10 Digital Book Report Ideas for Homeschoolers

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Let’s talk about book reports.

In my experience, kids either love the creative nature of writing a book report or hate writing them with a burning passion.

Whichever side of the fence they fall on, though, there’s no denying that writing book reports is a beneficial part of the academic experience. And creating a digital book report might even be a project your kids look forward to!

Check out these digital book report ideas that you and your kids just might love.

Benefits of writing book reports

The most obvious benefit of a book report is that it helps kids illustrate their reading comprehension. It gives them the opportunity to analyze the character, the plot, and the literary themes.

Book reports also give kids the platform to explore and express their personal thoughts on the book. This can help them understand their reading preferences and figure out which types of stories they like the most.

Finally, book reports are an excellent way for kids to practice their writing skills. They can develop their vocabulary, learn how to compose more and more varied sentences, and practice their storytelling skills.

Creative book report ideas

While there’s something pure about writing book reports with pen and paper, that's not your only option these days…all thanks to technology and digital activities. A digital book report can be a fun alternative to the traditional book report, even for reluctant students. They're often easier to write and definitely save space, which means you don’t have to worry about storing a bunch of papers in your home.

With that being said, below you will find 10 digital book report ideas for homeschoolers that might be the perfect fit for your lesson plans. Try out these “techie” writing activities for kids — you never know which one might actually get your kids excited to do a book report!

1) Google Docs

Not surprisingly, Google Docs is an option a lot of educators lean toward. And for good reason! First of all, Google Docs (like the rest of the apps in Google Workspace) is something you can use for free. And since it’s cloud-based, you don’t have to worry about your kids losing their work. As long as you have internet access, you can access whatever they create. They can even work offline if they need to!

The other benefit of Google Docs is all the features. Kids can use the formatting tools to organize their writing with headings and even an easily-accessible outline. They can also use Spelling and Grammar Check to make sure their book reports are error-free.

Using one of the free templates will help them make their book reviews look even more professional. Open up the template gallery in Google Docs and you'll find a book report templates right there! Your kids can follow the prompts to add in their own images and text, and they'll have a polished book report completed in no time.

2. Google Slides

Speaking of Google Workspace, another one of their free resources is Google Slides. This is a great alternative for kids who prefer something more interactive. Plus, they can incorporate visual elements, such as word art, audio, and even video clips! They can even use the timeline feature in Google Slides to illustrate the sequence of events in the stories they read.

Here are some ideas for the different slides you'll want to guide your child to create to share their book reviews:

Cover slide (they can include a picture of the book cover, or a selfie of them holding the book!)
Main character and supporting characters (their names, distinguishing traits, and possibly a quote or two)
Setting of the book (where and when the story took place, and a description of the setting)
Book summary
Conflict and resolution in the story, and/or a timeline slide showing key events
Rating of the book (what they loved and didn't love, and their overall review)

3. Goodreads

Goodreads is best described as a social media website for bookworms. It’s a place people can go to not only discover their next book, but to keep track of what they’re reading, connect with other book lovers, and even discuss literature.

Goodreads also gives readers the opportunity to rate books and express their thoughts about them in the form of a review. This makes the website the perfect place for kids to not only keep track of what they read, but to write and store book reports throughout the years.

4. Blogging

If you’re reading this article right now, then you’re already familiar with the concept of a blog. They’re a great way to not only document your thoughts or experiences, but to share them with others. Plus they’re super easy to get started…and you can do it for free!

You can start a blog for your kids where they log in to write blog post reports about books that they’ve read. You never know…they may even connect with other kids who love to read.

And because you have 100% control over what you share, you don’t have to worry about your kids’ identities being discovered. You can simply use aliases for your kids. Or, if you don’t want to worry about privacy at all, you can always make any content your kids create private or password-protected so that only the people you want to see it have access.

5. YouTube Channel

I don’t know about you, but to me it seems like Gen Z kids are all born with a gene that makes them LOVE YouTube. I can’t tell you how many kids I know foster dreams of becoming a popular YouTuber (mine included). So it seems only fitting to explore the idea of kids using that platform to talk about books they love.

And the beauty of YouTube is that your kids don’t even have to have their face on camera if you or they don’t want that. They can get creative with how they present the book report. Perhaps they want to do a slideshow type of presentation or an interview of sorts. It’s all up to what seems like the best fit! As a bonus, doing video book reports can help them learn (and maybe even fall in love with) video editing skills.

…RELATED POST…
Best Video Editing Apps and Tools for Kids

6. Audio

Are your kids (or you) not keen on using video? Audio is also an option for a fun book report assignment! They can use any audio software to record themselves giving book talks and sharing all of their favorite books!

7. Podcast

Another audio option when it comes to talking about the books your kids read is podcasting. Whether they record book report episodes for an audience or just for you, this can be a cool way to encourage conversations about literature.

8. Scratch Studio

Want to integrate literature and coding into your homeschool? If so, Scratch could be just the thing! Scratch is an online coding community designed specifically for children where they can use coding language to create digital stories, games, animations and more! Kids can use Scratch (or Scratch Jr) to recreate or even retell the storyline of books they read.

You can view some examples of book reviews created in Scratch to give you an idea of what your kids could create!

9. Book trailer

Another really creative project for kids who want to tell the world about a book they enjoyed is to have them create a book trailer. Similar in purpose to a movie trailer, a book trailer should give just enough information about a book to get other people excited to read it.

You can get some ideas for teaching your kids how to create book trailers here, if they want to go that route.

10. Email the author

If your kids fall in love with a book, why not have them write an email to the author talking about what they loved about the book? Though this method is likely to be a departure from the typical book report format, this can be a really fantastic way for them to express how the book made them feel and explore exactly what it is about the book that resonated with them.

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I would love to hear from you: have you given your kids a “techie” book report project in your homeschool? Share your best suggestions in the comments!

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10 Digital Book Report Ideas for Homeschoolers

Benefits of writing book reports