Detail of "Knowledge in Depth" (2013) by Brian Dettmer book sculpture artist
What is a book trailer?
The book may have a new rival on the scene, the interactive screen, however books remains a multi-layered texts that invite complex examination of story and ideas. How might book trailers promote deeper exploration into books' themes and content? Described as a "video advertisement" for books by some (Wikipedia) and “a convergence of story and the arts” by others (Gunter & Kenny), the book trailer bases its form on the popular culture genre of the movie trailer. The short video or image collages touch on key elements of a text’s plot, themes, conflicts and questions. Similar to “book talks” in which teachers or librarians discuss books for purposes of generating interest and matching readers with books, book trailers create space to browse book possibilities. Distinct from a book talk, however, book trailers do not summarize books. Instead, they attempt to mimic movie trailers by strategically combining various multimodal resources such as images, video, music and short phrases to “hook” audiences without revealing the entire plot.
Book Trailers in the Classroom
A growing number of teachers and librarians have begun to incorporate this media-based genre into their reading initiatives with students.
Presentation by 8th grade teacher, Tess Bademan, at 2010 Minnesota Writing Project Invitational Summer Institute. Offers examples of how to use book trailers as "multimodal book talks" as a way to build community among writers.
Professional Book Trailers
Many book trailers have been made by professional media producers, commissioned by authors or publishing companies with the specific goal to advertising and promote sales of the book.
- Fantastic Book Trailers -- (2013) The Rumpus selects and discusses some of the best professionally made book trailers and their impact
- 7 Brilliant Book Trailers -- (2011) -- Selected and discusses at Brain Pickings
- How Did You Get this Number? (1:17) - Book trailer for How Did You Get This Number, a new collection of essays by Sloane Crosley. Winner of 2010 Moby Awards for best and worst book trailers
- It's a Book (1:03) - animated book trailer of Lane Smith's children's book, It's a Book, which celebrates traditional print-bound books. Uses book's original graphics.
- When We Wuz Famous (1:19) book trailer that presents character portrait of Francisco Ortiz, main character of Greg Takoudes' book When We Wuz Famous.
- Good Night Moon: The Movie Trailer (1:55) - parody book trailer for classic children's book with horror twist. Similar in spirit to Scary Mary (1:07) remix parody of Mary Poppins movie
Reader/Fan-made Examples
There exist 1000's of reader or fan-made examples of book trailers. These examples tend to emphasize the book's content, including quotations as well as phrases and questions that highlight the books' themes.
Student-made examples:
Teacher & Librarian-made Models:
Book Trailers of Select Americas Award Book Recipients:
The Americas Award selects books that portray Latin American, the Caribbean, and Latinos living in the United States in authentic, culturally rich ways. The following is a sampling of reader-made book trailers that illustrate these books and their themes. Trailers are listed in order of the year the book was released.
- 1996 - Parrot in the Oven by Victor Martinez (2:45) - Trailer features video re-enactment, music and text slides
- 1996 - Parrot in the Oven by Victor Martinez (4:57) - Trailer features video re-enactment and background music
- 1996 - Parrot in the Oven by Victor Martinez (5:07) - Trailer features video re-enactment and voice-over narration
- 1997 - The Circuit by Francisco Jimenez (3:05) - Trailer features high school student video re-enactment and voice over narration.
- 1997 - The Circuit by Francisco Jimenez (1:15) - Trailer features slide show of images and text slides with music.
- 1998 - CrashBoomLove by Juan Felipe Herrera (2:15) - Trailer features slide show of images and text slides with music.
- 1998 - CrashBoomLove by Juan Felipe Herrara (2:23) - Trailer features images, water-color stills, text slides, music and sound effects.
- 20oo - The Color of My Words by Lynn Joseph (0:47) - Trailer features stop motion animation with paper
- 2002 - The Color of My Words by Lynn Joseph (1:21) - Trailer features images, text slides, voice over, and music
- 2000 - La Composicion by Antonio Skarmeta (1:29) - Trailer features images, text slides, music, and sound effects
- 2000 - La Composicion by Antonio Skarmeta (4:01) - Trailer features 3rd grade "renarracion" atop drawn images
- 2000 - La Composicion by Antonio Skarmeta (3:58) - Trailer features 5th grade "renarracion" atop drawn images
- 2000 - Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez (2:09) - Trailer features images, text slides and music
- 2002 - Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez (1:27) - Trailer features images, text slides and music
- 2002 - Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez (0:49) - Trailer features images, music and text slides
- 2006 - The Poet Slave of Cuba by Jennifer Elvgren (2:55) - Trailer features archival footage, images and voice-over narration
- 2006 - The Poet Slave of Cuba by Jennifer Elvgren (3:15) - Trailer features images, text slides, song and voice-over narration
- 2010 - Return to Sender by Julia Alvarez (4:13) - Trailer features stop motion animation, student voice, trumpet music.
- 2010 - What can you do with a Paleta? by Carmen Tafolla (1:50) - Trailer features 1st grade students using video, music, images, and text slides of key vocabulary
- 2013 - The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano by Sonia Manzano (1:47) - Trailer features still images, text slides and music.
Additional Resources
Some additional resources for getting started or going deeper.
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