind of system for accountablity and ways for the kids to interact with the texts they are reading...and that'd be...the book report or the book review! Secondly, it is not enough to simple power through the decoding and reading of a story. Often it takes some thought or reflection, time and effort to get as much out of a novel or other reading material as one can. The written response assignment (or other creative approaches) can impose the requirement to reflect and take some time over a reading experience and thus deepen a child's knowledge and enjoyment of a book selection.
Lastly, a person should just know the this information about stories...they have a beginning, middle and end & there are four standard elements, which are the characters, setting, plot, and theme. They should also be able to discern these things in anything they have read. Yes, we do think this is a reasonable expectation!
And that's why your kid has to read all these books because they're are trying to get their upwards of a million words a year of practice and reading development in, and so did you when you were learning to read.