Review the teacher's assignment with your child. Take note of specific instructions. These guidelines should supersede anything you encounter via tutorials, tips, and formatting procedures available online.
Start with concrete information about the book, such as the title, author, the year it was published, and the number of chapters and pages it contains. This is the report's foundation. Follow rules of grammar and style.
Focus on the novel's plot. To better manage material, divide the plot into sections: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution. Each of these elements has distinguishing characteristics. Teach your child what each means relative to the story. Exposition introduces characters and setting. Rising action includes complicating factors and problems encountered by the characters. The climax is the moment at which the problems reach their highest point of intensity. Falling action sees the characters begin to solve the conflict, and ends with the resolution-- the lives of the characters are restored or changed.
Describe the main characters in the story. Analyze their personality traits, their roles as protagonists or antagonists. Encourage your child to express his response to the characters in terms that help him to better understand the author's purpose.
Children of this age should also become familiar with issues of style, literary device and terminology. Have them look for examples of metaphor, simile, hyperbole, alliteration. Talk to them about how to recognize aspects of the author's voice and intended theme. Keep it simple and uncomplicated.
Urge your child to write about how the book made him feel, whether he liked it, what emotions did it evoke. Have him consider author intent in terms of whether the author succeeded.
Encourage your child to accept responsibility for recommending or declining to recommend this book to others. Explain what a supported view is and help him to formulate his in relationship to the book.