book summary sites, know any?

http://www.sparknotes.com

That place helped tons with english in high school.

Want to hear the sad part? It also aids many high school English instructors.

But not in the way you think.

Teachers will compare what they get from students with that site, just to see how closely they copied if they feel that they did copy.

Sometimes, a teacher will also check out the chapter summeries from time to time. All novel/literature teachers I've ever had, will read the section the night before we discuss it

http://www.pinkmonkey.com is the best one i've ever seen

There's nothing wrong with this. Yet you don't find it ironic that those who condemn SparkNotes as an aid in the classroom review it for their presentation beforehand? I had an English teacher in high school who most certainly did.

I think a suitable analogy is the use of solutions manuals for math courses. If one abuses this resource, it'll haunt them come exam day. If it doesn't, the instructor is writing poor exams (or perhaps using SparkNotes themselves to devise exam questions).

That said, when used properly, solutions manuals often prove a handy resource. Difficult concepts are best introduced by examples... not theoretical discussions. Likewise, book summaries sometimes hit on something you didn't catch when you first read a passage... just like you might not initially catch that fast way to integrate some god-awful expression.

I plan to be a high school English teacher, teaching creative writing and literature as well. If I decide to give tests over the books we read, I will make sure that they are complex enough (motivating factors, examples of this or that) that using SparkNotes wouldn't give them Jack or shit