(Taken from
http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/faculty/bucholtz/sociocultural/bookreviewtips.html)
Why write a book review?
There are several reasons why you should begin writing book reviews early in your graduate career.
To make a contribution
Even students just starting out in graduate school can often provide very thoughtful evaluations of published work in their area of interest and knowledge. It's important for you to enter the intellectual discussion as soon as you have something to say, and book reviews are one good way to do this.
To perform an academic service
Book reviewing is a valuable service to the academic community, and it's worth getting familiar early on with a task that you'll probably continue to perform throughout your academic career.
To beef up your CV
Book reviews give you a chance to strengthen the publication section of your CV, especially before you're at the stage of your career where you're ready to publish your own research. Although book reviews aren't weighted as heavily as original research articles in hiring and other personnel decisions, they do have some value, and a book review or two will help you begin to develop your CV.
To learn how to write a book
One of the most effective ways to master the conventions of academic writing is to read closely and analytically, the way you need to in order to do a book review. In preparation for writing your own first academic book-length manuscript--your dissertation--it's extremely useful to get a clear idea of how an academic book is put together by looking at some examples in detail.
To read
Most academics, including graduate students, never have enough time to do all the reading they want to do in their field. Doing book reviews gives you an excellent excuse to read books of interest to you and helps you keep on top of current trends in your field.
To get a free gift
A not inconsiderable factor in deciding to do a book review, especially when you're a penurious graduate student, is the added benefit of receiving a free book as compensation for your time and expertise. Academic books can be quite expensive, and receiving a free copy of a book of interest to you (typically in hardback) is a very pleasant bonus for doing a book review.
To become known in your field
Perhaps the most important reason to do book reviews is that it brings you into the scholarly conversation and allows you to make connections with other scholars. As a reviewer, you'll gain attention from the author and from journal readers as a new voice in the field. You may even hear personally from the author (if your review was especially positive or insightful--or, unfortunately, if it was especially negative or clueless, at least in the author's view).
If you submit a well-written review within the deadline indicated by the editor, you may also become a valuable reviewer for the journal. Soon, you may no longer need to offer your services as a reviewer because you'll be receiving requests from editors to review books for them. Having a good relationship with a journal editor as a book reviewer may also help ease the way a bit when you're ready to submit a manuscript on your own research to the journal. In academia, as in Hollywood, it's always better to be known than unknown.
Ted Kooser, the Poet Laureate of the United States, is a writer of brutal brevity. His collection Sure Signs manages to be both stunningly visual and emotionally rich and complex. In Kooser, we get the very best of writing with scissors, as there is not an unnecessary line, phrase, or word polluting his writing. Instead, he gives us a kind of poetic space that is sparse, mid-western, gorgeous and unexpected. Sure Signs is the kind of collection that you continue to go back to; the one you pick up in six weeks or six months or six years and find new and unexpected nuance. This is nothing short of a stunning collection full of wit, humor and surprising beauty. It is a book that one is thankful for.
Copper Sun by Sharon M. Draper would be a novel I would be able to teach in my secondary classroom. Copper Sun could be compared to a slave narrative such as Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass or The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. However, this is a work of fiction and told through the eyes of a young girl, Amari. We see Amari from her life with her tribe in Africa to her journey to and within America as a slave. Draper does not hold back the hardships that slaves went through on their journey aboard the slave ships, such as sickness, starvation, rape and death. When in America, we are also not spared the fear of being in a new place, understanding that you no longer belong to yourself and not being able to communicate with anyone around you. Although, we are not saved from the horror of slave life by Draper, we are shown a new sense of community and family. Amari becomes part of this community and has new family and friendships.
Children being taught this book in a classroom may walk away with a better connection and understanding of the history of America and slavery than they would reading Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass or The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. Children would be able to better relate to the thoughts and actions of someone their own age as opposed to a story of someone older looking back on their experiences. Draper depicts accurate portrayal of the history of the slave trade and what occurred in the journey as well in America. We are still shown the hardships of slaves in Copper Sun that we see in other slave narratives and we see the history intact in the same manner as well. Children would be able to better relate to this, yet still walk away with the knowledge of America’s history in regard to slaves and the slave trade.
