Social Media Book Review

What You Need:

• Paper
• Pens or pencils
• Computer and Word document
• Favorite book, or a book that's recently been read

What You Do:

1. Your child may have heard of social networking sites like Twitter, but if not, explain that social media is a tool where people can send out messages online. In many cases, these messages can only be a certain length. On Twitter, it’s 140 characters or less.
2. Have your child pick a favorite book and challenge them to summarize the book in one book review. However, the review must only be 140 characters long! Your writer will need to succinctly summarize the book’s plot and opinion about the book. For example, a book review for Charlotte’s Web could be: “Wilbur the pig becomes friends with Charlotte the spider. She saves his life. I loved this book!”
3. Show your child how to type the review into a Word document and check the character count. Your child can see how many characters are in their review, and if they need to shorten or lengthen it to get closer to 140 characters. If your writers have enough room, they can also add a “hashtag” to sum up their feelings on the book, but the message must still remain within the character limit: “Wilbur the pig becomes friends with Charlotte the spider. Great book but sad ending. Loved it anyway! #adorable #tearjerker”.     
4. Try adapting this to other famous social media sites. Your child can add an Instagram illustration, or try writing a Facebook status update from one of the book’s characters that states their point of view.
5. Writers can read their tweet book review aloud to friends interested in the book. If learners enjoyed the activity, they can write more tweet book reviews, practicing the art of writing, editing, and summarizing succinctly!