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Language Arts

Summer Reading: Creating Book Buzz
by Mindy Hardwick

The final book in the Harry Potter series will be arriving July 21, 2007. Bookstores are taking orders for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Children are preparing for overnight parties. Websites and blogs buzz with predictions! Book buzz is here!

What is "book buzz?" Book buzz is a marketing tool that authors, publishers, and book sellers use to sell a book. Book buzz gets people excited to read an upcoming book. It can involve blogs and websites, author readings and signings, book parties, and even contests. But, book buzz is not just for the book industry. Book buzz is a fabulous way to create excitement about reading with your child! Try these ideas to get the buzz of reading going in your family this summer!

Family Book Club

Choose a book that the whole family will read or a book that can be read to the younger ones. Decide on a meeting time and day to discuss the chapters of the book. If the book is short like a picture book, then discuss the whole book. Picture books work just as well as chapter books. Before meeting, ask each family member to bring their own book and choose a person to bring a simple snack for the whole family. When the family book group meets, consider some of these questions to start your discussion:

Host a Character Party

Children love to dress up and play make-believe. Ask them to dress as their favorite character or as any character of a book they read over the summer. Invite them to attend a character party! Encourage kids to "stay in character" throughout the party. Give each child an opportunity to read a part of the book while dressed as the book's character. Offer prizes for the best dressed character and the best character actor.

Book Blogs and Blog Reading Journals

You can create buzz with your child by reading writer's blogs and websites. Anastasia Suen, an educator and writer keeps a fabulous list of authors who blog at: http://www.asuen.com/blog.central.authors.html

Reading doesn't have to be a solitary event. Seattle children's writers, Justina Chen Headley, Dia Calhoun, Janet Lee Carey, and Lorie Ann Grover, teamed together to create Readergirlz, a blog about great books for girls! Visit them at:
http://www.readergirlz.com/issue.html

After your child reads a few author blogs, you can work with them in creating an on-line summer reading blog where they can post comments about the books they read this summer! One of the easiest blogs to set up is with Blogger at: https://www2.blogger.com/start. It's free and you and your child will be posting blogs about their summer reading in no-time. This is a great tool to share with family and friends who may be at a distance! Plus, your child gets to experience being a published writer!

So the next time you see the buzz about Harry Potter, you can smile and know that you and your child are creating a little magical book buzz, too! But best of all, you'll know that by creating book buzz, you are connecting your child with the love and excitement of reading—something that will last far longer than the days of summer.

Mindy Hardwick is a children's writer and educator. She is a writer-in-residence at Lake Stevens High School. Her summer short story is published with Blooming Tree Press in a collection entitled Summer Shorts, an anthology for middle grade readers. Mindy offers on-line classes for youth and adults who want to write for kids at www.mindyhardwick.com.