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Booktalk Tips from Dinosam
  1. If a book doesn’t call to you, don’t booktalk it.  If it does, do.
  2. If a booktalk idea comes to you while you’re reading, stop and write it down.
  3. Learn the high points of your booktalk, don’t memorize.
  4. Embrace your mistakes.  We learn more by our failures than by our successes.  If you make a mistake, chances are you’ll be the only one that knows anyway.  If the teens catch your mistakes, own up to it.
  5. Be aware of your pace, timing, inflection, expressions, and tone and vary them as needed.  Sometimes, silence is very effective.  For instance, one booktalk I do starts as follows:
    6. Reach out for staff/walking stick.  Stagger as you grab it and almost fall.  Use staff to keep you upright, but unsteady.  Look up at the staff and then around the ceiling as if in confusion.  Look back at the staff, again questioning.  “Ah, the early 21st century.”  Look back around the room in wonder, then at the audience as if seeing them for the first time.  Oh!  Sorry.  Even after so many years, time travel can still be disorienting...” 

    And on with the booktalk.  Which leads into...

  6. Don’t be afraid to do something new and outrageous.  Try something challenging and unique.  I was terrified the first time I tried the booktalk above but it went over great.  In fact, my co-booktalker even started to get up to help me when I staggered.
  7. Overact, especially when the situation may call for underacting.  Underact, especially when the situation is obviously dramatic.  In other words, keep them off balance.
  8. Don’t be afraid to break the “booktalking rules” if it makes sense for a particular booktalk.  These rules are really guidelines that make sense in most, but not all, situations.
  9. Listen to other booktalkers and storytellers every chance you get for new techniques.
  10. Expand your genre horizons.
  11. Listen to the recommendations of others but if you get through a few chapters of a book and it just doesn’t feel right, put it down and try another.
  12. Don’t do all serious, or all comedic.  Vary the type and length of booktalks during performances.
  13. Be aware of and adjust your booktalks to appeal to particular audiences.
  14. Involve the teens.  Ask questions.  Don’t be afraid to wait for a response, usually one of them will break down before you do.  But be prepared in case they never answer.  Which does happen.
  15. Be yourself!  Whether you’re reading, preparing the booktalk, or performing the booktalk, do it your own way.


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