What Makes a Book "Good"?

Recently, many of my students have been struggling with this question. They are participating in the nomination process for the Golden Archer Award and have had to choose one book to nominate for this state honor. During the beginning of our discussion, many got caught up in the idea of good pictures, neat text, and accurate spelling. Perhaps they thought this was what I wanted to hear, because when I told them that the last thing I think about when reading a good book is neatness, the tone of their ideas began to change. Here are some of their better answers.

• Interesting characters that we can understand and connect with.
• A good "hook" in the beginning to make us keep reading.
• Some new ideas or a twist on an old idea.
• Interesting and exciting story lines.
• Descriptive words and phrases, so you can "see" what is written.
• Something organized well, that flows from one idea to the next.

So, we began talking about Organization, Fluency, Voice, Ideas, Word Choice, and even Presentation...which are the six traits of good writing that we use in each classroom. Good writing makes a good book, so that connection was made between what they are learning as writers and what they like as readers.

Now, we will see if they can take this connection a step further. They have been given the challenge to create an advertisement for the book they are nominating. Students are busily creating slogans and signs to persuade others to support their book. These will be posted in the cafeteria in a couple of weeks. I hope you have a chance to stop in and see some of them. Judging by what I am hearing during their planning sessions, we have some budding marketing professionals in our school!