A book video is a stimulating visual preview or commercial about a book. The videos collected here are in the form of video booktalk, similar to an in class booktalk, and video book trailer, like a movie trailer but about a book. They are both strategically designed to yield big results.

• First, they can get students enthused about reading. A good book video practically makes books fly off the shelf and into the hands of students who might not have chosen them otherwise.
• Second, a book video gives students a greater understanding of the range of books available to them, and sometimes children need this head start.
• Third, they make the initial connection between the student's prior knowledge and the book's content. Reading comprehension is enhanced by these real connections between reader and text.

With the Internet there are now book videos students can watch on the computer at home or at school, (or on their video iPods)! Try these quick video versions of booktalks and trailers. They're a fun, visual way to get your students excited about reading.

• Adventure
• General Nonfiction
• Horror and Supernatural
• Mystery and Suspense
• Historical Fiction
• Realistic Fiction
• Science Fiction and Fantasy

Adventure

Cracker by Cynthia Kadohata
(Grade 4-7)
Cracker is a German shepherd trained to work as an army dog sniffing out bombs and the enemy. Together, he and his handler, Rick Hanski, become the best team in Vietnam.
Book trailer for Cracker

Dinosour Cove Attack of the Tyranasourus by Rex Stone
(Grade 3-5)
Tom and Jamie can't believe their luck when they find a secret entrance to a prehistoric world filled with dinosaurs. The first dinosaur they meet is friendly, but soon, they meet a much less friendly dino: a T-Rex that would like to eat them.
Book trailer for Dinosour Cove Attack of the Tyranasourus

The Fire Eternal by Chris D'Lacey
(Grade 4-7)
Five years have passed. David Rain has not returned. The North cannot support the Arctic animals, and the polar bears are disappearing. Changes have begun that cannot be undone.
Book trailer for The Fire Eternal

Fire Star by Chris d'Lacey
(Grade 4-7)
A research trip to the Arctic, an old enemy, and a new story all combine in an adventure unlike anything David and Zanna have ever imagined.
Booktalk for Fire Star

Gully's Travels by Tor Seidler
(Grade 2-5)
It's a long way from Manhattan to Queens, from premium canned food to cheap dry pellets, from a life of luxury and refinement to one of screaming kids and unairconditioned apartments.
Booktalk for Gully's Travels

Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke
(Grade 4-7)
The Inkworld is in chaos. Is there any way to rewrite the story and restore it to the order and beauty it once had?
Booktalk for Inkdeath

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
(Grade 4-7)
What would you do if every time you read a book out loud, it came to life, whether you wanted it to or not?
Booktalk for Inkheart

Inkspell by Cornelia Funke
(Grade 4-7)
Some stories can’t be contained within the pages and the covers of a book. This is one of those stories.
Booktalk for Inkspell

Magic Pickle vs. Egg Poacher/Planet of the Grapes by Scott Morse
(Grade 2-5)
A lunchtime accident in the lab creates the Magic Pickle, the perfect superhero, ready to save the world from all sorts of bad guys and fight for truth and justice!
Booktalk for Magic Pickle vs. Egg Poacher/Planet of the Grapes

Percy Jackson and the Olympians - The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan
(Grade 4-7)
Percy and his friends are escorting two new half-bloods safely to camp when they are intercepted by a manticore and learn that the goddess Artemis has been kidnapped.
Book trailer for Percy Jackson and the Olympians - The Titan's Curse

Seekers #1 by Erin Hunter
(Grade 4-7)
Three young bears from different species--black, polar, and grizzly — are separated from their families when they are just young cubs. They find themselves brought together on a perilous journey.
Book trailer for Seekers #1

Swindle by Gordon Korman
(Grade 4-7)
Griffin Bing was the Man with the Plan. No matter how complex, no matter how dangerous, no matter how risky, Griffin could do it. Stealing a baseball card was no problem.
Book trailer for Swindle

Tunnels by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams
(Grade 4-7)
Will loves to dig. So when his father suddenly disappears down one of the tunnels he's dug, Will knows he's got to go after him. But he has no idea how many surprises wait for him underground.
Booktalk for Tunnels
Book trailer for Tunnels

General Nonfiction

Marley by John Grogan
(Grade 4-7)
Some may say he is the world's worst dog. But those who know and love Marley understand that nothing can stop his loyalty, exuberance, and passion.
Book trailer for Marley

Horror and Supernatural

The Curse of the Campfire Weenies by David Lubar
(Grade 3-5)
You’ve seen the Land of the Lawn Weenies and you’ve run with the Road Weenies‚ but can you handle Campfire Weenies?
Book trailer for The Curse of the Campfire Weenies

Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn
(Grade 4-7)
Just before summer begins, 13-year-old Ali finds an odd photograph in the attic. She knows the two children in it are her mother, Claire, and her aunt Dulcie. But who's the third person, the one who's been torn out of the picture?
Book trailer for Deep and Dark and Dangerous

Mystery and Suspense

Alec Flint Super Sleuth: Mystery #1 by Jill Santopolo
(Grade 2-5)
The Mystery of the Stolen Artifacts. The Mystery of the Missing Teacher. It's a good thing Alec Flint, the Super Sleuth, is there to solve them!
Booktalk for Alec Flint Super Sleuth: Mystery #1

The Calder Game by Blue Balliett
(Grade 4-7)
Can a sculpture move? If it's a Alexander Calder mobile, it can.
Booktalk for The Calder Game

Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett
(Grade 4-7)
What happens when there are too many coincidences, too many puzzle pieces that fit together? Do you ignore them and pretend nothing’s happening? Or do you try to figure out what’s really going on?
Booktalk for Chasing Vermeer

Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
(Grade 4-7)
A mechanical man, a secret notebook, a stolen key and a hidden message. What do they have to do with Hugo, a lonely orphan who lives in the walls of a Paris train station?
Booktalk for Hugo Cabret

Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass
(Grade 4-7)
When he receives a mysterious locked box as a thirteenth birthday present from his late father, Jeremy and his friend Lizzy work together to track down the four keys which will unlock the box.
Book trailer for Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

The Old Willis Place by Mary Downing Hahn
(Grade 4-7)
Diana and her little brother Georgie have been bound for many years to the old Willis place by a secret they cannot reveal.
Book trailer for The Old Willis Place

The Wright 3 by Blue Balliett
(Grade 4-7)
Miss Hussey’s class has been challenged to save Frank Lloyd Wright’s favorite building from destruction.
Booktalk for The Wright 3

Historical Fiction

A Friendship for Today by Patricia C. McKissack
(Grade 4-7)
The Supreme Court said there can't be any more segregation and the colored school is going to close.
Booktalk for A Friendship for Today

Bat 6 by Virginia Euwer Wolff
(Grade 4-7)
The Bat 6 game was everything, the most important event for 6th-grade girls, and this was the 50th game.
Booktalk for Bat 6

The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
(Grade 4-7)
He was 17 when he died, executed by the Nazis on October 27, 1942, because he dared to speak the truth.
Booktalk for The Boy Who Dared

Crossing to Paradise by Kevin Crossley-Holland
(Grade 4-7)
From a field girl to a lady’s maid, from the Welsh countryside to the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, from peasant to pilgrim—Gatty had never dreamed she’d make such a journey and change her life so much.
Booktalk for Crossing to Paradise

Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis
(Grade 4-7)
Elijah was the first free baby born in Buxton, the first person there who had never been owned by a slave master.
Booktalk for Elijah of Buxton
Book trailer for Elijah of Buxton

Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
(Grade 4-7)
Esperanza means hope, and hope is what Esperanza needs, to help her rise above the wreckage of her life in Mexico, and learn to survive in the hardscrabble fields of California.
Booktalk for Esperanza Rising

Greetings from Planet Earth by Barbara Kerley
(Grade 4-7)
Secrets can be good things, but when they're about your dad and why he never came back from Vietnam, they can rip a family apart.
Booktalk for Greetings from Planet Earth

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
(Grade 4-7)
I don't really remember how it was before the dust, when the land was green with grass, and the air was clean and the sky blue.
Booktalk for Out of the Dust

Realistic Fiction

A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban
(Grade 3-5)
When Zoe Elias enters the annual Perform-O-Rama organ competition, Zoe discovers that life is full of surprises — and that maybe a little lopsidedness will help her find what she's "really" hoping for.
Book trailer for A Crooked Kind of Perfect

Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls: Book One: Moving Day by Meg Cabot
(Grade 4-7)
Rule 5-Never let your family move into a haunted house.
Booktalk for Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls: Book One: Moving Day

Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls: Book Two: The New Girl by Meg Cabot
(Grade 2-5)
Allie has rules for everything, until she meets Rosemary, the biggest and meanest girl in fourth grade.
Booktalk for Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls: Book Two: The New Girl

Clementine by Sara Pennypacker
(Grade 3-5)
Third-grader, Clementine has a big heart, a creative spirit, and a talent for trouble.
Book trailer for Clementine

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
(Grade 4-7)
Boys don't keep diaries or do they?
Book trailer for Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney
(Grade 4-7)
Greg Heffley's little brother has gotten hold of his diary and that spells trouble for Greg, a middle schooler who doesn't want his classmates to find out about embarrassing events of the summer.
Book trailer for Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Rodrick Rules

Dog Lost by Ingrid Lee
(Grade 4-7)
Cash is a good dog who breaks the stereotypes about pit bulls.
Booktalk for Dog Lost

Julia Gillian and the Art of Knowing by Alison McGhee
(Grade 2-5)
Not knowing and worrying about something can be worse than knowing it.
Booktalk for Julia Gillian and the Art of Knowing

Kiss Me Tomorrow by Susan Shreve
(Grade 4-7)
Blister has too many men in her life: her father, her mother's boyfriend, her best friend Jonah, and Jakob Cutter, one of the most popular guys at school. It's a lot to handle, and Blister isn't sure she can pull it off.
Book trailer for Kiss Me Tomorrow

Listen! by Stephanie S. Tolan
(Grade 4-7)
Solitude means time to think, time to hear for the first time the awful silence left in twelve-year-old Charley's world two years ago by her mother's death.
Book trailer for Listen!

Main Street #1: Welcome to Camden Falls by Ann M. Martin
(Grade 3-5)
Flora and Ruby had no idea how many adventures awaited them in the little town of Camden Falls.
Booktalk for Main Street #1: Welcome to Camden Falls

Millicent Min: Girl Genius by Lisa Yee
(Grade 4-7)
What would it be like to be eleven- years old and about to become a senior in high school?
Booktalk for Millicent Min: Girl Genius

Paint the Wind by Pam Munoz Ryan
(Grade 4-6)
Maya was eleven before she learned what it was like to live free, outside the prison her grandmother's house had been.
Booktalk for Paint the Wind

Pick of the Litter by Bill Wallace
(Grade 4-6)
Twelve-year-old Tom learns firsthand about honor, friendship, and puppy love in the summer after sixth grade.
Book trailer for Pick of the Litter

Rules by Cynthia Lord
(Grade 4-7)
This summer, Catherine's life will be turned upside down, as she struggles to figure out what "normal" really means.
Booktalk for Rules

Things Hoped For by Andrew Clements
(Grade 4-7)
Seventeen-year-old Gwen's grandfather disappears; her audition at Julliard is coming up, and she and a fellow musician make a discovery that unites them in ways neither could have foretold.
Book trailer for Things Hoped For

Ways to Live Forever by Sally Nicholls
(Grade 4-7)
Sam looks for answers, makes lists, and wants to find the way to live forever, even though he has terminal cancer.
Booktalk for Ways to Live Forever

Science Fiction and Fantasy

Amulet #1: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi
(Grade 4-7)
The old house had been in the family for generations, and it began revealing its mysterious and sinister secrets just hours after Emily, Navin, and their mother moved in.
Booktalk for Amulet #1: The Stonekeeper
Book trailer for Amulet #1: The Stonekeeper

Charlie Bone and the Beast by Jenny Nimmo
(Grade 4-7)
There's a new student at Bloor Academy, and he seems determined to make trouble for Charlie in every way possible.
Booktalk for Charlie Bone and the Beast

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
(Grade 4-7)
Life is destiny, and once we find it, we must choose to follow it or deal with the consequences.
Booktalk for Gregor the Overlander

Julian Rodriguez by Alexander Stadler
(Grade 3-5)
Julian Rodriguez is far from the eight-year-old boy he appears to be. He's actually an Officer of the Federation, who is trapped in a child's body while he spies on Earth.
Booktalk for Julian Rodriguez

The Land of Elyon, Book 1: The Dark Hills Divide by Patrick Carman
(Grade 4-7)
There is an enemy in the land of Elyon that threatens the peace and prosperity of the people who live in its four walled cities.
Booktalk for The Land of Elyon, Book 1: The Dark Hills Divide

May Bird Among the Stars by Jodi Lynn Anderson
(Grade 5-7)
May Bird continues her adventure in the afterlife where she and her friends encounter a whole new array of terrifying and hilarious places and ghosts.
Book trailer for May Bird Among the Stars