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Free Bedtime Stories & Short Stories for Kids

4 tips on how to write a good short story review.

Reviewing literary works has tremendous significance for the development and expansion of the literary field within the academic sector. It is important to provide an unbiased opinion on a piece of literature to create an independent and professional environment for the literature sphere to exist and undergo substantial advancements. This is the main reason why writing reviews of literary works is such a common practice in academia, also being one of the main indicators of a student’s competency.

Among the types of literature, college kids are often assigned to review, fiction stories receive the most attention. And the greatest focus goes to short stories in particular. Reviewing critically short stories seems to be the best option for students, as this genre of fiction is relatively easy to grasp and analyze, which is a great practice for young people who have little experience evaluating literature. Thus, by analyzing short stories, college kids train their skills and learn the craft of reviewing with exceptional effectiveness. And, as is true of every academic practice, reviewing literary works sometimes proves to be a big challenge for inexperienced students. That being the case, a few killer tips on writing a professional short story review will do!

how to write a good short story

Always Be Unbiased

After you devour the story for analysis, you will most likely have a strong impression of what you read. And developing your own opinion about anything you peruse or study is the main indicator of being equipped to do proper analysis, just like professional writers who provide online essays and reviews. However, having personal impressions of the piece you read may largely harm the quality of your review. The most critical principle that a writer should stick to when developing a review is staying unbiased and fair-minded. Leave aside your subjective impressions of the piece and instead steer an objective and reasoned way of evaluating it.

Provide a Critical Analysis of the Story

Critical analysis of the story is the bulk of your entire review. How you provide a critical viewpoint within a review defines its quality and the effect it will make on the reader – whether the review will be comprehensive and reasonable or not. To analyze the story in a critical way means to include the following important points:

• What is the main idea of the story?
• What is the purpose of the story?
• The story’s theme.
• The setting and the role it plays in the story and whether it’s relevant to the theme of the story.
• The development of the characters.
• The structure of the plot and if it’s built properly.
• The stylistic devices used in the story and if they are employed successfully or not.
• The literary and academic value of the story.

To make your review valuable and informative, you need to include each of these critical points, expressing them to the fullest. Let’s view the first point, for example. When mentioning the main idea of the story, you need to clearly state what the story’s main message is, which serves as the focal aspect of the story and its major goal. Then, we can move to the story’s purpose. This part is similar to the idea, as the purpose of your story is reached and realized with the help of its idea, so these things are interrelated within any story.

Now, speaking of the theme of your story, it’s crucial not to confuse it with the idea as many young writers tend to. A theme is something that is portrayed or described within the story, while an idea is something that the author wanted to communicate to the reader. The rest of the points we mentioned are easy to expound upon, providing you stick to academic standards, which will be the subject of our next section!

Follow the Scholarly Standards

As one of the most critical rules for academic writing, sticking to the standards that have been approved by specialists in order to unify academic writing is extremely important. It’s normal that, inspired by the story (if the story is good, of course), you might want to simply express how compelling the piece is, disregarding other criteria for an academic review. But this is a misleading habit that many young writers follow, only serving to devalue their analyses and making them unprofessional. Writing an academic review presupposes adhering to the strict academic standards, doesn’t it? Make sure to follow the common standards for scholarly writing as long as you want to strike gold with your review!

Develop a Plan

Sketching the structure and creating a plan are quite reasonable options to consider when writing a critical review. Planning your future evaluation will help you include all important points in it, eliminating any possibility of missing anything vital in your review. Be sure to take your time to think over how you want to structure your review. Decide what elements you want to include in it and wherein your essay you want to place them. To make the planning procedure more effective, you should also include sub-points to every major point you write down – this will help you elaborate on noteworthy things in your review.

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Blog – Posted on Friday, Mar 29

17 book review examples to help you write the perfect review.

It’s an exciting time to be a book reviewer. Once confined to print newspapers and journals, reviews now dot many corridors of the Internet — forever helping others discover their next great read. That said, every book reviewer will face a familiar panic: how can you do justice to a great book in just a thousand words?

As you know, the best way to learn how to do something is by immersing yourself in it. Luckily, the Internet (i.e. Goodreads and other review sites , in particular) has made book reviews more accessible than ever — which means that there are a lot of book reviews examples out there for you to view!

In this post, we compiled 17 prototypical book review examples in multiple genres to help you figure out how to write the perfect review . If you want to jump straight to the examples, you can skip the next section. Otherwise, let’s first check out what makes up a good review.

Are you interested in becoming a book reviewer? We recommend you check out Reedsy Discovery , where you can earn money for writing reviews — and are guaranteed people will read your reviews! To register as a book reviewer, sign up here.

Pro-tip : But wait! How are you sure if you should become a book reviewer in the first place? If you're on the fence, or curious about your match with a book reviewing career, take our quick quiz:

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What must a book review contain?

Like all works of art, no two book reviews will be identical. But fear not: there are a few guidelines for any aspiring book reviewer to follow. Most book reviews, for instance, are less than 1,500 words long, with the sweet spot hitting somewhere around the 1,000-word mark. (However, this may vary depending on the platform on which you’re writing, as we’ll see later.)

In addition, all reviews share some universal elements, as shown in our book review templates . These include:

• A review will offer a concise plot summary of the book. 
• A book review will offer an evaluation of the work. 
• A book review will offer a recommendation for the audience. 

If these are the basic ingredients that make up a book review, it’s the tone and style with which the book reviewer writes that brings the extra panache. This will differ from platform to platform, of course. A book review on Goodreads, for instance, will be much more informal and personal than a book review on Kirkus Reviews, as it is catering to a different audience. However, at the end of the day, the goal of all book reviews is to give the audience the tools to determine whether or not they’d like to read the book themselves.

Keeping that in mind, let’s proceed to some book review examples to put all of this in action.

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Book review examples for fiction books

Since story is king in the world of fiction, it probably won’t come as any surprise to learn that a book review for a novel will concentrate on how well the story was told .

That said, book reviews in all genres follow the same basic formula that we discussed earlier. In these examples, you’ll be able to see how book reviewers on different platforms expertly intertwine the plot summary and their personal opinions of the book to produce a clear, informative, and concise review.

Note: Some of the book review examples run very long. If a book review is truncated in this post, we’ve indicated by including a […] at the end, but you can always read the entire review if you click on the link provided.

Examples of literary fiction book reviews

Kirkus Reviews reviews Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man :

An extremely powerful story of a young Southern Negro, from his late high school days through three years of college to his life in Harlem.

His early training prepared him for a life of humility before white men, but through injustices- large and small, he came to realize that he was an "invisible man". People saw in him only a reflection of their preconceived ideas of what he was, denied his individuality, and ultimately did not see him at all. This theme, which has implications far beyond the obvious racial parallel, is skillfully handled. The incidents of the story are wholly absorbing. The boy's dismissal from college because of an innocent mistake, his shocked reaction to the anonymity of the North and to Harlem, his nightmare experiences on a one-day job in a paint factory and in the hospital, his lightning success as the Harlem leader of a communistic organization known as the Brotherhood, his involvement in black versus white and black versus black clashes and his disillusion and understanding of his invisibility- all climax naturally in scenes of violence and riot, followed by a retreat which is both literal and figurative. Parts of this experience may have been told before, but never with such freshness, intensity and power.

This is Ellison's first novel, but he has complete control of his story and his style. Watch it.

Lyndsey reviews George Orwell’s 1984 on Goodreads:

YOU. ARE. THE. DEAD. Oh my God. I got the chills so many times toward the end of this book. It completely blew my mind. It managed to surpass my high expectations AND be nothing at all like I expected. Or in Newspeak "Double Plus Good." Let me preface this with an apology. If I sound stunningly inarticulate at times in this review, I can't help it. My mind is completely fried.

This book is like the dystopian Lord of the Rings, with its richly developed culture and economics, not to mention a fully developed language called Newspeak, or rather more of the anti-language, whose purpose is to limit speech and understanding instead of to enhance and expand it. The world-building is so fully fleshed out and spine-tinglingly terrifying that it's almost as if George travelled to such a place, escaped from it, and then just wrote it all down.

I read Fahrenheit 451 over ten years ago in my early teens. At the time, I remember really wanting to read 1984, although I never managed to get my hands on it. I'm almost glad I didn't. Though I would not have admitted it at the time, it would have gone over my head. Or at the very least, I wouldn't have been able to appreciate it fully. […]

The New York Times reviews Lisa Halliday’s Asymmetry :

Three-quarters of the way through Lisa Halliday’s debut novel, “Asymmetry,” a British foreign correspondent named Alistair is spending Christmas on a compound outside of Baghdad. His fellow revelers include cameramen, defense contractors, United Nations employees and aid workers. Someone’s mother has FedExed a HoneyBaked ham from Maine; people are smoking by the swimming pool. It is 2003, just days after Saddam Hussein’s capture, and though the mood is optimistic, Alistair is worrying aloud about the ethics of his chosen profession, wondering if reporting on violence doesn’t indirectly abet violence and questioning why he’d rather be in a combat zone than reading a picture book to his son. But every time he returns to London, he begins to “spin out.” He can’t go home. “You observe what people do with their freedom — what they don’t do — and it’s impossible not to judge them for it,” he says.

The line, embedded unceremoniously in the middle of a page-long paragraph, doubles, like so many others in “Asymmetry,” as literary criticism. Halliday’s novel is so strange and startlingly smart that its mere existence seems like commentary on the state of fiction. One finishes “Asymmetry” for the first or second (or like this reader, third) time and is left wondering what other writers are not doing with their freedom — and, like Alistair, judging them for it.

Despite its title, “Asymmetry” comprises two seemingly unrelated sections of equal length, appended by a slim and quietly shocking coda. Halliday’s prose is clean and lean, almost reportorial in the style of W. G. Sebald, and like the murmurings of a shy person at a cocktail party, often comic only in single clauses. It’s a first novel that reads like the work of an author who has published many books over many years. […]

Emily W. Thompson reviews Michael Doane's The Crossing on Reedsy Discovery :

In Doane’s debut novel, a young man embarks on a journey of self-discovery with surprising results.

An unnamed protagonist (The Narrator) is dealing with heartbreak. His love, determined to see the world, sets out for Portland, Oregon. But he’s a small-town boy who hasn’t traveled much. So, the Narrator mourns her loss and hides from life, throwing himself into rehabbing an old motorcycle. Until one day, he takes a leap; he packs his bike and a few belongings and heads out to find the Girl.

Following in the footsteps of Jack Kerouac and William Least Heat-Moon, Doane offers a coming of age story about a man finding himself on the backroads of America. Doane’s a gifted writer with fluid prose and insightful observations, using The Narrator’s personal interactions to illuminate the diversity of the United States.

The Narrator initially sticks to the highways, trying to make it to the West Coast as quickly as possible. But a hitchhiker named Duke convinces him to get off the beaten path and enjoy the ride. “There’s not a place that’s like any other,” [39] Dukes contends, and The Narrator realizes he’s right. Suddenly, the trip is about the journey, not just the destination. The Narrator ditches his truck and traverses the deserts and mountains on his bike. He destroys his phone, cutting off ties with his past and living only in the moment.

As he crosses the country, The Narrator connects with several unique personalities whose experiences and views deeply impact his own. Duke, the complicated cowboy and drifter, who opens The Narrator’s eyes to a larger world. Zooey, the waitress in Colorado who opens his heart and reminds him that love can be found in this big world. And Rosie, The Narrator’s sweet landlady in Portland, who helps piece him back together both physically and emotionally.

This supporting cast of characters is excellent. Duke, in particular, is wonderfully nuanced and complicated. He’s a throwback to another time, a man without a cell phone who reads Sartre and sleeps under the stars. Yet he’s also a grifter with a “love ‘em and leave ‘em” attitude that harms those around him. It’s fascinating to watch The Narrator wrestle with Duke’s behavior, trying to determine which to model and which to discard.

Doane creates a relatable protagonist in The Narrator, whose personal growth doesn’t erase his faults. His willingness to hit the road with few resources is admirable, and he’s prescient enough to recognize the jealousy of those who cannot or will not take the leap. His encounters with new foods, places, and people broaden his horizons. Yet his immaturity and selfishness persist. He tells Rosie she’s been a good mother to him but chooses to ignore the continuing concern from his own parents as he effectively disappears from his old life.

Despite his flaws, it’s a pleasure to accompany The Narrator on his physical and emotional journey. The unexpected ending is a fitting denouement to an epic and memorable road trip.

The Book Smugglers review Anissa Gray’s The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls :

I am still dipping my toes into the literally fiction pool, finding what works for me and what doesn’t. Books like The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray are definitely my cup of tea.

Althea and Proctor Cochran had been pillars of their economically disadvantaged community for years – with their local restaurant/small market and their charity drives. Until they are found guilty of fraud for stealing and keeping most of the money they raised and sent to jail. Now disgraced, their entire family is suffering the consequences, specially their twin teenage daughters Baby Vi and Kim.  To complicate matters even more: Kim was actually the one to call the police on her parents after yet another fight with her mother. […]

Examples of children’s and YA fiction book reviews

The Book Hookup reviews Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give :

♥ Quick Thoughts and Rating: 5 stars! I can’t imagine how challenging it would be to tackle the voice of a movement like Black Lives Matter, but I do know that Thomas did it with a finesse only a talented author like herself possibly could. With an unapologetically realistic delivery packed with emotion, The Hate U Give is a crucially important portrayal of the difficulties minorities face in our country every single day. I have no doubt that this book will be met with resistance by some (possibly many) and slapped with a “controversial” label, but if you’ve ever wondered what it was like to walk in a POC’s shoes, then I feel like this is an unflinchingly honest place to start.

In Angie Thomas’s debut novel, Starr Carter bursts on to the YA scene with both heart-wrecking and heartwarming sincerity. This author is definitely one to watch.

♥ Review: The hype around this book has been unquestionable and, admittedly, that made me both eager to get my hands on it and terrified to read it. I mean, what if I was to be the one person that didn’t love it as much as others? (That seems silly now because of how truly mesmerizing THUG was in the most heartbreakingly realistic way.) However, with the relevancy of its summary in regards to the unjust predicaments POC currently face in the US, I knew this one was a must-read, so I was ready to set my fears aside and dive in. That said, I had an altogether more personal, ulterior motive for wanting to read this book. […]

The New York Times reviews Melissa Albert’s The Hazel Wood :

Alice Crewe (a last name she’s chosen for herself) is a fairy tale legacy: the granddaughter of Althea Proserpine, author of a collection of dark-as-night fairy tales called “Tales From the Hinterland.” The book has a cult following, and though Alice has never met her grandmother, she’s learned a little about her through internet research. She hasn’t read the stories, because her mother, Ella Proserpine, forbids it.

Alice and Ella have moved from place to place in an attempt to avoid the “bad luck” that seems to follow them. Weird things have happened. As a child, Alice was kidnapped by a man who took her on a road trip to find her grandmother; he was stopped by the police before they did so. When at 17 she sees that man again, unchanged despite the years, Alice panics. Then Ella goes missing, and Alice turns to Ellery Finch, a schoolmate who’s an Althea Proserpine superfan, for help in tracking down her mother. Not only has Finch read every fairy tale in the collection, but handily, he remembers them, sharing them with Alice as they journey to the mysterious Hazel Wood, the estate of her now-dead grandmother, where they hope to find Ella.

“The Hazel Wood” starts out strange and gets stranger, in the best way possible. (The fairy stories Finch relays, which Albert includes as their own chapters, are as creepy and evocative as you’d hope.) Albert seamlessly combines contemporary realism with fantasy, blurring the edges in a way that highlights that place where stories and real life convene, where magic contains truth and the world as it appears is false, where just about anything can happen, particularly in the pages of a very good book. It’s a captivating debut. […]

James reviews Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight, Moon on Goodreads:

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown is one of the books that followers of my blog voted as a must-read for our Children's Book August 2018 Readathon. Come check it out and join the next few weeks!

This picture book was such a delight. I hadn't remembered reading it when I was a child, but it might have been read to me... either way, it was like a whole new experience! It's always so difficult to convince a child to fall asleep at night. I don't have kids, but I do have a 5-month-old puppy who whines for 5 minutes every night when he goes in his cage/crate (hopefully he'll be fully housebroken soon so he can roam around when he wants). I can only imagine! I babysat a lot as a teenager and I have tons of younger cousins, nieces, and nephews, so I've been through it before, too. This was a believable experience, and it really helps show kids how to relax and just let go when it's time to sleep.

The bunny's are adorable. The rhymes are exquisite. I found it pretty fun, but possibly a little dated given many of those things aren't normal routines anymore. But the lessons to take from it are still powerful. Loved it! I want to sample some more books by this fine author and her illustrators.

Publishers Weekly reviews Elizabeth Lilly’s Geraldine :

This funny, thoroughly accomplished debut opens with two words: “I’m moving.” They’re spoken by the title character while she swoons across her family’s ottoman, and because Geraldine is a giraffe, her full-on melancholy mode is quite a spectacle. But while Geraldine may be a drama queen (even her mother says so), it won’t take readers long to warm up to her. The move takes Geraldine from Giraffe City, where everyone is like her, to a new school, where everyone else is human. Suddenly, the former extrovert becomes “That Giraffe Girl,” and all she wants to do is hide, which is pretty much impossible. “Even my voice tries to hide,” she says, in the book’s most poignant moment. “It’s gotten quiet and whispery.” Then she meets Cassie, who, though human, is also an outlier (“I’m that girl who wears glasses and likes MATH and always organizes her food”), and things begin to look up.

Lilly’s watercolor-and-ink drawings are as vividly comic and emotionally astute as her writing; just when readers think there are no more ways for Geraldine to contort her long neck, this highly promising talent comes up with something new.

Examples of genre fiction book reviews

Karlyn P reviews Nora Roberts’ Dark Witch , a paranormal romance novel , on Goodreads:

4 stars. Great world-building, weak romance, but still worth the read.

I hesitate to describe this book as a 'romance' novel simply because the book spent little time actually exploring the romance between Iona and Boyle. Sure, there IS a romance in this novel. Sprinkled throughout the book are a few scenes where Iona and Boyle meet, chat, wink at each, flirt some more, sleep together, have a misunderstanding, make up, and then profess their undying love. Very formulaic stuff, and all woven around the more important parts of this book.

The meat of this book is far more focused on the story of the Dark witch and her magically-gifted descendants living in Ireland. Despite being weak on the romance, I really enjoyed it. I think the book is probably better for it, because the romance itself was pretty lackluster stuff.

I absolutely plan to stick with this series as I enjoyed the world building, loved the Ireland setting, and was intrigued by all of the secondary characters. However, If you read Nora Roberts strictly for the romance scenes, this one might disappoint. But if you enjoy a solid background story with some dark magic and prophesies, you might enjoy it as much as I did.

I listened to this one on audio, and felt the narration was excellent.

Emily May reviews R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy Wars , an epic fantasy novel , on Goodreads:

“But I warn you, little warrior. The price of power is pain.”

Holy hell, what did I just read??

➽ A fantasy military school

➽ A rich world based on modern Chinese history

➽ Shamans and gods

➽ Detailed characterization leading to unforgettable characters

➽ Adorable, opium-smoking mentors

That's a basic list, but this book is all of that and SO MUCH MORE. I know 100% that The Poppy War will be one of my best reads of 2018.

Isn't it just so great when you find one of those books that completely drags you in, makes you fall in love with the characters, and demands that you sit on the edge of your seat for every horrific, nail-biting moment of it? This is one of those books for me. And I must issue a serious content warning: this book explores some very dark themes. Proceed with caution (or not at all) if you are particularly sensitive to scenes of war, drug use and addiction, genocide, racism, sexism, ableism, self-harm, torture, and rape (off-page but extremely horrific).

Because, despite the fairly innocuous first 200 pages, the title speaks the truth: this is a book about war. All of its horrors and atrocities. It is not sugar-coated, and it is often graphic. The "poppy" aspect refers to opium, which is a big part of this book. It is a fantasy, but the book draws inspiration from the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Rape of Nanking.

Crime Fiction Lover reviews Jessica Barry’s Freefall , a crime novel:

In some crime novels, the wrongdoing hits you between the eyes from page one. With others it’s a more subtle process, and that’s OK too. So where does Freefall fit into the sliding scale?

In truth, it’s not clear. This is a novel with a thrilling concept at its core. A woman survives plane crash, then runs for her life. However, it is the subtleties at play that will draw you in like a spider beckoning to an unwitting fly.

Like the heroine in Sharon Bolton’s Dead Woman Walking, Allison is lucky to be alive. She was the only passenger in a private plane, belonging to her fiancé, Ben, who was piloting the expensive aircraft, when it came down in woodlands in the Colorado Rockies. Ally is also the only survivor, but rather than sitting back and waiting for rescue, she is soon pulling together items that may help her survive a little longer – first aid kit, energy bars, warm clothes, trainers – before fleeing the scene. If you’re hearing the faint sound of alarm bells ringing, get used to it. There’s much, much more to learn about Ally before this tale is over.

Kirkus Reviews reviews Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One , a science-fiction novel :

Video-game players embrace the quest of a lifetime in a virtual world; screenwriter Cline’s first novel is old wine in new bottles.

The real world, in 2045, is the usual dystopian horror story. So who can blame Wade, our narrator, if he spends most of his time in a virtual world? The 18-year-old, orphaned at 11, has no friends in his vertical trailer park in Oklahoma City, while the OASIS has captivating bells and whistles, and it’s free. Its creator, the legendary billionaire James Halliday, left a curious will. He had devised an elaborate online game, a hunt for a hidden Easter egg. The finder would inherit his estate. Old-fashioned riddles lead to three keys and three gates. Wade, or rather his avatar Parzival, is the first gunter (egg-hunter) to win the Copper Key, first of three.

Halliday was obsessed with the pop culture of the 1980s, primarily the arcade games, so the novel is as much retro as futurist. Parzival’s great strength is that he has absorbed all Halliday’s obsessions; he knows by heart three essential movies, crossing the line from geek to freak. His most formidable competitors are the Sixers, contract gunters working for the evil conglomerate IOI, whose goal is to acquire the OASIS. Cline’s narrative is straightforward but loaded with exposition. It takes a while to reach a scene that crackles with excitement: the meeting between Parzival (now world famous as the lead contender) and Sorrento, the head of IOI. The latter tries to recruit Parzival; when he fails, he issues and executes a death threat. Wade’s trailer is demolished, his relatives killed; luckily Wade was not at home. Too bad this is the dramatic high point. Parzival threads his way between more ’80s games and movies to gain the other keys; it’s clever but not exciting. Even a romance with another avatar and the ultimate “epic throwdown” fail to stir the blood.

Too much puzzle-solving, not enough suspense.

Book review examples for non-fiction books

Nonfiction books are generally written to inform readers about a certain topic. As such, the focus of a nonfiction book review will be on the clarity and effectiveness of this communication . In carrying this out, a book review may analyze the author’s source materials and assess the thesis in order to determine whether or not the book meets expectations.

Again, we’ve included abbreviated versions of long reviews here, so feel free to click on the link to read the entire piece!

The Washington Post reviews David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon :

The arc of David Grann’s career reminds one of a software whiz-kid or a latest-thing talk-show host — certainly not an investigative reporter, even if he is one of the best in the business. The newly released movie of his first book, “The Lost City of Z,” is generating all kinds of Oscar talk, and now comes the release of his second book, “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI,” the film rights to which have already been sold for $5 million in what one industry journal called the “biggest and wildest book rights auction in memory.”

Grann deserves the attention. He’s canny about the stories he chases, he’s willing to go anywhere to chase them, and he’s a maestro in his ability to parcel out information at just the right clip: a hint here, a shading of meaning there, a smartly paced buildup of multiple possibilities followed by an inevitable reversal of readerly expectations or, in some cases, by a thrilling and dislocating pull of the entire narrative rug.

All of these strengths are on display in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Around the turn of the 20th century, oil was discovered underneath Osage lands in the Oklahoma Territory, lands that were soon to become part of the state of Oklahoma. Through foresight and legal maneuvering, the Osage found a way to permanently attach that oil to themselves and shield it from the prying hands of white interlopers; this mechanism was known as “headrights,” which forbade the outright sale of oil rights and granted each full member of the tribe — and, supposedly, no one else — a share in the proceeds from any lease arrangement. For a while, the fail-safes did their job, and the Osage got rich — diamond-ring and chauffeured-car and imported-French-fashion rich — following which quite a large group of white men started to work like devils to separate the Osage from their money. And soon enough, and predictably enough, this work involved murder. Here in Jazz Age America’s most isolated of locales, dozens or even hundreds of Osage in possession of great fortunes — and of the potential for even greater fortunes in the future — were dispatched by poison, by gunshot and by dynamite. […]

Stacked Books reviews Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers :

I’ve heard a lot of great things about Malcolm Gladwell’s writing. Friends and co-workers tell me that his subjects are interesting and his writing style is easy to follow without talking down to the reader. I wasn’t disappointed with Outliers. In it, Gladwell tackles the subject of success – how people obtain it and what contributes to extraordinary success as opposed to everyday success.

The thesis – that our success depends much more on circumstances out of our control than any effort we put forth – isn’t exactly revolutionary. Most of us know it to be true. However, I don’t think I’m lying when I say that most of us also believe that we if we just try that much harder and develop our talent that much further, it will be enough to become wildly successful, despite bad or just mediocre beginnings. Not so, says Gladwell.

Most of the evidence Gladwell gives us is anecdotal, which is my favorite kind to read. I can’t really speak to how scientifically valid it is, but it sure makes for engrossing listening. For example, did you know that successful hockey players are almost all born in January, February, or March? Kids born during these months are older than the others kids when they start playing in the youth leagues, which means they’re already better at the game (because they’re bigger). Thus, they get more play time, which means their skill increases at a faster rate, and it compounds as time goes by. Within a few years, they’re much, much better than the kids born just a few months later in the year. Basically, these kids’ birthdates are a huge factor in their success as adults – and it’s nothing they can do anything about. If anyone could make hockey interesting to a Texan who only grudgingly admits the sport even exists, it’s Gladwell. […]

Quill and Quire reviews Rick Prashaw’s Soar, Adam, Soar :

Ten years ago, I read a book called Almost Perfect. The young-adult novel by Brian Katcher won some awards and was held up as a powerful, nuanced portrayal of a young trans person. But the reality did not live up to the book’s billing. Instead, it turned out to be a one-dimensional and highly fetishized portrait of a trans person’s life, one that was nevertheless repeatedly dubbed “realistic” and “affecting” by non-transgender readers possessing only a vague, mass-market understanding of trans experiences.

In the intervening decade, trans narratives have emerged further into the literary spotlight, but those authored by trans people ourselves – and by trans men in particular – have seemed to fall under the shadow of cisgender sensationalized imaginings. Two current Canadian releases – Soar, Adam, Soar and This One Looks Like a Boy – provide a pointed object lesson into why trans-authored work about transgender experiences remains critical.

To be fair, Soar, Adam, Soar isn’t just a story about a trans man. It’s also a story about epilepsy, the medical establishment, and coming of age as seen through a grieving father’s eyes. Adam, Prashaw’s trans son, died unexpectedly at age 22. Woven through the elder Prashaw’s narrative are excerpts from Adam’s social media posts, giving us glimpses into the young man’s interior life as he traverses his late teens and early 20s. […]

Book Geeks reviews Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love :

WRITING STYLE: 3.5/5

SUBJECT: 4/5

CANDIDNESS: 4.5/5

RELEVANCE: 3.5/5

ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3.5/5

“Eat Pray Love” is so popular that it is almost impossible to not read it. Having felt ashamed many times on my not having read this book, I quietly ordered the book (before I saw the movie) from amazon.in and sat down to read it. I don’t remember what I expected it to be – maybe more like a chick lit thing but it turned out quite different. The book is a real story and is a short journal from the time when its writer went travelling to three different countries in pursuit of three different things – Italy (Pleasure), India (Spirituality), Bali (Balance) and this is what corresponds to the book’s name – EAT (in Italy), PRAY (in India) and LOVE (in Bali, Indonesia). These are also the three Is – ITALY, INDIA, INDONESIA.

Though she had everything a middle-aged American woman can aspire for – MONEY, CAREER, FRIENDS, HUSBAND; Elizabeth was not happy in her life, she wasn’t happy in her marriage. Having suffered a terrible divorce and terrible breakup soon after, Elizabeth was shattered. She didn’t know where to go and what to do – all she knew was that she wanted to run away. So she set out on a weird adventure – she will go to three countries in a year and see if she can find out what she was looking for in life. This book is about that life changing journey that she takes for one whole year. […]

Emily May reviews Michelle Obama’s Becoming on Goodreads:

Look, I'm not a happy crier. I might cry at songs about leaving and missing someone; I might cry at books where things don't work out; I might cry at movies where someone dies. I've just never really understood why people get all choked up over happy, inspirational things. But Michelle Obama's kindness and empathy changed that. This book had me in tears for all the right reasons.

This is not really a book about politics, though political experiences obviously do come into it. It's a shame that some will dismiss this book because of a difference in political opinion, when it is really about a woman's life. About growing up poor and black on the South Side of Chicago; about getting married and struggling to maintain that marriage; about motherhood; about being thrown into an amazing and terrifying position.

I hate words like "inspirational" because they've become so overdone and cheesy, but I just have to say it-- Michelle Obama is an inspiration. I had the privilege of seeing her speak at The Forum in Inglewood, and she is one of the warmest, funniest, smartest, down-to-earth people I have ever seen in this world.

And yes, I know we present what we want the world to see, but I truly do think it's genuine. I think she is someone who really cares about people - especially kids - and wants to give them better lives and opportunities.

She's obviously intelligent, but she also doesn't gussy up her words. She talks straight, with an openness and honesty rarely seen. She's been one of the most powerful women in the world, she's been a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School, she's had her own successful career, and yet she has remained throughout that same girl - Michelle Robinson - from a working class family in Chicago.

I don't think there's anyone who wouldn't benefit from reading this book.

Hopefully, this post has given you a better idea of how to write a book review. You might be wondering how to put all of this knowledge into action now! Many book reviewers start out by setting up a book blog. If you don’t have time to research the intricacies of HTML, check out Reedsy Discovery — where you can read indie books for free and review them without going through the hassle of creating a blog. To register as a book reviewer , go here .

And if you’d like to see even more book review examples, simply go to this directory of book review blogs and click on any one of them to see a wealth of good book reviews. Beyond that, it's up to you to pick up a book and pen — and start reviewing!

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The Best Reviewed Short Story Collections of 2022

Featuring george saunders, ling ma, colin barrett, jamil jan kochai, and more.

We’ve come to the end of another bountiful literary year, and for all of us review rabbits here at Book Marks, that can mean only one thing: basic math, and lots of it.

Yes, using reviews drawn from more than 150 publications, over the next two weeks we’ll be calculating and revealing the most critically-acclaimed books of 2022, in the categories of (deep breath): Fiction ; Nonfiction ; Memoir and Biography ; Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror ; Short Story Collections; Essay Collections; Poetry; Mystery and Crime; Graphic Literature ; and Literature in Translation .

Today’s installment: Short Story Collections .

Brought to you by Book Marks , Lit Hub’s “Rotten Tomatoes for books.”

1. Bliss Montage by Ling Ma (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

21 Rave • 5 Positive • 2 Mixed Read an interview with Ling Ma here

“The eight wily tales mark the return of an author whose inventive debut, Severance, urgently announced her as a writer worth watching … an assured follow-up, a striking collection that peddles in the uncanny and the surreal, but it often lacks Severance ’s zest. Some stories are confident in their strangeness and ambiguity, a handful feel like promising sketches of sturdier narratives and the rest fall somewhere in between. The connections between them are loose, tethered by similar leads …

Wry, peculiar stories like Los Angeles and Yeti Lovemaking confirm that Ma’s imagination operates on the same chimerical frequency as those of Helen Oyeyemi, Samanta Schweblin, Meng Jin. Each of these stories leans un-self-consciously into the speculative, illuminating Ma’s phantasmagoric interests. They are funny, too … Despite their nagging loose ends, Ma’s stories stay with you—evidence of a gifted writer curious about the limits of theoretical possibility. They twist and turn in unpredictable ways and although the ride wasn’t always smooth, I never regretted getting on.”

–Lovia Gyarkye ( The New York Times Book Review )

2. Liberation Day by George Saunders (Random House)

16 Rave • 6 Positive • 5 Mixed (86) Read George Saunders on reading chaotically and the power of generous teachers, here

“Acutely relevant … Let’s bask in this new collection of short stories, which is how many of us first discovered him and where he excels like no other … Saunders’ imaginative capacity is on full display … Liberation Day carries echoes of Saunders’ previous work, but the ideas in this collection are more complex and nuanced, perhaps reflecting the new complexities of this brave new world of ours. The title story is only one of a handful of the nine stories in this collection that show us our collective and personal dilemmas, but in reading the problems so expressed—with compassion and humanity—our spirits are raised and perhaps healed. Part of the Saunders elixir is that we feel more empathetic after reading his work.”

–Scott Laughlin ( The San Francisco Chronicle )

3. Homesickness by Colin Barrett (Grove Press)

16 Rave • 1 Positive • 1 Mixed Read an essay by Colin Barrett here

“Its comedy stands in balance to the collection’s more tragic tenor … expands [Barrett’s] range, and though the first took place in the fictional Irish town of Glanbeigh, the books share a fabric shot through with dark humor, pitch-perfect dialogue and a signature freshness that makes life palpable on the page. The language counterpoints the sometimes inarticulate desperation of the working-class characters, and that dissonance lends an emotional complexity to their stories …

As a writer, Barrett doesn’t legislate from the top down. His unruly characters surge up with their vitality and their mystery intact. Their stories aren’t shaped by familiar resolutions—no realizations, morals or epiphanies. The absence of a conventional resolution does risk leaving an otherwise charming story like The Silver Coast with the rambling feel of a slice of life. But in the majority of the stories in this book, to reinvent an ending is to reinvent how a story is told, and overall, Homesickness is graced with an original, lingering beauty.”

–Stuart Dybek ( The New York Times Book Review )

4. Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu (Tin House)

13 Rave • 4 Positive Read a story from Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century here

“..the horrors are more intimate, smaller, and less global in scale. This is not a collection filled with fantastic beasts, although a sea monster does make an appearance, but instead illuminates the monstrous nature of humanity … Technology, rather than magic, catalyzes these changes. That is not to say there are not some traces of unexplained fantasy, such as a girl who sprouts wings from her ankles, but mostly, Fu’s monsters manifest from modernity … The success of Kim Fu’s stories is the element of the unexpected. There are surprises lurking in these narratives, whether it is a quick final plot twist or unexpected peculiarity …

Although Fu seems more concerned with alienation stemming from individual relationships, there is criticism of conventional consumer capitalism … The characters in Fu’s collection are eccentric and unexpected in their choices, and many of their stories feature unforeseen endings that strike the right tone for the dark era we live in … Fu opens a window looking onto the sad possibilities of our own failures.”

–Ian MacAllen ( The Chicago Review of Books )

5. If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery (MCD)

12 Rave • 4 Positive Read an essay by Jonathan Escoffery here

“Ravishing … The book, about an immigrant family struggling to make ends meet, delights in mocking the trope of an immigrant family struggling to make ends meet … There’s peacocking humor, capers, and passages of shuddering eroticism. The book feels thrillingly free … Escoffery’s protagonists, though resourceful, can’t accomplish the impossible; nor do they sacrifice themselves for the reader’s sentimental education … The prose comes alive …

These characters are strange amalgams of limited agency and boundless originality. Their survival, perhaps, comes down to their style … Escoffery deftly renders the disorienting effects of race as they fall, veil-like and hostile, over a world of children … Throughout, the refrain runs like an incantation: What are you? Escoffery, hosing his characters in a stream of fines, bills, and pay stubs, studies the bleak math of self-determination.”

–Katy Waldman ( The New Yorker )

6. The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories by Jamil Jan Kochai (Viking)

12 Rave • 1 Positive • 1 Mixed Read an essay by Jamil Jan Kochai  here

“Kochai, an Afghan-American writer, shapes and reshapes his material through a variety of formal techniques, including a fantasy of salvation through video gaming, a darkly surrealist fable of loss, a life story told through a mock résumé, and the story of a man’s transformation into a monkey who becomes a rebel leader…Like Asturias, Kochai is a master conjurer…The collection’s cohesion lies in its thematic exploration of the complexities of contemporary Afghan experience (both in Afghanistan and the United States), and in the recurring family narrative at its core: many of the stories deal with an Afghan family settled in California… Kochai is a thrillingly gifted writer, and this collection is a pleasure to read, filled with stories at once funny and profoundly serious, formally daring, and complex in their apprehension of the contradictory yet overlapping worlds of their characters.”

–Claire Messud ( Harper’s )

7. Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty (Tin House Book)

12 Rave • 1 Positive • 1 Mixed Listen to an interview with Morgan Talty here

“Talty depicts the relationship between David and Paige perfectly—the siblings clearly care for each other; it’s evident beneath the bickering and the long periods when they don’t see each other … The story ends with both mother and son experiencing terrifying medical emergencies; it’s almost excruciating to read, but it’s undeniably powerful, and, in its own way, beautiful … Talty’s prose is flawless throughout; he writes with a straightforward leanness that will likely appeal to admirers of Thom Jones or Denis Johnson. But his style is all his own, as is his immense sense of compassion. Night of the Living Rez is a stunning look at a family navigating their lives through crisis—it’s a shockingly strong debut, sure, but it’s also a masterwork by a major talent.”

–Michael Schaub ( The Star Tribune )

8. How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu (William Morrow)

10 Rave • 6 Positive • 1 Mixed • 1 Pan Read an excerpt from How High We Go in the Dark here

“If you’re a short-story lover—as I am—you’ll be impressed with Nagamatsu’s meticulous craft. If you crave sustained character and plot arcs, well, you’ll have to settle for admiring the well-honed prose, poignant meditations and unique concepts. Hardly small pleasures … The reader might best approach the book like a melancholy Black Mirror season … This is a lovely though bleak book. Humanity has long turned to humor in our darkest moments, but levity feels absent even in a chapter narrated by a stand-up comedian. That said, the somber tone unifies the disparate characters and story lines … a welcome addition to a growing trend of what we might call the ‘speculative epic’: genre-bending novels that use a wide aperture to tackle large issues like climate change while jumping between characters, timelines and even narrative modes … Nagamatsu squarely hits both the ‘literary’ and ‘science fiction’ targets, offering psychological insights in lyrical prose while seriously exploring speculative conceits … a book of sorrow for the destruction we’re bringing on ourselves. Yet the novel reminds us there’s still hope in human connections, despite our sadness.”

–Lincoln Michel ( The New York Times Book Review )

9. Life Without Children by Roddy Doyle (Viking)

9 Rave •  5 Positive • 1 Mixed

“… a quietly devastating collection of short stories that brilliantly portrays the pervasive sense of hopelessness that immobilised us during the dog days of Covid … Lest he be accused of focusing too much on men and their sense of victimhood, the countervailing magnificence of his women is worth noting. Part of Doyle’s genius resides in a kind of bathetic amusement at the follies of his male characters and always it’s the stoical good sense of women that saves the day … Another of his great strengths is the ability to drop in those little epiphanies that resolve the tension and conflict of a story in a single significant moment … Doyle breaks our free fall into despair by emphasizing the redemptive power of humor, love and the kindness of strangers.”

–Bert Wright ( The Sunday Times )

10. Stories From the Tenants Downstairs by Sidik Fofana (Scribner)

12 Rave Read an interview with Sidik Fofana here

“… outstanding … The brilliance of this debut, however, is that Fofana doesn’t let anyone go unseen … masterfully paints a portrait of the people most impacted by gentrification … Fofana brings his characters to life through their idiosyncratic speech patterns. Auxiliary verbs are dropped, words are misspelled, prepositions are jostled, all to create a sense of vernacular authenticity…Grammar is an instrument that Fofana plays by ear, to much success.”

–Joseph Cassara ( The New York Times Book Review )

Our System:

RAVE = 5 points • POSITIVE = 3 points • MIXED = 1 point • PAN = -5 points

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May 27, 2016

13 short stories for engaging secondary students & teaching literary elements.

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These are great selections. I don't, however, think Big is similar to Sound of Thunder or Groundhog Day.

I'm not a teacher but your list prompted me to sigh up for your blog. thought provoking and well written

I would love a list of engaging short stories for my 10th grade English class that include African American characters

Sharon, That would be a great list to have. "Thank You Ma'm," which is one the above list, would work. I've also taught "Marigolds" and used excerpts from larger works like Black Boy and Invisible Man.

"A Worn Path" is a great option.

Great list! I've used many of them in my high school English classes over the years. The Scarlet Ibis is one of my personal favorites, too.

What short stories by a Mexican-background or Central American-background writer might you suggest? I saw the Cisneros' recommendation. Thank you.

Hi Christine, "American History" by Judith Ortiz Cofer or any of her other short stories would be good. I've used excerpts from Jimmy Santiago Baca's autobiography, A Place to Stand, excerpts from Luis Rodriguez's autobiography, Always Running, and short stories from Drown by Junot Diaz with high school students. Hope those help! Thanks, Brynn Allison

I purchased the lesson 4. The Lady, or The Tiger? by Frank Stockton, however I am not able to open it. It keeps giving me an error message.

Hi Stacy, Thanks for reaching out to me. It sounds like a tech issue with the download so it might be best to contact TPT Help directly about your purchase or send me an email at [email protected] and I can put in a help ticket for you. Thanks, Brynn Allison

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Book Review Writing Examples

Examples: learn from the efforts of others.

Learning how to write strong reviews takes time and not a little effort. Reading the reviews others have done can help you get a feel for the flow and flavor of reviews.

If I Never Forever Endeavor Review by Hayden, age 4, Southeast Michigan Mensa

This book was about a bird who didn't yet know how to fly.

The bird has to decide if it will try to fly, but it was not sure if it wants to. The bird thought, "If I never forever endeavor" then I won't ever learn. On one wing, he worries he might fail and on the other wing he thinks of how he may succeed. He worries that if he tries, he may get lost in the world. That makes him want to stay in his nest where he's safe.

I think this book would help other children to learn that trying new things can be scary, but sometimes when we try, we can find things that make us happy too. And this book will help others know that mistakes are okay and part of learning.

My favorite part is that the bird tried and learned that she could fly. I also liked that I read this book because it gave me a chance to talk to mom about making mistakes and how I don't like making them. Then I learned they are good and part of learning.

Boys and girls who are 3 to 8 years old would like this book because it teaches about trying a new thing and how it's important to get past being scared so you can learn new things.

I give the book 5 stars since I think it's important for other children to learn about courage.

Flesh & Blood So Cheap Review by Umar B., age 8, Central New Jersy Mensa

I liked this book. People who are interested in national disasters and US history as well as immigration will most probably be interested in reading this book.

Readers can gain knowledge of what it was like to work in New York City in the early 1900s. One of the things that was especially interesting was that there were no safety laws at work. Also, there was a big contrast between the rich and the poor. Some people may not like this book because it is very depressing, but it is an important event in history to remember.

This book was very well written. It has black and white photos along with descriptions of the photos. These photos give us a better idea of what people's lives were like. This book is suitable for 9-20 year olds.

I give this book 5 stars.

Galaxy Zach: Journey to Juno Review by Young Mensan Connor C., age 6, Boston Mensa

Journey To Juno is the second book of the Galaxy Zack series. It is just as good as the first one. It's awesome!

Zack joins the Sprockets Academy Explorers Club at school. They fly on a special trip to Juno, a new planet no one has ever visited. Zack gets paired up with Seth, the class bully, and that's dreadful but Zack is excited when he finds a huge galaxy gemmite. A gemmite that large had not been found in 100 years! Kids will love this book!

Boys and girls will both like it. It's an easy chapter book with pictures on every page. I love the illustrations. I think ages 6-8 would like this but younger kids would like the story being read to them.

My favorite parts are the galactic blast game (it is similar to baseball except there are robots playing), recess at Zack's school where everything is 3-D holographic images, the rainbow river in a crystal cave on Juno, and the galaxy gemmite that Zack finds on Juno. I also loved when a life-size holographic image of his Earth friend appears in Zack's room because he calls him on a hyperphone. I give this book one hundred stars! There is a "to be continued" at the end so you have to read the next book see what's in store. I can't wait to find out what happens!!!

I Capture the Castle Review by Lauren W., age 17, Mensa in Georgia

Dodie Smith's novel I Capture the Castle is a journey through the mind of a young writer as she attempts to chronicle her daily life. Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain has recently learned to speed-write, and she decides to work on her writing skills by describing the actions and conversations of those around her.

Cassandra lives in a fourteenth-century English castle with an interesting cast of characters: her beautiful older sister, Rose; her rather unsociable author father and his second wife, artist-model Topaz; Stephen, the garden boy; a cat and a bull terrier; and sometimes her brother Thomas when he is home from school. One fateful day they make the acquaintance of the Cotton family, including the two sons, and a web of tangled relationships ensues.

While I definitely recommend this book to other readers, I would recommend it to older teenagers, mainly because it will resonate better with them. The writing is tame enough that younger teens could also read it, but most of the characters are adults or on the verge of adulthood. Older readers would take the most from it since they can not only relate, but they may also better pick up on and appreciate Cassandra's sometimes subtle humor.

Over the course of the novel, Cassandra undergoes a definite transformation from child to mature young adult, even though it's only over the course of several months. I love that I could see into her mindset and read exactly what she was feeling when she thought out situations. Her thoughts flowed well and moved the book along very quickly.

Cassandra's narrative voice is wonderful. She is serious at times, but also very witty, which makes for an engaging read. It feels absolutely real, as though I'm reading someone's actual journal. Sometimes I forget that I am reading a story and not a real-life account. Her emotions and the dialogue are so genuine, and they are spot-on for a seventeen-year-old girl in her situation.

Cassandra has many wonderful insights on life, on topics ranging from writing to faith to matters of the heart. I personally have had some of the same thoughts as Cassandra, except Ms. Smith was able to put them into words.

Capture the Castle should be essential reading for aspiring writers, those looking for historical fiction or romance, or anyone who loves reading amazing classic books. Dodie Smith is an exceptional writer, and I Capture the Castle is a book that will never become obsolete.

Frankenstein's Cat Review by Zander H., age 12, Mid-America Mensa

I appreciated Frankenstein's Cat for its fascinating explanation about the often baffling subject of bioengineering and its sister sciences. Emily Anthes explains the many sides of today's modern technology, such as gene modification, cloning, pharmaceutical products (from the farm), prosthesis, animal tag and tracking and gene cryogenics. This book provides a well-rounded summary of these complicated sciences without being boring or simply factual. Her real world examples take us on a journey from the farm, to the pet store and then from the pharmacy to the frozen arc.

Have you ever wondered if the neighborhood cat is spying on you? Read about Operation Acoustic Kitty and find out if this feline fantasy fiction or fact. Do you think bugs are creepy? What about a zombified cyborg beetle? Is Fido so special that you want two of him? Money can buy you an almost exact copy of your pooch BUT don't expect the same personality. Emily Anthes makes you crave more information. She makes you want to know the future of Earth's flora and fauna, as well as humanity itself.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who desires a guide to the future of biological science and technology. Frankenstein's Cat is best read by the light of a glow-in-the-dark fish, while cuddling your favorite cloned dog and drinking a glass of genetically modified milk.

About Marsupials Review by Connor C., age 6, Boston Mensa

About Marsupials is the title so the book is about...marsupials, of course. It's non-fiction. I really think everyone would like the book. I think someone who likes animals would especially like to read it.

The glossary of facts in the back of About Marsupials is the most useful part. I thought the most interesting parts were that some marsupials have their pouch at their back legs and one marsupial, the Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby, is very small but can jump 13 feet wide!

Kids in the 4-8 age range would like this book. Even though it's not a story book, 4 year olds would like the few words on each page and they would love the beautiful pictures. But older kids would like it because of all the facts in the back of the book. There's a lot of information for each animal. I think boys and girls (and parents) would enjoy reading it. This book is very interesting. I give it 4 stars.

Mapping the World Review by Umar A., age 10, Central New Jersey Mensa

Every day, people around the world use maps. Whether it is an airplane pilot or businessman, housewife or museum group, maps have always and will continue to provide useful information for all.

Mapping the World talks about the uses of maps, as well as how to differentiate between the type of map projection and type of map.

In this series, we travel to the past and learn about historical mapmakers, from Claudius Ptolemy (who stated the idea that the Earth is at the center of the universe) to Gerardus Mercator (who created one of the most widely used map projections) and more. This series goes into tremendous detail on the cartographer's life and maps. We then journey to the present era to learn about map projections and the diverse types of maps used today. You might ask, "What is the difference between the two? They sound the same to me." No map projection is perfect, because you cannot really flatten a sphere into a rectangle. An uncolored projection could be used in many ways. We could use it for population concentration, highways, land elevation, and so many other things!

For example, we could make a topographic map of the U.S., which shows land elevation. We could make it a colorful map that shows the amount of pollution in different areas, or it could be a population map, or it could even be a map that shows the 50 states, their capitals and borders! Our last step in this amazing excursion is the near future, where we see some hypothetical solutions as to what maps will be used for. Currently, we are working on better virtual map technology.

Now, scientists have been able to put maps on phones. Back in the early 1900s, people had to lug a lot of maps around to find your way from place to place, or just keep asking for directions. Now, all the information is on a phone or global positioning system (GPS). It is amazing how much maps have changed technology and the world in this century.

The Mapping the World 8-book set goes into amazing levels of detail. It is a long read, but it gives an immense range and amount of information that you would not find in any other book or series on maps. The flowing way the chapters and books are organized makes it easy to link passages from different books in this series together. Mapping the World is a treasure box, filled with the seeds of cartography. Collect and plant them, and you soon will have the fruits of cartography, beneficial to those who want to be cartographers. Use this series to the utmost, then the fruits of mapping will be sweet for all who endeavor to succeed in cartography.

This series of lessons was designed to meet the needs of gifted children for extension beyond the standard curriculum with the greatest ease of use for the educator. The lessons may be given to the students for individual self-guided work, or they may be taught in a classroom or a home-school setting. Assessment strategies and rubrics are included at the end of each section. The rubrics often include a column for "scholar points," which are invitations for students to extend their efforts beyond that which is required, incorporating creativity or higher level technical skills.

How to Write a Book Review: The Ultimate Guide

WHAT IS A BOOK REVIEW?

Traditionally, book reviews are evaluations of a recently published book in any genre. Usually, around the 500 to 700-word mark, they briefly describe a text’s main elements while appraising the work’s strengths and weaknesses. Published book reviews can appear in newspapers, magazines, and academic journals. They provide the reader with an overview of the book itself and indicate whether or not the reviewer would recommend the book to the reader.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF A BOOK REVIEW?

There was a time when book reviews were a regular appearance in every quality newspaper and many periodicals. They were essential elements in whether or not a book would sell well. A review from a heavyweight critic could often be the deciding factor in whether a book became a bestseller or a damp squib. In the last few decades, however, the book review’s influence has waned considerably, with many potential book buyers preferring to consult customer reviews on Amazon, or sites like Goodreads, before buying. As a result, book review’s appearance in newspapers, journals, and digital media has become less frequent.

WHY BOTHER TEACHING STUDENTS TO WRITE BOOK REVIEWS AT ALL?

Even in the heyday of the book review’s influence, few students who learned the craft of writing a book review became literary critics! The real value of crafting a well-written book review for a student does not lie in their ability to impact book sales. Understanding how to produce a well-written book review helps students to:

●     Engage critically with a text

●     Critically evaluate a text

●     Respond personally to a range of different writing genres

●     Improve their own reading, writing, and thinking skills.

Not to Be Confused with a Book Report!

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A BOOK REVIEW AND A BOOK REPORT?

While the terms are often used interchangeably, there are clear differences in both the purpose and the format of the two genres. Generally speaking, book reports aim to give a more detailed outline of what occurs in a book. A book report on a work of fiction will tend to give a comprehensive account of the characters, major plot lines, and themes in the book. Book reports are usually written around the K-12 age range, while book reviews tend not to be undertaken by those at the younger end of this age range due to the need for the higher-level critical skills required in writing them. At their highest expression, book reviews are written at the college level and by professional critics.

Learn how to write a book review step by step with our complete guide for students and teachers by familiarizing yourself with the structure and features.

BOOK REVIEW STRUCTURE

ANALYZE Evaluate the book with a critical mind.

THOROUGHNESS The whole is greater than the sum of all its parts. Review the book as a WHOLE.

COMPARE Where appropriate compare to similar texts and genres.

THUMBS UP OR DOWN? You are going to have to inevitably recommend or reject this book to potential readers.

BE CONSISTENT Take a stance and stick with it throughout your review.

FEATURES OF A BOOK REVIEW

PAST TENSE You are writing about a book you have already read.

EMOTIVE LANGUAGE Whatever your stance or opinion be passionate about it. Your audience will thank you for it.

VOICE Both active and passive voice are used in recounts.

A COMPLETE UNIT ON REVIEW AND ANALYSIS OF TEXTS

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ELEMENTS OF A BOOK REVIEW

As with any of the writing genres we teach our students, a book review can be helpfully explained in terms of criteria. While there is much to the ‘art’ of writing, there is also, thankfully, a lot of the nuts and bolts that can be listed too. Have students consider the following elements before writing:

●     Title: Often, the title of the book review will correspond to the title of the text itself, but there may also be some examination of the title’s relevance. How does it fit into the purpose of the work as a whole? Does it convey a message or reveal larger themes explored within the work?

●     Author: Within the book review, there may be some discussion of who the author is and what they have written before, especially if it relates to the current work being reviewed. There may be some mention of the author’s style and what they are best known for. If the author has received any awards or prizes, this may also be mentioned within the body of the review.

●     Genre: A book review will identify the genre that the book belongs to, whether fiction or nonfiction, poetry, romance, science-fiction, history etc. The genre will likely tie in, too with who the intended audience for the book is and what the overall purpose of the work is.

●     Book Jacket / Cover: Often, a book’s cover will contain artwork that is worthy of comment. It may contain interesting details related to the text that contribute to, or detract from, the work as a whole.

●     Structure: The book’s structure will often be heavily informed by its genre. Have students examine how the book is organized before writing their review. Does it contain a preface from a guest editor, for example? Is it written in sections or chapters? Does it have a table of contents, index, glossary etc.? While all these details may not make it into the review itself, looking at how the book is structured may reveal some interesting aspects.

●     Publisher and Price: A book review will usually contain details of who publishes the book and its cost. A review will often provide details of where the book is available too.

BOOK REVIEW KEY ELEMENTS

As students read and engage with the work they will review, they will develop a sense of the shape their review will take. This will begin with the summary. Encourage students to take notes during the reading of the work that will help them in writing the summary that will form an essential part of their review. Aspects of the book they may wish to take notes on in a work of fiction may include:

●     Characters: Who are the main characters? What are their motivations? Are they convincingly drawn? Or are they empathetic characters?

●     Themes: What are the main themes of the work? Are there recurring motifs in the work? Is the exploration of the themes deep or surface only?

●     Style: What are the key aspects of the writer’s style? How does it fit into the wider literary world?

●     Plot: What is the story’s main catalyst? What happens in the rising action? What are the story’s subplots? 

A book review will generally begin with a short summary of the work itself. However, it is important not to give too much away, remind students – no spoilers, please! For nonfiction works, this may be a summary of the main arguments of the work, again, without giving too much detail away. In a work of fiction, a book review will often summarise up to the rising action of the piece without going beyond to reveal too much!

The summary should also provide some orientation for the reader. Given the nature of the purpose of a review, it is important that students’ consider their intended audience in the writing of their review. Readers will most likely not have read the book in question and will require some orientation. This is often achieved through introductions to the main characters, themes, primary arguments etc. This will help the reader to gauge whether or not the book is of interest to them.

Once your student has summarized the work, it is time to ‘review’ in earnest. At this point, the student should begin to detail their own opinion of the book. To do this well they should:

i. Make It Personal

Often when teaching essay writing we will talk to our students about the importance of climbing up and down the ladder of abstraction. Just as it is helpful to explore large, more abstract concepts in an essay by bringing it down to Earth, in a book review, it is important that students can relate the characters, themes, ideas etc to their own lives.

Book reviews are meant to be subjective. They are opinion pieces, and opinions grow out of our experiences of life. Encourage students to link the work they are writing about to their own personal life within the body of the review. By making this personal connection to the work, students contextualize their opinions for the readers and help them to understand whether the book will be of interest to them or not in the process.

ii. Make It Universal

Just as it is important to climb down the ladder of abstraction to show how the work relates to individual life, it is important to climb upwards on the ladder too. Students should endeavor to show how the ideas explored in the book relate to the wider world. The may be in the form of the universality of the underlying themes in a work of fiction or, for example, the international implications for arguments expressed in a work of nonfiction.

iii. Support Opinions with Evidence

A book review is a subjective piece of writing by its very nature. However, just because it is subjective does not mean that opinions do not need to be justified. Make sure students understand how to back up their opinions with various forms of evidence, for example, quotations, statistics, and the use of primary and secondary sources.

EDIT AND REVISE YOUR BOOK REVIEW

As with any writing genre, encourage students to polish things up with review and revision at the end. Encourage them to proofread and check for accurate spelling throughout, with particular attention to the author’s name, character names, publisher etc. 

It is good practice too for students to double-check their use of evidence. Are statements supported? Are the statistics used correctly? Are the quotations from the text accurate? Mistakes such as these uncorrected can do great damage to the value of a book review as they can undermine the reader’s confidence in the writer’s judgement.

The discipline of writing book reviews offers students opportunities to develop their writing skills and exercise their critical faculties. Book reviews can be valuable standalone activities or serve as a part of a series of activities engaging with a central text. They can also serve as an effective springboard into later discussion work based on the ideas and issues explored in a particular book. Though the book review does not hold the sway it once did in the mind’s of the reading public, it still serves as an effective teaching tool in our classrooms today.

Teaching Resources

Use our resources and tools to improve your student’s writing skills through proven teaching strategies.

BOOK REVIEW GRAPHIC ORGANIZER (TEMPLATE)

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Book and Movie review writing examples (Student Writing Samples)

Below are a collection of student writing samples of book reviews.  Click on the image to enlarge and explore them in greater detail.  Please take a moment to both read the movie or book review in detail but also the teacher and student guides which highlight some of the key elements of writing a text review

Please understand these student writing samples are not intended to be perfect examples for each age or grade level but a piece of writing for students and teachers to explore together to critically analyze to improve student writing skills and deepen their understanding of book review writing.

We would recommend reading the example either a year above and below, as well as the grade you are currently working with to gain a broader appreciation of this text type .

BOOK REVIEW VIDEO TUTORIALS

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How to Write a Review of a Story That Will Impress Readers

Story review definition.

A short story review is not merely a summary – it is also a good opportunity to show critical discussion of the short story. French writer Victor Hugo received the shortest review of his work: his request to the publishing house with the text of one question mark was answered no less laconically – with one exclamation mark.

When you like everything in the story, no extra words are required. When there are controversial points in it or new and frightening things, you need something more than an exclamation mark. We are talking about reviews, ladies and gentlemen! The review of the short story is a critical analysis and evaluation of a work written in the scientific, artistic, or journalistic style to form an opinion about it for the target audience. Do you know how to write a short story review, and what is the purpose?

The Purpose of the Short Story Review

You can parse the short story to:

• better learn what you read;
• publish a blog review and attract additional traffic;
• show expertise → attract the attention of publishers → start reviewing on a commercial basis.

When we write a review, we form the final opinion about the book and create a primary view for other people. And are we doing it right?

How to Prepare for Writing a Short Story Review

First of all you need to read a story! It seems to be obvious, but no! People manage after a once-over of the content, reading the summary, and write “reviews,” where there is nothing but a binary “good-bad.” It is necessary to read the story several times – first from the standpoint of an ordinary reader, and then with a view to making a critical analysis. In the process, you can have a pad, paper bookmarks, or stickers.

Are you ready to begin reviewing? Wait a bit and check yourself:

• Do not read other reviews about the story, so as not to write other people’s words.
• Yes, your opinion may differ drastically from the majority opinion. Write, do not be afraid – a competent review will only be a plus.
• Remember the rule: the more negative opinions you have about the story, the more arguments you need to give in its favor. The review in this case will be more extensive.
• Use in equal proportions logic and emotions.

Questions to Ask Before Writing a Short Story Review

• What is the title of the book, the author, the year of publication, and the publishing house?
• What feelings did you have after reading though the story?
• How does the title of the story depict what is going on in it?
• What is the structure of the story?
• What are advantages and disadvantages of the story?
• What is the relevance of the story?

After you find out the answers to these question, it is time to learn how to write a review for a short story.

Short Story Review Writing Steps

Evaluate  the form. It is good because:

• it does not require reading a story;
• it is fairly quickly compiled;
• it is more objective than a content review.

It is bad because:

• the time must pass to evaluate by some criteria;
• all the same it is not devoid of subjectivity.

Consider orientation of the text. There are two types of orientation – book or landscape.

Review the design and cover of the book where the story is presented.

Look at the font size. Some people are lucky – they have perfect eyesight, and can read even on a matchbox. However, there are people who need large letters in the text.

Evaluate illustrations. Remember how you flipped pages in your childhood hoping to see pictures? And there was only text! In non-fiction books, the reader also wants to discover a visual component, but if to talk about short stories, probably, you will not have anything to analyze here.

Evaluate the content. To give a worthy critical review, the reviewer should have at least the same level of material as the author, and better – a higher level. You can choose one of the following strategies: a review from the side, an analysis without positing positive or negative evaluations, a critical analysis, or open polemics with the author.

Indicate the author and the title of the work in bibliographic data. Note whether this is a novelty or a reprint.

Don’tl retell the story. You can disassemble the title, content, method of building the story, and the author’s style and skill, but do it competently and intriguingly.

Express your impression of the story , while justifying all negative and positive points.

Mark the relevance of the work and the degree of its entry into the target audience.

Point out the stylistic, factual, and grammatical mistakes made by the author. Recheck their availability.

Watch your own style : do not use jargon, speechless statements, or clericalism.

Make sentences laconic and simple depending on the volume of the review.

Short Story Review Sample Analysis

You can check out the analysis of one of our short story review examples where no mistakes are allowed. We have tried to share the experience of our writers who know not only how to write reviews, but how to analyze them as well. Our analysis of a story review example can end your struggles if you don’t know where to get ideas for writing your own review.

Now after reading through our post and checking whether you know how to write a review of a story or you can use our research paper writing service . Practice more to write high-quality reviews and gain success. Do not impose your vision on readers – read through review samples to know how to express your opinion better. If you stick to all the guidelines, you will be able to complete great reviews.

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Teaching Plot With Short Stories

When it comes to teaching plot, choosing the right texts is essential. Read on to learn tips for teaching plot with short stories, including a list of titles with strong and engaging plots your students are sure to love.

Are you teaching plot with short stories? If not, by the end of this post, you’ll be eager to.

Sure, teaching students literary terms like plot, theme, and character is easy. However, to deepen their understanding of literature, students need a strong foundation of the elements of literature. Once they understand these elements, they will unlock a new level of enjoying, discussing, and critically analyzing literature.

Maybe you’re gearing up to teach, reteach, or review plot in your classroom. Or, perhaps, you’re simply looking to refresh your approach with scaffolded instruction, strong mentor texts, and engaging activities. Whatever your reason for being here, this post will provide you with teaching tips and tips and engaging short stories you can bring to your classroom.

Why is Teaching Plot Important?

Once students know the plot elements, they can begin diving into the text to identify them as they occur. However, there’s much more to plot than a “series of events.” Teaching plot helps students understand literature on a deeper level.

For example, understanding plot helps students see where authors emphasize themes and develop characterization. Therefore, students must understand the plot to see the whole picture and make sense of the story. After all, isn’t this kind of deeper, critical thinking the goal at the secondary level? (Yes. Yes, it is.)

The Benefit of Teaching Plot with Short Stories

When it comes to teaching plot, short stories are the perfect teaching tool. Sure, you can teach plot with a stand-alone lesson reviewing the elements of a plot structure. But what about the application of knowledge? The interactive experience? The opportunity for student questions and discovery?

But that’s where short stories come in handy.

Teaching plot with short stories allows students to further understand plot and its impact on the story as a whole. Additionally, the shorter length of these stories allows students to explore various plot structures and techniques without taking up weeks or months of the curriculum. With short stories, students don’t have to read through hundreds of pages before making sense of the plot or considering why the author told the story a particular way. In some cases, they can read an entire story and identify and analyze its plot in only a few pages.

Short stories give students a unique advantage over longer texts as they can identify the plot elements more easily, critically think about how they add to the story, and understand why the plot is essential to the author’s craft of developing their overall message. Then, they can apply what they’ve learned to longer, more complex texts and their plots with more clarity and confidence.

Terms to Teach

More specifically, ensure you’re taking full advantage of teaching plot with short stories. Be sure to review the following terms with your students: Exposition, Inciting Incident, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and Resolution.

But it’s not just the elements of plot structure you should teach – and perhaps this is where short stories come in most handy. Teaching terms that help students understand the various ways authors can reveal and develop a plot is vital too. Working with short stories allows you to expose your students to several examples of different plot techniques, such as flashbacks, foreshadowing and in media res.

The Best Short Stories for Teaching Plot

If you don’t already know, I love using short stories as teaching tools. However, certain short stories really stand out thanks to their plot. Here are a few of what I consider to be the best short stories for teaching plot:

1. “He-y, Come on Ou-t!” by Shinichi Hoshi

This short science fiction tale is sure to grab students’ attention and is a great way to expand how they think about the plot as the climax doesn’t come until the end of the story.

The story takes place in a Japanese fishing town where villagers discover a (seemingly) bottomless hole in the wake of a typhoon. Students will have fun tracking the plot elements as the villagers try to figure out what to do with the gaping hole. Furthermore, “He-y, Come on Ou-t!”  is an excellent example of how a strong plot works to develop a story’s themes.

2. “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty

Even your most reluctant readers will be eager to see how the plot of “The Sniper” unfolds. Like Hoshi’s “He-y, Come on Ou-t!,” the story’s climax doesn’t occur until the end, keeping students on the edge of their seats.

“The Sniper” follows a rooftop sniper contemplating his next move during an Irish revolution in the 1920s. The suspense comes to an end at the story’s climax when the sniper tricks an enemy soldier into exposing himself before shooting him dead. The irony is that the sniper discovered the opposing gunman was his brother, bringing up an interesting question for students: does a resolution always mean a happy ending?

3. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson

Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a great story all around. However, the story’s plot is particularly well-done. From the pacing to the plot twists, Jackson sure knows how to write a plot that will keep students engaged, guessing and, by the end, slightly horrified.

The story begins with a descriptive exposition, describing a small pastoral town and its townspeople. However, the conflict begins as soon as “jovial” Mr. Sommers begins the annual lottery with the help of the symbolic black box. Between the foreshadowing in the rising action, the shocking climax, and the (perhaps more shocking) falling action, students will have plenty to discuss around the story’s plot.

4. “The Test” by Theodore Thomas

It was all a dream – err simulation – in Thomas’ “The Test.” In a mere 673 words, this short story challenges students’ conception of plot. As protagonist Robert drives down the turnpike, students quickly realize there is much more to this story’s plot than meets the eye.

While the story’s car crash tricks students into thinking it’s the climax, they quickly realize that it’s not . Instead, the rising action leads to a more sinister climactic reveal. (Cue the engaging discussion.)

5. “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury

I love Ray Bradbury and I love his short story “The Veldt.” The best part? It has a compelling plot that students love. Students always enjoy watching the plot, including the conflict, unfold as it hits close to home thanks to its focus on technology.

The story centers on the Hadleys and their life in their fully automated house, “The Happylife Home.” However, the plot thickens as parents George and Lydia become increasingly concerned about technology’s impact on their children. With that said, students always enjoy the building suspense during the rising action.

Questions to Ask Students when Teaching Plot with Short Stories

Asking students the right questions is key in helping them identify and analyze plot. Consider asking the following questions to guide your students to success:

• Who is your main character? What do they want? How do you know?
• What is at stake if the character fails? What is the reward if they succeed?
• How does the main character attempt to achieve that goal?
• Who or what gets in their way? How?
• How does the main character finally succeed (or fail)?
• What is the final outcome? How is it all resolved?
• How does this resolution impact the story’s character(s)? The story’s theme?
• In the end, what message do you think the author is trying to relay?

More Tips for Teaching Plot with Short Stories

• Review plot with an engaging game. Break up a popular story, like “Cinderella” or “the Three Little Pigs” into six to ten statements, including at least one for each plot element. Then, present the statements out of order to the students. Have them work independently, in partners, or as a class to organize the statements on a plot diagram correctly. This is a fun, quick, and relatively easy way to get students thinking about plot.
• Save time with a quick homework assignment. Since your students have likely learned plot structure before, there’s no need to spend all the time learning the elements of plot. Instead, assign students a simple review task for homework. Provide them with the names and descriptions of the different plot elements and have them tap into their prior knowledge as they label a plot diagram.
• Begin with important events. Some short stories have surprisingly complex plots, despite their short length. If your students are struggling or you’re looking to challenge them with one of these texts, consider this trick: begin by identifying important events. Once the class has compiled a list of significant moments, work together to assign each event to the appropriate place in the plot diagram.
• Scaffold instruction as needed . Start with reading a short story as a whole class and identifying its plot structure. Then, have students go through the same process with a different story, working in small groups before discussing their findings as a class. Finally, choose three to five short stories that best fit the varying abilities of your class. Assign each student the story that best fits them in terms of interest or ability, or, ideally, both to read, identify, and analyze the plot.
• Use graphic organizers. Graphic organizers are a big help when teaching plot with any story. Whether you call it a plot diagram or story mountain, or anything in between, a graphic organizer helps them label and chart the elements of plot as they identify them. Additionally, visual organizers help them understand the relationship each element has to the others and the overall story. 

So there you have it! My best tips and recommended titles for teaching plot with short stories. And if you’re looking to use short stories to teach other essential literary elements, be sure to check out my posts about teaching characterization and theme as well.

When it comes to better teaching, I truly believe we’re better together. With that said, the ideas mentioned above are far from the only ideas out there. If you’ve had success teaching plot with short stories, share away! Leave your advice and recommendations in the comment below.

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10 Excellent Short Stories for High School Students

Nikki DeMarco

The inimitable Nikki DeMarco is as well-traveled as she is well-read. Being an enneagram 3, Aries, high school librarian, makes her love for efficiency is unmatched. She lives in Richmond, Virginia, and is passionate about helping teens connect to books. Nikki has an MFA in creative writing, is a TBR bibliologist, and writes for Harlequin, Audible, Kobo, and MacMillan. Since that leaves her so much time, she’s currently working on writing a romance novel, too. Find her on all socials @iamnikkidemarco ( Instagram , Twitter , Threads )

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As a high school English teacher, the quest to keep my curriculum relevant to my students is ongoing. I’m always on the lookout for new stories or authors that I can bring in the classroom to ensure that it’s something my students haven’t read or seen before. Of course, I’m constantly trying to change the activities to make them develop critical thinking skills. But if those activities are based around the same old tired (read: white) short stories for high school students, it often doesn’t matter how fun or innovative the activity is, the students are not interested because they can’t relate.

Why are new short stories for high school students important?

In education, we are constantly selling the idea of acquiring knowledge. Teens’ attention is being fought over by exponentially more distractions than they were even as recently as ten years ago. Instead of complaining about “kids these days” and taking the “when I was your age” stance, educators need to learn to adapt and offer students high interest stories that they can use to develop their own ideas.

I can already hear the arguments coming against this. Classics are classic for a reason. Students should be held to a high standard. I already have a year’s worth of lesson plans around The Great Gatsby and To Kill a Mockingbird and am over-worked, and now you want me to change?

I get it. I’m also fighting fatigue and burnout. So keep teaching some classics if you think they are excellent works of literature that you’d hate to have students miss out on, but trying pair each in a text set with a contemporary short story with similar themes. I’m not saying that adapting means less rigor or holding students to lower standards. Kids are smart and capable. Adding in texts from diverse perspectives will only enhance the breadth of work students are exposed to, making them draw connections from their own lives and perspectives outside their own, increasing critical thinking skills. Students today also have their finger on the pulse of the world in a way most educators can’t relate to from when they were the same age. We are doing them a disservice by not acknowledging that in how we teach. We also are being willfully ignorant if we only assign “the classics” and believe the students are reading them in their entirety. Come on, y’all. We were students once, too, and know a lot of these kids aren’t starting, much less finishing, the stories we assign.

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One thing I’m doing to help my students buy into reading the whole story is to make sure I have stories with people who look like them. Also, I’m making sure they have stories full of people who don’t look like them. Teenagers don’t have much life experience yet, and that makes their world views narrow because the world they live in is small, many never having left the state where they were born. Exposing them to stories from different authors of different races, religions, and cultures helps them see beyond their school district. Yes, yes, they have the internet at their fingertips and could search for these things, but the algorithm learns them quickly and continues to feed them more of the like to keep views up and keep them engaged. As teachers, we need to learn to keep them engaged by doing just the opposite. 

Finding diverse short stories for high school is daunting. Just typing “contemporary short stories for high school” into Google brings back 143,000,000 results. Most of us are already working long beyond our contracted hours, and now I’m asking you to spend even more time reading stories that might not even be good or usable in class?

Don’t worry. I have some lists of short stories for high school students to get you started. The titles below are a jumping off point, not a comprehensive list. Note: Some of these stories have strong language.

Relationships

• Weight by Dhonielle Clayton
• Show Me Yours by Richard Van Camp
• Goat Mouth by Pamela Mordecai
• After ‘While by Cherie Dimaline
• Bliss by Sofia Mostaghimi
• Pact by Mark Oshiro

Coming-of-Age

• Origin of the Lullaby by Canisia Lubrin
• Tequila by Laura Gonzalez
• One True Love by Melinda Lo
• Valedictorian by N.K. Jemisin

Another tip I wanted to mention, but doesn’t fit neatly in the above themes, is that you can find collections of short stories online by different racial or cultural groups by switching up your default search terms. For example, Viewfinders: 10 Y.A. Novelist Spin Fiction from Vintage Photos from The New York Times came up when I searched “short stories for asian teens” but it took a little digging and clicking through to find. This collection features authors such as Malinda Lo, Soman Chainani, Marie Lu, Sabaa Tahir, and David Yoon.

Please, go back to your lesson plans and ask yourself these questions: Who’s missing? Who’s not represented? Do I have a student in my class who can’t see themselves in anything I’m teaching all year? Then find the story for that kid. That’s how we reach them, by showing them that we see them.

Here are some other resources from Book Riot that can help you on your resource search as well:

• YA Short Stories
• Find Free Short Stories
• Free Short Stories Online
• Short Story Examples in (Almost) Every Genre

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Collaborative Short Story Review Poster Project

Whenever I teach freshmen or sophomores, I always begin the school year with a short story unit . I use this unit to introduce literary elements to my students, and they start exploring literary analysis . I believe it is a perfect way to begin the school year.

Toward the end of my short story unit, I assign my students a collaborative short story review poster project that takes two days. I use the poster project as a final review activity before our short story unit test and essay. And since I require each group of students to present their posters, it’s also a tremendously helpful review for the students.

Students work together in groups of 4-5. As a requirement, I ask that everyone in the group contribute to the final project, and everyone must also speak and present. Since this is usually their first presentation of the school year, I feel that group presentations help ease students’ minds a bit.

I provide my student groups with butcher paper for the poster, and I also supply them with colorful paper and markers. I have my students complete all of the work for this collaborative project in class.

Each group creates a poster for a different short story we read together in class, and it is okay if there are duplicate groups. If I have duplicate groups, I usually have them spaced out across the room from one another.

Each poster has the same requirements. Students must include the title and author of the short story. From there, students must also add the definition of each listed literary element as well as an example (in their own words) from the story. To support their examples, I have students find three quotes that demonstrate three different literary elements, and they also write a 3-4 sentence summary of the story.

This project can easily take up more than two class periods (mine are 55 minutes each), so I emphasize to my students that this is meant to be a quick review. I also stress that I am looking for quality content on the poster rather than poster aesthetics. 

Typically, I spend about 10-15 minutes explaining the poster project and reviewing the guidelines with my students (and this also includes a quick discussion about my group work expectations since this activity usually takes place about one month after the start of the new school year). After that, they have the rest of the class period to work. On the second day of this project, I briefly review my expectations again and then give the students about 30 minutes to complete their posters.

For the presentation, each group takes turns presenting their posters to the entire class. Once my students are finished presenting, I hang these posters on the walls as we work on our short story essay, which is usually a motif essay. Displaying these posters on the walls helps my struggling students brainstorm quotes and ideas for their essays.

One of the reasons why I love this project so much is that it is entirely student-centered. During these two days, my students are usually sprawled out in groups on the floor as they discuss the story and write about it.

More Short Story Teaching Resources:

Literary Analysis with Sticky Notes

Literary Analysis Mini Flip Book

Short Story Close Reading Bundle

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A Summary and Analysis of Anton Chekhov’s ‘The Student’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Student’ is a short story by Anton Chekhov, published in 1894. It’s one of his shortest stories, running to just a few pages, and – in keeping with many of Chekhov’s best short stories, very little happens in the way of plot. Yet Chekhov himself considered ‘The Student’ his favourite of all his short stories. ‘The Student’, then, is a nice place to start exploring Chekhov’s distinctive style.

You can read ‘The Student’ here before proceeding to our summary and analysis of the story below.

‘The Student’: summary

There isn’t much of a ‘plot’ to summarise for this story. A 22-year-old seminary student training for the priesthood, named Ivan Velikopolsky, is travelling home on Good Friday. He reflects how the cold Russian weather he is experiencing is the same as the cold that figures from Russian history, such as Peter the Great, would have felt.

On his journey home, he meets two women: Vasilisa and Lukerya, a mother and her daughter who have both been widowed. He joins them around their fire, and the conversation turns to the Gospels, since it is Easter.

Ivan tells the two women about the Denial of Peter, the story from the New Testament in which Jesus foretells that Peter will deny him three times before the crowing of the cock. In the biblical account, Peter followed Jesus upon Christ’s arrest, but, exhausted with fear and worry, Peter fell asleep. When he awoke, Jesus was being interrogated.

Peter joined some attendants around a fire – much as Velikopolsky has joined Vasilisa and Lukerya around their fire – and the attendants asked Peter if he knew Jesus. Three times, Peter denied knowing Jesus when he was asked. A cock crowed and Peter wept when he realised that Jesus had been right: he had denied Jesus three times.

Vasilisa begins to cry as Velikopolsky finishes recounting this story, while Lukerya struggles to conceal her pain.

Velikopolsky bids the two widows goodnight and continues on his journey home. He believes that Vasilisa had begun to cry because she identified with the story of the Denial of Peter in some way. He believes that this is true of all people living in the present: the tale of Peter from the Gospels relates to all people living almost two thousand years later.

Velikopolsky believes that the past is linked to the present by an unbroken chain of events, and this realisation causes a frenzy within his soul. As he rides the ferry on his way home, Velikopolsky feels an expectation of happiness and is overcome by a sense that life is filled with a sublime meaning.

‘The Student’: analysis

A key device in many Chekhov short stories is the epiphany : a sudden realisation or moment of enlightenment experienced by one of the story’s characters, usually the protagonist. In many ways, the epiphany can be said to perform a similar function to the plot twist or revelation at the end of a more traditional (i.e., plot-driven) short story: the guilty character is unmasked at the end of a detective story, or the ghost reveals itself at the end of a ghost story, and so on.

However, as with the epiphanies in later modernist writers, such as Katherine Mansfield (who learnt much from Chekhov’s fiction) and James Joyce, we should appraise the ‘epiphany’ in ‘The Student’ with scepticism. Often in the work of Chekhov and the modernists, a character appears to have had a life-changing experience, a moment of inner wisdom and recognition, but it is destined to be fleeting and impulsive, rather than of long-lasting effect.

And in this connection, we should observe how young Velikopolsky is, and how suddenly his mood changes. Chekhov is also at pains to remind us that he is ‘only’ twenty-two years old at the end of the story. This cuts two ways: this could explain how such a powerful revelation could have such a profound effect on him (he is still young and is learning about the meaning of life all the time), but it also arguably invites caution concerning the longevity of his new-found wisdom.

Because young people are constantly discovering new things and are still forming their opinions about the world, today’s epiphany may well be overtaken by another (possibly contradictory) revelation tomorrow.

And this is what makes Chekhov’s short stories so rewarding to read and analyse: their open-endedness and ambiguity. ‘The Student’ appears to be the story of a young man realising how closely linked the past and the present are, and how hearing old stories – such as biblical stories – can form a kinship between all humanity, the living and the dead.

But because the third-person narrator sticks quite closely to Velikopolsky’s own perspective, we do not learn why, for instance, Vasilisa began weeping, or why her daughter looked so pained by the sound. Can Velikopolsky be so sure it was not because he told the story well? Must it be because the story of Peter itself struck a chord with Vasilisa? Did her daughter look unhappy because she was embarrassed by her mother’s crying, or because she shared her response to the story, but was determined not to show it?

The cleverness of Chekhov’s writing is in not revealing these things to us. Velikopolsky may think he has realised what’s happened, but these two women remain strangers to him, despite their brief moment of communion around the fire.

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1 thought on “A Summary and Analysis of Anton Chekhov’s ‘The Student’”

Velikopolsky is insufferable. First: he knows full well that the two widows have heard the story of Peter’s Denial at the service of the Twelve Gospels. So he tells them the story again anyway! Second: he says he knows that in Russia there is “the same desperate poverty and hunger”, and that “the lapse of a thousand years would make life no better”. Yet by the end he is asserting that truth and beauty guide “human life there in the garden and in the yard of the high priest”, and that, incredibly, it “continued without interruption to this day”. The widows might have had something to say about all this truth and beauty, had he cared to listen to them rather than preach at them. As you say, it appears to be one thing but may be another. Superficially a tale of youthful idealism; underneath, a story of youthful priggishness.

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Book Review Template for Kids (Tips & Activities)

• July 21, 2019
• Kids Printables

Aren’t your kids interested in reading more books? How can you enhance their understanding skills after reading a book? 

Here is a solution ! How about asking them to write a review? Don’t be funny you say ! No, I am just saying if you have colorful “ Book Review Templates” for kids , you can actually ask them to write what they understood.  

Ask your kids to share their point of view and discuss about it with their friends and family. While this is a small circle, writing a review about the book will help them introduce it a bigger circle or people, at the same time improve their thinking and writing skills.

You might want to check out book templates for kids , who are interested in compiling or writing a book. 

Your kids read books? Do they have the habit of sharing their view about the books? Do they share their review about every book they read? Or do you want your kid to write review about the books they read? Do you want to teach them on how to write a book review? Well, this topic is help and satisfy all the above needs.

Yes, In this article we are going to see in detail about what is book review and how to make your kids write a book review. We are here to help you with the wonderful set of templates that will help teach your kids and encourage them write review about books. All you have to do is just a click away, select the template you like from here, download it, print and teach your kids on how to write a book review with the help of it. All these templates are available for free and you can download and use it anytime, anywhere.

What are Book Review Templates?

First of all let us see what is book review template and what are the components in it to be filled. As the name says, it is nothing but the template to write review about books, which will help you teach your kids on how to write a book review and what all needs to be included/excluded while writing a book review. Below are some of the components that needs to be filled in order to complete a Book review.

• Title – Name of the book
• Author/Illustrator – Name of the Author and/or Illustrator of the book
• Word difficulty – They need to predict the difficulty level they had while reading the book. For Example, Too easy, Just right, Medium, Too hard,
• Did your like the book/Rating – This is to rate the book. As it is for kids, it can be represented with the STAR rating. If not, by numbers. For example, 4.2 out of 5. Or you can ask them to describe the book in one word by proving them a set of words to choose. For example, Exiting, boring, impressive, stupid, funny, sad, heart warming, interesting, excellent, entertaining, educational and so on.
• Summary in one sentence – Ask them to summarize the story of the book in a sentence, that needs to be short and crisp.
• Characters – Describe in brief about the character involved in the book.
• What was your favorite part of the book? / What I liked best – This will help them recollect the memories of reading the book and describe their favorite part in the book.
• What I didn’t like – Ask them to summarize the part of book which the kids did not like
• Draw your favorite character from the book – If it is a picture book or activity book that would contain more pictures and images, then you can guide them to draw their favorite character from the book.
• Draw your favorite scene from the book – every kids will have a favorite part from the book and you can encourage them to visualize their favorite scene, which in-turn will develop their drawing skills also.
• Recommendation – They can tick mark the box. For example, Highly Recommended, Reasonable, Not recommended.
• Reviewer Name – Your kids name who is writing the review.
• Date – date on which the review was written.

These are few of the points that must be covered as part of a book review. Apart from this the kids can add anything extra as part of the template while writing the review.

Are your kids exited to write a book review? Wondering how to guide them on it? Then we are here to help you, as we have provided wonderful set of book review templates for kids in this page that will attract your kids. Do you want to make one on your own? Well, that is allowed as well. All you have to do is to just chose your template from here and download it for free. As we have designed it for your ease, you can just edit the template as per your need by changing the font, background, borderline of the template etc and create/make your own Book review templates within seconds,without spending even a single penny from your pocket. Is it not amazing? Create one instantly and help your kids write a book review.

Uses of Book review template?

Let us see below the uses of writing a book review.

• Will help the kids to improve their creative writing skills and reading comprehension.
• Will encourage the kids to share their opinion
• Will help others to decide on whether to read/purchase the book or not.
• Will provide the in-depth analysis of the story and content of the book.
• Will capture the main theme of the book and help readers understand the author’s style.

These are few of the benefits of writing a book review. Apart from these it will improve their book reading skills and increase their interest to read more books and write review for those.

How to use – Book review template for teaching in classroom

In order to help teachers with book review templates and few sample activities that would help them teach in the classroom,we have listed few activities as below to make their work easy:

• Providing Sample Book review – You can take few sample reviews written by others for a book and share it in the classroom for the kids to basically understand what is a book review and what are the basic elements and points to be captured while writing a book review. Best source to teach them is from the famous/favorite magazine or even newspaper.
• Together read a book review – Pick up an appropriate and favorite book review and read it aloud along with the students in the classroom. Cover everything from title of the book, author, brief summary of the book, strengths and weakness and your own personal opinion about the book.
• Provide a book to review – Provide a book or a short story to read in the classroom and write their review about it. Encourage them to make note of the key points of the story Post which you can read the review they have written and correct those along with the students.
• Questions about the book – Provide a book review template template and guide them with few questions that will help them recollect the incidents in the story and come-up with a good review. Questions should cover on the genre of the book (whether it is Comic or fantasy or detective or humor),  about the favorite part of the book, likes and dis-likes, about the main characters of the book, briefly about the author of the book, did they enjoy reading the story, etc. Also ensure to have their reviews explained in details. 
• Classroom flip book review activity – Prepare a flip book with an interesting topic and introduce it to the students. Provide them with a book review template from him as per your wish and let them write review on the flip book. This will help them improve their thinking capacity as well.

  How to use – Book Review template for students

Making children write a book review is a great way to motivate them to read lot of books. Having said that let us see few activities  that will help them learn and write a good and perfect book review.

• Book review activity Packet – You can choose a sample book for the students to read, be it a short-story or fun book or a comic story. To start with you can provide them a book under their favorite genre which will help them read it with full involvement and write a good review. Then you can choose a template from here for there to express their thought and opinion about the book and write a review.
• Character book review Activity – Decide a book for the student to read, preferably a picture book or fun book. Later you can collect the pictures of the different characters in the book and make cards out of it. Once the student completes the book, you can provide these cards carrying different characters in the book and as them to write review about each character. This will help children to understand and judge themselves with how much involvement they have read the book.

All the activities listed above looks awesome right? Waiting to involve your kids/students in reading books and write a review for the book? Then you can involve them in any of the above activities. To start with, you can make them read a book of their favorite genre, which will help them practice writing a book review at initial times.

Can Book Review Template help kids to learn science?

In order to make students develop their interest towards science, you can introduce it to them through book review activity as well. Wondering how? Here is an example for you to help them develop their interest towards science. You can create a Flip book with different forms of energy (like heat, sound,chemical,thermal etc) or any other science related topics like state of matter or chemical changes, with the pictures related to it. You can ask students to make a research on each of the picture in the flip book, hence introducing science to them.

Help them in understand it which in-turn will make them write good reviews. Later, once they complete the flip book, provide them with few book review templates and as them to write their opinion about each science topic in the flip book, that will help them know their understanding about the science and develop interest towards science. Similarly you can make them read various science related fun books (like 11 Experiments That Failed or Ada Twist – Scientist) which will introduce science to them and ask them to write review for the same.

Tips to help your kids write a book review

Writing a book review is not an easy task for the children at initial times. Below are you tips which will help you guide your children to write a good book review.

• Motivate them to make note of the important points while reading the books. This will help them remember the favorite characters and scenes in the book.
• Make them ask questions about the book to come-up with an perfect book review.
• Guide them to have a structure for the book review they write. For example , starting from the Author to the strength and weakness of the book.
• You should be ready to proofread it at the end. Once the kids complete writing a review, you should have a check on it for any spelling mistakes, meaning of the phrases and help them correct their mistakes in the next review.

Do’s and Don’ts of a Book review

Having discussed in details on how to write a book review, we shall now see the do;s and dont’s while reviewing a book.

• Provide a short phrase/title that will explain your review’s content.
• Be very specific in describing what you liked or did not like in the book. Do not generally say “it was bad”,”not satisfactory”. Describe why was it bad and not satisfactory.
• Do not drag the review too long. Make it crisp and brief. Do not completely summarize the book.
• Do not criticize it badly just because it was not as how you expected.
• Describe your favorite character and be very careful and conscious in what you say about the story to avoid controversies.

Following these  points along with the tips, you can select any of the activities along with the book review template from our page and teach your kids on how to write a good book review.

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• Grades 6-12
• School Leaders

Enter Today's Teacher Appreciation Giveaway!

51 Irresistible Short Stories for Kids (Read Them All for Free!)

Quick reads with lasting impact.

Looking for some free tales to use for close reading or classroom read-alouds? This roundup of short stories for kids has plenty of options. From quick fables with morals to old-fashioned fairy tales and folktales from around the world, this diverse collection offers something for any child. We’ve also included ways to use these short stories with kids, in the classroom or at home. You can download copies of the short stories by simply filling out the form on this page.

Note: Always be sure to read a selection through before sharing it with children. Some of these short stories for kids, especially ones written a long time ago, may not be appropriate for every audience.

Classic Fairy Tale Short Stories for Kids

“ cinderella ” by charles perrault, “‘do not cry, cinderella,’ she said; ‘you also shall go to the ball, because you are a kind, good girl.’”.

Why we love it: This is one of those short stories for kids that everyone probably already knows. This older version is a little different than the Disney movie, so ask kids if they can identify the changes. They can also have fun imagining what other items could be transformed to help Cinderella get to the ball!

“ Thumbelina ” by Hans Christian Andersen

“there once was a woman who wanted so very much to have a tiny little child, but she did not know where to find one. so she went to an old witch, and she said: ‘i have set my heart upon having a tiny little child. please could you tell me where i can find one’”.

Why we love it: If there’s one thing this world can use more of, it is definitely kindness. We love that the story of Thumbelina spreads the message that kindness pays off in big ways. Thumbelina helps the swallow and in turn finds her true love.

“ The Emperor’s New Clothes ” by Hans Christian Andersen

“‘But the Emperor has nothing at all on!’ said a little child.”

Why we love it: This is a wonderful story for talking about peer pressure and being brave enough to stand up for what you believe in. Kids will also enjoy drawing the imaginary suit of clothes that the king thought he saw.

“ The Little Mermaid ” by Hans Christian Andersen

“‘it was you,’ said the prince, ‘who saved my life when i lay dead on the beach,’ and he folded his blushing bride in his arms. ‘oh, i am too happy,’ said he to the little mermaid; ‘my fondest hopes are all fulfilled. you will rejoice at my happiness; for your devotion to me is great and sincere.’”.

Why we love it: The story of the Little Mermaid focuses on sacrificial love. In it, the Sea King puts the needs of his daughter over his own. Open a dialogue with kids about a time when they put someone else’s needs over their own.

“ Rapunzel” by the Brothers Grimm

“there once lived a man and his wife, who had long wished for a child, but in vain. now there was at the back of their house a little window which overlooked a beautiful garden full of the finest vegetables and flowers; but there was a high wall all round it, and no one ventured into it, for it belonged to a witch of great might, and of whom all the world was afraid.”.

Why we love it: This story explores themes of autonomy, love, jealousy, and freedom. Children need to be set free to explore their own lives.

“ The Frog Prince ” by the Brothers Grimm

“and the princess, though very unwilling, took him up in her hand, and put him upon the pillow of her own bed, where he slept all night long. as soon as it was light, he jumped up, hopped downstairs, and went out of the house. ‘now, then,’ thought the princess, ‘at last he is gone, and i shall be troubled with him no more.’”.

Why we love it: Kids love this familiar story about a prince in disguise and a young girl who keeps her word even though she doesn’t want to. In this version, the girl doesn’t need to kiss the frog, but she’s rewarded anyway.

“ The Gingerbread Man ” by Anonymous

“run, run as fast as you can you can’t catch me, i’m the gingerbread man”.

Why we love it: In the original tale, the Gingerbread Man is eventually caught and eaten. This retelling gives him a happy ending instead. For a fun activity, let kids decorate and eat their own gingerbread people.

“ The Velveteen Rabbit ” by Margery Williams

“‘real isn’t how you are made,’ said the skin horse. ‘it’s a thing that happens to you. when a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but really loves you, then you become real.’”.

Why we love it: This is one of the most classic short stories for kids of all time! Let kids bring their own favorite toys to share with the class, and have them write or tell stories about what would happen if they became “real.”

“ The Elves and the Shoemaker ” by the Brothers Grimm

“a shoemaker, by no fault of his own, had become so poor that at last he had nothing left but leather for one pair of shoes. so in the evening, he cut out the shoes which he wished to begin to make the next morning, and as he had a good conscience, he lay down quietly in his bed, commended himself to god, and fell asleep.”.

Why we love it: Short stories for kids that are packed with life lessons are tops in our book. Among the lessons found in this tale are to work hard and to be grateful for the help you receive. It was through his hard work that the shoemaker achieved riches and success.

“ The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats ” by the Brothers Grimm

“there was once an old goat who had seven little ones, and was as fond of them as ever a mother was of her children.”.

Why we love it: Some of the best short stories for kids serve as cautionary tales. In this story, the young goats fail to heed their mother’s warning and succumb to the wolf’s attempts at deceit.

“ The Snow Queen ” by Hans Christian Andersen

“now then, let us begin. when we are at the end of the story, we shall know more than we know now: but to begin.”.

Why we love it: This story is the classic struggle between good and evil. It also focuses on the values of friendship and perseverance.

“ Jack and the Beanstalk ” by Anonymous

“why, the beans his mother had thrown out of the window into the garden had sprung up into a giant beanstalk which went up and up and up until it reached the sky. so the man spoke truth after all”.

Why we love it: This story is a fun read, but use it to get your students thinking critically. Was it really OK for Jack to steal from the giant? Ask them to write an essay sharing their thoughts on the subject, or use it for a fun classroom debate.

“ Little Red Riding Hood ” by the Brothers Grimm

“‘but grandmother what big eyes you have,’ said little red riding hood. ‘the better to see you with, my dear,’ replied the wolf.”.

Why we love it: This retelling of the well-known tale is a little less gruesome, since the hunter merely frightens the wolf into spitting out poor granny (instead of slicing open his belly). Talk with kids about ways they can keep themselves safe when they’re out in the world.

“ The Pied Piper of Hamelin ” by the Brothers Grimm

“he sounded his fife in the streets, but this time it wasn’t rats and mice that came to him, but rather children: a great number of boys and girls from their fourth year on. among them was the mayor’s grown daughter. the swarm followed him, and he led them into a mountain, where he disappeared with them.”.

Why we love it: Some say this is a true story, and whether or not it’s true, it definitely has a moral—when people make a bargain, they should stick to their agreement. Ask kids to think about what kind of music the Pied Piper might have played, and why both children and rats couldn’t resist it.

“ The Princess and the Pea ” by Hans Christian Andersen

“i cannot think what could have been in the bed. i lay upon something so hard that i am quite black and blue all over.”.

Why we love it: This has long been one of the most beloved short stories for kids, and it’s ideal when you need a quick read. Then, grab some dried peas and see how thick a covering needs to be before students can no longer feel them.

“ Puss in Boots ” by Charles Perrault

“puss became a great lord, and never ran after mice anymore, except for pleasure.”.

Why we love it: All cat lovers know these animals can be pretty smart when they want to be. This one helps his poor master become a prince in a castle, all through his own clever tricks. Encourage students to come up with more creative ways Puss in Boots could help his master.

“ Rumpelstiltskin ” by the Brothers Grimm

“‘I will give you three days,’ said he, ‘if by that time you find out my name, then shall you keep your child.’”

Why we love it: Pretty much everyone in this story behaves badly in one way or another. Use it to learn more about characters and their motivation.

“ Sleeping Beauty ” by the Brothers Grimm

“a great many changes take place in a hundred years.”.

Why we love it: After students read this well-known story, ask them to think about what it would be like to go to sleep today and wake up in a hundred years. What might the world be like? Or what would it be like for someone who fell asleep a hundred years ago to wake up today? How many things have changed since then?

“ Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ” by the Brothers Grimm

“mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all”.

Why we love it: This fairy tale has all the classic elements—beautiful heroine, wicked stepmother, handsome prince—plus a handful of helpful dwarfs. It’s the perfect way to start a conversation about the dangers of envy and jealousy.

“ The Three Little Pigs ” by Anonymous

“not by the hairs on our chinny chin chin”.

Why we love it: Fairy tales don’t get much more classic than this. Follow it up with a reading of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka to hear the story from the wolf’s perspective, and have a conversation about point of view.

“ The Ugly Duckling ” by Hans Christian Andersen

“but what did he see there, mirrored in the clear stream he beheld his own image, and it was no longer the reflection of a clumsy, dirty, gray bird, ugly and offensive. he himself was a swan being born in a duck yard does not matter, if only you are hatched from a swan’s egg.”.

Why we love it: Whether you read the original text or a shorter adaptation, this story is one every kid should know. It will teach them that everyone should be proud of who they are, even if they don’t look or feel like everyone else.

Aesop’s Fables as Short Stories for Kids

“ the ants and the grasshopper ” by aesop, “one bright day in late autumn a family of ants were bustling about in the warm sunshine, drying out the grain they had stored up during the summer, when a starving grasshopper, his fiddle under his arm, came up and humbly begged for a bite to eat.”.

Why we love it: It can be hard to teach kids that there are things in life they need to do regardless of whether they are fun or not. This fable will help little ones understand the value of putting in hard work to set ourselves up for future successes.

“ The Boy Who Cried Wolf ” by Aesop

“so now, though he had not seen anything that even looked like a wolf, he ran toward the village shouting at the top of his voice, ‘wolf wolf’”.

Why we love it: This might be the most famous short story we use to teach kids about how important it is to tell the truth. Ask students if they’ve ever pulled a prank that went wrong and what they learned from it.

“ The Crow and the Pitcher ” by Aesop

“But the pitcher was high and had a narrow neck, and no matter how he tried, the Crow could not reach the water.”

Why we love it: Aesop’s fable reads more like a STEM challenge—how can you reach the water at the bottom of the pitcher when your neck isn’t long enough? Try the same experiment with your students, using a narrow-necked bottle. Can they come up with any other solutions?

“ The Fox and the Grapes ” by Aesop

“the grapes seemed ready to burst with juice, and the fox’s mouth watered as he gazed longingly at them.”.

Why we love it: If kids have ever wondered where the phrase “sour grapes” comes from, this tale will answer that question. Talk about other idiomatic phrases, and do some research to find their origins.

“ The Lion and the Mouse ” by Aesop

“‘you laughed when i said i would repay you,’ said the mouse. ‘now you see that even a mouse can help a lion.’”.

Why we love it: This fable reminds kids that they’re never too small to make a difference in someone’s life. Ask kids to share their own stories of times they helped someone.

“ The Tortoise and the Hare ” by Aesop

“the hare was soon far out of sight, and to make the tortoise feel very deeply how ridiculous it was for him to try a race with a hare, he lay down beside the course to take a nap until the tortoise should catch up.”.

Why we love it: When kids need a reminder that they should always keep trying, turn to this famous story. Use it to teach growth mindset too.

“ Two Travelers and a Bear ” by Aesop

“Two men were traveling in company through a forest, when, all at once, a huge bear crashed out of the brush near them.”

Why we love it: When danger strikes, do you worry about yourself first or try to help everyone to safety? There are arguments to be made on both sides, so this one makes for an interesting debate or persuasive essay.

More Short Stories for Kids

“ anansi and the pot of wisdom ” by anonymous, “every time anansi looked in the clay pot, he learned something new.”.

Why we love it: Kids may know about Anansi from the popular book Anansi the Spider , but there are lots of tales about him in West African folklore. In this one, Anansi thinks he knows everything, but a child has something new to teach him. Explore more Anansi tales here.

“ The Apple Dumpling ” by Anonymous

“A bag of feathers for a basket of plums. A bunch of flowers for a bag of feathers. A golden chain for a bunch of flowers. And a dog for a golden chain. All the world is give and take, and who knows if I may have my apple dumpling yet.”

Why we love it: When an old woman sets out to trade her basket of plums for some apples, her quest takes a few twists and turns along the way. In the end, though, she manages to make many people happy, not just herself. Practice sequencing by having kids try to remember all the trades the woman makes, and the order she makes them in.

“ The Blind Men and the Elephant ” by Anonymous

“sixth blind man (feeling the tail): this elephant is not like a wall, or a spear, or a snake, or a tree, or a fan. he is exactly like a rope.”.

Why we love it: Six blind men each feel a different part of an elephant, and each comes to his own very different conclusions. Written as a very short play, this classic tale opens up all sorts of discussion opportunities about seeing the bigger picture.

“ Bruce and the Spider ” by James Baldwin

“but the spider did not lose hope with the sixth failure. with still more care, she made ready to try for the seventh time. bruce almost forgot his own troubles as he watched her swing herself out upon the slender line. would she fail again no the thread was carried safely to the beam, and fastened there.”.

Why we love it: This famous little tale is almost certainly a myth, but it’s one of the most well-known stories about King Robert the Bruce. The lesson about not giving up fits perfectly when you’re talking about growth mindset.

“ The Elephant’s Child ” by Rudyard Kipling

“but there was one elephant—a new elephant—an elephant’s child—who was full of ’satiable curiosity, and that means he asked ever so many questions.”.

Why we love it: Many kids will recognize themselves in the Elephant’s Child and his (in)satiable curiosity. After you read this one, have students come up with stories for the way other animals got their unique features. How did the giraffe get its long neck? How did the turtle get its shell? So many possibilities!

“ Paul Bunyan ” by William B. Laughead

“when paul was a boy, he was fast as lightning. he could blow out a candle at night and hop into bed before it was dark.”.

Why we love it: Paul Bunyan is an American folk hero, larger than life (literally!). This roundup of the legends surrounding him has many of the most famous tales. Encourage kids to think about what they’d do if they were as big, strong, and fast as Paul.

“ The Little Engine That Could ” by Watty Piper

“I think I can. I think I can.”

Why we love it: When little ones learn early on to believe in themselves, they’ll be willing to try their best at anything. Have kids tell their own stories of times they did something that seemed impossible at first when they kept on trying.

“ The Four Dragons ” by Anonymous

“the four dragons flew back and forth, making the sky dark all around. before long the sea water became rain pouring down from the sky.”.

Why we love it: The four dragons in this Chinese tale want to help save the people from drought. When the Jade Emperor won’t help, they take matters into their own hands. Ultimately, they become the four major rivers of China. This is a great opportunity to get out the globe or pull up Google Earth and learn more about China’s geography.

“ Henny Penny ” by Anonymous

“so henny-penny, cocky-locky, ducky-daddles, goosey-poosey and turkey-lurkey all went to tell the king the sky was a-falling.”.

Why we love it: In an age when people are quick to spread rumors as fact, this old European folktale is more meaningful than ever. See if kids can think of times when they heard a crazy rumor that they believed at first, even though it turned out to be completely false.

“ How Gimme the Ax Found Out About the Zigzag Railroad ” by Carl Sandburg

“Then the zizzies came. The zizzy is a bug. He runs zigzag on zigzag legs, eats zigzag with zigzag teeth, and spits zigzag with a zigzag tongue.”

Why we love it: Kids will get a kick out of all the Z sounds in this silly little story about why some local railroad tracks run in zigzags. Use it to teach about alliteration and consonance, and ask kids to draw their own pictures of the zizzies.

“ King Midas and the Golden Touch ” by Anonymous

“suddenly, he started to sense fear. tears filled his eyes and that moment, his beloved daughter entered the room. when midas hugged her, she turned into a golden statue”.

Why we love it: Teach kids to be careful what they wish for. Ask them to make a list of wishes, then talk about ways each of them could ultimately go wrong. Have them write their own version of this short story.

“ The Kite That Went to the Moon ” by Evelyn Sharp

“‘i have everything in the world in my bag,’ replied the little old man, ‘for everything is there that everybody wants. i have laughter and tears and happiness and sadness; i can give you riches or poverty, sense or nonsense; here is a way to discover the things that you don’t know, and a way to forget the things that you do know.’”.

Why we love this: This whimsical tale takes two small children on a voyage to the moon and back, as they follow an enchanted kite. Pair it with a crafting session where kids make their own kites to fly.

“ The Monkey and the Turtle ” by José Rizal

“a monkey and a turtle found a banana tree on a river. they fished it out and because each wanted the tree for himself, they cut it in half.”.

Why we love it: A monkey and a turtle each plant half a banana tree, but only the turtle’s grows. The monkey offers to harvest the fruit but keeps it all for himself. But the turtle has plans of his own! This folktale from the Philippines is actually an allegory about the Spanish colonizers’ treatment of the Filipino people.

“ The Tale of Peter Rabbit ” by Beatrix Potter

“‘now, my dears,’ said old mrs. rabbit one morning, ‘you may go into the fields or down the lane, but don’t go into mr. mcgregor’s garden: your father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by mrs. mcgregor.’”.

Why we love it: Beatrix Potter’s sweet tales are beloved, but this is the one that has really endured. Pair it with one of these terrific Peter Rabbit activities.

“ Rikki-Tikki-Tavi ” by Rudyard Kipling

“rikki-tikki did not care to follow them, for he did not feel sure that he could manage two snakes at once. so he trotted off to the gravel path near the house, and sat down to think. it was a serious matter for him.”.

Why we love it: Reading this story is like watching a nature documentary unfold on the page. Have kids do some research on the mongoose and its relationship with cobras in real life.

“ The Story of the Chinese Zodiac ” by Anonymous

“he reached out his paws and pushed his friend the cat into the river. the cat was swept away by the whirling waters. that is why there is no cat in the chinese calendar.”.

Why we love it: This short little tale manages to answer two questions—why there’s no Year of the Cat and why cats and rats can’t be friends. After reading it, try to imagine how the other animals in the calendar managed to win their spots.

“ Weighing the Elephant ” by Anonymous

“‘very well,’ said the emperor, humoring the boy. ‘tell us all how to weigh the elephant.’”.

Why we love it: Read this traditional Chinese tale right up to the point where the young boy reveals his idea for weighing an elephant without a giant scale. Ask kids if they can come up with the solution before continuing to the end of the story. You can even try out the correct method as a STEM challenge.

“ Winnie-the-Pooh Goes Visiting ” by A.A. Milne

“pooh always liked a little something at eleven o’clock in the morning, and he was very glad to see rabbit getting out the plates and mugs; and when rabbit said, ‘honey or condensed milk with your bread’ he was so excited that he said, ‘both,’ and then, so as not to seem greedy, he added, ‘but don’t bother about the bread, please.’”.

Why we love it: This silly old bear has been delighting children for decades, and there are dozens of short stories for kids about him and his friends. This one has a little built-in moral about greed. You can also ask kids to brainstorm their own ways to get Pooh free from Rabbit’s front door.

“ Town Musicians of Bremen ” by the Brothers Grimm

“a certain man had a donkey, which had carried the corn-sacks to the mill indefatigably for many a long year; but his strength was going, and he was growing more and more unfit for work.”.

Why we love it: This relatively unknown work by Jacob Grimm teaches kids the value of resilience and getting up when knocked down.

“ The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County ” by Mark Twain

“in compliance with the request of a friend of mine, who wrote me from the east, i called on good-natured, garrulous old simon wheeler, and inquired after my friend’s friend, leonidas w. smiley, as requested to do, and i hereunto append the result.”.

Why we love it: Twain uses an allegory of two frogs to highlight the struggle between the elite and the common. We love short stories for kids that encourage them to be true to oneself, and this one does just that!

“ The Reluctant Dragon ” by Kenneth Grahame

“long ago—might have been hundreds of years ago—in a cottage half-way between this village and yonder shoulder of the downs up there, a shepherd lived with his wife and their little son.”.

Why we love it: This story is a good way to introduce young kids to the concepts of bullying and prejudice. Through the story, kids will learn that they shouldn’t judge things by appearances as the dragon in the story is not what he seems.

“ The Fisherman and His Wife ” by the Brothers Grimm

“once upon a time there were a fisherman and his wife who lived together in a filthy shack near the sea. every day the fisherman went out fishing, and he fished, and he fished. once he was sitting there fishing and looking into the clear water, and he sat, and he sat. then his hook went to the bottom, deep down, and when he pulled it out, he had caught a large flounder.”.

Why we love it: Teaching young people the value of appreciating what you have and not always seeking out more is of the utmost importance. This short story encapsulates that and warns about the pitfalls of greed.

“ The Great Stone Face ” by Nathaniel Hawthorne

“one afternoon, when the sun was going down, a mother and her little boy sat at the door of their cottage, talking about the great stone face. they had but to lift their eyes, and there it was plainly to be seen, though miles away, with the sunshine brightening all its features.”.

Why we love it: This story weaves nature and divinity in a story that centers around a great stone face that encapsulates qualities like wisdom and nobility.

Looking for more short stories for kids? Check out this roundup geared toward the middle school crowd.

Plus, sign up for our free newsletters to get all the latest teaching news and ideas, straight to your inbox, you might also like.

75 Best Short Stories To Teach in Middle School

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Jennifer Semple Siegel: Memoirist, Short Story Writer, Novelist, Occasional Poet

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• Fiction: Peer or Self Review of a Short Story
• Peer Review
• Short Story Review

Article: Peer or Self Review of a Short Story

Using the following list, consider the following areas in your analysis of another writer’s story (you may also use this list to do a review of your own work, although it is better to employ a fresh pair of eyes – we are often our own worst critics):

What is the story about? You should be able to summarize the story in one or two sentences.

2. Plot/structure

Does the story follow the traditional story structure?

Beginning è Rising action è Climax è Falling action è Epiphany è Resolution

If not, does the nontraditional structure work?

How is the story structured? (If you can’t figure out the structure, feel free to ask the author.)

3. Conflict

Does the story involve a well-defined conflict that makes the story worth reading?

What is the conflict? (No conflict = no story. All fiction must be driven by conflict.)

4. Beginning

Does that first sentence and/or paragraph reach out and grab you, immersing you into the story?

5. Characterization (protagonist and antagonist; supporting characters)

Does the protagonist, the main character, evolve during the course of the story, or is he or she a static character who does not change as a result of the unfolding events and his/her epiphany?

How might the author develop a better evolved protagonist?

Does the antagonist (an opposing force for the protagonist) create enough of a conflict for the protagonist? If not, how might the author develop the antagonist better?

Are all the supporting or minor characters necessary? If not, who might the author cut?

6. Verisimilitude (Believability)

How believable are the plot and events?

Does the overall plot line feel plausible to you, even if the author has written a ghost story, science fiction, or fantasy?

Does the author avoid resorting to cheesy plot devices, such as “deus ex machina” (in which a “god” or unknown force rescues the protagonist at the very last minute, without having been foreshadowed)?

7. Setting.

Does the setting reflect the mood of the story?

How does the writer develop setting as mood?

8. Point of view (POV).

What point of view does the story use? Options: first person (“I”); third person (“he,” “she,” or “they,” “they” referring to someone who identifies as binary) singular; third person, limited omniscient (multiple viewpoints, usually two or three); third person, omniscient (all-knowing “God” viewpoint); third person, objective; second person (“you,” not used too often).

Does the point of view seem appropriate? If not, what POV would seem more appropriate?

9. Tense (Present, Past, Future).

What tense does the author use? In your view, is this the appropriate tense? If not, explain why.

Does the author mix past and present tense? If so, ask what tense the author has intended, and mark the lapses with a “9.”

Please note that stories written in the moment (present tense) will often flash back to past events in the past tense, and this is perfectly correct, so make sure that you don’t mark these passages as inconsistent.

(Future tense is rarely used in modern fiction, usually in conjunction with the present tense.)

10. Dialogue/Dramatic Monologue.

Does the writer incorporate dialogue (two or more speakers) or dramatic monologue (one speaker)? If not, might the piece benefit from some well-placed dialogue or dramatic monologue that reveals details about the speakers? Put a “10” where the author might consider developing dialogue and/or dramatic monologue.

How does the writer incorporate dialogue tags? Does the writer refrain from overusing fancy dialogue tags, allowing the dialogue to speak for itself? In other words, does the writer mostly limit tags to “said” or “ask”? If not, where can the writer develop dialogue better to avoid distracting dialogue tags?

11. Scene, Details, and Description.

Has the author included important story events in scenes that include dialogue, details, and description to show character and/or plot development? If not, mark those areas with an “11.”

12. Summary.

Does the author summarize parts of the story that, while important, are not important enough to warrant an entire scene? Mark areas that should be summarized with a “12.”

Is the scope, or time frame, of the story narrow or wide enough? (One of the most common problem for beginning writers involves a short story scope that is too broad, which I refer to “I’m-going-to-start-at-the-character’s-birth-and-continue-until-he-or-she-dies” syndrome). Think “slice-of-life” for story scope. How well does the writer achieve a scope befitting of this story? In fact, the flash fiction short story A Slice of Life depicts a very limited scope, just a few minutes.

14. Language.

Is syntax (word order within the sentence) used in ways that we don’t usually hear or expect? If so, does the unusual structure work for this story? If not, mark “14a.”

Is the language direct?

Does the author use economy of language as opposed to wordiness? If not, what could be deleted? Mark suggested deletions with “14b.”

What kinds of imagery are used? (Imagery = use of the five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell, as experienced through concrete language). (Mark “14c.”)

Has the author used any inappropriate word choices, including wrong words and/or clichés? Mark these words “14d.”

What passages could be rewritten to incorporate concrete language rather than abstractions? Mark these areas “14e.”

What could be suggested rather than told outright? Mark these areas “14f.”

Circle any “to be” forms of verbs (e.g., is, am, are, was, were, will, etc.). Could any of these passive verbs be developed into active verbs (in which the subject is doing the action)? Mark these areas “14g.” (Active voice is almost always more powerful than passive voice.)

Circle any adjectives and adverbs. Which of these modifiers could be cut? (Mark “14h”)

Does the author use appropriate sentence length to develop pacing? (Short, staccato sentences = fast pacing; lengthy, compound/complex sentences = slow pacing. In short, an author can manipulate pacing via sentence length. Authors often use sentence length variety to reflect changing pace within a story.) Mark inappropriate pacing with “14i.”

15. Surface Areas: (Punctuation, Grammar, Mechanics).

In dialogue or first-person narrative, the writer may be intentionally suspending the rules of proper English. If so, ask the writer about intent. Ultimately, is the result successful?

16. Peer Narrative.

A. In some detail, discuss overall strengths of story.

B. In some detail, discuss overall weaknesses of story.

C. In your opinion, what are the most critical areas that the author needs to consider when rewriting or reworking?

Keep in mind that successful writers often suspend “the rules” of writing fiction, and they do so intentionally and successfully.

However, most infractions are simply weaknesses in narrative, story structure, and dialogue and are outright errors.

________________

Note: The author, now retired from academe, used this peer review list in her creative writing classes.

Much of this information is common knowledge in the field of creative writing and has been culled from several sources.

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Alice Munro, Nobel Laureate and Master of the Short Story, Dies at 92

Her stories were widely considered to be without equal, a mixture of ordinary people and extraordinary themes.

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By Anthony DePalma

Alice Munro, the revered Canadian author who started writing short stories because she did not think she had the time or the talent to master novels, then stubbornly dedicated her long career to churning out psychologically dense stories that dazzled the literary world and earned her the Nobel Prize in Literature, died on Monday night in Port Hope, Ontario, east of Toronto. She was 92.

A spokesman for her publisher, Penguin Random House Canada, confirmed the death, at a nursing home. Ms. Munro’s health had declined since at least 2009, when she said she’d had heart bypass surgery and had been treated for cancer, though she continued to write.

Ms. Munro was a member of the rare breed of writer, like Katherine Anne Porter and Raymond Carver, who made their reputations in the notoriously difficult literary arena of the short story, and did so with great success. Her tales — many of them focused on women at different stages of their lives coping with complex desires — were so eagerly received and gratefully read that she attracted a whole new generation of readers.

Ms. Munro’s stories were widely considered to be without equal, a mixture of ordinary people and extraordinary themes. She portrayed small-town folks, often in rural southwestern Ontario, facing situations that made the fantastic seem an everyday occurrence. Some of her characters were fleshed out so completely through generations and across continents that readers reached a level of intimacy with them that usually comes only with a full-length novel.

She achieved such compactness through exquisite craftsmanship and a degree of precision that did not waste words. Other writers declared some of her stories to be near-perfect — a heavy burden for a writer of modest personal character who had struggled to overcome a lack of self-confidence at the beginning of her career, when she left the protective embrace of her quiet hometown and ventured into the competitive literary scene.

Her insecurity, however powerfully she felt it, was never noticed by her fellow writers, who celebrated her craftsmanship and freely lent her their highest praise.

The Irish novelist Edna O’Brien ranked Ms. Munro with William Faulkner and James Joyce as writers who had influenced her work. Joyce Carol Oates said Munro stories “have the density — moral, emotional, sometimes historical — of other writers’ novels.” And the novelist Richard Ford once made it clear that questioning Ms. Munro’s mastery over the short story would be akin to doubting the hardness of a diamond or the bouquet of a ripened peach.

“With Alice it’s like a shorthand,” Mr. Ford said. “You’ll just mention her, and everybody just kind of generally nods that she’s just sort of as good as it gets.”

In awarding her the Nobel in 2013 , when she was 82, the Swedish Academy cited her 14 collections of stories and referred to her as “a master of the contemporary short story,” praising her ability to “accommodate the entire epic complexity of the novel in just a few short pages.”

As famous for the refined exuberance of her prose as for the modesty of her personal life, Ms. Munro declined to travel to Sweden to accept her Nobel, saying she was too frail. In place of the formal lecture that winners traditionally give, she taped a long interview in Victoria, British Columbia, where she had been visiting when her award was announced. When asked if the process of writing her stories had consumed her entirely, she responded that it did, then added, “But you know, I always got lunch for my children.”

During the presentation of the taped interview at the Swedish Academy, the Swedish actress Pernilla August read an excerpt from Ms. Munro’s story “Carried Away,” a multi-decade tale of dashed expectations that typified the complicated, often disappointing, world of her stories.

“She had a picture taken. She knew how she wanted it to be,” the excerpt read. “She would have liked to wear a simple white blouse, a peasant girl’s smock with the string open at the neck. She did not own a blouse of that description and in fact had only seen them in pictures. And she would have liked to let her hair down. Or if it had to be up, she would have liked it piled very loosely and bound with strings of pearls.

“Instead she wore her blue silk shirtwaist and bound her hair as usual. She thought the picture made her look rather pale, hollow-eyed. Her expression was sterner and more foreboding than she had intended. She sent it anyway.”

‘Our Chekhov’

Ms. Munro’s early success in Canada, where her first collection of stories, “Dance of the Happy Shades” (1968), won the Governor General’s Literary Award, the equivalent of a Pulitzer Prize for fiction, spread to the United States after her stories began to be published in The New Yorker in 1977. She was an important member of a generation of Canadian writers, along with Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje, whose celebrity reached far beyond the country’s borders.

Ms. Munro went on to win the Governor General’s award twice more, along with two Giller Prizes, another important national award in Canada, and many other honors. In 2009, she withdrew her collection “Too Much Happiness” from consideration for yet another Giller because she believed that a younger writer should have a chance to win it.

That same year she was awarded the Man Booker International Prize for her lifelong body of work, which the judges claimed was “practically perfect.” The awards committee commented that although she was known mostly as a short-story writer, “she brings as much depth, wisdom and precision to every story as most novelists bring to a lifetime of novels.”

“To read Alice Munro is to learn something every time that you never thought of before,” the judges said.

As her many-layered style developed, her short stories came to be neither short nor simply stories — she included 15 stories in her first book, but only eight or nine longer ones in some of her most recent collections. The greater length of each story gave her room to explore the psychological profiles of her characters more fully, and the resulting works are tightly woven tapestries of great tension, lasting resonance and stunning breadth that combine the emotional thrust of a novel with the pinpoint power of a masterful poem.

Over the years, her stories seemed to grow darker and more paradoxical, even though she often described her own life as ordinary and generally upbeat. Often her characters were simple people confronting unusual circumstances. But those situations could be odd, even bizarre, such as an accident in which a soldier who returned from war is decapitated after his sleeve is caught in a factory machine, or the actions of an unattractive girl who steals so much money from her parents’ store to pay boys for sex that her parents are forced to declare bankruptcy. The women in her stories tended to be emotionally pierced — divorced women, adulteresses and noble victims of life’s vicissitudes.

Like Faulkner, Eudora Welty and the other Southern writers she admired, Ms. Munro was capable of breathing life into an entire world — for her, the importunate countryside of southwestern Ontario and the placid, occasionally threatening presence of Lake Huron.

Cynthia Ozick called her “our Chekhov,” and the description stuck.

In a 2009 review of “Too Much Happiness,” Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times described the collection’s title story as “a brilliant distillation of her Chekhovian art.”

Never a Novel

Ms. Munro was able to live a life remarkable for its normalcy. Her days, like her characters’, were filled with quotidian routines punctuated by the explosive mystery of happenstance and accident.

Outside of a decade spent on the west coast of Canada during her first marriage, she lived with a great deal of satisfaction in the Ontario bramble she celebrated in her stories, quietly composing them in the house where her second husband was raised, not far from the place where she was born.

Perhaps the question that most dogged her throughout her long career was why, with her abundant talents and perceptive eye, she restricted herself to what is generally seen as the limited world of the short story rather than launch into the glittery universe of the novel.

“I don’t really understand a novel,” Ms. Munro confessed to Mervyn Rothstein of The Times in a 1986 interview. “I don’t understand where the excitement is supposed to come in a novel, and I do in a story. There’s a kind of tension that if I’m getting a story right I can feel right away.”

While one of her early collections, “Lives of Girls and Women,” is sometimes called a novel, Ms. Munro and her longtime editor at Alfred A. Knopf, Ann Close, considered it a collection of linked stories.

“Once I started to write that, I was off,” she told The Paris Review. “Then I made a big mistake. I tried to make it a regular novel, an ordinary sort of childhood adolescence novel. About March I saw it wasn’t working. It didn’t feel right to me, and I thought I would have to abandon it. I was very depressed. Then it came to me that what I had to do was pull it apart and put it in the story form. Then I could handle it.”

At times she swore she would never write a novel — almost dismissing the challenge as too great for her to even attempt. But at other times she seemed to wistfully wonder, as one of her characters might, how different her life might have been had she written a blockbuster novel.

“I’m thinking of something now, how it might be a novel, but I bet you it won’t be,” she said in a 1998 interview, just after publication of her widely acclaimed collection “The Love of a Good Woman.” She confessed that on occasion she had experimented with stretching her stories into novels but said she found that the stories “start to sag” when she did so, as though being taken beyond their natural limits. Still, the lure never completely evaporated. “My ambition is to write a novel before I die,” she said, also in 1998.

She never did.

Shortly before receiving her Nobel in 2013, Ms. Munro told several interviewers that she had decided to stop writing. As far back as 2009, she had disclosed her cancer diagnosis and that she’d undergone heart bypass surgery. Her declining health had robbed her of strength, but she also remarked that she’d been writing since she was 20 and had grown weary of what Del, a character in “Lives of Girls and Women” who is generally taken to be Ms. Munro’s proxy, says is a writer’s only duty, which is “to produce a masterpiece.”

“That’s a long time to be working,” Ms. Munro said, “and I thought maybe it’s time to take it easy.”

Rural Beginnings

Alice Ann Laidlaw was born on July 10, 1931, in the village of Wingham, Ontario, hard by the banks of Lake Huron. She was the first of three children of Robert Eric Laidlaw and Anne Clarke (Chamney) Laidlaw. Her father had tried his luck at the rather exotic undertaking of raising silver foxes and mink, but when that failed he went through a number of professions, including stints as foundry watchman and turkey farmer.

When Anne Laidlaw developed Parkinson’s disease, it fell to Alice, not yet a teenager but the oldest of the three children, to care for her mother, an experience that she wove through her writing. She was able to attend college after winning a two-year scholarship to the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, about 65 miles south of Wingham.

She majored in English but initially kept her ambition to write fiction to herself. She dropped out before completing her studies and married a fellow student, James Munro. She sold her first short work of fiction, a story, to the radio service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

The Munros settled in Vancouver and had two children; a third died at birth. Ms. Munro said the domestic demands of those years — balancing parenthood with her dream of writing, “getting apple juice, answering the phone and letting the cat in” — left her no time or energy for ambitious projects like writing novels. Instead, she dedicated herself to mastering the short story, a form that she felt she could manage in between raising her children and taking care of her house.

In 1963, Ms. Munro and her husband moved to Victoria, where she helped him found a bookstore, Munro’s, and gave birth to another daughter. The marriage ended in 1973, and she moved back to Ontario.

By then, her literary reputation in Canada was established. In 1968, her first book, “Dance of the Happy Shades,” a collection of short stories compiled over a dozen years, introduced readers to what would later be widely recognized as “Alice Munro Country” — the rigidly introspective landscape of solitary country roads and stolid houses of yellow brick within which shy lives and solemn secrets unfolded.

“Everybody knows what a house does, how it encloses space and makes connections between one enclosed space and another and presents what is outside in a new way,” she wrote in a 1982 essay. “That is the nearest I can come to explaining what a story is for me.”

Her stories are blanketed with countless small but sharp observations that animate Munro Country. For instance, in “Spaceships Have Landed,” a story in the collection “Open Secrets” (1994), the main character drunkenly flirts with her boyfriend’s friend, only to be grossly insulted by him. The next day, she calls him to the porch of her house and confronts him while using a piece of steel wool to clean freshly laid eggs.

Such details evoke a sense of the semirural Canadian backcountry, a quiet land where people never deliberately call attention to themselves and the ordinariness of life can be suddenly disrupted by accidents, arrivals and unanticipated departures.

Although Ms. Munro was most often described as a Canadian writer, her stories evoked not Canada itself but the bittersweet triumphs, mishaps and humiliations of small town life. And in the end, every landscape served as backdrop for her central themes, which were the unpredictability of life and the betrayals that women suffer or commit — scenes redolent with autobiography.

In “The Albanian Virgin,” a celebrated story featuring a rare exotic setting as well as the familiar Canadian landscape, the female protagonist runs a bookstore in Victoria and dreamily contemplates the errant directions taken by her life: “But I was not despondent. I had made a desperate change in my life, and in spite of the regrets that I suffered every day, I was proud of that. I felt as if I had finally come out into the world in a new, true, skin.”

A Publicity-Shy ‘Plodder’

Ms. Munro shunned much of the publicity usually associated with literary success and limited her book tour appearances and readings. She often referred to herself in a self-deprecating way; she said she had not “come out of the closet” as a professional writer until she was 40, and she called herself a “plodder” because of the slow and deliberate way she worked, often writing in her nightclothes for several hours in the morning and then extensively revising her stories before sending them off.

But to critics, there was nothing plodding about her stories, which were put together so seamlessly that the many flashbacks, flash-forwards and shifts in time and place that she employed happened without notice. She often started her stories at a point where other authors might end theirs, and continued them well past the climax or denouement that would have satisfied others less driven by the twists of fate. Inevitably, this left readers to work out who exactly the narrator was and how one character was related to another.

Eventually, though, every piece would fit together. “It’s like a child’s puzzle,” the novelist Anne Tyler once said of Ms. Munro’s work. “In the most successful of the stories, the end result is a satisfying click as everything settles precisely into place.”

After the turbulence and dislocation she went through before Ms. Munro turned 40, her life and career clicked satisfyingly into place when she returned to southern Ontario. She started seeing Gerald Fremlin, a geographer, and after a brief romance married him and moved into the house in Clinton, Ontario, where he was raised.

She is survived by her daughters, Sheila, Jenny and Andrea. Sheila Munro is the author of the 2001 memoir “Lives of Mothers and Daughters: Growing Up With Alice Munro.”

She embarked on an ambitious schedule of publishing a collection of short stories every three or four years, winning praise and admiration across Canada, where she comes close to being a household literary saint. After receiving her first Governor General’s award, she won it twice more, for “Who Do You Think You Are?” in 1978 and for “The Progress of Love” in 1986.

In 1998, she received the Giller Prize for “The Love of a Good Woman,” and in 2004 she picked up another for “Runaway.” After the National Book Critics Circle agreed for the first time to consider authors from outside the United States for its award, Ms. Munro won in 1998 for “The Love of a Good Woman.”

As if she were a character in one of her stories, plagued by bad timing and unlucky happenstance, Ms. Munro was not at home when the Swedish Academy called to tell her that she had won; it had to leave a telephone message. She was in Victoria visiting her daughter, who heard the news and woke her mother at 4 a.m. Still groggy when interviewed by the CBC, Ms. Munro admitted that she’d forgotten that the prize was to be awarded that day, calling it “a splendid thing to happen,” adding, “more than I can say.”

Struggling to control her emotions, she reflected on her success and what it might mean for literature. “My stories have gotten around quite remarkably for short stories,” she told the interviewer. “I would really hope that this would make people see the short story as an important art, not something you play around with until you got a novel written.”

Lisa D. Awano and Sofia Poznansky contributed reporting.

An earlier version of this obituary misspelled the given name of an author who praised Ms. Munro’s writing. She is Anne Tyler, not Ann.

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Driver was going 131 mph before wreck that killed Illinois 17-year-old ahead of graduation: Police

A 17-year-old high school senior in Illinois will be mourned at his graduation in June after his vehicle was struck by a drunk driver who was speeding in a "reckless manner," police said.

Taeyoung Kim, 21, is accused of killing Marko Niketic, a senior at Glenbrook South High School, on Mother's Day, the Glenview Police Department said in a news release .

Kim was charged Friday with two counts of aggravated DUI causing death, reckless homicide, aggravated DUI causing great bodily harm, reckless driving, speeding, driving without lights when required, driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident and improper lane usage, according to police.

The crash happened around 11 p.m. when Kim, who was driving his vehicle at a high rate of speed, struck Marko's vehicle near an intersection, police said. Marko was pronounced dead at the scene while the passengers in both vehicles were taken to hospitals in critical condition, according to the department.

Kim was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, police said. Glenview police are still investigating the crash.

The passenger in Niketic's vehicle was his girlfriend, WFLD reported. She suffered severe injuries, including a brain bleed and broken pelvis, the Chicago, Illinois-based TV station said.

Marko Niketic was 'always with smile'

Glenbrook South High School's graduation is expected to take place on June 2 at the Rosemont Theatre in Rosemont, Illinois, according to the school's website.

A Glenbrook High School District 225 spokesperson told USA TODAY that Marko would have graduated on June 2. The school district said it is "not providing a statement to the media."

"(Marko) will be dearly missed by all of his Kumovi, family, and friends in the United States and in Serbia," according to the teenager's obituary .

Marko's Father, Darko Spasojevic, spoke at his son's funeral on Thursday and said he was an active and beloved member of the church, ABC 7 Chicago reported.

"He was always with smile, very open, very smart (and) really gifted," Spasojevic said, according to ABC 7 Chicago . "One common theme is that he had an energy and charisma to bring children and people together."

Taeyoung Kim reached speed of over 130 mph

Kim was driving 131 mph with his headlights turned off right before he crashed into Marko's vehicle, prosecutors said, according to WFLD. The speed limit in the area Kim was driving in was 35 mph.

During Kim's first court appearance on Saturday, Judge David Kelly called the crash "a fast and furious deadly accident," WFLD reported. He added how Kim weaponized his vehicle deliberately and that his actions displayed a "brazen disregard to human life," the TV station said.

Kim's attorney, James Kuhn, translated for the 21-year-old's father and said he wants to give "sincere apologies and condolence to all the victims' families."

"He's blaming a lot on himself as a father, maybe a lack of supervision," Kuhn said for Kim's father.

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Campus protests over the Gaza war

Student protests caused mostly minor disruptions at several graduation ceremonies.

Rebecca Rosman

Graduate students and demonstrators at the University of Texas at Austin protest the war in Gaza after walking out of commencement at the DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium on May 11, 2024 in Austin. Brandon Bell/Getty Images hide caption

Graduate students and demonstrators at the University of Texas at Austin protest the war in Gaza after walking out of commencement at the DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium on May 11, 2024 in Austin.

Graduation ceremonies at a handful of universities across the country faced light disruptions over the weekend, as pro-Palestinian demonstrators staged walkouts, chants, and waved Palestinian flags during commencement speeches.

At Duke University, crowds of students booed and walked out on commencement speaker Jerry Seinfeld over his ongoing support for Israel. At UC Berkeley , dozens of graduates stood up from their seats inside Memorial Stadium Saturday morning with signs reading "Divest" — a call for universities to get rid of their assets in companies that have investments in Israel because of the war in Gaza. At the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, pro-Palestinian demonstrators splashed red paint on the steps of a building hours before the commencement ceremony.

The protests come as administrators at universities from California to New York have struggled to find the right balance in responding to the pro-Palestinian encampments that have sprung up in recent weeks. Schools including Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been under scrutiny for calling in police to dismantle the encampments and arresting students who refused to disperse.

The Picture Show

Photos: campus protests continue, police make arrests and clear encampments.

Other schools, including Northwestern and Brown, have reached agreements with students to take at least some of their demands into consideration. The latest agreement came Sunday, when student protesters at Johns Hopkins University agreed to take down their encampment — which began on April 29 — after the university promised to review students' demand for the university to divest from companies with ties to Israel.

At Saturday's university-wide commencement ceremony, UC Berkeley's Chancellor Carol Christ began the event by acknowledging the student protesters.

"They feel passionately about the brutality of the violence in Gaza," Christ told the crowd, adding "I, too, am deeply troubled by the terrible tragedy."

Israel is now in the eighth month of its military offensive inside Gaza, an operation it launched in response to the Oct. 7 surprise attack by Hamas-led militants. More than 1,200 people were killed in the attack, while more than 200 others were taken hostage, according to Israeli officials.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's response and some 78,000 wounded.

Duke University became the latest scene of protest on Sunday, as dozens of students walked out of their graduation ceremony just as comedian Jerry Seinfeld was preparing to take the stage to deliver the commencement address, according to video posted on social media .

Some in the audience shouted "Free, free Palestine!" while Seinfeld — who has been outspoken in his support of Israel since Oct. 7 — was handed his honorary degree.

Earlier, at Berkeley on Saturday, a group of some 500 people ignored warnings from an administration official and gathered in an empty section of the stadium where they sang chants calling for the university to divest from Israel.

"This wouldn't be Berkeley without a protest," said the student body president, Sydney Roberts, as her speech was disrupted by demonstrators' chants.

What we can learn from 4 schools that have reached agreements with Gaza protesters

While students at UC Berkeley have been amongst the most vocal in their calls for the university to cut ties with Israel, recent protests have also been met with accusations of antisemitism from members of the campus's Jewish community.

Known for being the birthplace of the free speech movement of the 1960s, the university has been dealing with two federal investigations relating to charges of antisemitism since the Oct. 7 attack — one from the Department of Education, the other by Republicans in Congress.

Some protests went beyond the war in Gaza

Dozens of students at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond staged a silent walkout during Saturday's graduation ceremony to protest the commencement address from Republican Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin.

The university's chapter of the NAACP had previously criticized the school's decision to invite Youngkin over his efforts to unravel a series of policies which have promoted diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

"Since becoming Governor of Virginia, Youngkin has worked to intimidate and silence educators with anti-racist pedagogies," the group wrote in a letter sent to the university president Michael Rao and the board of visitors last week, urging them to rescind Youngkin's invitation to speak.

The letter cited a now defunct tip line the governor briefly put in place where parents could report faculty who were teaching "divisive concepts" in schools as well as unraveling legislation which rights groups argued protected transgender youth.

Youngkin has defended his criticism of DEI policies, previously stating he believes they result in lowered standards in the name of "equity."

All eyes on Biden's upcoming commencement address

The recent disruptions come just a week before President Biden is scheduled to deliver the commencement address at Morehouse College in Atlanta.

The university has faced criticism by those who are against Biden's handling of the conflict in Gaza and his more recent comments about student protesters — in which he said some of them used "violent" methods.

A group of faculty members will vote this week about whether or not to award Biden an honorary degree during the ceremony.

In an interview with NPR's Weekend Edition on Sunday, Morehouse College President David A. Thomas said he was "fully in support" of Biden coming to speak at the university.

"The nation needs somewhere that can visualize for us the ability to hold the tensions that in so many ways are threatening to divide our society, that have divided some of the most venerable campuses in the country," Thomas said, adding "that's what Morehouse was born for."

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The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time.

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How Marisa Abela Channeled Amy Winehouse

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VCU students walk out of commencement during Youngkin address

VCU students who walked out said they were demonstrating support for Palestinians and protesting some of the Republican governor’s crusade against efforts to promote racial equity in education.

RICHMOND — Dozens of Virginia Commonwealth University students walked out of their graduation ceremony Saturday morning as Gov. Glenn Youngkin delivered the commencement address, demonstrating support for Palestinians and protesting some of the Republican’s crusade against efforts to promote racial equity in education.

The selection of Youngkin as speaker drew criticism from some ahead of the ceremony. The university’s chapter of the NAACP this week urged VCU officials to rescind the invitation, and some students in recent days said they would hold a walkout during the ceremony.

College protests over Gaza war

On Saturday, attendees at the commencement were given cards congratulating the graduating class but warning that anyone who disrupted the ceremony was subject to removal.

As Youngkin began his speech, dozens of the graduates in attendance filed out of the Greater Richmond Convention Center, mostly in silence, some holding kaffiyeh scarves and signs aloft. “Teach Black history,” one read. “Book bans [do not equal] respect for learning,” read another.

The protest did not disrupt the program, though an initial burst of applause for the protesters briefly drowned out the governor’s speech. Youngkin pressed on with his address, which included a tribute to his late mother and an extended symphony metaphor.

“The world needs your music,” he said.

Spokesmen for VCU and the governor’s office declined to comment on the walkout.

More than 4,700 VCU students graduated this spring, about 3,000 of them undergraduates. It is a diverse student body, representing 40 countries. More than 900 were first-generation college students, VCU said ahead of the ceremony.

Adding to tensions on Saturday, the ceremony came about two weeks after police used pepper spray to disperse a crowd at a pro-Palestinian demonstration on VCU’s campus. Thirteen people, including six students, were arrested.

The event was among the demonstrations spreading on college campuses around the country, with more than 2,800 arrested as campus officials and protesters facing off in recent weeks. In Virginia, more than 80 people were arrested at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg , a dozen at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg and more than 25 at the University of Virginia .

VCU, in downtown Richmond just a mile west of the state Capitol, has a long tradition of hosting the sitting governor as commencement speaker. Terry McAuliffe (D) gave the address in 2015, as did Robert F. McDonnell (R) in 2011, Tim Kaine (D) in 2008, Mark R. Warner (D) in 2004, Jim Gilmore (R) in 1999 and George Allen (R) in 1997, according to the university.

The VCU chapter of the NAACP sent a letter to university President Michael Rao and the board of visitors Wednesday demanding that the university revoke the governor’s invitation to speak. “Since becoming Governor of Virginia, Youngkin has worked to intimidate and silence educators with anti-racist pedagogies,” the letter stated, citing a short-lived tip line for parents to report the teaching of “divisive concepts” and the reversal of protections for transgender youth.

Asked about the calls to cancel his appearance, Youngkin said Tuesday he hoped the focus would be on the students and their achievements. “I think that anyone who thinks they’re going to disrupt this for their own personal goals, I think it’s misguided,” Youngkin told reporters at an event in Richmond. “Let’s celebrate the students. Let’s honor the students.”

Opposition to Youngkin was due, in part, to the governor’s objections to a proposal to require VCU students to take a course in racial literacy. The school conceived the plan amid the racial reckoning that followed the 2020 murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and was still working to implement it when Youngkin raised concerns early this year.

In March, a Youngkin spokesman said the governor was concerned that such a mandate would promote leftist “groupthink.” “Virginia’s public institutions should be teaching our students how to think, not what to think and not advancing ideological conformity,” spokesman Christian Martinez told Virginia Public Media .

On Friday, VCU’s governing board voted against requiring the racial literacy course, but will still make some courses available for interested students.

“Central to the board’s deliberations was a commitment to upholding academic freedom while empowering students with flexibility and autonomy in their educational journey,” VCU said in a written statement after the vote. “The discussion clearly expressed support for the racial literacy classes, and these courses are accessible to students who wish to explore them.”

Outside the convention center, Taya Coates, a mass communications graduate, said she was on the fence about walking out until the students around her started to rise. She decided that she, too, wanted to stand against the governor, who she said didn’t reflect her values.

“It just doesn’t represent our university,” Coates, 23, said of Youngkin’s appearance. Around her, friends embraced and cried. Families cheered for their graduates, posing for photos and remarking about how proud they were of the display.

A smaller group of graduates joined a group of demonstrators outside the convention center. The group marched through the streets chanting “Free Palestine” until they reached Abner Clay Park, about a half mile from the commencement ceremony.

A handful of graduates, still in their caps and gowns, spoke about why they walked out.

Arrington Evans, a political science graduate and member of the NAACP at VCU, said the governor’s actions, particularly his opposition to equity initiatives in education, was in opposition to the kind of work she had been advocating for at VCU.

“This matters more to me, doing right by your classmates and the people in your community, than sitting there doing nothing,” Evans said. “Actions speak louder than words. And that’s what this was.”

In his speech, Youngkin did not acknowledge the protest or make any reference to the politically strife moment. He highlighted some members of the graduating class, including an immigrant from Uganda and another who had overcome cancer. Youngkin advised graduates to “make tomorrow better than today,” choose their “life partner” wisely and be slow to anger.

Before the walkout, Saturday’s graduation began like any other, with robed and smiling graduates waving to relatives and snapping selfies as they marched into the ceremony.

The ceremony wrapped in ordinary fashion two hours later, with black and gold balloons dropping from the ceiling and getting batted around like beach balls.

The walkout was for many a forgettable blip in an otherwise celebratory day. That was a relief to attendees who’d arrived wary of potential disruptions or even violence.

“I’m just hoping that doesn’t happen and we can be here and celebrate these graduates in peace,” LaKeyda Robinson, 45, of Alexandria, said as she watched her “firstborn niece,” Dhasia Allen, walk into the ceremony.

Marcos Chavez, a 54-year-old Bolivian immigrant who works as carpenter in Herndon, was not giving a thought to Gaza or Youngkin. For him, the day was all about his daughter, Natalia. Already the first person in the family to earn a college degree, on Saturday she graduated from VCU’s school of dentistry.

“Right now my focus is on my daughter,” he said. “That’s it.”