Book Smiles Video Book Reviews

Book Smiles by How To Read Books

Rating books with "SMILES/ B)", sharing your opinions while learning interactively, visually, and auditorily. Entertainment by pre-readers for pre-readers.

The process:

  1. Each child creates a username unrelated to their real name to maintain their privacy.
  2. The video process: Child introduces themselves by their new "Book Smile" username and then answers prompts A-D (see below).
  3. Sender of video must edit it to be 30 seconds or less.
  4. Send video to
  5. You will get a reply when the video is posted and a link that will take you to it.
  6. Watch it with your child and discuss the experience
  7. Share with friends and family
  8. Create a direct link so your child can easily access it
  9. Encourage your child to visit the website once a day and then discuss what your child has reviewed. These discussions will add to their word experiences and you both will learn what types of literature your child is interested in.
  10. Share your experiences with the Book Smiles community

The Steps to create and share a Book Smiles video

  1. Rate the book 1-5 smiles and justify your rating with at least one adjective.
    For example: I give Good Night Gorilla 4 Smiles because I like monkeys".
  2. How often have you had this book read to you? Who reads it to you the best?
    For example: "It has been read to me a lot. I like the way my aunt reads it the most. It is my favorite book about zoo animals"
  3. Answer 1 or more of the following:
    1. Have you talked to other children about it?
      For example: "My friend Kwan loves it too".
    2. What time of day do you like to read it?
      For example: "It is the book my dad reads to me at night".
    3. What is special about it?
      For example: "It is funny".
    4. Did you learn anything from it? If so what did you learn?
      For example: "I learned that I can't have a Gorilla for a pet".
  4. Anything else? Time to creatively expand about why you like or dislike this book so much
    For example: "My aunt likes to use different words. This way it can be read to me 3 times in a row".
  5. Prop suggestion. Book Smiles logo PDF here, print it, and decorate it if you like and the reviewer can hold it as they rate their book.

Disclosure: The Book Smiles video library is a channel on YouTube and you assume the same responsibility as posting any other video on YouTube. Howtoreadbooks.com will view all videos sent to us and will only post those that we deem appropriate for young children.