Book Talking 45+ Books in 45 Minutes

How do you learn about all the amazing books being published every year? It’s not easy, even for people in the industry! I use a mixture of review journals, social media, talking with colleagues, Netgallye, and Edelweiss. How do kids keep up? Usually, it’s from coming across titles that their friends are talking about, they hear about from the school librarian, or they come across as they’re browsing.

For a few years now, I’ve been doing a 45-minute presentation for our middle school students in the public library to book talk as many new books as possible! It’s so fun for me and the kids get to share what they’re reading and give their own opinions. Plus, we get all the titles on a cart so they can check out whatever they’re interested in, right away.

How It Works

This year I book talked 45+ titles and I’m here to share them with you. I also create a spreadsheet for the kids with basic information – title, author, genre, format, and a quick summary. It also includes space for the kids to jot down if they’re interested.

I’ve included the spreadsheet if you want to take a look at how we format our talk. I also pull each book up as an individual slide in a PowerPoint presentation so kids can see the cover and the information easily.

What I love to see is kids’ eyes light up when they recognize an author they love or a topic they want to read about! I like being able to remind them what authors of written in the past. Then see them so excited for a new title. I’ve toyed around with the idea of book talking new titles to parents who might be interested and I just haven’t tried it yet. I thought it would be a cool idea to offer before summer reading, but families are so busy!