Book Talk (BT) is an important component of our library practice. What is a Book Talk? Book Talk is when you talk about a book that you have read and liked very much, a book that has touched your heart. You now talk about that book to others building a curiosity in them to want to read the book. Talking about the book means not divulging the story plot but inviting people to read the book. A Book Talk is not easy to do and requires practice, a lot of practice as the saying goes – practice makes a man perfect!
Every child in our Library in Schools (LiS) program is encouraged to come up and talk about their book through a book talk. We started this practice in all our classes with the idea that other children will get curious about the book and want to read it. We also felt that it will make children aware of the different books in the collection. While we recognise that it may be intimidating to come up and talk, the process is voluntary and we have found large numbers wanting to do this because of a safe learning environment fostered.
The team discussed Book Talks as an activity and broke it up into elements that we hoped different grades/ classes can use to talk about their book. These elements changed in levels for each grade, with children from Std 1, doing a simpler book talk that may include pointing out the title of the book and what they liked in the book, while children from Std 4 do a much more detailed Book Talk. But putting up the Book Talk parameters poster and telling the children to follow it is not enough. We also model a Book Talk in every class for the children to experience how it is done and then try and include those components in their own Book Talks. At the beginning of the academic year, we help the children, encouraging them to come up and talk about their books. By the end of the year, we expect children from Std 3&4 to do Book Talks independently, without any help from the Resource Person.
A Book Talk is not just one person talking and the others listening. Once the Book Talk concludes, there are questions asked to the book talker. The children often ask questions about something that the book talker may have missed mentioning during the book talk, or any other connection to the text that has been triggered by the book talk. This discussion has to be facilitated by the Resource Person because the children sometimes repeat a question or go off track.
Over the last couple of years, we have seen a change in the children from how they talk about their books at the beginning of the year to their Book Talks at the end of the year and this year we are carefully documenting change over consequent years. It is exciting! There is a distinct visible shift in the quality of Book Talks. The children become confident when they do book talks. The number of hands that go up to do Book Talk is almost a full class! The questions that the children ask the book talker are different and not mechanical. The children help or remind each other about the elements that they have missed. They get excited to borrow the book that has been talked about by the Resource Person. Often some of the children come prepared with small notes to do their book talk.
Book Talks are an integral part of our library. We read books and share our thoughts about these books through Book Talks and we hope that somewhere this component will encourage more and more children to be confident enough to come ahead and share something about books they have read and loved.
