On May 24th I’ll be hosting Nonfiction Monday (click here for a description). I thought it would be fun to call it Nontraditional Nonfiction Monday and challenge bloggers to review a book in a different way. In case you missed it, here’s the video announcement:
So, the question arises – how to go about this nontraditional review? Here are some ideas:
- Create a cartoon review. I’m partial to the comic-creating website Bitstrips, but you can also try the very nice looking Make Beliefs Comix. Click here to check out my Toon Review of One Crazy Summer for ideas.
- Get in character and write a review from a different perspective. Reviewing a book about trees? Write it from the perspective of a tree. I did something along these lines when I reviewed The Curious Garden from the perspective of the book’s message (yeah, not making much sense – click here to see what I mean).
- Write a flow chart review. The excellent Art of Irreverence blog created one of these a while back, and the results were nothing short of winning. Click here to read it.
- Two words: animated review. I’ve been wanting to try this out, but haven’t worked up the vim. Go! Animate is the site to create your masterpiece.
- Have your review mirror the style of the book. It is a poetry book? Write a poem review. Is it a how-to guide? Write a how-to review. I tried something like this with my review of Show Off.
- Try your hand at a video review. You can get fancy and make it all movie-like, of you can just turn on your camera and let us know what you think.
- For aspiring children’s lit Willie Nelsons, write a song review. I’m teaming up with the blog Hi Miss Julie! to do exactly this. Grab your guitar, piano, or Garageband and give it a try.
- Here’s a challenge. Write a Twitter review. Trying to describe a book in 140 characters will have you driving yourself crazy in no time.
- Recruit a friend/colleague and try a tag-team review. One book – two perspectives. The Booklist blog Bookends is a great example of this.
“Hold your horses”, you say? Too crazy? No problem – anything out of your reviewing norm will work. And of course, standard reviews are also welcome.
Do you have other nontraditional review ideas? Share them in the comments.
Here’s a challenge. Write a Twitter review. Trying to describe a book in 140 characters will have you driving yourself crazy in no time.
Oh yeah, you could also recruit a friend/colleague and try a tag-team review. One book – two perspectives. The Booklist blog Bookends is a great example of this. Here’s an example http://bookends.booklistonline.com/2010/04/21/lmno-peas-by-keith-baker/
Travis, your blog is constantly filled with great stuff. Your library must be buzzing with creativity and enthusiasm. Thanks for taking the time to share your passion with the world. It’s catchy – and inspiring!
I love this idea. Now to get busy coming up with a Nontraditional review worthy of your idea…
Alright! Bookends is in! I look forward to what you come up with.
This is such a great idea, and I love these suggestions! How about a fiction one sometime? My two extras are Xtranormal for a little movie animation, and ToonDoo for a cartoon.