Gotcha!: Nonfiction Booktalks to Get Kids Excited about Reading

by Marcia Agness Kochel and Kathleen A. Baxter

Book Overview

Thousands of children's books are published each year-some are outstanding, while others are not. This book makes it easier for you to find the best in children's nonfiction books, and it offers concrete, classroom-tested ideas for presenting them to students in irresistible ways. Booktalks for more than 350 nonfiction titles (appropriate for elementary and middle school students) are organized according to topics popular with young readers-Great...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1563086832
• ISBN13: 9781563086830
• Release Date: December 1999
• Publisher: Libraries Unlimited
• Length: 183 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 8.4" x 11.0"
• Age Range: 6 to 13 years
• Grade Range: Grades 1 to 8

Customer Reviews

Gotcha! Nonfiction Booktalks to Get Kids Excited About Reading

Baxter, Kathleen A. and Marcia Agness Kochel. 1999. Gotcha! Nonfiction Booktalks to Get Kids Excited About Reading. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited. Kathleen A. Baxter states that she has a healthy streak of curiosity and an active interest in a lot of things which makes nonfiction books her choice for booktalks. She wants to tantalize, intrigue, and wet the appetite of children and adults and finds that Nonfiction has a wide range of reading levels available on an interesting subject. Ideas for over 350 booktalks are presented in seven chapters. Baxter always insists books in her library collection are well reviewed; books she mentions in the seven chapters have all received favorable reviews in major library reviewing publications. Booktalks\ programs include at least one book from every chapter. In her introduction, Baxter introduces herself and Marcia Agness Kochel, a public librarian and a school librarian as fanatics about quality books who hope to add some good ideas to your repertoire and fuel to fill up your bag of tricks. Baxter states: "Booktalking to me means telling people who may not be readers some of the reasons why a particular book may appeal to them." Baxter's suggestions for beginning your booktalks give general guidelines and include specific ideas such as "Gary Paulson's book Nightjohn, a fiction book that describes a slave who teaches other slaves to read and the horrible punishment he must endure as a consequence. One of the greatest ways to keep people from getting power is to prevent them from reading. If you want power, read!" High interest topics are discussed in depth in seven thematic chapters: (1) "Great Disasters," including shipwrecks and disasters at sea, fires, floods, diseases and other natural disasters; (2) "Fun Stuff--Jokes, Gross Books, and Books that Will Make You Laugh," including puzzles, jokes and fun facts, poetry, gross stuff, and just plain fun; (3) "Animals," including creatures of the air, creatures of the water, animals around the world, creepy-crawly creatures, pets, amazing animal facts, dinosaurs, and animals in danger; (4) "Unsolved Mysteries," including missing persons and disappearances, unexplained phenomena, and ghosts and urban legends; (5) "Science and Fun Experiments To Do," including experiments and activities, inventions and accidents, the world around us, dead bodies (archaeology and anthropology), and the human body; (6) "Fascinating People," including scientists/artists/musicians/writers, amazing women, athletes, historical figures, kids' favorite authors and illustrators, heroes and heroines, and fascinating kids; (7) "Our Wonderful, Terrible Past," including ancient history, customs and costumes throughout the ages, the American spirit, slavery and freedom, the continuing struggle for freedom, and the Holocaust and World War. Within each chapter are brief excerpts for reading aloud, pictures to lure kids to the books, and full bibliographies with reading levels for all the

This book got me!

This book is a wonderful resource for parents, teachers, librarians, or anyone who gives books to kids, but who may need a bit of help in choosing appropriate books. Kathleen Baxter and Marcia Agness Kochel have focused on the wealth of nonfiction books which may appeal to kids, proving there's more to children's literature than Harry Potter. The book is organized according to topics: catastrophes/disasters;, jokes, riddles, silly and gross stuff; biographies; animals, history, etc., and is presented in the format of short, snappy "book talks" -- pitches given by librarians and teachers to kids to show them what books are out there and to consequently pique kids' interests and get them reading. The authors show great enthusiasm for the titles they showcase, and give wonderful tips on talking up the books; they "got" me a number of times, as I scribbled out titles and made a beeline to the library to check out a few books. Foolproof topics include dinosauers and mummies, the Titanic disaster, and baby animals. But this book presents lots of other nonfiction choices on a wide variety of topics--there's bound to be something of interest to the young people in your life. Each chapter ends with a bibliography of the titles mentioned, and I'll be sure to use this book when birthdays and holidays come around. And if the authors ever come to my library, I'll be sure to listen in on one of their book talks!

Get Gotcah! & get kids excited about reading!

Most guides to Booktalks feature fiction but not this one. Ms. Baxter has gone where many fear to tread and tackled the favorite of many reluctant readers-Non Fiction. A Booktalk, for those who don't understand Teacherese or Library talk is brief description of a book and is designed to make every memember of the audience want to read the book RIGHT NOW.GOTCHA! is divided into 7 sections, covering such kid popular topics as jokes, gross stuff, The Titanic,urban legends, interesting people, science, the past and animals. The style is bright and breezy and extensive bibliographies are provided.Librarians will love it's "ready to use" format. The booktalks are designed to be used as is, or they can be used as a jumping off point and a librarian can modify them to suit their own collections. It will be very helpful to teachers looking for books to accompany science, language arts and social studies units. I can't think of a beter way to introduce a class to poety than with an enthusiastic booktalk featuring Jack Prelutsky. Homeschoolers will find it invalueable in planning units and finding quality literature for their children. In fact,kids will like it it too- it's a great resource for helping them find a book on a topic that interests them. It's a must have for and Elementary schlool librarians & Teachers, Children's Librarians and anyone who enjoys reading a book about books.