Cooler Than Fiction

While the main focus is on booktalks, this volume also includes a handful of discussion questions and project ideas for each book listed. A few of the sections offer tips to "meld the various topics into your classroom environment." Each chapter is organized by subject or genre: "Funny, Gross, and Disturbing"; "Biographies and Memoirs"; "Science"; and "Nature"; to name a few. The index is useful and necessary, but the title list at the end has a confusing heading: "Booktalking Resources: Suggested Books with Booktalks." While the intention to encourage the use of nonfiction with teens is admirable, the execution is uneven. Some of the booktalks are basically plot summaries without specifics or anything compelling to entice an audience. Others are well done and give specific instructions on what to say and/or what to read aloud. For those new to booktalking, Lucy Schall's Genre Talks for Teens: Booktalks and More for Every Teen Reading Interest (2009) and Kristine Mahood's Booktalking with Teens (2010, both Libraries Unlimited) give more specifics. Both include some nonfiction selections among mostly fiction titles. Experienced booktalkers who want to add some nonfiction titles to their repertoires will definitely find something here to use. It's unfortunate that there was no consideration taken to show more diversity; all of the people in the small black-and-white photos are Caucasian and in one of the booktalks on immigration it is assumed that most of the audience's ancestors would have come through Ellis Island.—Renee McGrath, Nassau Library System, Uniondale, NY