TAKE A BOOK WALK
WRITEDAY Writing Tip Wednesday
Book walks are a cool way to extend your appreciation and understanding of a book. It’s a fun way to “see” things the way author might have seen them at the time of writing the story. It can also add to comprehension of concepts in the book. It works for nonfiction, fiction, and memoir.
What is a book walk? It is a way to extend the conversation of a book beyond simply reading it and leads to deeper recognition of ideas and sometimes the writing process itself. It is also a fun way to look at a story from a different perspective.
A book walk in general is a shared activity where participants, say a teacher or librarian and her students, “walk” through a book before reading it to scan the content, images, front and back matter, chapters, etc. and discussing what the story might be about based on this advance reconnaissance of the book. It gives the reader a chance to bring previous knowledge to mind and perhaps make an educated guess about what actually reading the story will reveal. After reading the book, you can talk about how accurate your guess was. Individuals can certainly do this on their own as well. It’s popular in classrooms of all ages and library reading groups.
The process prepares the reader for the content and allows a greater degree of connection with the story based on previous experiences. It’s fun to extend the story by writing a different ending, making a collage, or drawing a picture from something in the book.
Go beyond cursory reading with a book walk to deepen understanding and appreciation of story.
To promote my novel The Mermaid Riot (Fire and Ice YA, 2024) I took pictures of the book in different locales in my town. Here are some examples:
I take multiple pictures in various locations and post a different pic on social media for several days in a row to represent the different settings and ideas in the story.
There are other variations on this idea. Do you know of any? Have you ever done a book walk?
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I love this! I'm going to try to do this with my next book.