Fiction Book Tasting

Coming back from Christmas break, I thought it would be a good time to get my patrons excited about reading so I decided to do a book tasting with the fourth and fifth graders.  You might remember from this post, that I did a non-fiction book tasting with fourth and fifth grades last year. And this post tells about the book tasting I did with first grade and second grade this year.

We've gotten a lot of great fiction books in the last year that I haven't really highlighted as much as I could have.  A book tasting was the perfect opportunity to do just that as well as point out some older books in our collection that are really great but often get over-looked because the book covers aren't as current.

I organized students in groups based on their reading level.  I then went through the fiction shelves and grabbed books on that reading level of various genres that I thought students would like.

I set up the tables with the books and candles and serving tray, just as in the past.

I used the 4th-5th grade book tasting PowerPoint in this free book tasting pack to introduce/review what a book tasting is and then we got started.

First I had students fill out a bit of information about what their interests are.  This will help me when picking books to suggest to them in the future as well for future book orders. I have updated the book tasting packet to include this new version.

Next, I had the students do one book with me, step by step filling out the book tasting menu and then I let them do the other books on their own.

Afterwards we talked about how or if their opinion of the book changed from just looking at the cover, to actually opening the book and reading it.  We also talked about the saying "Don't judge a book by its cover" and how they felt it was true or not based on the books they "tasted."

They seemed to really enjoy the lesson and many of them checked out at least one of the books they "tasted."

If you're interested in how other TL/SLMS have done their book tastings, you might like to check out these blog posts:

Mrs. Lodge's Library: "Book Tasting"  (This is the blog post that the book tasting menus are based on.)
The Unquiet Librarian: Book Tasting posts
Barrow Media Center "Book Tasting"
Miss Liberry Teacher "Book Tasting"
Tree Frog Blog  "Welcome to the Book Tasting"
Liquid Literacy "Book Tasting"

I have put together a book tasting pack that you can use should you decide to do a book tasting.  It has PowerPoints for 1st-5th grades as well as book tasting "menus" and worksheets for 1st-5th grades.  The 1st grade "menus" and PPTs could be used with K if you have high readers.  You can get that pack here.

Have you tried book tasting or a version of it and if so, how did it go?

UPDATE:  I was a guest on Jocelyn Sams' Elementary Librarian's podcast and I shared all about my book tasting experiences. You can listen to the podcast here.  I had so much fun and hope to be a guest on her podcast again soon.  =)