Teen Book Review Submissions

Calling all teens, ages 13-18, we are offering volunteer hours for book reviews! 

Have you recently read a book you couldn't put down? Is there a book you read months ago, but you can’t stop thinking about it? How about a book that you felt could have been better, and you have been wanting to get those thoughts off of your chest? Write it up in a book review using the form below, and we will feature it on the library website and Instagram!

To ensure you are eligible for volunteer hours, please review the following guidelines: 

• You must be between the ages of 13-18 
• The book being reviewed must be available through the Palo Alto City Library
• Reviews must be at least two paragraphs, and a MAX of 300 words
• No spoilers! 
• Be engaging and have FUN – write what you would want to read! 
• Follow the basic template found in the article How To Write a Book Review by Joanna Cutrara 
• If you are feeling creative, please submit an original photo of the book you are reviewing to be featured in the library's Instagram Stories

Restrictions:

• You may submit up to 2 book reviews per week
• Limit to 1 book in Middle Grade series if reviewing a MG series. You can identify if a book is MG as it will be designated by call number: J FIC AUTHORS LAST NAME (example: J FIC Riordan).
• No picture books

After you submit your review using the form below, it will be reviewed by a librarian. Please allow 7-10 business days for a confirmation email. If your review follows the guidelines listed above, it will be posted to the library website under the pacl_teens account, and will list your first name, last initial, and grade at the end of the review. 

Once the review is approved and posted, you will be eligible for 1 hour of volunteering per review.

Please contact LibraryTeens@CityofPaloAlto.org in order to validate volunteer hours through your school or service organization.

Please see the following example of an ideal book review written by a local teen: 

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard (book 1) is the perfect blend of fantasy and dystopian. The novel follows the story of Mare Barrow, a young woman in a world divided by blood. There are commoners who are red blooded, and rulers who are silver blooded and have superpowers. Seventeen-year-old Mare is a red blood from the poverty stricken stilts. Suddenly, Mare finds herself working in the Silver palace as a servant. Despite her red blood, Mare soon discovers that she possesses a deadly power of her own. When the silver rulers find out, they hide her in plain-view, claiming that she is a long-lost Silver Princess in order to maintain power. As a Silver Princess, Mare becomes engaged and begins her training to control her powers. But Mare soon learns that this is more than a world of blood. It is a world of betrayal, of lies, and of heartache.

I wholeheartedly love this series (especially the first book) so much. I love the constant question of who is good and who is evil as well as how Mare makes it her mission to save people like herself in later books. I also love the plot twists that seem to come out of nowhere. However, book one is definitely the best book in the four-part series. The rest of the books go downhill from there, and books three and four could have easily been combined.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who loves dystopian and has enjoyed The Hunger Games and Divergent. - Rachel, Grade 10

Questions? Contact LibraryTeens@CityofPaloAlto.org