Reviewing the Book Reviewers: Professional Journals vs. Bloggers

For my teen lit class, we are required to write a paper comparing professional book reviews (such as those printed in professional review journals such as School Library Journal, Booklist, and Kirkus) to "amateur" reviews (such as bloggers and commenters on websites like Amazon and Barnes & Noble).  In order to achieve this, I sought out a total of ten reviews for the books Every Day by David Levithan and The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater--three professional reviews and two amateur reviews for each title.

Here are the highlights from my findings:

•  Professional book reviewers must be concise--they have space to worry about, as they often share the page with other books (and other reviewers).  Bloggers do not necessarily have such restraints (unless they purposely choose a word limit).
• Bloggers get much more personal with their audience--they may share personal anecdotes, or outright "fangirl" over the book they are reviewing.
• Book bloggers may borrow the book's summary from another source (such as Goodreads or the book jacket) and post that at the front of their review, rather than re-writing their own summary--by letting someone else summarize it for them, they can jump right into the review.  This differs from the professionals in that they (the professional reviews) are primarily focused on summary.
• Posting or publishing a book review before the book's release does not seem to be absolutely necessary for either type of reviewer, but submitting the review amid the book's release (say, within a 2-3 month window) is very common.
• While professional reviews seem very formulaic (and particularly strict with language), book bloggers have various review styles and rating systems that they apply when reviewing a book.

When searching for my blog reviews, I came across some great sites--old favorites and some new ones, too!  Please check out these bloggers to get some great recommendations.

• Forever Young Adult (Every Day review here)
• Pretty Books (Every Day review here)
• Pirate Penguin's Reads (The Raven Boys review here)
• Bookishly Yours (The Raven Boys review here)

Every Day by David Levithan

Image from Goodreads

4.5Q 4P J S

Levithan, David. Every Day. Alfred A. Knopf, 2012. 324p. $16.99. 978-0-307-93188-7

What if you woke up in a different body every day?  What if your life always had to be lived under the guise of someone else?  What if you fell in love with someone while in someone else's body?  And what if you wanted nothing more than to be with that person every single day?

A knows exactly how this feels.  This has been A's life for sixteen years.  Never truly a boy or a girl, A wakes up in a new body each day and borrows the life of someone else, trying to disrupt as little as possible...  That is, until A wakes up as Justin, and discovers Rhiannon.  But how can they be together when A has never had a body to call home?

Levithan tackles this beautiful love story with fluid, poetic prose and the ability to foster a deep connection not only between the story's main characters, but between the story and its reader as well.  A's ambiguous identity, being neither male nor female, allows the reader to consider a love that transcends all labels and all boundaries.  A's involvement in others' lives allows us to consider our effect on the world around us, and the people whose lives we touch, however minimally.  Readers will be hard-pressed to abandon Every Day for even a moment, desperate for Rhiannon and A to find a way to be together.

For anyone who enjoys a good "what if" story, and the excitement of a new and powerful love.