Topic: What Is the Book About? Why Did You Choose This Book?

Questions, thoughts or ideas to use for your daily reading response

Topic: What is the book about? Why did you choose this book?

Titles: Were the chapters titled? Were they appropriate? Were they attention grabbers?

Description and Detail: Could we see it happening? Feel it? Hear it? Too little description? Too many details? Does it affect your understanding?

Dialogue: Is the talk realistic, full of voice? Could we hear the characters’ voices? Too much dialogue, too little dialogue?

Lead: How did the author begin the story? How did s/he get your attention to want to read more?

Conclusion: How did the author leave the readers? Was the ending to your liking? Were you satisfied with the ending? Why or Why not?

Flashbacks and foreshadows: How did the author use shifts in time and why? Did the author use foreshadowing to help the reader predict?

Humor/Sadness: Describe a scene that made the reader laugh. Describe a scene that made the reader cry.

Exposition: Describe the setting - where and when does the story take place. What it the initiating conflict?

Character Development: How were the characters’ actions thoughts, and feelings shown? Were they believable? Could the reader enter the characters’ hears and minds and see through their eyes?

Main Characters: Who are they? What makes a main character a main character? Who is the antagonist? Describe him/her. Who is the protagonist? Describe him/her.

Questions, thoughts or ideas to use for your daily reading response

Realism: Could the reader believe in this plot? In these characters?

Did it matter?

Suspense: Did the reader wonder what would happen next?

Action: Was there enough happening to hold the reader’s interest? Too much action and not enough character development?

Theme: What was the author showing about life and living in the story? What is the life lesson the author wants the reader to understand? How did the author convey the theme to the reader?

Conventions: Did the reader notice all the extremely short paragraphs? Was the punctuation and capitalization changed in any manner? What would be the reason the author choose to not to use correct grammar?

Length: Was the book too long or short?

Imagery: Did the author use any form of imagery throughout the novel? Metaphors, similes, hyperbole, personification etc.

Irony: Did the author use any type of irony in the book? What effect did the irony have on the reader?

Point of view: Who told the story? Was it first person? Third Person? Did the author switch between narrators? What effect did this have on the reader?

Epigraphs and Epilogues: How were these special introductions and conclusion used? To what effect?

Prefaces and Introductions: Were they used? How and to what effect?

Language: Did the sentences flow? Were they choppy? Did the reader notice him or herself thinking about how well the particular lines were written?