Sharing Summer Reading with Book Talks

For the sharing of students' summer reading, I took a page from Levar Burton's book (so to speak) by having the students conduct Reading Rainbow style book talks. First I showed them the classic opening theme from the show, which I was surprised to learn that some of my middle schoolers already knew: 

(I also mentioned that there were some funky remixes out there that we could look up after we finished the book talks.) I then showed them a video example of a Reading Rainbow book talk; even though most of the examples on YouTube are of younger kids, they still give a good framework to work from. 

We followed this with a discussion of, "Based on the example, what should our book talks include?" and students set up outline pages in their notebooks to include:
Title:
Author:
What's the book about?:
Setting: 
Main characters:
What makes the book interesting?:
What kinds of readers will enjoy it?:

Planning their book talks in writing took the rest of the class; I coached the class on public speaking techniques, students rehearsed their talks with partners, and then delivered their talk to the whole class in our following session. Students took notes on books that they'd like to read as others shared, and then we had a few laughs digging through YouTubing for remixes of the classic theme song. :)