This interactive Valentine’s Day themed library lesson is perfect for school librarians who want to open a conversation with students about library anxiety and book selection strategies. This lesson focuses on helping students analyze different parts of the book cover, understand certain literary terms, recognize their own reading preferences and what makes a book appealing to them specifically.
 
This lesson challenges that old saying, “Never judge a book by its cover,” and instead, encourages students to pick apart the information on a book cover to help them decipher whether its a book they would read or not. Book terms covered in this lesson are: title, author, genre, blurbs, themes, category, tropes. While most students will already know what these terms mean, this lesson helps them locate the terms embedded within a book cover and interpret them in a way that builds their unique book taste buds.
 
The lesson consists of 33 Google Slides and 1 graphic organizer. The graphic organizer is simply the book map in a printable version if students wish to fill it out on paper rather than on the Google slide.
 
***Things to consider before purchasing***
 
There are ten YA books highlighted in this lesson. They are best suited for high school students and may include themes such as racism and LGBTQIA+ representation. I curated this list with diversity in mind, selecting authors from minority backgrounds, authors of color, and authors who are deaf and/or have disabilities. Please review and research the list of titles before purchasing and introducing to students. They are books that have been very recently published or will be published soon in 2024. If you wish to delete these titles and replace them with titles you currently have in your library, you can do so by using the
same fill-in-the-blank book map that students will use for their activity to create your own book map.
 
Each book spine includes a link that students can click to see the book’s full cover, read the full summary, and learn more about the characters and author. These links may or may not be blocked by your school’s devices but they can be deleted and/or replaced as needed.
 
Please note that there are two slides with drag-and-drop activities (slide 2 and 25). Students must be in edit mode on Google slides and NOT in slideshow or presentation mode in order to use the drag-and-drop objects.
 
The ONLY editable slide in this lesson is the book map slides (slides 22 and 23). Students simply need to click on the text to delete the old text and fill it in with their own. This is the same slide teachers and librarians can use to create book maps that reflect books in their own classrooms and libraries if they wish to.
 
Book titles highlighted in this lesson:
 
Skater Boy by Anthony Nerada
If I Have to be Haunted by Miranda Sun
Tender Beasts by Liselle Sambury
Kingdom of Without by Andrea Tang
Wren Martin Ruins it All by Amanda Dewitt
Something More by Jackie Khalilieh
Together We Rot by Skyla Arndt
Ready or Not by Andi Porretta
Into the Sunken City by Dinish Thiru
On the Bright Side by Anna Sortino