Homeschool Membership
Learning from strong examples
Writing drafts
Looking for evidence and examples
Revising to meet publishing criteria
Proud students!
About the Spaghetti Book Club
The Spaghetti Book Club develops confident readers and writers through writing and publishing book reviews.
The Spaghetti Book Club is a fun and engaging literacy program that teaches kids reading comprehension and writing skills through writing, illustrating, and publishing book reviews.
Our program develops confident readers and writers and encourages kids' love for reading by giving them an opportunity to make meaningful connections with the books they read and share their insights, thoughts, and opinions with a world-wide community of readers. Publishing online is a huge motivator and reward for kids. It is a thrill for them to see their work published online! (Read more about us.)
By participating in the Spaghetti Boook Club, students learn how to:
- Write strong summaries
- Construct meaning from text
- Make personal connections to what they read
- Formulate and express their opinions
- Compare literary works
- Use text-based evidence to support ideas
- Make inferences and find lessons
- Revise their writing using details and examples
- Write for a purpose
- Write persuasively
- Write and publish for an intended audience
Homeschool Membership
Homeschool membership includes our comprehensive book review writing curriculum and the publishing of student book reviews and illustrations.
Book Review Curriculum
Our curriculum includes easy-to-follow lesson plans and all the materials necessary to guide students through the book review writing process. Lesson include:
- What is a book review? Deconstructing a book review and learning its components and purpose
- How to write a summary How to write enough to get the reader interested without telling too much. Avoiding spoilers
- What is an opinion? Formulating and expressing opinions using supportive evidence
- Recommendations Making recommendations considering audience and content
- Revising to meet publishing criteria Clarifying; adding details and examples.
- Optional lessons: Getting the reader’s attention. How to write a great hook. Using a thesaurus to use more interesting language.
Our curriculum also includes
1) A slideshow for educators to use to guide students through the book review writing process. This slideshow includes strong examples for students to learn from and questions to assist in the writing process2) An animated DIY Guide for students to use as they work independently. This is an engaging video that leads students through the book review writing process in a fun way.
3) The Spaghetti Book Club Checklist which students use to insure that their reviews meet our publishing criteria.
Book Review Publishing
Submitting Reviews
Submitting book reviews is easy through our online forms. Teachers simply copy and paste their students’ reviews into our online forms and either attach scanned artwork or mail illustrations for us to scan. Consent forms may be faxed, emailed or sent through regular mail.
Meeting Publishing Criteria and English Language Arts Standards:
What makes our program unique is that all reviews are read by our staff and must meet our publishing criteria in order to be published on our site. We provide a checklist and questions to help students write and revise their reviews to meet our publishing criteria. If reviews do not meet our publishing criteria students are given the opportunity to revise and resubmit their reviews. This submission, review, revision, and approval process is similar to what published authors experience and is what makes publishing a gratifying and rewarding experience.
The Spaghetti Book Club’s publishing criteria are aligned with English Language Arts (ELA) and Common Core State Standards. ELA Standards require that students are able to understand and respond to literature, including the ability to analyze, infer, compare, critique, and express opinions on literary work using text-based evidence. Students are also required to write for a purpose and for an intended audience. When students meet our publishing criteria they are meeting ELA and Common Core State Standards as well. For more on the submission and approval process and our publishing criteria, see our FAQ.
Publishing Reviews:
When all reviews meet our publishing criteria, they are published within five business days of receiving reviews, artwork and consent forms. Classes receive a homepage featuring the students’ self-portraits and links to their reviews, and students get their own homepage with links to their reviews.
We encourage homeschool groups to host Publishing Celebrations to recognize and celebrate the students’ hard work and accomplishments. For more about Publishing Celebrations, see our FAQ.
Rates/Join
Homeschool families and groups may choose from several monthly membership options, depending on how many reviews they wish to submit. Unused reviews do no roll over into the next month. Fees are billed monthly and can be cancelled at any time.
Homeschool Membership Includes:
- Lesson plans
- Slideshow to support lesson plans
- Animated DIY Book Review Guide for students
- Publishing criteria
- Consent forms
- Group home page
- Student home pages
- Publishing of individual student reviews
| Homeschool Membership Options | |
|---|---|
| 1 review/month | $7.99/month |
| 2 reviews/month | $12.99/month |
| 4 reviews/month | $19.99/month |
| 10 reviews/month | $39.99/month |
"I get the feeling that it is run by caring people who love reading and who want children to love reading, too.”