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Stone Soup Book Club

Welcome to the Stone Soup Book Club, the go-to place for reviews of children’s books. Read reviews by kids [link:book reviews tab], check out bestsellers [link to bestsellers tab], award winners [link to award winners tab], and participate!  [link to discussion group tab]

 

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[tab title=”About” icon=””]About the Stone Soup Book Club Children create everything in Stone Soup, even the book reviews! Visit the Stone Soup Book Club to find out about great new books – and classics you shouldn’t miss – straight from kids your age. Has one of our reviews piqued your interest? Click on the book cover to buy your own copy. (This will take you to Amazon.com.) After you’ve read the book, make sure you come back to Stone Soup to add your own thoughts and opinions in the comments section at the bottom of the review. You can also give the book your own star rating. We encourage children between the ages of 8 and 13 to write their own reviews, and send them to us. You can choose any book you like. We will choose the best reviews, and publish them here in the Stone Soup Book Club. For complete instructions on how to write and submit your review, download our Book Review Starter Kit. [/tab]

[tab title=”How to Join” icon=””] Tab: stonesoup.com/book-club/how-to-join Welcome Welcome to the Stone Soup Book Club, a great place for kids to talk about the books they love. We are looking for kids between the ages of 8 and 13 to tell us about what they are reading right now, from award-winning classics to exciting brand-new books. This is an amazing way to get your writing published on the Stone Soup website – and share your opinions about books with other kids around the world who love to read as much as you do. Sound like something you would like to do? Read through the rest of this Starter Kit for information about how to submit your work, and get important tips for writing a great review. We can’t wait to hear from you. Sincerely, The Editors FAQ Q: Do I have to be a kid? A: At this time we are only accepting reviews from kids and teens 13 and under. Q: What kind of books should I review? A: Please review what you like to read—just make sure that your book is for kids in your age group. For some ideas, look around the Stone Soup Book Club to see books kids have already reviewed for us. Q: Can I only write about books I like? A: No. We want to hear your honest opinion about the books you read. Just make sure if you are writing a negative review that you are really clear about why the book didn’t work for you. Q: How do I submit a review? Send the text of your review in an email to kate@stonesoup.com. The review must include your name and age. If you’d like to include your home town and state, and send a photo of yourself, we’ll also use those to enhance your author profile. Attach the photo to the email you send us. The photo should be head and shoulders only. If you have a school photo or other professional portrait, then send us that. Please see the examples of photos that appear in reviews in the Book Club. Also see the checklist below to make sure you include all the required items. Stone Soupmagazine Book Review Starter Kit P.O. Box 83, Santa Cruz, CA 95063 • (831) 426-5557 kate@stonesoup.com • stonesoup.com Q: Will I be published? A: Our editors will read every submission we receive, although unfortunately we cannot respond to every reviewer or publish every review. If we do decide to publish your review, we will send your parent an e-mail asking them to sign a permission form, which they can sign digitally, online. We also might ask you to expand or rewrite parts of your review before we consider it ready for publication. Q: Do I get paid? A: There is no payment at this time for online book reviews. How to Write a Stone Soup Book Club Review Please keep the plot summary brief – maybe just two or three sentences. Instead, focus on how the characters and the situations in the story affected you personally. If there is a part of the story that you find particularly bad or good, write about that part. If you had an experience similar to any in the story, write about your experience and how it compares with the one in the story. Here are five quick rules for writing a great review. When you’ve finished writing, use this as a checklist to make sure you’ve hit every step. 1. Have an opinion. Did you like it? Hate it? Have mixed feelings about it? Make sure the reader can tell clearly and right away what you think of the story. 2. Support your opinion. Back up the ideas you express with clear examples from the book. Did the dialogue sound realistic? Was the main character someone you could relate to? The more specific you can be the better. 3. Be descriptive. When you are writing a short review, you have to pick your words carefully. Avoid saying words like “I think” or “interesting,” which take up space without really revealing anything new and important. 4. Don’t give away everything. Keep your plot summary short and avoid revealing any big surprises or plot twists. 5. Proofread, proofread, proofread! Submission Checklist ___Your review (250 words minimum) ___ Title, author, and publisher of the book ___ Your name, age, city, state, and email ___ Your parent’s name and email ___ Your star rating, on a scale from one to five, where five is the best If you have additional questions regarding book review submissions, please contact Sarah Ainsworth at Sarah@stonesoup.com.[/tab]

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List post category 392 (book reviews) AND merge with post type article tag = book reviews. One project that might need to precede this is changing the post type article tags to categories and then re-coding the site that references the tags to reference categories, instead.

The format for the post in list form, below, is good. And, we’d like to have a rating plugin included, as in the example, below.

 

 

 

 

 

The sidebar for the page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[tab title=”Discussions” icon=””]

I have installed the WordPress forum software. We would like a Book Review forum to be here.

 

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[tab title=”YA Best Sellers” icon=””]
New York Times Best Seller List from the week
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[tab title=”Award Winners” icon=””]
YA Award Winners

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