'A New Review'

The class gasped.

"We will be writing reviews, not reports," the teacher continued.

Everyone groaned.

"Now tell me about the book reports you and your friends have written in the past."

There was a long silence. Finally Barb squirmed and said, "Sometimes I've read the information on the book jacket and written that up."

"Yes," Ms. Andrews replied, "and probably word for word."

"I've got every report I've ever written and sometimes I turn in one of my old ones," Sue confessed.

"I certainly don't appreciate correcting something another teacher already has read," Ms. Andrews added.

After more confessions everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"You're not off the hook yet," Ms. Andrews said. "I'm going to read a book to you and then we will all write a review of it, including me."

"What's the point of that?" a boy asked.

"We'll learn how to write," Ms. Andrews answered.

"We already know how to do that," the class responded.

"Really? Let's see. Right now, everyone write a book review of 'The Three Bears,' " the teacher directed.

The students got out pencils and paper and started to write.

After a few minutes Ms. Andrews collected the reports and read them to the class. "Notice anything?" she questioned.

"They all sound the same." Barb said.

"Everyone just retold the story," someone else said.

"And they're boring," added Sue.

"That's because no one included any personal opinions about the book or its characters," explained Ms. Andrews. That's what makes the review fun to write and interesting to read."

Then -- she picked up the book "A Single Shard," by Linda Sue Park -- and started to read.

Hear this story read aloud at latimes.com/kids or by calling 1-800 LATIMES, Ext. 4KIDS (1-800 528-4637, Ext. 45437).